One Cart, Two, or Three? How to Pick the Right Trash Plan for Your Household

Start With the Cart Size

Every Bowdon Disposal plan includes a 95-gallon red cart. That’s the large size — not the little bin you might be picturing. It holds a full week’s worth of household trash for most families, and then some.

For the majority of households in Carroll, Haralson, and Heard counties, one 95-gallon cart is more than enough. Most single-family homes and smaller families generate somewhere in the range of one to three bags of trash per week. That fits easily in a single cart.

So the question isn’t really whether 95 gallons is enough. The question is: is your household typical?

When One Cart Is the Right Call

One cart works well for:

• Couples and smaller families (1–4 people) with normal household habits
• Households that bag trash consistently and aren’t tossing bulky items weekly
• Customers who break down cardboard rather than tossing whole boxes
• Anyone doing occasional bigger cleanouts who can spread it across a couple of regular pickups

If your lid closes every week without a fight, you’re in good shape with one cart.

When You Need Two Carts

Consider upgrading to two carts if:

Your household is larger. Families of five or more tend to fill a single cart quickly, especially with kids generating school paper, food packaging, and general chaos.

Your lid doesn’t close. This one’s simple: if trash is overflowing the rim and the lid won’t close, it won’t be collected. The rule is lid-closed only. Two carts solves this immediately.

You cook seriously. Kitchens that actually get used — daily cooking, meal prep, big family dinners — generate significantly more food-related waste than takeout-and-packaged-food households.

You have teenagers. This is its own category. Teenagers generate waste at a volume that genuinely defies physics. Two carts is often the answer.

You have a home-based business. Packaging, materials, shipping supplies — commercial-adjacent waste fills a cart fast.

Two carts doubles your capacity and ends the weekly puzzle of making it all fit.

When You Need Three Carts

Three carts is for higher-volume situations:

• Very large households or multi-generational homes
• Properties that generate significant yard waste on top of regular household trash
• Anyone who has tried two carts and still finds themselves overflowing regularly

Three 95-gallon carts gives you 285 gallons of weekly capacity. That covers almost every residential situation you’ll encounter.

The Cart vs. Trash Butler Question

One thing worth considering: if you’re thinking about upgrading carts because you struggle to move the cart — not because you’re running out of space — that might be a Trash Butler situation instead.

Learn more about both options at bowdondisposal.com/pricing.

If You Start with One and Need More

Upgrading is simple. Log into your account at app.bowdondisposal.com or call us at (470) 943-3355). We’ll deliver an additional cart and update your service. You don’t cancel and restart — just call and we handle it.

The Honest Recommendation

Start with one cart. Most customers find it’s more than enough. If it isn’t, upgrading is easy and you haven’t committed to anything.

That said — if you already know you have a big household, active kitchen, or high-volume habits, start with two. Overpacking a single cart so the lid won’t close means it won’t be collected on pickup day. Better to have the capacity you actually need from the beginning.

Build your exact plan at bowdondisposal.com/customize — our step-by-step configurator walks you through the options. Or call us at (470) 943-3355) and we’ll figure it out with you.