The plastic folgers coffee "cans" with the "fresh lock lid" or whatever they call it works great, not only does it lock the freshness of the coffee in, it locks the "unfreshness" of the compost yuk IN. Its the right size to make you unload it into the bin pretty much every day also.

I use a plastic deep bowl for everyday scraps that gets dumped daily and a stainless steel kitchen container that has a good seal for the stuff (coffee, old juice, tea, crushed egg shells) that can be dumped in the garden.

I use the bucket from a camping commode. It has a nice tight fitting cover to keep the critters out.

I think that some people are over-thinking what is really a simple thing. There's really no need to pay a lot of money for some fancy gadget to put compostable material in to be transported to the compost bin or pile. What I do is to use a plastic bag from the grocery store and everyday take it to the pile and dump it. If the concern is critters, dump it everyday or get a cheap plastic bucket with a lid. But then that's just my opinon and we all know what opinions are...

Greg
Southern Nevada

>>> over-thinking what is really a simple thing Raises hand.. that's me. ;)

I spent a winter fixing design problems in my little kitchen, to make things fit and work for me. One is a cutting counter/workspace between the frig and the stove where previously there was nothing.

First I moved the frig over, as there was plenty of room going that way. In the space I added a counter height set of sturdy wooden drawers ( fits with my very old home). The top drawer is deep enough to hold a Rubbermaid bucket. Added a hardwood top so the whole thing is a cutting board. Cut a small rounded square out over the bucket area..at an angle so the piece fits back in without falling through, and a little wooden handle.

Then made a cute set of attached shelves on the back, high enough that I can reach all of them. the shelves hold all the sizes of spices, butter tub, box of salt etc. Area under shelves has a magnetic bulletin board for recipes and a light directed perfectly for working. Switched the side the frig door opens and I was set.

From left to right...open frig pull out whatever, set on work space. Chop /peel vegies, open special trap door, push scraps over to fall into the bucket. Stove is directly on the right. Scraps out of sight and the drawer pulls open easily to lift bucket out and dump.

I' sure a cabinet maker would have done a prettier job and been able to add some sort of stainless steel ring/seal around the opening but for me giving the opening a good wash with the nightly dish pan soapy water and a rinse has worked out fine. I think the success or failure might depend on each persons personal habits.

Then there's the center island shaped like an artist palette, complete with thumb hole, where the electric cords drop down... all perfectly fitted to me.
Yes.. I'm an over thinker. That's the fun. :)

plaidbird, I think a picture is in order. It sounds like a neat kitchen.

Thanks.. I was afraid someone might ask about a photo. My camera does not seem to be working right now and I'm still thinking where to take it for service. I do pick it up once in awhile and check to see if it has self-healed. ;)

The fun part of my bucket under the cutting board is that I got the idea in a very, very old home. It was beautifully done when the house was built I'm guessing, but over the years what ever fit in the space under the counter was missing. I always have wondered what sort of really nice container he must have built to fit in there.

I use two 2 gallon buckets from the local Deli I marked them with a big k with a sharpie. I line them with newspaper or put wood shaving bedding in them to help in cleaning out the wet stuff. for a cover any thing will do old plastic cover, piece of 1/2 inch plywood. Right now an aluminum cake pan cover is used. After a day or two everything is emptied and washed so mice are no problem. at least in my buckets they are not. now in the rest of the house,welll nowww. I like the coffee container idea think I'll try it. also thinking of bokashi. Is that the way it is spelled. winter can be long and hard up here.

Curt

I have a small, cheap trash can with a push-to-open lid. It has a plastic collection bucket with a handle. Maybe $10 at Walmart.

I dump in some shredded paper to soak up moisture, and it collects a few days of coffee grounds and veggie peels.

"I have a small, cheap trash can with a push-to-open lid. It has a plastic collection bucket with a handle. Maybe $10 at Walmart."

Same here. I think I got mine at Lowes. Works great. I line mine with TWO grocery bags - that way I put them to use and double-bagging makes sure to keep the leaks in the bag.

Lizziem -- seems to me you need to address the critters issue first and not worry too much about the compost bin set up. We had mice for last two seasons - mostly in winter. They would not care for the compost bin (see description above) which sat outside the kitchen cabinet, next to regular trash can. (I dont like my trash to be kept inside the cabinets). The mice were going for our pantry, chewed through rice and jerky packages, so I had to put most things in plastic containers with lids. But we finally found a hole in the foundation and sealed it with Great Stuff -- no more mice in the house.

I think that lizziem's gone the way of aircapguy. It's too bad too as people were just offering their opinions and suggestions to his/her questions.

aircapguy - well that's another story altogether...

Greg
Southern Nevada

Greg - you may be right about the aircapguy, but I would not judge lazziem so fast. She registered in 2002. People just get busy to check the responses - happened to me too.

Different people use public forums in different ways. All are valid. It's perfectly okay to only be able to check a forum every week or two.

A gathering of tips on a subject , that can be found in the archives is a good thing for everyone.

Calling people out is very un-cool. It's against the terms of service in the forums I normally frequent. It's certainly causing me to doubt wanting to stick around here.

Well perhaps both of you are correct, and if that's the case my apologies. However, I don't know about others but when I come to a forum looking for advice and to have my questions answered I make sure to check back to see if they've been answered and respond. But then that's just me. And no one's calling anyone out for anything.

Greg
Southern Nevada

At home we normally use the 2 litre milk cartons but lately I've been experimenting with these just to see how well they work.

At work we use the coffee cans seen on the left in this picture and at the bowling lanes I use one of the buckets on the right for the UCGs/filters and rotate them.

Lloyd

P.S. Sometimes people just like to 'listen' to a conversation but it does need someone to start one.

While I'm sure that $179.00 contraption still holds the record, I feel a little silly having spent forty bucks on a bamboo bucket with a plastic inner bucket from Amazon.

It actually works very well but what was I thinking blowing that kind of money for a kitchen compost bucket? Well, part of it was to have my sweetie not freak out about my saving everything for my composting and gardening because the bucket is very attractive.

She has come a long way since I broke her in gently. She doesn't even freak out when I collect those little white wiggly maggots that show up if I don't empty it soon enough. I feed those little buggers to my tropical fish and they really love them. Great fish food and all from nature! Then of course I have all that great fish water from the weekly water changes of the three tanks.

I use a 1 gallon ice cream bucket. I have a stack of these buckets under the sink. On a light cooking day, I may only need one bucket... on a heavy cooking day, I may end up using more than one bucket, or I just get out the large roasting pan and use that...

Frugality is a common trait of most composters.

thank you everyone so much! i am very busy, we are in the middle of this kitchen renovation with no sink and no water and dishes ... ... ... and an only child going away to school out of town leaving this weekend. a little crazy.

now that we are into the reno more we can see where the mice were coming in we have lots to plug up. but, they really did like my compost!

and yes, i am very very frugal! i am also obsessed and i dont miss a crumb or drop of anything organic that can be composted. so my pail under the sink was getting messy and dirty and the cupboard was getting messy (with family members just sort of throwing stuff in the general area)

so..... to make a very long story short, i am in crisis! i need to do something drastic, and what im really hoping is for something like that thing at my first post (the blanco salon is $300-$600 depending where you get it!) but something like that - only frugally hand made. not just a chute with a receptical below, but an attached receptical so no crumbs or drops get out.

and, lastly, i have been reading and i did make a reply, but didnt finish it and someone else on the computer closed up and i lost it all. thank you so much, i do appreciate, and yes, i have been a member for a long time and sometimes post and 'listen' alot, and sometimes just too busy.

lizziem - I posted the following on your other thread. In case you miss it here it is:

lizziem - Thank you for retuning and clearing things up. For myself and my responses: I guess pehaps a few may have taken them to be brusque and maybe they were. It's just that I've seen where so many people have come to the forums, ask a question, then disappear never to be seen again after people have taken the time to respond.

I wish you luck in whatever you decide to do with your waste material from the kitchen.

Greg
Southern Nevada

I use a covered stainless steel pot I picked up for a dollar or so at a yard sale.

You can buy covered compost keepers with a built-in filter (that does a good job of absorbing odors) in stainless steel or ceramic. The ceramic one is pretty, but it's easy to break.

I use a stainless steel cannister with hinged plastic lid --about 1 gal or a little more--I got from Wal mart several years ago. I like the hinged lid because it's "one hand" easy and lid stays up while I peel directly into it and then flip down. Then I clamp the latch on it when through using. Used to have a gasket, which helps seal, but was too much to keep clean. It can go in dishwasher but usually I just swish it out. Main problem is that we fill it up pretty fast, but I do not want something larger on the counter. I might consider using the biodegradable liner bags that are available so I would not have to scrape out that last carrot peel, but that doesn't seem pressing.

Another option is to freeze the stuff. Just stick it in a plastic bag, close it, and stick it in the freezer. Add to it till it's full, then empty into the compost. Works really well for stinky stuff like onion peels, cabbage, broccoli, etc. No odor, no bugs, and no critters. And no added junk on the counter top.

Or, you can also stick a plastic container, like a coffee container or tupperware container with a lid, in the freezer.

Karen

i know i read an article once where it said to use a food processor on everything first to make it really small. there is a new gadget out there a hand operated grinder for composting, sorry i dont have the link, but its just new on the market.

the freezer idea is good. wish i had room in my freezer.

I have several empty plastic "pots" (I bought couple of trees this summer). It has big hole in the bottom. I cover it with newspaper. Then keep dumping my kitchen waste in it. I leave this pot out on the deck. As I dump waste, I layer with newspapers so that flys won't come. Whenever I get time, I take a trip to the compost area in the yard. Sometimes I go after 10 days, sometimes its everyother day....depends.
I also keep several of these empty pots lined with newspaper. Occasionally I would put the pot upside down on the compost and leave it there.

Frankie, thanks for the suggestion of biodegradable compost bags. I hadn't heard of them but they seem like a great idea.

Gardener's Supply sells the bags and a variety of pails.

Here's the link to a grinder like the one Lizzie found. They're waiting to get enough pre-orders to send it to manufacturing. I just carry a machete out the pile and chop stuff up ... or don't bother, especially in the summer, since the scraps will rot and break up anyway.

>>> I just carry a machete out the pile and chop stuff up .Why am I picturing a scene like Gallagher and his Sledge-o-Matic ?

hahaha....

It takes a sharp machete and good aim ....

I used to spend a lot of time cutting stuff into smaller pieces for my compost, especially larger plants. I don't do that much any more. I just toss it all in and eventually it's compost. I rarely screen it now, either. I just spread it all on the beds as mulch and it finishes breaking down there. I don't till.

Karen

Mixing in manure and bedding helps everything else to break down faster. Heats up the pile, too.

yes nygardener, i go to my friends horse barn and get a few feed bags to add in.

I have the ceramic pot as linked by nygardener. But the lid is long broken and I find it far too small. It was advertised as 1 gallon but when it arrived I found it was a US gallon, not Imperial, which I had assumed since it was in a British calalogue. I complained to the company and they refunded my money so it ended up costing me nothing. But it always seems to have an overflow ice cream tub beside it as it gets filled 2 or 3 times over in a day.

I used to collect 600 pounds of fruit and veggie waste at one of the few stores that still provides the stuff. Threw the trash bags in the back of my small Honda hatchback.

The last few years I just save my own fruit and veggie wastes. I put it in plastic containers in the refrig until I have enough for a pit hole. There is not enough to use in one of my two compost piles. I dig a hole in a area that will benefit, like a garden area.

I put down some dry leaves, than a layer of chopped up fruit and veggie wastes. I cover with more leaves, then a few inches of dirt, toped with a round paving stone to keep pests away.

Any potentially smelly stuff like fish, manure, fruit and veggie wastes are put into the center of a already hot pile (130F or more). But this year I ran out of stored leaves in the spring. So I use pit holes until August or September when more leaves are available.

A couple of empty coffee containers such as the larger 32 oz or more Folgers ones with the lid in place of course lol. I also use a large (10 gallon) bucket from work to collect up all the UCG's over winter and store it outside near the back door over winter.

I use a stainless steel dog bowl, a large one. It's left over from when we had large dogs. I have a small dog now :). Well, my wife had the dog. Never mind.

The stainless dog bowl is perfect for low volumes. When I do something that creates a larger mass of material, I grab a 5 gallon bucket left over from sheetrocking.

I use empty cardboard cereal boxes, and with several ravenous kids, we have an endless supply. Pull out the waxed paper and throw that out with the plastic trash, then fill the box with peels and such. Wet stuff gets put in a stainless steel bowl beside the box. I've found that its a better idea not to have a lid, because with a lid, I'm inclined to leave it too long before emptying.

I use an empty cat litter bucket. Fills up in about a week and I dump. It gets a layer of paper products (shredded mail, toilet paper/paper towel rolls etc) daily which helps to soak up any liquids. Works great for us!

Currently using a 1 gallon veggie holder with lid from the dollar store. Even has the word Vegetables on the lid! LOL As if that matters.

I do like the idea of using the large plastic coffee containers as they would match my kitchen better.

I empty the bin once a day (or twice a day when company is here). I bury the goodies between the plants and like to commune with my worms as I feed them. ;-D

well, i am trying a gallon container on the counter. it pretty well fills up in a day - maybe two. its a cute little glass container that i got from ikea.

right now its ok running to empty it every day because its summer, but come winter and five feet of snow ill have to come up with someting else...

at least i know how small that thing set into the counter would be now.

I use a 2 gallon bucket that used to hold joint compound or something. Looks just like a 5 gallon bucket but smaller. It is solid white - doesn't have any labels. Fits in the back corner of the kitchen counter and while you can push the lid on tight, I usually leave it on loose. I layer some paper (i.e. shopping bag, used paper plate or napkins, etc.) on the bottom for easy cleaning. I dump the bucket about once or twice a week - if it gets smelly or starts to attract fruit flies, then I layer some more paper - the browns - to cover the greens. Or dump it if it's really bad.

This bucket was free and I wouldn't consider spending more than a few dollars for a compost bucket and then it would have to work as well as this one. Nor would I consider any extra steps such as chopping or blending materials to prepare them for compost.

The two houses I've owned were both infested with mice when I moved in, but my cats have taken care of that problem. Nevertheless, I've replaced insulation, filled holes, and had to clean thoroughly to fix the mess that the mice left behind.

Tried the compostable bags. They're handy and work well, but honestly, it isn't much work to rinse the bucket after dumping it. And the bags probably inhibit composting until they start to break down.

oh terrene, we had 3 dogs and 2 cats. they thought the mice were their fellow pets!

i find a smaller bucket much much easier to rinse out. i just know my problem is coming in the winter. thats when the mice come inside and thats when i nice big bucket that doesnt have to be emptied daily is sooo much easier......but not cleaner or mice friendly (at least ours wasnt)

Just introduced a "staging area" ... a bucket that hangs outdoors and takes the contents of the smaller indoor bucket ... then gets marched to the compost pile when it fills. Helps keep the mice away from the kitchen.

Big Lots has a 5-liter "Fashion Trash Can" on special. It has the removeable plastic liner bucket and a flip top connected to a press-lever at the bottom. ~$6.50

we use it to collect kitchen scraps for composting. works very well at keeping bugs and critters out, smells in.

d

Recently, I've been using a gallon milk jug. I cut away the top with scissors, leaving the handle intact and making a very wide mouth. It's easy to rinse, but when it gets too grotty I just recycle the old one and make a new one from the next gallon jug.

i love the milk gallon! when its dry out i do the same thing, but i collect water/ grey water from my sink. same thing, just recycle it when finished.

I've found that I enjoy using a tupperware container with a snap-on lid. It's clear, so I get to look at the slop all the time.

I got a compost crock recently to see what all the hype is about... I think it's a bit of an overglorified cookie jar. The charcoal filter is a bit of a joke...on the second day of a full crock, I could smell it pretty well...by the next day the smell seemed to be gone, or my nose got used to it.

I saw my first mouse of the year today, I'm curious if it can fit in the holes of the compost crock lid...I have a feeling it can.

A 2 gal stainless steel step on trash can (thrift store $4) lined with plastic bag in inside bucket. Toss a bit of shredded paper or napkins in first to help absorb liquids. When it's full we carry bucket w/ plastic bag out to compost. Bag is rinsed as needed & reused until ripped. If we're canning or generating a lot of waste like melon rinds, we use a simple bucket & it goes out right away.

Compost can sits in front of kitchen trash, so it is easier to compost than throw into trash. Works for us even with teens, children, & house guests. Gathering more materials than before because it's so easy.

Last compost collector was a $.10 plastic ice bucket w/ lid and handle lined with a sheet of newspaper or junk mail paper.

Corrine

IMHO, you don't need to buy an expensive compost container, but you DO NEED a cheap mousetrap.

I bought small (1 1/2 gal) covered white buckets from Home Depot. You can get more than one size.

However, I don't call them compost buckets, but "chicken garbage." If it's too much for that, I use a five-gallon pail and give whatever it is to the sheep (corn husks, bean pods, etc.) and of course any meaty or milky food waste goes out the back door to the frantically excited outdoor cats.

This is what people in the country used to do to feed dogs -- keep a bucket under the sink and put EVERYTHING in it. Or to feed hogs, of course.

Now people are feeding their compost piles........I guess I'm a generation behind. [:-)