Ready to learn how to compost? It’s super easy – you got this!
COMPOSTING – IT’S EASY AND FOR YOU (REALLY!)
I don’t know about you, but I hate throwing away food. HATE. IT. Maybe it comes from growing up in the country and not having a ton of excess food, but we had two basic principles when I was a kid: only put what you can eat on your plate, and if there’s any extra food or scraps they get composted (which for us consisted of just going across the dirt road and throwing scraps “over the fence”).
I still feel like I’d like to apply these rules to my young family now, but with picky eaters and more food accessible to us, it seems like we generate more food waste than I’d like. However, I still don’t like physically putting food into the trash can. It just seems wrong to me. Plus, it stinks, and I don’t like to take out the bag until it’s full. So what’s the solution to keeping food out of the trash? Composting!
Now you might be thinking, “come on Grant, I don’t have 27 acres to spread my food scraps across, or a hog to feed them to.” Or maybe you’re not thinking that at all – I don’t really know; I’m not Miss Cleo (although, if Miss Cleo were writing this, she’d say “Ohhh, I see some composting coming up in your future, honey.”). However, I can tell you that composting basics are pretty easy to get started, and doesn’t require any special skills; just a spot in your kitchen and a spot outside your house.
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GETTING STARTED WITH COMPOST – INSIDE FIRST
Let’s start with the kitchen spot: step one is getting some sort of compost container. We have white appliances in my kitchen, so I went with the basic white ceramic compost container.
You can be as fancy or as plain as you want with this; I’ve got some friends who have the stainless steel container and it’s pretty sharp on their counter.
So now that you have this container, what can you put in it? Basically any food, including coffee grounds and filters, although it’s not generally recommended to put in any meat scraps, whole eggs, dairy stuff, and grease or fats. These items typically have a tendency to attract unwanted wildlife and can create more problems than composting them is worth. Then once your pile is outside, you can add yard scraps, including leaves and grass clippings, but keep out any pet waste, treated plant material, or charcoal. And depending on your smell threshold, you’ll want to occasionally replace the container’s charcoal filters. This how to compost thing is pretty simple, right? Right!
how to COMPOST – TAKE IT OUTSIDE
So now you’re ready to put this stuff outside – but how? And where? Basically when you think about how to compost, the options are endless, although you’ll probably end up doing whatever best fits your yard / patio / whatever. For me, I have a little bit of space in some trees just off the yard, and I’ve simply screwed some pallets together (and they aren’t even nice pallets).
However, for something more structured, I recommend more cleaner bins.
Some folks prefer the turner style bin for ease of use.
COMPOST PILE / BIN UPKEEP
Die hard composters will say you should turn it every day / three days / whatever to achieve maximum heat and decomposition levels, etc. And that’s accurate; you can search and find any number of super thorough how to compost tutorials. For my purposes, I’m just happy it’s not in the trash! Yes it would be nice to create actual compost you can use in your garden, and the more you keep up on our pile / bin the better your results will be, but in my book, at least you’re diverting this food waste from the trash can; anything above that is a bonus.
FEEL GOOD – YOU SAVED SOME LANDFILL SPACE!
So now you’re a composter. Rock it! After your compost is ready, you’ll be able to use it in your garden, and if you’re not gardening, here’s how to start. Have any other awesome composting tips? Leave them in the comments! And for update on new posts and other sweet Sustainable Family Home stuff, enter your email into the box below.