We have been recycling for some time now. The only need we had for trash services was to get rid of food waste. Well, we didn’t think that was so green, so we decided to stop that. We canceled our trash service and ordered two composters. We chose the Soilsaver composters because they have great reviews and are also very affordable. We purchased two, but have since discovered that we really just need one.
The $80 investment is less that what we would spend in trash service for a year. I can’t begin to tell you how great it is to be saving that money and watching the trash man drive right on by our home every week! When we decided to start my husband did all sorts of research about what composters were good, what to put in them, what to do with them once we started them, etc. He loved it! He even wrote us up this handy list of what’s compostable to put on our refrigerator. I would like to share it with you.
It’s a PDF for easy viewing and printing: Compost List
When the composters arrived we were so excited to get them put together. My husband got out all of the parts and headed straight to Lowe’s. These composters are 100% recycled plastics (very sturdy!) and so are the nuts and bolts. We wanted something a bit stronger for those, so he picked up some outdoor nuts and bolts in the same sizes (any store employee should be able to help you out!). After my husband got them all put together he did a little photo shoot! Check it out, we compost kids! The one on the left works fast too 😉
As soon as the snow cleared and the ground thawed, my husband took them outside to set up. We chose this spot at the back of our home. Close enough for convenience, far enough for comfort 🙂
These really aren’t big, they are roughly 2.5’x2.5′. If you have a yard at all, you have enough room for one of these! To install, my husband dug down a little (a few inches deep in the general shape of the composters). He then set some pavers (patio stones or bricks) in the ground and then made sure everything was level 🙂 Then he placed the composters on them and put the dirt back around it to keep it snug. What you see around them is mulch. Below you can see the door of the composter. We faced the inwards for easy and least messy access.
He then filled up the bottoms with a few inches of leaves. We did this because we started composting in the winter. From what I’ve read, you don’t need to do this in the summer time.
While I was out I couldn’t help but take a picture of my Vinca Vine 🙂 It’s in bloom and I just adore it 🙂
Once we got our composters in, it was time to compost! We now toss in all of our food scraps (that are are on the OK list). We keep a little container on our counter and dump it daily. Actually, our son loves doing this. We have a bucket on our back porch (just off the kitchen/dining room) to dump it into, and then when it’s full, we take it to the composter. I realize this step could be left out, but it works for us 🙂 Based on our reading, we should turn our compost (with a pitchfork, turner or shovel) at least a few times during the summer. No more than every other week is what we’ve read. We are very excited to have our own compost for our garden. Next on our list is a rain barrel!
we just bought our second composter because we fill the first one up within 2 or 3 months and then it needs to 'incubate' to decompose. So, now, we can switch back and forth.
just started composting this year too, my kids love dumping our rubbish in there..great blog!
I'm very interested to compost. Questions: where did you buy your bins? Why did you separate "green" and "brown" waste? Different composting times? Different results per bin? You make this look even easier than I had hoped! 🙂
Also, without any trash service, what do you do with the "Don't Use" trash?
When composting you kind of want an even mix of things. We actually don't pay too much attention to that just yet, but if we have too much food scraps, we could grab some brown yard waste to toss in to even things up.
We got two bins so that when one is full, we can let it sit and decompose while we fill the other 🙂
The little bit of stuff we have leftover after recycling and composting is burned. We live in an area where we are able to do that. If it's not burnable, it goes into a trash can. We only have a couple of items in ours after these few months.
When composting you kind of want an even mix of things. We actually don't pay too much attention to that just yet, but if we have too much food scraps, we could grab some brown yard waste to toss in to even things up.
We got two bins so that when one is full, we can let it sit and decompose while we fill the other 🙂
The little bit of stuff we have leftover after recycling and composting is burned. We live in an area where we are able to do that. If it's not burnable, it goes into a trash can. We only have a couple of items in ours after these few months.
Hey girl-where did you find your bins at that price? I'd be incredibly interested in those-one of our goals is to start composting in the next couple of weeks! Thanks for the help!
We ordered ours from Sam's Club. I saw them on Ebay too, but not quite as inexpensive.
We ordered ours from Sam's Club. I saw them on Ebay too, but not quite as inexpensive.
what do you do with your recyclable??
We have some buckets & trash bins that we use for our recyclables. We keep them in our basement.
We have some buckets & trash bins that we use for our recyclables. We keep them in our basement.
We love composting. We made our own tumbler and last year’s garden was the first year we got to add our own compost to. We got the most amazing veggies yet!! We usually do a mix of yard waste and food scraps (certain foods). Our tumbler cost us maybe $10 since we found a lot of the stuff we needed at the house we bought or on the curb that people were throwing away
We always use recyclable bins for com posting.