Home composting Step 1: Kitchen collection

Tell me, how is your compost process working out?

Are you getting good consistent finished compost from whatever method you use (pile, tumbler, bin, bins, etc)?

Are you able to keep your kitchen scraps and other compostable stuff in check?

Or, are you like most people I talk to about this, who really *want* to compost effectively but instead find themselves in any of the following situations:

• So many kitchen scraps that the kitchen compost collector overflows in the course of a single meal's prep
• A pile (or bin or tumbler or...) that smells bad
• A pile that never turns into anything resembling usable compost
• A pile that's constantly raided by scavenging beasts
• A pile that's probably got some no-no stuff in it
• A kitchen compost collector that attracts tiny flies, stinks to high heaven or never ends up getting emptied

Don't be ashamed. This is totally the norm. Getting the process of home composting working for you is just that - a process.

Except that most people (us included) don't start out thinking of composting like we do other household processes like taking out the trash, doing laundry or cleaning the bathroom. We just tack it on as a sort of hobby or "thing that we're trying" without really assigning it any kind of real process.

Which was why we were experiencing all the joys listed above. And also why we set out to build a process for composting like we have for making sure that the garbage gets to the street on a weekly basis, the laundry gets done so that we're not working the test garden in the nude and so on.

Our process for composting has resulted in us being able to produce usable finished compost from all of our kitchen scraps and compostable materials on a reliable schedule while keeping our kitchen from turning into a den of tiny flies and evil smells.

The first step in the process was to nail down Step 1: Kitchen Collection.

A crucial part of home composting, and usually the inspiration for home composting, is the putting to good use of our kitchen scraps rather than throwing them into the landfill with the rest of the world's waste.

We started with good intentions when we first began composting in our kitchen - we had a bucket under the sink that we threw vegetable scraps and things into when we were preparing meals and every so often, we'd empty it into the composter.

But this method presented issues:

1. The bucket was too small and filled up in one meal's prep
2. The bucket was open on top and attracted flies
3. The bucket didn't have a handle, so taking it out to the composter meant that we'd have to EW touch the rim and interact with the contents too much
4. It smelled like death after a few days
5. We'd have to pick out no-no stuff as we were adding the scraps to the composter, thus increasing our interaction with the EW contents that were smelling of evil and buzzing with flies

It was no good.

It made us want to not compost.

We thought about leaving the bucket at the composter and just going back to throwing scraps down the garbage disposal or into the trash.

But thankfully, we persevered and came up with a process for kitchen collection that solved these issues.

If you're nodding your head right now and you don't want to give up on home composting, here's a process for kitchen collection that may get you back on the right track to effective and stank-free home composting.

Step 1: Kitchen Collection

1. Get a 2+ quart handled clear plastic lidded pitcher
2. Get a small open top canister (an old office trash can works well for us)
3. With a permanent marker, write:
1. On the lid: "Compost Only"
   

2. On one side: "Yes! Veg scraps, citrus peels, eggshells, tea, coffee"

3. On the other side: "Compost: 1. These scraps + 2. Carbon 1:2 paper towels, paper napkins, paper tubes, shredded newspaper, junk mail (no glossies), lint, hair, fur, dry leaves, boxes, 100% cotton rags"
   

4. Tuck both under your kitchen sink and begin collecting the "YES!" kitchen scraps in the pitcher and the listed carbon items in the trash can (used paper towels and napkins can go in the pitcher)
   

5. When it's full (usually Thursdays), take the pitcher by the handle and the trash can out to the composter, dump in the kitchen scraps and then add twice as much shredded carbon material 
6. Water the pile by rinsing out your pitcher over the top, turn the pile briefly, walk away

Kitchen scraps successfully composted, junk mail in its proper place, no bugs, no eye-stinging aromas and viable home compost in the making.

Next we'll cover Home composting Step 2:  Compost building.

In the mean time, keep adding your kitchen scraps like I describe in Step 1 and let us know how it's going by leaving a comment here or grabbing us on Facebook or Twitter.