A composting bin is not necessary. People composted before manufactured bins were available and many of us still compost without an expensive, unnecessary manufactured bin. If some containment is desired a length of fence fabric works quite well.

Wonder if people read posts before advancing an idea? What exactly does your HOA say about open piles? My agenda is that an open bin or pile does not have to be unsightly, any more so than tumblers and manufactured bins are considered "sightly".

Are your backyards made private by fencing, shrub or tree planting or do your properties all blend together? An open, on ground compost pile can be in an out of the way area, a back portion of an established garden space, behind a little screen of shrubbery and no one would even be aware it's there - which is probably not the case with a $300 plastic cement mixer type affair.

What is probably most feared by the HOA's is that open compost piles create odors and attract rodents and other pests. This is not an issue if reasonable attention is paid to a good mix of greens and browns and if fruit and kitchen scraps are buried in the pile as opposed to simply thrown on top.

But, if the HOA stands pat and a manufactured bin is the only alternative, look up the word bins on the forum's search feature, you'll get over 600 references for the good, the bad, and the easy.

I've noticed that if you have large amounts of "green" or smelly scraps, it is easier to keep them buried and less stinky in a larger more open bin. The tumbler types require a very careful mix of ingredients to keep from smelling or attracting flys.

A larger bin type will also fill up more slowly and therefore you won't be as pressed to "speed" things up by turning it.

There are many ways to dress up or disguise a compost bin/pile. The link below has pictures of some larger bin set ups but unfortunately I don't have pictures online of the bins I dressed up at my grandmother's house.

If there is any sort of privacy in your back yard a simple pile on the ground will probably not be seen as anything other than a pile of leaves. Simply making a circle of hardware cloth or chicken wire is another very simple, cheap bin that people will likely not really notice if you have any privacy. Even if you don't have much privacy, wire with a bunch of leaves in it is usually not offensive to most people and so long as you cover things properly, that is all they will see, leaves.

If it must be contained in something like plastic. Just get an extra large trash can and drill lots of big holes in it. It will fill up faster but once things have broken down a bit (past the stinky stage) you could spread that stuff out on the garden or flower beds to finish composting in/situ so you will have the space in the bin for more smelly scraps.

Another option some people use is to bury the kitchen scraps in the garden but this has the drawback of possibly attracting pests to dig stuff up. This also needs to be done often and with a new baby, you probably want the ease of simply dumping the scraps into a compost pile and cover rather than needing to dig holes whenever you have a pail full of scraps.

Here is a link that might be useful: compost bins

Odors from decaying kitchen scraps vanish immediately if you put a thick layer of dried leaves on top of the scraps.

Whether you choose a bin or an open pile, heavily plant some flowers around it. The flowers will benefit from the compost leakage, but only the nosiest neighbor will even know what you have back there.

Neat idea, sweetkountry