I could imagine, if you have room, having a THIRD bin along side the two you have now. When you need to turn a bin you could set that tarp in front of the three bins and shovel from the bin you are turning (A) and put it directly into the empty bin (B). The tarp would catch a little stuff but not as much as if you emptied ALL of it onto tarp. Then you end up with A being empty and it can take the stuff from C. Then shake your tarp into a bin and you are done. Next time you turn, C is empty and waiting to be used.

I know it takes a little while for it to start really cooking and that once it does, if I add anything to it, I'm starting all over again, right? Because you won't be able to turn the pile, just fill the bin as you get materials ... keep topping it off with grass clippings, dead leaves and such, keeping a reasonable balance of "wet green" versus "dry un-green" stuff. End with a layer of dried leaves and pack them down in the fall. Let it sit until when you look about 6-8 inches down it's looking like dark crumbly stuff. If you aren't turning it and watering it, it takes longer to compost but it still gets there. By next spring you should have the center core of that bin as a nice finished compost. Here is a link that might be useful: Cheap Wire Compost Bin: Cold composting method

I doubt if wood boards will significantly slow a rat if it wants to get in. Rats can gnaw through metal, so wood isn't much of a deterrent. I had some kind of animal get in my compost late fall/early winter last year, so I just emptied the bin onto the garden and decided I was going to call it a lasagna bed.

I don't know the average basement temperature, but I believe it stays within the acceptable range for worms; my guess would be > 50F and E. fetida will do fine in that range, but they will be more productive (eat more & make more babies) if temps are above 70F. That's the temperature in the bin, not the air temp. E. hortensis may do better if your basement is consistently on the cool side. However, it MAY take them a bit longer to get up to speed because they grow and reproduce at a slower rate compared to E. fetida. I'd like to do as little food prep as possible; optimally keep chopped material in a small composting container in my kitchen and empty it every day or two. From what I've read, worm prefer to be feed less frequently, and do best with some pre-processing. I'm open to recommendations for the the least fussy method that works. There are many food prep routines, so take this as just a random sample. Since your husband is concerned about smells, I'm going to assume he also wouldn't be happy with fruit flies. (most of us aren't, so it's no knock on him for either aversion.) I recently started my first indoor bin and this seems to be working well so far. I have a few 1 gal. ziploc bags (Hefty brand with an actual zipper "handle"). I put one on the kitchen counter and put scraps into it until it's full. I then take kitchen shears and carefully (don't puncture the bag) cut the larger pieces. You can skip this part by chopping things up before you put them in the bag or just skip it altogether. The full bag then goes in the freezer for 2-3 days and an empty bag goes on the counter. Defrost the bag for a day, drain excess liquid (maybe for an outdoor plant?) and spread over half your bin. Rinse & air dry the bag so it's ready for it's next turn in the cycle. I guess I haven't done my homework on the quantity of scraps -- but it can be a fair amount -- although it's cyclical. I definitely have more in the summer when my CSA is active. I assumed that the worm population would adjust to my quantity. The worm population will grow according to the conditions provided for the worms. A given amount of worms can adjust easily if there is less food, but they can't really adjust if you suddenly provide more food than they are able to process in a few days. I know the amount will vary, but collect scraps for 2 days and see how much it weighs. At least it gives you a rough idea. I was thinking of using red wrigglers, and starting with a couple pounds. I would feed smaller quantities in the beginning and increase the feedings as they multiplied....Is a 55 gallon drum considered a big flow through bin? 2 lbs. of E. fetida would be a good start for a standard 55 gal. drum FT. I consider it to be medium-sized, but on the large size for most indoor systems. If you read Jason's long thread about his 55 gal. FT, you know he ramped that up to the point it was able to process a lot of scraps. I don't know if he ever harvested all the worms to see what he had in there, but I'm guessing it could easily hold 10-15 lbs. of worms. Once that system is mature, it could probably take 10 lbs. of scraps every other day. In your original post you asked "Should I be looking to go smaller?". It will mean a little more work later to "upgrade" your system, but considering some of the unknown variables, it might be best to start smaller. Although a flow-through system has definite advantages, a simple tote worm bin can also work quite well. Stock it with 1 lb. of E. fetida and start feeding 1 lb. of frozen scraps once a week. You can slowly decrease the time between feedings to 6, 5, 4, etc. days as the worm population increases and your bin ecosystem matures. If all goes well, you will have 2 lbs. of worms after 3 months of no-stink, no-fly vermicomposting. We can go over details if you choose to go this route. Cheers, Andrew