We live in two places, and have two set ups. At our city house we use an ice bucket with a lid. It sits on the counter and is used at almost every meal. At our mountain house I use a large pottery baking dish with a lid. I suppose it is meant to be a covered vegetable serving bowl. It also is on the counter and is used all the time. Both are emptied at least once a day. Sorry I don't have pictures.

Two ideas, neither particularly elegant, both free:

1) High-volume: We just throw compost into a bowl on the counter and toss it to the chickens or the compost bin every evening after clean-up. Nothing fancy, whatever's handy, often a dirty bowl from meal prep. No lid, no storing, no leaving it around for more than a day, not another "specific" kitchen item that needs special treatment, not another thing to clean. I think those fancy commercial compost carriers with charcoal in the lids are for people who let it sit around for days, the thought of which grosses me out. Also, we eat mostly fresh food, so we generate a lot more compost than packaged waste, and some days one of those little counterop compost containers wouldn't be able to handle it all. Our compost setup is usually first to the chickens, then to the bins (after processing by chickens, if you know what I mean), but we do put some stuff straight into the bins.

2) Low-volume: My in-laws have the tumbler like you have, and they use far more packaged food than us, so only have a handful of compost every meal (if that), and they don't like the hassle of taking out compost every day. Their solution: They put theirs in the freezer in a plastic container with tight-fitting lid (probably a recycled Cool Whip tub), and when it gets full every week or so they take it out back to the compost tumbler. Easy peasy.

After seeing your setup for your pantry, and your organizational skills, I can't imagine you could benefit from how I collect our compost,

LOL. That is how the pantry looks for photos! ;-) I just went to Costco yesterday and my tribe likes the 'cram it in wherever you see a space' method... So I need to get at it again.

Thanks for all the compost suggestions. I'm hoping for something covered, and in our freezer or trash pullouts, there is never an extra inch, so I think ours will be on the counter or under the sink. I really want to cover, as we used to keep an open container out and we were inundated with fruit flies, so I'm not looking to go back that direction. So far, I'm using the open bowl method, though, and our 8 yo is so enamored with the compost tumbler, he's glad to run it out as often as I'd like. ;-) I'm not thinking I can count on the novelty for long, so am trying to look ahead. The paint bucket or covered ceramic bowl are both appealing to me.

We also hope to have chickens some day to help with compost at both ends of the process, but with a garage addition underway, I'm not looking for my coop-construction to happen this spring.

Thanks again!

We use a 5 gallon frosting bucket from the bakery of our local grocery store chain. They are food grade plastic, and best of all they are FREE!
We just ask at the bakery and they're happy to find good homes for them.
We don't leave it out (goes in a cabinet when not in use) but we belong to a CSA in the summer so generate way more scraps than can fit in a countertop compost container, plus we couldn't pass on the price ;-)

Mine's not elegant, either. It's a cardboard oatmeal container that I line with produce bags or bread bags. When it gets full, it gets dumped in the big compost heap outside. I toss the plastic bag and replace with a clean one.

My green plastic compost bucket from Lee Valley (with a charcoal liner in the lid!) has lasted many years under my sink. It can also be mounted on the back of a cabinet door, which I only recently realized. They make a stainless one that would look better on the counter than the green one.
We have a veggie garden so lots of compostables, but I live on the rainy west coast, so there are days that it does not get emptied and yet, it is not entirely gross. Putting coffee grounds in it (we generate a lot of these) really helps for the smell factor.

5 gallons...wow! I know the 1 gallon containers would rarely be big enough, so maybe I'm asking too much to have something attractive, or an efficient system. I had this cute, 1 gallong container that was an old coffee storage can I found at a thrift store with a hinged and sealing lid.. But either it had a pin hole in the bottom or something ate through and it started leaving compost-smelling puddles underneath.

The oatmeal box is a good answer... Kind of retro-cute.

I'm even afraid we'll over do the 2 50-gallon tumblers, especially because of the percentage of brown compost needed to balance the kitchen trimmings.

I use a stainless steel bucket with from Lee Valley, the largest size, and empty it daily. On big cooking days, or when I'm generating lots of veggie trimmings, much like Mizinformation, I just throw everything into a bowl and take it out when I'm finished.

When taking it out, I add some water to the bucket before leaving the kitchen and swish it around on the way out to help clean it out. I give it a wash, dry the outside, then it is ready to go again.

Here is a link that might be useful: stainless compost pail

I was also going to mention the Lee Valley containers. You can also get compostable bags/liners.

I currently use Mizinformation's solution and just take the compost out daily (especially if there is garlic, ginger, or banana peels).

I like the freezer idea!

Here is a link that might be useful: compostable bags

I didn't know the Lee Valley could mount to a cabinet door. I think that could be a great solution. Better than opening the cupboard and bringing it out to fill.

I currently use a stainless steel bucket with a charcoal lid that sits on the counter. It goes out when full which is daily or every other day. This has been a very functional solution for us for now but with the remodel I don't want to keep it on the counter. I am currently considering a door mounted pail for under the sink. Rev a shelf has a model where the lid opens as you open the door. It has a handle for easy dumping. My one concern with it is no charcoal filter. Maybe since it is lidded and in the cabinet odor won't be an issue? We will have to wait and see.

The LeeValleys look nice! Reminds me of Splitrock's suggestion of an ice bucket. They're often cheap in thrift stores (more $ in antique stores), and very cool looking. We have a plastic-lined one wrapped with a faux-alligator leather print from the 60's, and a double-walled chrome one. But we use ours for cocktail ice. Compost will still go in a dirty mixing bowl. ;)

Managing trash and all things recycling was what pushed me over the edge and initiated our remodel.

We too have a SS steel bucket with a charcoal filter. Too big on the counter. This week we are experimenting with a new system. We put the bucket on our deck, lined with a recyclable liner. Next to our sink, I purchased a little ceramic container to hold just a day's worth of waste, which then gets dumped in the outside bucket. Once that bucket is full, it goes in the compost pile.

It's working so far.

All great suggestions. They just weren't occurring to me today. I remember planning that door mounted one that opened when the door opened back when we designed the kitchen, and I thought it might work under the island prep sink. It just wasn't at the top of the list, financial and project priority-wise, and the idea was lost in the shuffle.

I was inspired by your post about the tumblers the other day to start doing a better job about getting our kitchen waste to the compost pile, and started using a lidded plastic ice cream bucket that I snagged out of the recycling. It's a good size and has a handle. It's not at all attractive, but knowing me, I'll probably take it outside and hit it with some spray paint to pretty it up at some point.

I have a really really stupid newbie question on this. Do compost piles bring rats, mice, or other critters to your yard? What about your dogs/pets? Do they go rummaging through there? Sorry if it's a ridiculous question and a bit OT. Maybe it's more for people in more rural areas with alot of land? We only have a bit over a 1/2 acre and that's good for So. Florida

Our compost pile is pretty far away from the house(which is why we mostly used it for yard waste until just recently.) It's on the edge of the woods where we have critters anyway. It's not uncommon to see deer, rabbits, groundhog(singular,) opossums, turkeys, squirrels, chimpunks, and yes mice, we even had a bear across the street.

Turkey snapped last week.

In one house I use a small (maybe 1 gallon) pop-top trash can with a plastic bucket insert . About $10 from Walmart. We fill it about 1/3 with shredded paper first, so the moisture gets absorbed.

Here I'm using a bowl on the countertop and just dump it daily.

We use a rectangular glass food storage container with a soft plastic (Tupperware-style) lid that sits right inside the top of our trash pullout. I measured our trash bin -- inside and lip, and figured out the ideal dimensions that would hold 2-3 day's worth and not block too much of the opening, then went hunting at the Container Store. The container's rim sits on the rim of the trash bin, and the body of the container fits right down inside.

We live in the woods and our compost is in the woods next to the yard (if that makes any sense). We also have lots of critters around, but I've never had any problems with them getting into the pile. It is enclosed in a large compost container we got at costco.

We keep our compost in an extra dog food bowl on the sink and throw it out as necessary:

Our compost bin is in our separately fenced garden two steps from the back corner of the house:

The fenced-in garden came about when we had a Lab named Bob who would go in the garden, snag an ear of corn off the stalk, husk it with his very clever feet and teeth (wish I had a video!), and then eat the corn and the cob. The vet said this was a really bad idea (the cobs evidently can get stuck in the gut), hence the fence.

About the bowl: This works well for us. I recently spent a couple of weeks at my daughter's babysitting, and she has this nifty small, stainless steel can with a ventilated lid that sits under the sink. I found I was always piling up peels or shells or whatever in and on the sink and then moving them to the can. To get to the can, my wet hands would have to open the sink cab, remove the lid and figure out what to do with it for that couple of seconds, and transfer drippy garbage from the sink top to the undercab can. The floor usually needed a wipe after. It got really easy to just push those few carrot peels down the garbage disposal. My on-the-sink solution is handy and sits there looking at you to remind you it's time to go out, and it's easy to wash. On the other hand, it's just the two of us most of the time.

On critters in the compost bin: We have at times had a rat or two who would visit the compost bin, but dealt with them. I don't think they came specifically for the compost, it was just a bonus. Possums, the other major garbage eaters, can't get in the bin because of its design. We don't have racoons right here, but they would also be too big to fit through the slats on the bin.

I searched for 20+ years for a system that worked for me. I've tried various containers over the years but the one thing I always hated was dealing with the lid of a container. If my hands were full or gunky I'd have to free up a hand to take the lid off and then find someplace to put it down if I needed both hands to scoop scraps. Even when the lid was clean, I didn't particularly like putting it down on the counter.

I love the rev a shelf container we have now. Even when my hands are full, I can still use a pinky to hook the cabinet knob and pull open the door. The container we had before this one had a charcoal filter so I was a bit skeptical about using something not designed specifically for compost but I haven't noticed any odor problems. I love the fact that the lid lifts off by itself when the cabinet door is swung open.

I was concerned about putting a lot of weight on the cabinet door but it turns out the weight is carried by the mount inside the cabinet. The door is mostly used to work the pivot mechanism.

We got the cheaper, plastic gray version of this can (also made by Rev a Shelf) first but it was flimsy and the mounting/pivot hardware wasn't as good. The can would often become disengaged. We moved that can to our bathroom and it works fine without a lot of weight in it. We've had zero problems with the pricier can with better hardware. Both versions have an inner pail with handle that comes out for cleaning or carrying to the compost pile.

Sweeby, that is clever! We don't have that much clearance above our pullouts, I don't think.

Lax, then you can write about your pretty compost bucket!

Remodelfla, not a dumb question at all. Rotting green waste doesn't seem to draw too many critters. That's one of the main reasons that it's only plant waste and egg shells. Any grease or meat and you'd have everything trying to eat out of the pile.

I started my compost endeavor a few years ago with chicken wire formed into 2 circles/cylinders. But they're too far from the house, and our Pac NW weather is discouraging to those who should take it out. I figure with these new tumblers, with the sealed lids, I can keep it closer to the house, so I hope it's not such a bad chore. I also hope it works better at turning the stuff into soil, because the open bins didn't do well at that either.

Lazygardens, thanks for the tip about the newspaper strips. Sounds like a great idea, and I will remember that...Besides soaking up the liquid, it's good 'brown matter' for the compost. Suzannes1, you have a crafty dog! I appreciate the insight about the undersink, lidded container. That's the kind of 'bad' story I was looking for to avoid trying what didn't work for someone else. And thanks, Zelmar, for the pics of your cabinet-mounted can... I can see why that would be much better than on the actual door. Is it ever in your way when you want into the cabinet for other reasons?

Bottom drawer of our fridge tends to freeze things. So we keep compost in there in a doubled plastic grocery bag. Empty when full.

That's unique, Waterdamage! I'm glad I don't have that opportunity. ;-)

Blanco makes a great system! One of my favorite products :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Blanco Compost System

I use a red plastic pail on the counter. Holds a lot but not for long. The compost gets dumped every day during warm weather. I guess I could use a lid, but I don't. After trying to keep it in a covered container in a cabinet, I felt the same as others said - its just too much trouble.

I wanted to say - the thing about a tumbler or just about any other form of composting, is that at a certain point, you stop filling it and let it cook for a period of weeks or months. You'll still need a ground pile for the "next batch"...

Rhome,

We are pretty serious about composting and there are a couple of useful threads on this from the past.

compost thread

show me your kitchen compost set up

We decided to go with the Solon system from blanco. I have not installed it yet but DH liked it as is is flush inset in the counter. It is quite bit (much bigger than the coffee grounds hole in Starbucks. ). We cook vegetarian and generate a lit of veggie scraps. I buy bio bags from Costco to make it easier to pull lift out just the compost trash. If you do it everyday, you don't have to rinse the pail everyday.

If ou are doing a tumbler, I recommend making a pile of "browns" close by with a shovel so that you can chuck in a shovelful of greens with the browns.

I like the look of the blanco - can you add that ex post facto - too late to add now, but I am thinking of doing downstream
I think I have room next to the sink - since the cabinet is not too exciting and is quite deep.

Bmore, I think that's the idea of having 2 tumblers... One to 'bake' a batch and one to start new. But I'm not sure how that will work for us once we get going.

Lalitha, the Blanco system does look nice, and thanks for the links to the older posts. I'll check them out.

Adding in the Blanco one can be done after the fact, however depending on the countertop it could take a little negotiating. I would go with the drop-in and call the company who installed your counters and ask if they can have someone make a cutout for you sometime when they have a crew in the area, they might be willing. If you remodeled recently I would ask your KD to try and arrange it for you, they may have more pull with the fabricator. (If you have wood or laminate countertops you could do it yourself.)

I keep an old lidded cat food bucket (around 2 gallon sized) under the sink for compost. (Newspaper from the bottom of the bird cage goes into the bucket; newspaper helps to absorb odors.) The bucket gets dumped every 3-4 days. Using a garbage bowl in the sink helps a lot in transferring waste to the bucket.

My friend uses an old bleder. Grinds up everything and keeps it sealed

I really like my Solon composter. It holds much more than my previous sit-on-counters ceramic solution. I like it back too because I can put a cutting board to the left of the prep sink. I ordered a 12" drawer and snuck it in in front of the composter (vs. do another tiltdown). DH rigged it up somehow in the cabinet.

Two more shots:

LOL, rhome. At first I kept telling DH we were getting a compost bin to mount inside the sink cabinet. We still may, one day. But the current situation means we don't unintentionally freeze things in that bottom drawer, and we can take the compost out only very occasionally. We live in the hot South and try to minimize our AC use, so a non-fridge compost situation would mean emptying it much more often much of the year-- and we are pretty busy with DD and the puppy.

I use an old enameled pot with a lid that I keep under the sink. When I'm cooking, I throw everything into a bowl and then dump the whole thing into the bucket. I was using a 5 gallon bucket, but found it could sit a little too long in the house and did get some anerobic activity smell going. MY DD swears she's been eternally traumatized by the smell when she dumped that one.

In our new house, we found a real enameled 'slop' bucket in the basement. Using that there now as I thought that was an appropriate use. Also just got a tumble composter set up 2 days ago and I'm really excited to see how that works!

I use an old three-gallon enameled pail I bought at an auction and an old pot lid that fits on the top (to keep the nosey cats out). It lives either on the floor or on the counter, depending. It's emptied to the compost pile last thing at night when one of us make the rounds to check on things in the barns before bed. In the summer it is sloshed out at the outdoor tap and left upside down to dry overnight. In the winter (does that still happen these days?) it is brought in and left to freeze in the wood room when we bring the last firewood in for the night.

During major preservation orgies I use a giant SS bowl (probably 2 feet across) that gets filled to heaping and dumped as needed.

My late MIL used a SS pail (with a lid - actually the lid I now use, sans pail; I wonder where the pail went?) for her compost enroute to her chickens.

My own Mother used a lidded ceramic casserole as a collection point, dumped every morning after the egg shells from breakfast were added.

My compost pile is literally a pile. During warm weather I stick a fork in it occasionally and have at it once or twice per season with the bucket loader to tumble it. Most of the time I just let Nature takes its course. If it gets too big, I just started dumping stuff on the ground next to it. Easy-peasy. Once in a awhile I add the gleanings from the (pet) rabbits' cages to boost the nitrogen component, but that manure (and more particularly, the bunny pee) is too "hot" to add it all the time. Mostly the cage-gleanings go on their own pile that I manage more intensively than the veg. compost pile, which is a totally laissez-affair.

Every summer I plan to use saplings to make a nice cage around my veg. compost pile - laid up in a loose log-cabin-like framework. But in two-plus decades here I have always chosen the slattern's approach of just dumping stuff on the ground. That really pleases the skunks and opossums, no doubt. In the end I get nice friable organic matter that I slap around the garden so no evidence of my decades of sloth is apparent.

L.

We've used a variety of things. For a long time we used ice cream buckets or the freebie buckets from the bulk food store. But, I got tired of how they cracked, absorbed odors (ick), and the worst offender of all: they held water around their rims when I turned them upside down after washing them. Of course I could NEVER remember that the rim was holding water, just waiting to douse me the next time I flipped it over to stick it back in the cupboard. No more.

I bought a stainless steel bucket, but it didn't come with a lid. I found a pie plate at Dollar Tree that works for a lid, but right now I'm not using it. A lid is nconvenient, for all the reasons mentioned above.

Going lidless during non-fruitfly season is fine. It doesn't get that stinky since we empty it pretty much every day.

If the fruit flies come around, I put the compost bucket outside on the back porch. This is most likely to happen when we're processing a lot of food at once and switch to a drywall bucket.

I'm also contemplating lining a drawer with SS buffet style pans from a restaurant supply store. That way I could just pull the drawer out and sweep all the gook into the pan in (almost) one motion. Or, should I do 2 pans, so I could separate the chicken scraps from the compost scraps? More decisions to be made...

Here is a link that might be useful: Stainless steel steam table food pans

I have beeen using an old SS stock pot (with a lid) sitting under the sink - till I find something better.

After reading all these posts, I am thinking that I do NOT need anything *better*, so why waste $$ if I am not going to have it on the counter anyway.

What do you think?

I'm going to address some of you specifically, and some ideas in general. I appreciate every word of input, so I hope I don't offend some of you by not mentioning your name. I really do thank you for helping!

Ci Lantro... Haven't seen you here in awhile!

Some of you have mentioned pots under the sink, but I can also see that an interesting pot could be as nice as an attractive ceramic bowl with a lid for the counter.

I'm sure that from a major project we will just fill a big bowl and take it out right away. It's the dribbling collection that happens during the day I'm thinking of most. I've gotten a little nuts about clutter (I'm surrounded by enough), and if it can be covered and work, so it looks fairly neat, I know I'll be happier.

I have previously had compost piles, too, but I just don't seem to tend them right. Once it caught on fire. Once, a good turn, it turned into a pumpkin patch. ;-) Mostly, it just looked messy and never really composted into something useful. We just kept adding to it and mixing the new in with the old, so it always had pieces of uncomposted materials in it.

Oldbat2be, that is really gorgeous and nice. Thanks for the great, detailed pictures.

The stainless steel food pans in a drawer is an interesting idea. I'd have to move my knives, but it could be in the drawer above the trash pullout...

Eleena, if you don't want it on the counter, it seems like you have something that works, so why 'fix it?' ;-)

From my previous post - my friend has an old blender that she tosses everything into it and runs it.
She then adds the ground up items to her compost outside. Pretty nifty!

I ogled the Blanco all last night and today. Decided, it just didn't quite fit in the kitchen design.
I am still thinking of using it (or some other sealed pot) inside the counter.

Has anyone made a drop in mount for a cabinet that pulls out using the drop in style of the Blanco or other similar pail?

I think I want SS and I want something that can go in the DW.

More time to think on this - I have to make a decision by Monday AM if I decide on the Blanco.

I may start a new post on my kitchen plan and see if you think a good idea or not.

I composted kitchen scraps when I had a tiny garden in Los Angeles. When my "garden" became 4 acres, I switched to bringing home pickup loads of composted municipal chippings from the nearest town and raking the leaves down the nearest slope.

What worked well before, though, was a vintage covered serving dish left sitting out on the counter. Attractive, the lid hid what was inside, and it didn't hold too much...

BTW, for those who have small gardens and don't have a big system, my gardening neighbor across the street taught me hers: Dig a little hole in an area you'd like to enrich and toss the kitchen scraps in there, kick a little dirt over, and repeat through the week until it's filled in. Then dig another hole. Very little work, and over time makes soft, gorgeous soil.

I did a version of the bury-it-in-the-garden for awhile in my garden boxes. One year I ended up with very healthy, volunteer potato plants! I think it was my best crop that season, and I considered it a positive surprise of that method. lol