If you compost as much for environmental reasons as gardening reasons then using electricity to freeze scraps seems counter productive. Plus it's extra faff. To stop the collection pail getting smelly put torn paper - towels, Kleenex, brown bags, junk mail, newspaper, thin cardboard like cereal packs - into it along with the scraps.

Then just do what you say in your final paragraph. Fill up the tumbler as you go along and then redistribute it.

If you add paper to the pail, not only does it absorb liquids, which can be smelly, it fills up faster so it will get emptied more often anyway.

I agree with the layer of paper or cardboard shreds at the bottom of a pail, or just adding throughout to add some absorbency. For an alternative to keep smelly liquid at the bottom from accumulating, a couple of handfuls of sawdust or wood pellets (also from wood-type cat litter pellets) works relatively well, if you happen to have around. The pellets will break down into sawdust as they absorb liquid so you'll probably need to rinse afterwards, but small enough amounts can be tossed anywhere in the yard/garden or for watering. Personally I'd prefer to just use a bin with a lid and no plastic bags, but even in my household we don't all agree on this.

I have several one qt plastic yogurt containers on the counter. If one gets full, I fit it with the tight fitting lid it came with then start another container. Usually I'll trudge out to the barrel before the second one is full. I never have excess liquid or sludgy stuff at the bottom. You could then turn this into the freezer bag and just keep adding to the freezer bag until you are ready to take it all out to the barrel/bin.

I agree with kimmq on the electricity being used. More frozen stuff in the freezer actually makes the freezer more economical.

I have not actually tracked how often I take the kitchen scraps to the barrel.....it's just whenever the yogurt container(s) is/are full. Allison, maybe a smaller bucket so you are forced to take action on it sooner. HTH.

I also have a paperback book I like a lot: The Complete Compost Gardening Guide by Barbara Pleasant and Deb Martin Amazon has used copies for about $3.

freezing one gallon of water in the scraps costs more than 4 Mega Joules, assuming you have a top notch freezer. so there is that.

I'm not super big on aesthetics, so I just keep an open tin foil pie plate and put all the scraps and coffee grounds in it. It thus gets carried out often. I don't use a compost pile at all, I just toss it on top of, or depending on what it is, under the mulch. It's rare that it gets messy, and it is never allowed to get to the point where it has any smells. Leaving an open plate ensures that I can always see it, and never forget to do the simple chore of carrying it outside.

Translating that to freezing would mean that you keep an open-able bag or container in the freezer and add to that instead of a counter-top container. The scraps would never get to the point of messiness.

My main reason to avoid using a freezer is that the last thing I want is more unidentifiable things in the freezer that I discover later! Or even worse, thaw things out thinking its some leftovers!

You could also start a bokashi bucket to "store" your extra scraps. Once its full it needs to sit for a few weeks anyhow- then add it to the in progress compost where it acts as a compost booster.

Good idea Veda, bokashi is a good way to compost kitchen waste. But it *really* stinks. My dogs kept trying to dig it up. :-[ A friend of mine had a skiing accident, plowed face first into a tree, she has absolutely no sense of smell. Works great for this purpose.

I tend to store things in a container in the freezer.

I also use a leaf sucker/grinder in the fall and bag up leaves that I layer throughout the year to layer with the greens. I actually grind/bag stuff from the neighbors! They love it! Nancy

MaryMcP, my bokashi smells like apple cider vinegar- strong but definately not offensive.

Hmmmm, that's interesting. Maybe it has to do with the bran that you use. I don't know but each of my buckets, I tried it several times, was foul smelling. Others I talked to about it said that's the way bokashi is. I always bought the bokashi starter from the same vendor, then she became hard to find so I just quit doing it.

I make my bokashi starter with wheat bran from a feed store and the whey from straining the kefir I make (and spring water and molasses.) it's super easy if you ever get the urge to start up again! :)

I think the hassle of having rotting scraps or taking up space and electricity in the freezer is not worth whatever benefit there may be from 'batching' the compost. I just keep some browns next to the compost and layer it in when I dump my bucket. And I don't use bags - just a plastic 1-gal ice cream bucket with a snap lid. Nothing worse than drippy smelly plastic bags you have to take back into the house and discard.