This past fall Hubby finally built us a compost pile area (after years of asking, begging, pleading!). The good news is that it is far enough away from the house so we shouldn't smell it when it gets going. The bad news is that it is far away from the house plus it is down a steep hill. That means making frequent trips to the compost pile isn't always an option, especially in the winter (plus with my gimpy leg it means it could be a crazy trip down!).
I took some pictures of the dreaded hill-- it is hard to see the how steep the hill is in these pictures because of the snow but trust me-- rain slick grass or snow makes it for a scary downhill walk (riding the lawnmower down it can be scary sometimes too).
This is looking down the hill-- doesn't look too bad.
Here is looking up the hill towards the house. This gives one a better prospective on how steep the hill is. Going up is exhausting, going down is scary!
Since I cannot make that trip every single time I cook and have stuff for the compost pile, I searched the kitchen and basement for a container to store stuff in until I could make it down there. I figured a plastic bag would get stinky and leak, an open bowl would be stinky as well. What did I decide on? An old coffee container. There is a lid that seals quite well which keeps all the contents in as well as keeping the smell in. We have been using it for the past 2 months and I have not noticed a smell coming from it at all.
Here is our container all piled up and ready to be dumped. Sometimes I only dump it once a week and still no smell in the kitchen! Plus I am recycling the coffee container. I also figure you could cover up the labels with some sticky contact paper or stickers to match your kitchen (if that sort of thing bothers you- I have some contact paper I could use but figured I should have hubby help me cut it- I cannot cut a straight line to save my life). So you could really dress this up and no one would know what stinky stuff it contains! I just wash it out with soap and water each time we dump it.
What creative recycling have you done recently?
I took some pictures of the dreaded hill-- it is hard to see the how steep the hill is in these pictures because of the snow but trust me-- rain slick grass or snow makes it for a scary downhill walk (riding the lawnmower down it can be scary sometimes too).
This is looking down the hill-- doesn't look too bad.
Here is looking up the hill towards the house. This gives one a better prospective on how steep the hill is. Going up is exhausting, going down is scary!
Since I cannot make that trip every single time I cook and have stuff for the compost pile, I searched the kitchen and basement for a container to store stuff in until I could make it down there. I figured a plastic bag would get stinky and leak, an open bowl would be stinky as well. What did I decide on? An old coffee container. There is a lid that seals quite well which keeps all the contents in as well as keeping the smell in. We have been using it for the past 2 months and I have not noticed a smell coming from it at all.
What creative recycling have you done recently?
Since we are a bit bigger family, we use one of those ice cream buckets for compost, and we also have one for the chicken scraps. As there are some things the chicken's don't like.
ReplyDeleteI didn't even think of an ice cream pail--- those would work well too! I have several in our basement as well (it just seems a waste to throw them away as we don't have any recycling close by). I might have to shift to one of those. I was just amazed that there isn't any nasty smells for the coffee can.....I was afraid that there would be. It has been a life saver-- and a butt saver as I am sure I would fall on my butt many times if I went down that hill too often!
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