If you’ve ever contemplated composting at home you know that the plastic bins that hold household and yard waste are expensive, impossible to move, and rodent-prone. I know a low-cost solution!
Store-bought compost bins cost more than $100. (Would you believe Home Depot sells a composter that is $398?) Once the bins fill with waste, they can burst at the seams. At the same time, they get too heavy to relocate. The containers are open on the bottom, enticing raccoons and rats to dig a hole for easy trash access.
However, it is very easy to make your own composting bins from empty buckets. DIY power!
Here’s what you need to Make Your Own Composter:
-
- 1 or more 5-gallon empty Homer buckets with lid (they are about $3 at Home Depot)
- A screwdriver
- A 1/4 or 1/2 inch drill bit
Put the lid on the bucket and drill 11 holes into it with the screwdriver and drill bit. Try making an inner circle with 5 holes and an outer circle with 6 holes on the lid. Next, turn the bucket on its side and make 15 more holes, spreading them out. Flip the bucket over and make seven final holes.
Voila! You have your very own composter. The holes let moisture out and the 5-gallon buckets are light enough, even when full, that you can easily turn and shake them to hasten the composting process. The tight lid deters vermin. If you want to collect the juice from the composter – be prepared for the smell – it’s great for plants.
Once you fill your bucket with a mix of food waste and green debris, the compost will be ready in about six weeks. Expect the volume to shrink to half its original heft.
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Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price.
The City of LA runs great free composting workshops at a site in Griffith Park, and also sells very-low-cost composters. The info is here: http://www.ci.la.ca.us/san/solid_resources/recycling/composting/index.htm
@julie g. Thanks for the tip and sharing the link! I know a lot of BargainBabe.com readers live in Los Angeles.
When I lived in LA, the workshops included the opportunity to buy a composter for half price.
LOVE the composter idea! I’m going to try it… I don’t “do” drills, though, so I’m going to take a large nail with hammer to make the holes… will get out my aggressions just fine, I’m sure. 😉
@Jenni Porter Fantastic! Did you try it out? How did it work?
@Jenny Porter, I’d try and heat the nail. If you hammer it, it may crack.
A hammer and nail works. I’ve done this to five gallon buckets to plant crops. I didn’t need to heat the nail and the bucket did not crack.
Jenni, Just use a soldering iron…it’s easy!!
Fabulous idea! Now I know what to do with those empty laundry soap containers from Costco, besides collecting water in the shower (while it’s warming up). Biggest plus for me is the lighter weight, ease of using, and the fact that I can even have 2 going at the same time in different areas of my garden. Since I rarely use my garbage disposal, and collect scraps from meal prep and leavings, I should be able to build up my compost supply in short time. Thanks for the great suggestions!
@EllieD and DeniseinArk Glad you can use my idea. I, too, like the lightweight containers.
This is a most excellent suggestion. We live in an RV about half the time, as my dh is a travel nurse. I generally haul a bunch of plants and gardening supplies around with. A long-timer in the RV park where we were last year had a compost bin, and I saved scraps in a little bucket and donated them. But since then I feel continuously guilty throwing them out. Now I don’t have to!
@DeniseinArt That’s so great that you compost even though you don’t use them. Wow! You get a gold star for being so kind to the earth. 🙂
If portability isn’t an issue, and you have the space a really INEXPENSIVE way to compost is to dig a large hole or trench and throw your GARDEN clippings into it. I don’t know that I would put kitchen scraps as this method probably won’t deter rodants. We do this at our community garden as we have so much after awhile it just isn’t effective to have multiple composters. Takes a little longer for larger clippings, but you get great dirt out of it!
@Pam Portability and space. My yard is so small that if I dug a hole for compost it would make most, if not all, of the yard unusuable. Hubs complains enough about bugs in the far corner of the yard.
I remember my Dad doing it that way, the big trench and everything went in there. He’d we would fill it, cover it in and then he’d dig another.
That area of land grew lots of great vegies.
We do something similar on our homestead, Pam. My husband is a garden writer, you could say he’s written the book on composting–ok, A book on composting. It’s called Compost Everything: The Good Guide to Extreme Composting, by David the Good. Just in case anyone is interested 🙂
I have a professional bin like the one in your opening picture. DWP sells them for $20 (not $200 to $400!!!) at Griffith park 4th Saturday of the month. I put a sheet of quarter inch hardware cloth (a wire mesh) under it. Cost of the mesh was about $1.50 at OSH. The animals can’t get in, but the earthworms and insects can. They help in the composting process. My bin and mesh system is 10 years old and still working well!
@Ron That’s fantastic! I’m so impressed with the LA DWP for underwriting the cost of the compost bins. My town does that too, but for a basic composter, not the fancy ones. Still, it’s a big help and I’m sure a lot more folks compost because of the lower price.
Side question – I don’t have worms in my composter and I think I need them! Are they essential, or do they just speed up the process?
DWP ???
OSH ???
Dept of water & power
Orchard Supply Hardware
I found that using an old ice bucket, with lid, is a great way to collect veggie scraps in the kitchen. No smell, it is insulated, pretty good size. Once it is full I carry it out to the compost pile to empty and then just rinse it out with the garden hose. If I had to go out to the compost pile everytime I hadveggie scraps I wouldn’t do it, but this makes it easy.
@Ellen My former roommate use a small bucket, too, though it wasn’t for ice. It had a little lid to contain smell and bugs, and was so small that you had to take it out every single day. Mine is a tad too big, because I can avoid emptying it once a week or so. But then I get flies and my husband hates that. Ours is a container that is precut into our trasher drawer, so I’m not keen on changing the size.
I don’t have an ice bucket that I can use for this purpose, but I do use an aluminum bowl lined with a plastic bag from the produce section of the grocery store. The bag can be closed enough that the scraps can be accumulated until it’s time to put them in the compost. Since the bags can be recycled, I’m reducing/reusing/recycling in addition to adding to my garden. A win-win situation all the way around! BTW ~ Fish bones can also be put in the compost, but no other meat products/waste.
@EllieD A genius solution and very thrifty! I’m guessing you rinse out the plastic bag, because my compost container gets pretty gross. I only take it out once a week in cooler weather, however. In warm weather I have to keep it outside on my back porch because the bugs comes within minutes of putting anything in it. It’s
You can make a kitchen compactor with a coffee can. On the inside of the lid, hot glue a charcoal filter (fish tank filter) to prevent it from stinking. When full, dump it in your outdoor composter. The can can be decorated to go with your decor.
I have suggestion for the holes in the bucket. Instead of using the drill, I would use an old metal skewer, the tip of which can be heated on a gas burner and you can poke holes in your plastic bucket instantly.
Homer bucket costs 4.98 with lid and 7% sales tax.
Heat a wooden-handled awl instead of metal skewer to avoid having to use a hot pad.
Wonderful orange visual in the back corner of my yard!
Thanks for the good ideas about collecting scraps in the kitchen in the laundry detergent bucket.
Just for those who may like a free option- check at your local grocery store’s bakery department. Mine gives the 5 gallon buckets that frosting comes in for free! We get a ton to use for all sorts of things (collecting maple sap, chicken waterer, holding baseballs, etc).
Great idea! I’ve heard that Costco gives out their frosting buckets as well.
Sam’s sells frosting buckets for $2.
Thanks for sharing,worth trying.God bless you
Can I put my old compost in with my new one
Yes, absolutely. But if you have mature compost you might as well use it now. If you mix it with fresh stuff you’ll have to wait even longer to use it.
Hi! I´ve recently started a 5 gal bin compost (2 weeks-turned twice/aeration and drain holes/kitchen scraps and garden material) hoping it would be “hot” compost (faster and “healthier”) and not cold.
However, I haven´t noticed any heat so I I´ve been doing some more research I discovered it needs a lot more volume to actually heat up (around 3 cubic feet or 1 cubic meter). I will continue with the experimental stage and surely get a bigger bin later or try vermicompost.
Any comments, suggestions, similar stories … but more importantly, any success stories (hot compost)?
Instead of buying a bucket i am going to use cat litter buckets that i have saved up. They are a little bit smaller but should be easier to move.
That’s a great idea!
Man I have so many of those! Thnx for the idea!
That’s what we have for inside, the kitty litter tub with the hinged lid. Keeps the smell down and we dump it every other week in the outside pile. We go through a lot of coffee and eggs, the worms LOVE it. Luckily we have a lot of outdoor cats in the neighborhood, never see any rodents.
To keep rodents out of full size compost bins with an open bottom do this. Get a sheet of quarter inch hardware cloth the right size to fit under the bottom and put the bin on top of it. Quarter inch hardware cloth is a heavy wire mesh screen with 1/4 inch spaces between the wires. It keeps the rodents from burrowing in from underneath.
i need a drawing to show how i can do it
15 holes on the side and 7 on the bottom or other side?
I save a my teabag. eggschells and coffee grounds but I’m not sure of what ratio to use it any advice please
There are quite a few really good articles on Pinterest about what to compost and the ratios of brown to green! Some have the information on the picture so you don’t even have to click on it to read it!
I wanted to make a comment about what NOT to scrap but I cannot find where to do that. I saw a post earlier today that said you can scrap citrus but I don’t think you can. I can’t remember exactly why either right now. I’m drawing a complete blank. You also cannot scrap oils unless you have a worm composted. (Alas- my cats know that there are squirming critters in one so I cannot have one… too messy for me lolol!!)
My husband bought me a large tumbler composter with many rows of sliders to control aeration and to also use for “tea” but the handle broke. It was full and basically hibernating for the winter so I was so excited to get outside and work my magic!! I got a half rotation and SNAP. I wanted to cry. I tried my hardest to turn it myself but it didn’t work. I was able to use the compost that summer but now only use small 5 gallon buckets. They are awesome!! I use empty coffee containers for veggie scraps and cooled down veggie water in my kitchen. I go outside all the time so don’t usually let them build up for a few days. Figure I’m heading out so just bring my container with me.
Thanks for letting us all know about composting and that it doesn’t have to be really expensive to do it!! I love ideas from fellow Nature Girls and Guys!!!
The issue with citrus is primarily for vermicompost (worm bins — I gat a penny for every big word … suuure I do). The idea is that because worms prefer a pH neutral environment and citrus peel contain citric acid, worms won’t eat them and/or they will make the environment too acid and kill the worms. Some folks with hands-on experience say that the trick is to put citrus peels in only one part of the bed so the worms can retreat into a pH neutral environment after eating the peels, and it’s important to make sure that you don’t over-water, because that will wash the citric acid into the whole bin, making all of it acid. With no pH neutral place to retreat after eating citrus peel, the worms will die. For regular compost, just toss the peels in with everything else.
To collect the liquid gold from from the composted I can just place a plastic tray under the compost bin .
Love composting almost as much as the plants
The bucket ideal is great
I have that method.its much cheaper and convenient than a larger container. The reward is bountiful
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What about people living in a condo. I have started a few 5 gal containers from a restaurant and deli nearby. Free!! However, the thought of putting holes in them and having stinky ‘tea’ would not work as I’m sure there would be complaints. Just carrying it out to the community garden would reek in the hallways. Plus, I’d never be able to sit outside on the balcony myself. Any ideas, would composting still work without aerating it?
Just save your crushed egg shells, vegie and fruit scraps, peels cut smaller with coffee grounds and put them on top of your big potted plants. Place several small pots on top of the scraps. In a few weeks the bugs n worms will compost them. I do that every couple days n the plants with the composted vegies are happy versus the plants without scraps on top.