Coffee grounds and egg shells could be dumped out in the bed near the garage door. I'd be a little hesitant to dump fruit rinds, apple cores, food type scraps since those could draw foraging critters.

My compost pile is well away from the house and under three feet of snow so over the winter months I forego collecting even the small amount of kitchen scraps I generate. Some composters would feel that's wasting a valuable resource, but sometimes you have to do what's easiest for you.

I do, however, continually collect coffee grounds from my own daily consumption. I let them dry out in the filters on the counter for a day or two then dump them in a 5 gallon pail under the kitchen sink. When dry they don't get moldy (even though coffee ground mold is a good thing) and they don't smell. And 5 gallon pails of dry grounds are a lot lighter to carry and stash in the garage than 5 gallons of wet grounds.

Duluth, thanks for that suggestion! I put my coffee grounds in a Cool Whip container on the counter, and when I get a chance sprinkle them in the garden beds. Well, since there's several inches of snow on the ground, I've switched to the large sized Cool Whip container, and now THAT is full too! The past couple of days I've dumped them in the garbage, but HATE doing that. I'll look around in the garage for something bigger, and just hide it under the kitchen sink. I don't have a compost pile, though I'd like too, just don't have anywhere to put one, but if I did, I sure wouldn't want to trudge through the snow everyday to put stuff in it.

Bonnie

Well, I don't have a big problem with trekking through the snow to empty the compost per se. I just hate going way out to the compost pile just to empty my little countertop bucket, whether it's summer or winter! Okay, I guess I'll admit it is a bit worse in winter!

So last month, I bought a small, rectangular rubber-maid type bin, (maybe 8, 10 gallons? I'll have to check the label) with a lid, and I just keep it on the back steps. This way, I dump the countertop bucket out a few times a week, and then maybe once a week or so make the trek to the big pile.

A few years ago, after my very first batch of compost was done, I didn't have time to spread it in the fall, but didn't know what to do with new scraps I was accumulating. I bought a 35-gallon plastic trash can, and put the kitchen scraps in there temporarily. Well, I could not believe how fast they started cooking, and "temporarily" turned into longer term. I think I went out on a warmer day and drilled some holes into the can to help with aeration to get through the winter.

Once winter was over, I ended up drilling a ton more holes in the can, and now use that and several others as my bins. But perhaps a trash can by the back door will help. Same theory as my smaller outside bin, but you won't have to empty it till spring.

:)
Dee

Just take the UCGs and throw them on the snow wether it be on your lawn or gardens. More snowfalls will cover the 'look' and in the spring it will all melt into the soil and the spring worms will come to forage on your UCGs and amend your soil even that much more. :O) Works like a charm!

All these ideas are good!

I would like to share what I consider to be the PERFECT compost pail for the kitchen. I found it at Wal-Mart for about 6 to 8 dollars. It is sold as a cannister, but is actually a stainless steel can that holds about a gallon with a lid that has a plastic gasket and a wire lock-down. It absolutely allows no odor into the air at all, even though I sometimes wait a week to empty it and the stuff inside is truly gross.

Although I don't have snow to contend with, I do have an awful lot of wet in the winter. We can do alot of damage to our grass too, walking on it when it's so wet. I have installed a stepping stone path to the compost pile. I sunk the stones down to ground level so they are easy to mow over in the summer.

I know all about trudging through the snow to empty the compost bucket. My compost pile is a pretty good trek from the house. I empty the goodies into a 5 gal. bucket in my garage so that I don't have to empty it daily. Since I have to take the dogs for a walk/run every day I just make a trip by the compost pile a part of our trek when the bucket needs to be emptied. Sometimes I need my snowshoes to get over the drifts. Don't you just love winter!?

I'm using compostable bags (made of cornstarch like some packing peanuts) and loving them for dealing with compost. Maybe you all know about them already. They seem to hold up under quite a bit of moisture and so I end up with a couple of them on the back step sometimes for a while before running them out to the compost. And, my bucket or bowls, whatever I'm using, is never nasty.

I guess that's kind of an advertisement -- I'm in no way commercially affiliated. Now I want to start using these for my regular garbage too if I can find them big enough.

Lex

I've got a 2 gallon plain white bucket on the kitchen counter for kitchen scraps, napkins and coffee grounds, etc. I compost a lot of paper products mixed in with food scraps. It needs to be emptied about every 4-5 days. I dump it in one of those round black plastic bins that the previous owner left here. It is only about 25-30 feet from the back slider and behind some shrubbery. This is my routine summer or winter, although in the summer I add some leaves to the bin if it gets smelly. In the winter, I pass by the bird feeding area so it's shoveled part of the way there anyway.

This winter I'm storing banana peels in the freezer and dumping cooled coffee grounds on the snow over the roses.

In years past, I've kept bags of kitchen scraps in the freezer and/or in the garage, much to the dismay of my DH. He doesn't cotton to the idea of worm composting either! ;-D

To me, banana peels and coffee grounds are gold...so this winter I've decided to concentrate on them only. It's hard to see vegetable peelings, etc. go into the trash, but then I think that it'll be good for the landfill...as they'll turn to compost there!

Judye

That's why the advice is always to locate your compost bin where it's convenient - however, a compost bin isn't something I want next to my back door so mine is out in the "back 40" as well. If you want something larger than the pail to store more scraps in your garage, another idea is to buy a container that has a lid that spins tightly shut. They are sold in various sizes online or in pet, country supply or wild bird stores to store bird seed or pet food, but could work for this situation just as well. You must use something that mice cannot get into that has a tightly fitting lid. We have mice problems and they cannot chew through this. I know because I've seen the teeth marks. They have chewed into the standard plastic tubs, but not this. The only hard part might be transporting it to your bin because they have no handles and could get heavy, but that's easily accomplished if you have a wheel barrow, garden cart or dolly.

Bobz4MN

My compost bin is, likewise, in the back 40 and don’t like the trek thru the snow drifts. I have a large garden area so once the snow gets here I just scatter it throughout the garden. No problems with smell but rabbits love the treat.

I have an indoor compost bin for scraps which I transfer to plastic bags to sit outside until I stuff them in my bike basket and haul them off to the allotment (where I have several enormo-heaps). Probably not the most aesthetic or elegant solution but many of us Brits leave our dustbins outside on the street too so a couple of extra bags is barely noticeable.

I wouldn't dream of wasting it though - my main materials are mountains of woody or tough old stuff from the fruit and veggies so I definitely value old teabags and peelings.

I don't trek through the snowdrifts because after each snowfall I slap on snowshoes and stomp my way out to the compost pile. After that I can just walk out on the path I've created until the next deep snow. Since we haul our own trash to the town transfer station, it's a whole lot easier (as well as not wanting to waste the organics) to just haul it to the compost pile. And my pile gets all food waste - bones, fat, citrus peels and other things that one isn't supposed to add to compost. It composts just fine, and as long as I bury smelly things like seafood shells, the critters don't bother it.

I believe the easiest way to get compost to the bin is via 4 children, but I understand there are drawbacks that come with that particular solution. ;-)

We generate an enormous amount of compost. Husband loves cooking. He loves buying vegetables more than he loves to cook them, unfortunately. He is more of a meat guy, but based on his shopping I believe he wishes he ate more vegetables. Between the food we do eat and the food that goes bad before we eat it, it's a pile. Our compost pile has been overflowing for a long time, despite being able to use much of the good product this summer. This fall I bought two of these geobins for composting, and so far am happy. I would think they would make a good temporary bin to keep closer by in winter if somebody didn't want to use a plastic garbage bin. I bought them because I truly didn't have time to build anything myself, and by the time I bought supplies I figured I wouldn't be too far off the $32 cost for the geobin. It is easily adjusted from a small to large radius so I didn't have to think about sizing.

Geobin composter

I used to "do" composting better. Kept it wet, turned, and hot/warm, etc. Our chickens we used to have were a huge help. Now I don't have the time. I'm into cold composting, which is a nicer way to say "dump it and leave it."

If there's the space and the appearance doesn't bother you, just put the compost in a tight fitting garbage can by the back door . In spring If it's too heavy to carry to the the "real" compost pile, just dump contents onto a tarp and drag it.

I used to be fussy about the 'placement of garbage cans' but husband had two strokes & I feared for his safety when he went on the slippery uneven path to the cans. Moved everything closer to the house.

keep it simple,keep it safe

That's why the advice is always to locate your compost bin where it's convenient - however, a compost bin isn't something I want next to my back door

On our small suburban property the side entrance was the only available location for composting (so as not to take up valuable real estate for perennial gardening). But because the 6 compost containers are conveniently just past the side door I am able to compost all year long i.e. including the winter.

Interesting to see my old thread pop up. We gave up on composting: sigh. Husband is very picky about smells. I still save my coffee grounds into the former small metal kitchen bin I bought for scraps., which is in the cool pantry out of sight Those go straight into the garden: for slug control as well as fertilizer. Those don't smell much even if they get moldy. I have persuaded him to rake the leaves - the non-matting kind - into the garden, and that's about it.

There really shouldn’t be any smell from either the compost heap or the kitchen caddy. We fill a US gallon every two days at most and it is taken out to the heap as soon as it’s full. The caddy is rinsed between uses and washed thoroughly every week. It never smells nor gets mouldy.

I have a container in the fridge and then I decant that into our freezer if DH doesn't have time to take it out. No muss no fuss. we collect absolutely every scrap and scrape. DH doesn't like stinky odor things either.

His sense of smell is TOO good. I'm glad I don't have it. He goes to bed much earlier than I do. 2 days ago he came downstairs at midnight, asking what I was cooking. Saying it smelled funny. I wasn't cooking. We both walked around sniffing. Finally found he was smelling the bagged garbage set next to the garage door to be taken out the next morning. There was a banana peel in it. 2 closed doors and one floor away!

Yet I can smell anything burning or electric wires overheating. Adaptive, I think.

I have a bucket out on the enclosed back porch, right off the kitchen. I empty it out every day or so in one of our weedy areas where we are growing trees. Most of my compost is bread, tomato or pepper cores, and/or orange, cucumber, avocado, banana or onion peelings. Sometimes crows will eat some of my stale bread but it won't harm them. If the bucket contains something harmful that might attract animals, like spoiled meat, it goes into the compost barrel out by the vegetable garden, but I very seldom let perishable food spoil.

I have one of those "food composter" machines. It's doesn't actually produce true compost. It dehydrates and grinds the food scraps into a dry material that looks a bit like sawdust. It GREATLY reduces the volume, and removes the ability for the material to rot. I store the resulting material in a tight lidded container in the garage. In the spring, it goes into the compost heap as "browns". Works really well.