I use 3 old holey plastic 32 gallon garbage cans. If the leaves are shredded first a lot fit into one. Any more than that are stored in large plastic garbage bags that the neighbors bag. They don't exactly look nice, but I hide them as well as possible behind the cans and heat pump (which is itself pretty ugly anyway).

Karen

Any chance you know someone well enough "out in the country" that could donate a small area for you to store some leaves? I have a few people in town that come out for some browns now and again. They too are not able to store sufficient leaves for all their composting and start running out late July early August. Town is only a mile away so not a long trip for them. If you had to drive 20 miles, might not be quite as useful.

Lloyd

Something that "breathes" is vital. I put a bunch in garbage bags and when I opened them the following spring, they smelled pretty bad.

Try a flowtron shredder to pack the leaves in as small a space as possible. It helps to go ahead and mix grass clippings. Compost shrinks as it progresses.

My 6-8 mesh bins are either 4' in diameter and 24" high;or 4'x8'x18"hi. So they can either store shredded fall leaves till the next year; or serve as a hot compost pile during the year.

You can fit a lot more leaves in a bin if they are shredded first. Plus get a head start on the breakdown process.

If the neighbor keep throwing out leaves (especially hard to resist shredded leaves, who shreds leaves and then leaves then at the curb?) I pack then into a brown yard bag, then put that in a heavy plastic yard bag.

I like leaves much more than shredded paper, which I have found to clump up a lot.

Thanks for the advice everyone.

One thing I thought of last night as a winter use for the leaves is to create a double-rowed fence using short wire fencing - so I'd have 2 squares, one inside the other. Take dry leaves and fill up the space in between the fences, then put a window on top. Plant kale on the inside and it's essentially a cold frame. What do you think? I'm thinking fluffy dry leaves might have similar insulating capacity as bales of hay, which I know work for cold frames.

greenbeans,
It's a good idea, but you will want to keep some extra leaves around as the "fluffy dry leaves" will not stay that way for long. I put my fall leaves in a 3 foot high bin. It was over the top last fall. It is now less than half tall just because it naturally packs down with the rain and slowly breaking down.

Steve