Excellent question. I have kept some in bins and pails after sifting. I just keep it moist and it will continue "curing".
After making bigger piles I ran out of Pails and bins and now just use doubled Woven Polypropylene bags or sacks.

They breathe a bit so will go on finishing until ready to use..
Put a bit of water on the compost, tie it shut and keep them in a shady place.
I have kept some compost like this for over a year and it's really good then.
No snakes can get in.

Once it is finished compost does not need "curing". To store compost for any period of time it should be fairly dry since any moisture will encourage the bacteria to continue digesting it and if placed into an air tight container it could go anaerobic, drying it will help prevent that.

Nobody suggested putting it in an airtight container. !!!
Drying Compost is not the answer either.

But...

I guess you're the expert on this forum so why dont you tell everyone how to make compost.

...maybe I been doing it wrong the past 30 years !

Apologies pattyokie... just had to say this !

Thanks for the bag idea (& for not making fun of the snake thing) I think I read in Square Ft Gardening that you could store extra soil in used purchased compost bags. My kids have a Great Dane & dog food bags the size of a Smart Car. I will see if I can catch one of those before trash day & use it.

I will get back with more questtions when I am ready for my "big project". (laying sod by myself)

Snoggerboy said:
Nobody suggested putting it in an airtight container. !!!

But pattyokie said:
can I just put the finished compost I have into, say, a big rubbermaid container

Big rubbermaid containers are kinda close to airtight.
I thought Kimmsr's comment that there could be drawbacks with that was useful.

I do sometimes put my sifted compost into an enormous plastic garbage can; it doesn't have great air circulation, but now that I think of it, the compost that goes there is usually not particularly wet. I don't deliberately dry it for storage, but I also don't usually sift when it's very wet.

Pattyokie - are the dogfood bags plastic?
If they are, you may want your compost to be on the less-wet side of things when you're bagging it.

Once compost has finished curing, the respiration drops down to a very low level. Respiration is one of several tests for determining the maturity of compost.

I've stored cured, finished, not dry compost in open top 45 gallon barrels, rubbermaid containers (loose and tight lid), and open top plastic bags. Not one of these have gone anaerobic. I've accidentally left a large Glad freezer bag full of cured, finished, not dry compost all sealed up for six months with no odour.

If you have the RM containers, I'd use them and if your compost wasn't completely cured, open the lid now and then and see if it needs a stir. I wouldn't drill holes in them myself.

Lloyd

P.S. "fairly dry" is a useless descriptor when it is matched up with "any moisture will encourage".

I have left peat moss in open plastic bins through a wet(as is usual in western Oregon) winter, under the eaves of my garage. It got moldy! Any suggestions on storing peat, compost, soil mix, etc. Should it be done separately or together? Airtight or not? If not, how much air circulation should I try to maintain? My soil mix is composed of various commercial compost, peat moss, vermiculite and my own compost(which can be added to the other or not for storage). Any ideas and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, zenith10

Pattieokie a bag the size of a Smart Car?
..gonna weigh a ton... lol
I use 100lb feed bags and only fill them half full and can hardly lift them then.
I put them on the Garden Cart before start to fill.

LLoyd - you are the Master ...
I thought I make a lot of compost but you surely take the cake... Amazing pics...tks for posting so others can enjoy and learn.
I'll keep an eye out for your posts...
I too find that finished cured compost does not go stinky or mouldy at all,
but then I want it on the soil as soon as its ready and just keep a big bucket for making up seedstarter medium.

An open compost bin may be a bit more likely to host snakes than a closed bin, but your composting practices could also be a culprit.

I defer to your fear of snakes, but I find all kinds of advantages in open bin composting. A fine mesh hardware cloth (1/4" mesh as I use) should reduce the chance of easy entry for snakes. My closed system was a tumbler which gave snakes little opportunity of entry, but had quite a few drawbacks. Expensive, three hours to assemble (purchased not homemade), tended to clump up, small amounts of compost per batch, stank when used smelly ingredients like fish parts, etc.

On the subject of 'aging', many well qualified compost writers will recommend a period of time after the compost is finished, and this time might be called aging. The first compost book I bought "Easy Compost", by a group of NYC authors, suggested a time of 30 days or more. It is possible that one reason for this suggestion is that many composters have an incomplete understanding of what 'finished' compost is; and the experts feel any extra time only benefits the product.

*This Should Alleviate Your Fears* - LOL!

I had built (4) large compost bins as I have an endless supply of horse manure and other compost items. The top of these bins are open to add material and the sides are heavy wire mesh to allow air to enter. The front, however, is a piece of plywood that I slide-out by lifting it up so I can get in there and turn the compost. One morning I went out to turn the pile and began lifting the plywood front. I got it up about 3 feet and a 4 foot garden snake dropped-out and landed on my foot. He or she scurried-off to the neighbors property. I'm not afraid of snakes but there are rattlers here so that's always in the back of ones mind, or at least "MY" mind.

Oh, you very seldom find a rattlesnake in the residential areas, (I've never seen one in 16 years here). I just don't want anyone to think that this is a snake infested area.

Is your mind more at ease now - LOL

Greg
Nevada

I am in a very residential area too but last Saturday my neighbor killed a snake in her back yard. (no fence between us, so kind of our back yard too) I don't know what kind: she didn't even tell me because she knows how afraid I am (more like phobia. I can't even look at pictures)but I found out anyway.

My "bin" is actually a garden cart with one 1" hole on the bottom for drainage & about 6 small nail size holes I have drilled. It is on wheels & then thick plastic about 30" tall. I tell myself snakes can't get in it because otherwise I couldn't use it. I turn it with a gardening fork. Usually it just gets chopped leaves & kitchen scraps, again, hoping that won't draw any varmints.

In many years of composting, I've only found a small snake in my compost once. Scared the crap out of me, but it was only once. I have found little mice (or maybe voles?) in my compost too. Overall, I think I'd rather have one little snake than a whole bunch of mice.

I live in suburbia and don't see many snakes. But I've seen more in my garden beds over the years than in my compost. They do creep me out but I tell myself they'll control rodents so snakes are preferable.

Karen

I'm not sure why so many people are afraid of snakes. They're actually really cool once you get to know them. Very very few of them will bite and fewer yet are actually poisonous.

We have a pallet bin at the office for finishing our food waste compost, and I cover it with black plastic in the winter to keep the compost from getting too soggy. The mice tunnel in it for insulation (no food really, it's finished compost by spring). In early spring you can lift that plastic on a sunny day and see a big black snake in there keeping warm and waiting for a mouse to come along. Once we found a beautiful one that had crawled through a fragment of fine black plastic netting that must have come in with the mulch. It was constricting the body as the snake grew. We got some scissors and gloves, picked up the snake and cut off the netting. The snake slithered away into the weeds but not before stopping for one last look back as if to say "Thanks! Much better now!" God's creatures, snakes are.

I'm very sorry that your neighbor killed a garden snake. Snakes are beneficial and are part of the whole grand scheme of things. The desert where I live is full of things that sting and bite, but in all the years I've lived here I've never been stung or bitten. I'm an avid Outdoor Photographer and often hike way out in the desert shooting Photos of Petroglyph Panels and Indian Encampments and have seen few snakes. Snakes don't want to have anything to do with humans and will slither away unless you step on them or corner them. There are societies and organizations out there that show snakes and other reptiles and help people get over their "unfounded fear" of these critters. Perhaps there's one in your area.

Greg
Nevada

Pattyokie, I've been making compost for a long time and have never had a problem putting the finished product into big black plastic bags, tied at the top. I've gone back to some bags a couple of years later to run through a fine-mesh screen on my shredder for use in potting mixes and found it perfectly sweet and usable. FWIW. Gary