Here's what I do.

For Kitchen compostables, I have a gallon-ish container with a lid (those plastic coffee containers are really nice for this too). I keep it in my refrigerator. No need to buy special crocks or countertop gadgets for storage or display of compost material. Coffee grounds, vegetable peelings, etc. just go into the container & back in the refrigerator. I take it out when it's full. Doesn't mold or smell. For bigger peelings, say melon rinds...I cut them up in manageable pieces so they don't take up extra space in my refrigerator container. If I'm cooking for a crowd, I obviously just take out the scraps at that time so I'm not filling my refrigerator with compost waste.

My city doesn't do curbside...we have DIY drop-off locations throughout, so I'm not forced to have specific bins.

For paper, I just have a cardboard box in the corner of my computer room. I take it to the drop-off center when it's full. I pretty much open my mail & handle paper in my kitchen, so I just set the recycling paper in a pile on the kitchen counter and bring it to the computer room the next time I come here. I have zero clutter & gadgets on my kitchen countertop in my kitchen, so I don't need reminders to take the paper out. I see it...I can't stand seeing it...I take it to the box. I've taught my 2 year old the paper box routine, so if she's wanting to be a helper, I have her carry the paper to the box. It's only in the next room, for goodness sake.

Let me tell you something I really like about my paper system. Even when I had curbside pickup every 2 weeks, I only put out my paper once every couple months...when the box/bin was full. Why? In the off chance I threw something away from the mail that I later decided I wanted to retrieve...or accidentally threw away a bill...whatever...I have my paper and mail in the box, and it's a few month's worth of mail. It's all in a general date order (oldest is at the bottom), and I do have the opportunity to go find it. I've only had to emergency-retrieve a couple times in the last 13 years I've been doing it this way...but it saved my a$$.

Another advantage...I only have to move & drop off the paper a few times a year...not 26 times a year. Yes, it's a little heavier, but oh well. I will say I do not get much junk mail, and I don't buy much boxed/pre-packaged food...so my paper output is pretty minimal compared to other people I know. Your mileage may vary.

As for the bathroom compostables...I don't mean to be nosey about your bathroom habits, but just what all bathroom trash do you have where you would need separate trash cans in there? I'm thinking of all my bathroom trash (I don't compost mine...just thinking though) is primarily compostable...Kleenexes, q-tips, etc. The non-compostable bath items would be the occasional shampoo bottle, hair spray bottle, and the like. Personally, if I were going to compost bathroom trash, I would designate my bathroom trash for compostables only, and on the occasion I get something non-compostable, I'd carry that 1 thing to the kitchen "regular" garbage at the time I generated it. Hope that makes sense.

I have more to say...I have written a novel so far & need to get off the computer. I'll post back!
Gayle

Hi Gayle - thanks for your thoughts. :-) I'm a "less steps" person, so I really need solutions that don't require taking trash or anything from one room to the other...ie, bathroom stuff stays in the bathroom until it goes outside, kitchen stuff stays in the kitchen until it's disposed of, etc. I do need those visual reminders out and "in my face", or I forget. Too much other stuff going on, I guess.

I want my compost crock on the counter so the stuff in there *can* start to rot/mold before it goes out...it will be better food for the worms that way. So I did buy a crock with a filter in the lid that will look nice on my counter, because I want the compost materials sitting out (I would have had to buy something anyways...we don't drink coffee here, and don't buy anything that comes in a plastic container large enough to make a good compost collection bucket). If I don't see it, I won't use it, with the exception of the metal and plastic collection cans under the sink (because they'll be right by the garbage can, so if I go to instinctually throw something away, those bins will be right there. I put all food scraps down the disposal now, so the crock will remind me not to do that anymore. :-)

Stuff that can't be composted in the bathroom includes toilet paper wrappings (the plastic outter wrap), bandaids, gum, q-tips (plastic "stick" - we'll buy differently next time), cotton ball bags, used razor blades, nail polish bottles (no glass recycling here), and items used to remove nail polish (sponges rife with nail polish remover...don't want that in my compost). And yes, I really am too lazy to carry that stuff all the way to the kitchen garbage - less steps equals less time spent shuttling "stuff" through the house. I'm all about making things as easy on myself and efficient as possible. :-)

My magazines and "leftover" paper will be recycled, but a lot will be shredded for the compost pile. I have that pretty much figured out though - a box in a kitchen cabinet right under where we go through the mail. I will be emptying it regularly though...I have a different box for papers "to be filed" or that I might need. I'm a catalog junkie - and we do get a lot of junk mail, plus the paper daily. I'll probably need to do two paper boxes...one for the compost, and one for the recycling, so I can add the paperboard to the compost box (our recyclers don't take paperboard).

All paperboard boxes (like the ones we get holding cases of cans from Costco) will be broken down and composted, so that's no big deal. I don't buy much processed foods either - but the costco canned fruits/veg all come in paperboard.

I think I'll just get a smaller trash can for the bathroom to label "compostables" for the bathroom counter (there's a good spot for it right under the medicine cabinet), and then two more bins for under the kitchen sink for collecting cans and plastics, respectively. That should take care of it, I think...won't know until I try it for awhile.

It's a lot to get used to - not throwing out a lot of stuff that we normally would, but infrastructure makes all the difference for me with new habits, so I just want to make sure I have a good basis to work from. :-)

Does anyone out there have those triangular bins that fit four in a square, and pull out from a kitchen cabinet? I've been thinking that might be a good way to organize my collection bins under the sink...

Well, I wouldn't call my stuff "organized", lol. It is where it is just because.

I do have a small bucket on my counter for kitchen scraps, and this gets emptied when full.

My recycling bin used to be at the bottom of the cellar stairs, and we would just throw things down there (well, except glass, of course!). This was good because the kids liked to see who got the most stuff in so they were good about cleaning up the recyclables that gathered by the kitchen sink after washing. Now we are renovating our basement, so I moved the bin outside the back door. Not sure I like it there, but not sure where else to put it. We don't have to sort our recylables, so that makes it easier.

We have an extra room with a tv and computer in it, and my kids and I spend a lot of time here. Being an extra room, it collects a lot of junk, including compostables! We have a bag of paperboard boxes going at all times, and we rip the boxes while we watch tv. Since this room functions as an office, the paper shredder is here, so we have a couple piles of mail and paper waiting to be shredded. When the bags are full, I bring them out to the compost pile or to the garage to await spreading in a new lasagna bed. This room is one that gets the door closed when company comes, lol.

Because of this default set-up, we do have to do a lot of walking. Boxes from the kitchen, mail from the dining room table (where it lives till I'm done with it, lol) toilet paper tubes from the bathroom - all these have to be walked to the extra room, and the recyclables have to be brought outside, all at the time of use. So, it isn't convenient I guess, but no one seems to mind the extra steps. Luckily my house is on the small side!

:)
Dee

Thanks for your input, Dee. It's not that I *mind* extra steps, it's just that I'm so scatterbrained that if something requires extra steps, it's that much less likely to actually get done (not just by me, but by my husband too). Not that I couldn't "use" some extra steps...but after years of fighting my natural inclinations, I now structure things to work for me as much as possible. ;-)

I could just put a couple bins (of my own) outside the back door for the cans/plastics, now that you mention it. The dogs are in and out all evening, so it wouldn't take much to just toss whatever's on the kitchen counter out into them during one of the dogs' forays into the yard each evening. Then things wouldn't be so crowded under my kitchen sink, but they'd still be close to the point of origin. That's where I was going to put the "official" bins anyways, until I learned they had to be kept inside until collection day. I have a couple spots inside that might be okay to just keep them stacked up in too...I'm cleaning and organizing over the upcoming three day weekend, so that will help a lot.

Thanks for the tip on tearing up paperboard while watching TV - sounds like a great "commercial" project.

I am a recycle fanatic, so everything in our house goes (except that I don't have a compost pile :( ). We have two large Rubbermaid bins in our garage, just outside the door. These collect all of the cans, glass and plastic #1-7. We take ours to the drop off, and it doesn't have to be sorted. Just inside the back door is a very large box, which collects all of the cardboard and paperboard. I have a box in the laundry room that collects the incoming junk mail, envelopes, etc. I have another in my office, which collects whatever didn't get thrown away downstairs (inserts, envelopes from bills, etc.) This sits right next to the shredder, which gets anything with a name or address, and which further gets used in the woodstove.

The collection bins downstairs are all just a few steps off of the kitchen. We mostly use our garage to go outside, so any time one of us goes out, we grab whatever cans/bottles have collected on the counter and drop them when we go. These get emptied 1-2 times/month, and the junk mail/paper bins get emptied when they're full, maybe every three months.

Oh, and I have a large box in my sewing room to collect packing peanuts from my husband's Ebay addiction :). When this gets full it goes to the UPS store.

Does anyone know what to do with hard styrofoam packing parts, like when you buy a small appliance? I have a stockpile of those, which I refuse to throw in the trash.

We have a container for food scraps for the compost pile. We shred all junk mail and papertowel and toiletpaper rolls for the compost. All the recycleables go in one carboard box , newspaper, plastic, glass, tin cans. We sort at the recycle center and also recycle the cardboard box. This saves a lot of space and money . No expense on bins and the like. My motto is keep it simple.

Like most of you, I also have a plastic container with a flip-top lid (I think it was from the dishwasher soap) on my counter for kitchen compostables. Then I have a small Rubbermaid bin on the counter closest to the garage for recyclables (although it could go under the sink if I had the space). The bin gets taken out to the garage for emptying after the dinner dishes are done. I don't bother sorting until I take them out to the bins in the garage. We don't have to sort plastics from metals, but we do separate glass.

I have a little trick, though. It is more useful to those of us who don't have the curbside pick-up and therefore have to come up with our own containers. I bought one of those laundry sorters (cheap PVC pipe with mesh bags suspended from the top) and clipped two large plastic garbage bags to the top with those multi-use kitchen clips in place of the mesh bags. I sort my recycling into these two bags, and when they're full, I just unclip the bags and throw them into the car for the trip to the transfer station. If the bags aren't too yucky, I'll dump them out and replace them in the sorter for another trip.

i keep a small pail on the kitchen counter for compostables, that way they just get thrown straight in as we generate them and I empty that every couple of days into the compost. For recyclables we have a plastic bin in the kitchen and when that gets full it's taken out to the bin, we dont have to separate our recyclables. newspaper I keep in a pile out the back, mostly that gets used in the garden (I only get a local paper once a week) but if it builds up I put some out for recycling.

junkmail gets taken to the computer room and put in tray to be used later for printing (usually it's blank on one side), if it's printed on both sides I put it through the shredder, the same goes for printed paper that I've used, blank on one side into the tray, printed on both sides into the shredder. When the shredder is full it gets emptied into a big bag and sits by the back door for the compost so I when Im passing by with the compost bucket I remember to take some paper out.

It really just comes down to working out your own system, I like to leave things in convenient places where they'll be used or noticed