I made my first compost bin almost 2 years ago. I didn't want to spend a lot of money so I just bought some hardware cloth and "wrapped" it around 4 t posts. It is about 4 ft tall.

I just put kitchen scraps and leaves in it. It got hot enough to steam at one point. Some of my other compost bins haven't really steamed but they're still breaking down.

We started to make this bin

http://www.growingagreenerworld.com/favorite-composting-bin-make-free-minutes/

after watching an episode on Growing a Greener World. Our pallets were not equal in size, so we put it off until we can get some uniform pallets.

My suggestion is to not overthink it. Just put the stuff in and it will break down. There are ways (if you have the time and energy) to make compost quickly, but I've not done that. I have too much other stuff to focus on. My friend does worm bin composting and gets BEAUTIFUL compost from it. I think I want to try it when I have time.

Is there a reason you want a bin? I just use piles and it works fine. But, I can think of reasons to need one, pets for one :) Just asking, because if you don't need to make a bin, a pile is super easy, and the connection to the ground will give your pile access to many things it needs,

There is a soil forum on here, which sometimes gets a little pedantic and sometimes a little silly, but they have a lot of great information on composting. Once you start looking around, you will find all sorts of items to use. Do you drink coffee? or know someone who does? Those coffee grounds are gold :) If not, look for a Starbucks nearby, they give away their used grounds. Common wisdom says you can use any food except milk products, fat and meat. (I ignore that, but I wouldn't if you are just starting out). You can use shredded junk mail and leaves for browns.

You can buy bins pretty cheaply. Someone said Aldi had some for about $30. I used to use old trash cans that had holes in the bottom. Or just pile it on the ground, that would be cheapest.

You can compost without a bin at all, unless you are in a very windy location where wind will scatter all your ingredients. My first bin (and the only type bin I've ever had) was made of woven wire fencing formed into a cylinder and attached with wire to 4 metal t-posts hammered into the ground. It was way out at the back of the yard so no one had to look at it if they didn't want to. I always grew flowering vines that climbed the bin and hid it because it was visible from the swimming pool/deck at the home we owned at the time. My first compost bin here in OK was similar, but I grew tomato plants in a ring around it---an actual tomato growing technique called a Japanese Tomato Ring. Nowadays, I have several huge piles on our rural property and they are not enclosed in anything. I also don't turn my compost ingredients because our rural area is heavily populated by at least 3 different kinds of rattlesnakes and by copperheads and I learned quickly that the snakes like to hang out in/on/under compost piles. If you are not in a rural to semi-rural area, snakes (and having deer, rabbits, possums, coons, skunks, etc. visiting your pile) likely won't be a problem.

You can make composting simple, inexpensive, easy and not a big consumer of your time, or you can make it complicated, expensive, harder, fancier and more time consuming. What you choose to do is up to you. Simply put, the easiest way to make compost is to pile stuff up and let it rot. During hot dry spells, water it with the hose occasionally to keep the ingredients moist so they'll break down more quickly. This also helps the pile get hot enough to "cook" at a temperature that will kill weed seeds and pathogens in the pile. If you want to have bins and move it from one to another, you can, but in our climate it certainly is not necessary. You can Google and find directions on how to build all kinds of bins, from plain to fancy. Lots of people do build them from pallets. Some build them from wire formed into squares or cylinders using metal posts or wood stakes. Some folks make them quite beautiful and sort of disguise them by making them look like a fancy fence, trellis, etc. Much depends on your location and what is standard/accepted in your neighborhood. Most people I know here in my rural area (where, admittedly, we all have acreage and lots of space to place piles) just pile up the stuff on the ground and let it rot. If you have pets that are outside in the yard a lot, you probably do need a bin or a fence to keep them out of the compost pile.

If you want to spend a lot of money on composting you can buy compost bins (they range from plain to fancy), worm bins, compost tumblers, etc. You can spend money on compost starter/activator (not necessary at all), books on composting, compost turning forks (if you already have a garden fork or pitch fork, that is all you need), and compost thermometers. None of these things are necessary.

If you are in an upscale neighborhood with an active HOA with a lot of rules, you may be required to use a bin or tumbler, though, or to site your compost pile in a location where it does not offend any of your neighbors who might happen to see it.

If it is possible to do so, I'd suggest you place your compost pile near either the house (so it is easy for you to toss kitchen scraps onto it) or near the garden (so you won't have to haul finished compost so far to transfer it to your garden beds).

What it all comes down to is finding a method that works for you. Make your compost pile much bigger than you think you'd need because once the material composts, it will be only about 1 to 3% of the volume of materials you put on the pile. This is one of the most shocking things for people new to composting....how a big old pile of organic matter/kitchen scraps breaks down into a 1" or 3" tall layer of compost.

My dad composted in a CRW bin in a back corner of the yard. Likely he made the bin from the same concrete reinforcing wire he used to make tomato cages. It worked just fine. My grandfather composted by digging a trench in a garden pathway in between two rows of plants. He dumped all his compostable material into that trench and then, when it was full, he put the soil back over it and let it decompose right there in the garden. That eliminated having to haul compost from a distant pile to the garden. Once one trench was full, he started another one. Over time, his entire garden got enriched with compost and it happened in a manner that was not a lot of work.

I compost in several different ways. I do have a Japanese tomato ring planned for the back garden this year, but I'm still working on getting the front garden planted, so that is a project for maybe Saturday or Sunday depending on what the weather does. I have several big compost piles scattered around our property. I usually place them in an area with poor eroded soil and let the compost stay there forever after it decomposes. That fixes the erosion issue and, once there is a nice layer of compost on the ground there, I toss wildflower seeds onto the healed area that no longer is an erosion gully and it becomes just another part of the back pasture. I have a big pile across from my fenced front garden and just toss stuff onto it all year, not turning it until we'd gotten cold enough that snakes are not an issue, so usually in December.

My favorite way to compost is in my garden pathways. I put down a layer of autumn leaves on the pathways in the fall. We run over them with the lawn mower to chop them up (which reduces their volume, makes them break down more quickly, and keeps them in place better when the wind blows). Then, over the course of the gardening season, we catch the grass in the grass catcher when we mow and I add that on top of the leaves. I also use grass clippings as mulch in my garden. When I weed, if the weeds are small and haven't gone to seed, I drop them into the pathway where they blend in with the chopped leaves/grass clippings. If they have gone to seed or are large or are diseased, I take them out to one of the piles outside the garden.

In late winter, before planting time arrives, I scoop up all the finished compost from the pathways and add it to the top of the raised gardening beds. Each bed gets the compost from the pathway right beside it. This eliminates hauling many wheelbarrow loads of compost from a distant pile to the garden. It is so easy it is ridiculous and it has enabled us to turn awful red clay into a beautiful brown loamy garden soil over the years. Once I've scraped up all the compost out of the pathways, it is time to put new materials in the pathways to start the new compost. I use whatever I have handy at the moment---old spoiled hay or straw, chopped/shredded autumn leaves, or grass clippings, generally piled on top of cardboard (which is an earthworm magnet).

As I tried to illustrate, there are many ways to compost, some of them more costly and time-comsuming than others. You'll find what works for you. What works for me is keeping it as simple as possible. Remember to put down a layer of something that will smother the grass beneath your pile or bin. Several layers of thick cardboard or newspaper work fine for this, and will prevent bermuda grass (if you have it) from infiltrating your pile.

People who live in cooler climates than ours may "have to" turn their compost piles to mix the ingredients together and get the compost pile cooking along at a good temperature, but I've found I get great compost without turning anything. My piles outside the garden get hot and steamy. My pathway compost decomposes over the course of the season even though I am adding stuff on top of it regularly and never mixing it in. Look at nature for guidance. That's what I did. We have about 10 acres of woodland that has an upper layer of "soil" that is nothing but humusy compost about a foot thick (sitting on top of dense red clay). That layer of forest soil has formed over the decades as plant parts (and, to be realistic, woodland reptiles, animals and birds that die of natural causes) have piled up and decomposed where they fell. No one went through that 10 acres and turned the compost ingredients. No one watered it with a hose to keep it moist. No one bought and used compost starter or activator. No one checked its temperature with a compost thermometer. It all happened naturally and in its own time. Compost happens if we just pile stuff up and let it be.