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I don't compost, but I probably would if we had a larger yard. Check out this post by YoungHouseLove on how to do it pretty inexpensively. http://www.younghouselove.com/2008/08/younghouselovedotcompost/
We dont but now that I see your post Im thinking of starting. My parents used to composte when I was a little kid. I jsut remember always throwing our egg shells in there!
We composte, but we didnt buy a bin or anything. You don't really need to. We just composte stuff in a big pile in the back corner of the yard in the foresty part. We have a little bin in the kitchen to fill up with stuff and then throw it on to the pile one a week or so and then turn the pile with a pitch fork. It works well, we've got some really good rich soil from it.
we compost and i can't wait for DH to build our planter box so we can start our spring veggie garden!
look for local resources. our area is pretty granola, so we got a compost bin from the city for $35. we finally got worms as well when we realized that we never turned the compost so we were never going to get any dirt from it! that takes care of the smell too if you don't turn or build the pile properly.
Thanks for the link! The tub is a good idea, we have tons of those already!
You totally should! :)
My backyard isn't quite big enough to just throw compost in a pile. With our dog I would want it contained.
Whoa! What kind of bin did you get for $35 and how??
I love our vegetable garden. It's so awesome to cook with your own home grown ingredients. The taste is SO much better than even the produce we get from local farmers.
@Gerbera: My family did when I was a young kid. It was wonderful and definitely had it's benefits, but where I'm from, the wildlife become a HUGE issue because of the composte. No matter what we did and how we enclosed it, it would attract the bears and coyotes, so I think for that reason, my parents stopped doing it, but I'm very fond of the idea!
I live in an apartment right now so I can't compost. But I hope if I buy a home, I will. Then again, right now, it's a pain in the ass to get the DH to recycle. I'm always pulling stuff out of the trash. Grrrr!
Oh, I compost at work. Which is probably why I think it's cool. Oh, that and I live in Seattle. We are very green here. You would think the DH would learn by now. (Nope!) *shakes head*
I doubt I would have done it without being expose at work with it.
@gerbera it's a pretty big (maybe 3 ft tall x 2 ft x 2 ft) bin. i think the city offsets the cost in order to get people composting.
Just found a really good list of things to compost!!
http://www.plantea.com/compost-materials.htm - its a list of 163 things you can compost. Who knew!
Oh yikes! That's not good. I have no forest or wooded area near me, so thankfully that should not be an issue.
You can composte! I registered for this -obv did not get it- but it's an indoor option. VERY expensive, but there could be more budget options out there.
NatureMill Plus XE Compost Bin
That is completely awesome. I'll do a little digging to see if we have anything like that in my area. Doubtful.
We just compost yard debris/grass clippings in a large pile in the backyard. I don't have any particular urge to deal with an actual machine, and there's no way we could manage the random wildlife if any food was left in the open. We have dogs and already have racoon and possum issues without having a feast outside for them. And racoons can get into anything, anyways, so the machine might not even deter them.
@Gerbera: Oh, cool. Maybe I could find one on craigslist of cheaper? maybe?
Oh I found this blog for an indoor composting bin that doesn't smell.
http://one-change.com/2006/04/indoor-compost-bin/#
I don't think this would fly with the DH, though.
I may just have to wait til I get a house... or if I wanted to be really sneaky, I could bring my trash to work. haha Or I wonder if there are places that would take my compost trash?
ETA? I found a local composting site that takes drop off waste. Only 15 minutes from where we live. Woohoo!
We do! Granted, our compost pile has its base in manure and is probably 8 ft tall and sits at the far edge of the property. It is large enough to cover and consume an entire boar, so I doubt that is what you're looking for. But, yeah, we do. :)
On a more practical scale, FSIL composts in her yard. She also has a dog, but they just built a border out of lumber (almost looks like a raised flower bed), and they do clippings and food scrap. The dog knows better than to disturb it, and they live in a normal town and have never had a problem.
That article is very interesting! Thank you!
Hehe. That sounds just a tad bigger than what we need. 
I'll have to peruse the list this weekend! Cool!
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See, the things we learn on WB!
we compost. We just have a pile right outside the fence surrounded by some chicken wire - it doesn't smell because we mix lots of vegetation like leaves and grass clippings in as well. My husband goes and turns it over every week or two.
last year, my upstairs neighbors composted their biodegradables. EXCEPT they did it in an open bin. It smelled sooooo rancid, I could hardly stand it.
composting is great! it really helps cut down on landfill too-if everybody did it! our city picks it up for us in the "yard waste bin". if you end up with too much compost for your garden, look into seeing if your city has a pickup service. if they do, it's part of the regular trash pickup and shouldn't cost any extra.
you can get an official "compost bin" for your kitchen, but I'm a stickler for design and want everything to look nice. we chose a small bin that has the kind of lid where you step on a pedal to get it to open (so you don't ever have to touch it when you're cooking). it's the kind some people get for their bathrooms (found at bed bath & beyond). it has a plastic bin inside that is easy to lift out and clean.
we line it with a compost-friendly plastic bag. we don't put meat in ours, but anything else that is compostable goes in, including greasy paper food containers and napkins. (since our compost is picked up by the city, we could put meat in it if we wanted to. we just choose not to because that will make it smell bad faster.)
to keep it from smelling too bad: we take it out about once a week, or sooner if it gets smelly. we rinse the bin and set it out to dry before we put another liner in it. every now and then, I'll give the bin a good deep scrubbing.
@yrret107: I live in Seattle too! I think you can harass your landlord into getting a yard waste bin (to put compostable things in) if he hasn't provided one by now. I'm not positive, but I think he has to by law.
BTW: it's actually illegal to not recyle in Seattle now. they send out random inspectors. your landlord could get a fine if the trash pickup guys spot too many recyclable things in the trash. maybe that will help motivate your DH to recycle more? if you live in a house, they might cite you or refuse to pick up your trash until you sort out the recycled things.
source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008884612_recyclingqampa19m.html
heh heh, recycling police!
We also compost, just in a big pile in the yard. Late last year, my husband built a small wooden box to contain it, but before that it was just a big pile.
I wanted to chime in just to say that I have never noticed a bad smell from our compost pile. (The worst smell we ever had was when we left too many grass clippings next to the compst pile and they started to rot.) Otherwise, I've only noticed a nice, earthy smell from the compost. We compost all yard waste, as well as fruit/vegetable kitchen scraps.
@janie-janie: Oh, thanks. I just told him about that. Let's hope he starts recycling.
I techniquely live in Renton, so I need to ask the leasing office if we can get yard waste bins.
We throw our compostables in the yard waste, also from Seattle like @janie-janie. It is SO convenient. We hardly have any trash at all now between recycling (and Seattle does not make you sort!) and composting. We use this little bin on our counter with compostable bags. All food waste, paper towels, coffee grounds, etc.
@yrret107:oh! renton-- yeah, maybe the laws are different there. but it's cool how you can compost at work now.
wait a minute.... you compost at work in renton? my employer has a branch in renton, and they compost. I wonder if we work for the same place? what a coincidence that would be!
@janie-janie: Oh, no, I work in Seattle.
@lilybay:
Thanks for your input re: the smell, or lack thereof. That's honestly really my biggest concern. :)
Oh, good tip about the pedal trash can! We have one in our master bath from Ikea!
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I doubt we would have an issue with using everything up. We have a decent size vegetable garden in our backyard. And also a lot of landscaped area in the back yard as well as front. If there's extra I'll probably just give it to friends. :)
Why does doing good things have to be so complicated and procedural! 
@Sasha2011: you get used to it over time. I was against composting at first because it's stinky, but if you just take care of it once a week it's not so bad!
I remember years ago, we had to separate paper and glass from plastic. what a pain in the butt! and I lived in really small apartments where it was nearly impossible to put that many bins in my kitchen! but it was always figured out and always became part of the usual routine.
A compost bin was one of the first things we bought when we moved into our home. I'm a total compost noob so I have no idea what I'm doing and basically stay away from it. My job is to just save our veggie scraps and egg shells. We don't compost food scraps, just leaves, plants, and uncooked veggies, fruits, and egg shells.
We bought a bin on sale but it still costs about $200. We needed one that's weather proof with a double-layer of insulation so it won't freeze over during the winter. We had tons of garden work so it quickly filled-up and needed another one - we waited for another sale and it was basically the same price. My second bin doesn't match at all with our first one but I try to ignore it.
Our bins are both plastic, they don't smell at all ... but I have low tolerance for trash so I stay away anyway. It does feel good to be able to recycle and I'm looking forward to using the compost for our soon-to-be veggie garden this spring/summer!
My compost was just a pile in the backyard. Every once in awhile I would turn it over with a shovel. There was no smell. It was very simple. Good luck.
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My husband and I have talked about composting for a couple years now.
We have a vegetable garden out back and every summer we get some yummy veggies!
I'm looking to buy a compost bin but don't really want to spend more than $100-150 for the bin.
We're open to making our own bin as well but I admit I'm worried about the smell.
Do you composte? What do you do? Do you have a purchased bin or did you make your own?