We just went a whole 82 days without a compost bin. And let me tell you… I did not enjoy the experience. As someone who has been a long-time composter (even as a child my parents composted for our vegetable garden) it broke my heart a little each time I had no place to “properly” dispose of organic material.
What led to this sudden uncompostability???
Moving.
We moved into a newly built home- beautiful as it was- that did not have garbage, recycling or compost collection set up.
I was expecting a delay. Even in the pre-Covid world we were faced with many a delay. But pandemics slow down everything… somehow, even compost bin deliveries.
Getting the garbage collection set up was easy-peasy. As for the recycling, we had to order the appropriate bins and wait a few weeks. Nothing too unreasonable. Besides, we have a collection place within a 5 min drive, so it was just as easy to drive there as it was for my lazy @$$ to carry it to the end of our incredibly long driveway.
But compost bins were not that simple.
My phone call for the compost bin went a bit like this:
I’d like to order a compost bin for our new house.
Do you need a kitchen size bin or a large one? How big is your family?
We have 7 people living here.
Oh, you’ll need a large one then.
How long will it be before it’s delivered?
Well, we were about 2 months behind on delivery before, for a “normal” summer. And this isn’t a normal summer.
OH.
So, I did what any desperate person without a better idea would do: I dedicated a Rubbermaid bin to holding my compost, leaving it on the back deck. I was careful to keep it well covered, as we live in woods that host hungry creatures with nimble fingers. But we had an overly warm fall. And that affected the compost. Each time I lifted the lid off that bin I was scared as to what I was going to find- or smell. Of course, no one else in our household would have anything to do with it.
What to do? What to do?
Well-intentioned people told me to just go throw it in the woods somewhere. As tempted as I was, I didn’t want to attract animals, and I wasn’t willing to do the lengthy trek to make it outside of any home limits.
So, I carefully placed my rotten bin of food into my car and drove it to a friend’s house and blessed her compost bin with my maggots.
Mmmmm
That only lasted so long.
It was a long 82 days. It pained me to start putting everything into the garbage. I had been harping at the kids all these years and here I was- throwing the apple cores in with the one-use plastic. Mother Nature was very disappointed in me.
But one beautiful day, there it was- a brand spankin’ new large compost bin, sitting in our driveway. So pretty and clean that I don’t want to put anything in it.
A TEASER….
Curious as to where my composting journey is taking me? Check this beauty out…
Compostable litter box… OH YEA…