Approximately 30 percent of trash in the US is food waste or yard trimmings. This means making compost is a great way to reduce the amount of trash in our landfills. Composting also greatly reduces the methane produced by landfills and provides great soil for your garden.
Living sustainably is a big reason why many people decide to go tiny. Eliminating food waste through a compost pile is a great way to reduce the amount you throw away. The first thing to know when composting is to look at what you are going to be throwing away. If you have a lot of food scraps from the kitchen, it is a good idea to get an enclosed composter to keep it hidden from view and prevent any animal friends from getting a quick snack! There is no precise way to compost, but for best results, stick with around 3 parts of yard waste (e.g. pesticide-free lawn trimmings, leaves, sawdust) and 1 part kitchen waste.
What You’ll Need to Start Making Compost!
In your tiny home you may just want to have an outdoor bin. I would recommend getting a metal compost container for under your sink. That way you can store all your food scraps without any odors before you take it out. You may also want to store it on your counter, so look for one that matches your aesthetic!
Once you have your food scraps, you need a place to turn it in to nutrient rich garden soil. That’s when the composter comes in to play. A composter is basically a place when you can put food scraps and yard waste while they break down. The size of a composter can vary a lot, but if you are short on space, getting a compost tumbler or a compost enclosure makes for a quick and easy solution on where to put your compost!
A couple things to avoid when it comes to composting are acidic foods like tomatoes and citrus (it makes the soil too acidic), weeds from your yard (they could make roots and grow), meat and dairy products, oils, and baked goods. Adding a small compost tumbler could even be placed under a deck or drawn up if you want to move locations.
Now that you know how you can compost in a tiny home, click here to design your own!
