I just want you all to know that I LOVE composting. We initially started doing it because our trash can had a less-than-pleasant odor taking over our garage. But since then, it has taken on a new meaning for our family. It has become a pretty fun post-dinner event for the kids too! Our CP (as we call it) is about 20 yards from our deck in the back yard – so it’s a bit of a hike compared to the kitchen trash can, but it has been such a fun experience. The girls love to see what has disappeared from the day before and my oldest, Emily loves to take all of the neighborhood kids back there and tell them about how its good to “return the food to the earth.” She sounds like a tiny little scientist.
When we first started the CP, it was mostly just grass, weeds and leaves from our yard, but we quickly started adding watermelon rinds, bad tomatoes from our garden and other ‘outdoor’ trash items. It didn’t take long for us to include all of our “perishable” (or in my words garage-stinkable) food items. Now we take all of our scraps from meals, (apple cores, bones from meat, potato peels, onion skin, high-chair mess, and uneaten food from the kids’ plates) out to the pile. In conjunction with recycling everything that our city will take, this has significantly reduced the amount of trash that we are contributing to our local land fill each week. Now, our family of four typically only puts out 2-3 bags of trash a week which is MUCH less than last year at this time, when our super-stinky trash can lid was un-closable because of the amount of stuff we were throwing away.
Starting out, I did have a couple of gross-out fears with the idea of a compost pile. First I was concerned about an unpleasant odor or neighborhood dogs or squirrels routing around in the mess. To date, this has not happened. Second, I was told I would need to get some ‘bacteria’ (aka dog poop) in order for the CP to function properly – we have (thankfully) also found this to be untrue. BUT, should you have a family four-legged friend, I think this could be an added benefit for all of you dog owners! Third, the ugly post-dinner garbage sitting around on the kitchen counter really grossed me out. So . . . instead of that yucky option, we take the scraps out after every kitchen clean-up. It’s a fun little 3-minte breath of fresh air plus, its cute to watch my little 18-month old bark at the neighbors GIANT blood hound who chases us up and down his fence while we walk. Its great. So there’s my take on composting. I fully understand it’s not for every family but it is an awesome thing for ours. Now . . . if I could only find a way to compost those dirty diapers!
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