DIY on a Dime: $8 Countertop Compost Pail

For everyone who has emailed and Facebook’d to ask for the plans for our tumbler, we didn’t give specific measurements because they’ll be different depending on the size of the bin. Ours is not a standard 55-gallon drum, so our cuts wouldn’t work for it. We also did a lot of things that aren’t really necessary (the removable bin, the routing, the T-brackets, etc). 

If you want to make an awesome-but-not-exactly-like-ours compost tumbler, check out the Boys’ Life plan. Those Boy Scouts know what’s what. Theirs was the base plan for our tumbler, but we figured out our sizes based on our bin and we added features on as we went along. We’ll probably post the exact cuts of our tumbler if there’s a demand for them, but there are so many floating on the interwebs that it seems really unnecessary. Ya know?

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Hey peeps! We’re off to a pretty productive Memorial Day. Bradley’s cleaning the garage and bringing in some new wood we scored. We’ve already picked 2 pieces from the pile to turn into bedside tables for the guest bedroom. So stoked — not that it’s not fun keeping all our stuff of the floor and under the bed, but the room will feel more finished. While Bradley did that, I loaded the composter and ceremoniously gave it the first tumble. I did it with coffee in one hand and I actually said “Wheeeee!” as it spun. I may also have lifted my coffee mug in a toast-slash-salute. Good times.

Now that our compost tumbler (aka R2D2) is in the back yard, we decided to tackle a quickie project to go along with it. We’ve been eying compost crocks and pails that are designed to sit on kitchen counters. Basically, it’s a mini garbage can that sits on the kitchen counter. We fill it up with compostable food scraps, and when it’s full, we take it out to the tumbler. That way we’re not making 3 trips a day. We mentioned in our last post that we want composting to not feel like a chore. The pail would be a huge help in that.

We found some containers we liked. This one on Amazon is adorbs, but not worth $34 to us. This EcoCrock is cute, but not $36 worth of cute. Here’s one that isn’t even cute, but it costs 30 beans.

The more we searched, the more disappointed we were. It’s just a container with a lid and carbon filter inside to keep things from getting stinky. It shouldn’t cost $30 or $40. We decided to stop looking and make our own. And we’re using the word “make” very loosely here. This is a project that a toddler could do in 2 minutes. Seriously. Also, we picked up our materials at a grocery store so we didn’t have to go far.

Here’s what we purchased:

Look familiar? It’s the spitting image of the $30 compost pail we found on Amazon. We’re pretty sure it’s the exact same container. Only ours is a galvanized ice bucket that we found in the seasonal / BBQ aisle of our grocery store. It was $7.50.

Ours came with a little scoop, which we might use to scoop up veggie scraps or whatever into the container. We also picked up a cat litter box air filter from the pet aisle:

Most of the fancy schmancy compost pails (like this $45 beauty) boast about their charcoal filter that helps control odors. This is the same thing.

It lasts just as long (3 months) and it can be found at any pet store and most grocery stores. And it’s hella cheap because it’s not a specialty product. We paid $1.20 for one big filter.

We also needed masking tape and a pair of scissors, which we already had at home.

We removed the filter from the package and cut it in half:

We made 2 rings of masking tape and stuck them to one half of the filter. We sealed up the other half back in its baggie:

We stuck the taped side of the filter to the inside of the lid, pressing firmly to make sure it adhered well:

And, uh, that’s it, folks. We’re done. We popped the lid back on, tossed that sucker on a kitchen counter and started filling it up with food scraps and other compostable stuff.

Our filter is good for 3 months, and then we’ll swap it out with the other half that we sealed up in its baggie. We’re covered for 6 months before this thing will need any maintenance. The container is dishwasher safe in case so it’s easy to clean. It holds about a gallon of scraps, so we won’t have to go to the tumbler every day.

Here’s the materials list and cost breakdown of our quick-and-cheap compost pail:

• Galvanized bucket = $7.50
• Half a cat litter box charcoal filter = 60 cents
• Scissors = already owned, so $0
• Masking tape = already owned, so $0

Total cost = $8.10

We’d been stashing all of our compostable food scraps in a tupperware container in the fridge for 2 days before we made the countertop container. Including that stuff, it took 3 days to fill up the new container. We’re thinking we’ll be outside flipping the tumbler 2 or 3 times a week. Perfect!

We’ll keep you posted on how our new container works out for us. And we’ll be back soon with more updates from the home front. See y’all soon!

Our Inherited Garden

We spent the day renovating and we have a LOT of pictures and progress to share. I just had to check in with a quickie post and share some really exciting stuff that has nothing to do with taping or mudding or putting up new walls.

When we moved into the house a month and a half ago, the back yard was pretty dead. There were plants and bushes lining the white picket fence, but nothing too exciting. A lot of it just looked like liriope and small bushes. Then, today, this happened:

And this:

And, the one I’m most excited about:

It turns out our boring, ugly liriope bushes are actually lillies. Hands down, my favorite flower in the world! And our boring, ugly not-liriope bushes are completely filled with buds that will soon bloom into lillies:

So. Excited. These are all over the yard — they line the privacy fence — and there are hundreds of buds getting ready to bloom. I can’t wait to have guests visit so I can leave fresh cut flowers in the guest bedroom. And in the kitchen all summer long.

We also had a weird, gnarly, twisted old stump in our yard, but in the matter of 2 weeks, it turned into this:

A very live — and very out of control — grapevine. (You can also see our lily bushes in the background along the fence).

We had no idea we inherited a grapevine, and we have no idea how to care for it. But it doesn’t seem like it should be growing all over the place like it currently is. While Bradley mudded the Smurf room ceiling, Iifted as much of the stump as I could and guided it up to the trellis. I also wrapped some of the longer vines around the trellis so they would grow up instead of out onto the grass.

We’re planning on cutting down the hideous trellis when we renovate the laundry room, but we had to tweak our plans a little. We’ll leave up the wood that the vine is growing on, and chop down everything else. And next year, we’ll put up a much sexier trellis before the grapevine starts taking over so it isn’t such an eyesore. We’re hoping by then, we’ll actually have the time to hang out in our yard. Right now, we know it only as the place between the house where we’re doing some serious renovating and the garage where we keep our tools, supplies and construction garbage.

Speaking of which, we’ll be back soon with a real update on how the Smurf room & guest bedroom are doing. We’re getting so close to the home stretch now, and we’re getting super antsy about cracking open a can of paint and really finishing up those walls. Stay tuned!