5 Places To Put A Compost Bin In A Small Kitchen
Many of us are all for composting, even if we don’t have a lick of outdoor space to call our own. Some have the luxury of slightly larger kitchens of cabinet space, but others are doing good if they can open their oven and refrigerator doors at the same time. If your kitchen feels a little small, here’s 5 places to place a compost bin and a few of our favorite resources for making it happen!
1. Under The Sink: This is the go-to answer for any size kitchen as tucking things away neatly out of sight. If you have cabinets at all, this can be one of the easiest answers to keep things out of the traffic pattern. Sometimes food and kitchen prep tools can be hung on the wall or put on narrow shelves where a composting bin can’t.
2. In Your Oven: Now we’re not suggesting you slowly roast your wormy composting critters, not by a long shot! Time and time again, we’ve asked how often you use your ovens and if you keep anything else in them. Many urban home owners who often eat out, or use a toaster oven more than the bigger version, have a big empty space that can be filled. Many keep pots and pans in it, others keep cookbooks, we think it’s a great space for a composting bin, though we might suggest removing the racks to make things easier, or even replacing one with a wooden plank for extra support.
3. Under A Plant Stand: Although most traditional plant stands won’t make room for such a thing, we think making one or repurposing other furniture for the task is a great idea. It can be round, it can be square, but something where your bin can tuck out of sight while still serving another function in your kitchen is a good one.
4. On Your Counter: Even if this isn’t our first choice, we’d rather have a composting system in place than go without. You could even make a box that slid in around your composting unit and paint the outside with chalkboard paint or make it a place to pin up notes or recipes in your kitchen. Giving the exterior functionality instead of just being bummed it takes up 1.5 feet of the 3 feet of countertop you have!
5. Not In The Kitchen: While this answer seems completely backwards logic from the title of the post, more often than not, living spaces with kitchens of a super small caliber, do have a little extra space somewhere else around the house. Although it seems like composting systems should live in the kitchen, there’s nothing that says they have to. By keeping a food pail on your countertops, it’s really not a big deal to transfer it somewhere else in the house once it fills up. Maybe it’s on the floor of a closet, under the sink in the bathroom, or even under the side table in your living room. Just because it’s breaking down food material doesn’t mean it has to be in the kitchen. If you live by that logic then it means none of us can ever snack on pizza and watch a movie in the living room at the same time again!
Now that your confidence is boosted that you’ll be able to find a space for some indoor kitchen composting, here’s a few places of reference to get you started. They are great refreshers, even if you already have a system in place!
Small Kitchen Composting Methods & Ideas
• How To Start a Home Worm Composting System
• Best Composters & Tools 2009
• Good Question: Composting Without a Yard?
• Urban Composting
(Images: flickr member Mathaisbaert licensed for use under Creative Commons)