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How To Compost At Home | Simple Composting In Your Backyard

If composting at home piques your interest, but you’re not sure where to start, have no fear. Angela and her family moved into a new home, realized the benefits of composting left by the former owners, and decided to try it themselves with a no-frills, easy-to-maintain compost pile system.

The Compost Chronicles series highlights families in various circumstances who have all found a way to compost at home that works for their lifestyle. Hopefully, you can be inspired to give it a go and help our planet become a little healthier.

Did you know that composting can transform your trash into new life? And that new life, in the form of microbes, fungi, earthworms, and more, provides the foundation for much of all other healthy life on Earth?

Composting is a great way to create healthy soil to support people and our planet. Healthy soil is also a magical carbon sink that absorbs carbon from our atmosphere and helps cool the planet. While dead dirt has few living organisms, a teaspoon of healthy soil has more living organisms in it than the entire population of humans on Planet Earth!

We need everyone to learn how to compost at home and make it a part of everyday life.

Don’t think you can compost? We’ve got a whole set of resources on Everything To Know About How To Compost At Home, including more Compost Chronicles interviews. All of this information about how to compost at home will hopefully prove that just about anyone can make space and find a system to turn their food scraps into nutrient-rich compost to enrich our soil, feed our food cycle, and limit the food waste that ends up in landfills.

If composting piques your interest, but you’re not sure where to start, have no fear. Angela and her family moved into a new home, realized the benefits of composting left by the former owners, and decided to try it themselves.

They have small children and knew little about composting but decided to learn. They have loved the benefits, and Angela can tell you more about how they incorporate composting in their everyday family life.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself, where you live, your family, etc.. the Angela 101?

My name is Angela, I am married with 3 kids. My family and I live in Connecticut. We started our journey about three years, trying to really do our part in saving the environment but also helping better our lives. We have strived to be a low-waste family.

Tell us a little bit about why you decided to start composting?

We started to get really serious about composting when we bought our house and the previous owners had gardens with composted soil. The vegetable garden and full yard of grass when we moved into the house were absolutely beautiful due to the compost.

To this day our grass grows within days and is thick and green because of the composted soil. We saw that it really made a difference in the quality of the yard.

When we started researching all the best ways to compost, the best resources for composting etc… we started to understand the true underlying importance of composting. It meant that we were reusing our resources, putting what we used back into our home and life, and cleaning up our world!

What method or methods of composting do you use or have you used?

We previously used composting bags, but this past fall our lovely animals ate the bags and the rotted food inside! We are now investing in a sealed composting bin to keep the creatures out.

How do you store food scraps until they are taken to your compost pile?

To prolong the breakdown of the food until we can get it to the pile, we tend to put it in the freezer. We do this especially during the winter months when we have ice and snow and cannot get to the pile.

What other supplies or materials do you use, and where do you store them until you need to add them to your compost pile?

We use other resources in our home like toilet paper, toilet paper rolls, tissues, shredded paper, and newspaper. These all get stored in the garage until its time to put it in the pile. We tend to have to keep a very organized home due to all our extracurriculars, so storing them in the garage is our best spot.

How does your family feel about composting?

All my children love to throw the scraps in the “freezer bag” until it’s time to drop it in the pile. The children love how it decomposes and breaks down to create something brand new that will help all of our gardens.

My husband started composting because he had no choice; it was 1 against 4 so he tagged along. He appreciates that it saves money because we don’t have to buy bags of compost, especially when we don’t know where they come from or what’s inside.

Anything else you’d like to share with readers about your composting practices, especially to help beginners gain confidence that they too can compost?

It is very intimidating in the beginning. The hardest part was learning what to do or not to do, what to compost and what not to compost. Learning which foods and resources can be composted and which should be thrown or recycled was the hardest adjustment. It took a bit to learn.

Once you catch on and see the transformations from scraps to soil though, it feels great to have accomplished it! Also, don’t forget it takes patience; the habits and the compost do not change overnight!

Where else can we find you and learn more about what you’re up to?

You can find me on Instagram @the_mrs_urquijo, and come early spring, you will see all the composting and planting posts!

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