“Grammy is going to freak out when she sees this.”

This was actually not scheduled to happen for another couple of weeks, according to my off-grid plan. I have a planned skill to learn each weekend, but this weekend…I DOUBLE DIPPED!

-Tiffany Varner

My grandmother spends part of her day at my house, with the boys, while I wrap up the last couple hours at work. She is going to go crazy looking for the kitchen trash can! I am not going to say a word. I want to get the text at work that says, “Hey, Tiffy?? WHERE IS THE TRASH CAN?!” Just so I can say, “I don’t know…maybe it ran away” and let her look for it everywhere. I love my Grammy!

Composting is a key skill on my list of things I need to learn. The concept of composting is not new to me, my mother had a compost pile! However, I have not implemented one in my home…until NOW!

This was actually not scheduled to happen for another couple of weeks, according to my off-grid plan. Each weekend, I have a planned skill to learn and this weekend…I DOUBLE DIPPED!

The kids and I took a trip to Nature’s Bin yesterday for fresh, organic produce for our canning adventures we planned for this weekend. I will say that the experience at Nature’s Bin was everything EXCEPT delightful, but I will rant about that later…maybe in the comments if anyone asks. 🙂

Aside from all of that, we are prepared and ready for our canning experience tomorrow so be on the look out for that! However, today we tossed the trash can. I realized that most of the changes I wanted to make would only be easier if I forced myself to recognize the amount of waste I produce. Buying package free will eliminate the majority of my waste. The kids and I spent the day “CLEANING HOUSE!” We took a look at our pantry and determined what we needed alternate storage for and also sorted the things we probably shouldn’t have bought at all.

We decided that we would eat up what was left of pantry goods this week and force ourselves to buy bulk next week. Things like macaroni and cheese in a box…why? We now have bulk pasta and cheese. How hard is that? Although cardboard can be recycled or even used in compost, it still comes with a cheese sauce packet that we can’t. Not to mention that homemade mac-and-cheese is the BOMB anyway! Our canned veggies and beans are obsolete with bulk buys and no packaging. With the help of canning, our fresh bought veggies won’t go to waste…or compost! 🙂

Our kitchen trash can did not go to waste either! I considered buying a compost bin or tumbler for that weekend I scheduled for compost, but then I got to thinking…I have the perfect container! Ok, so it’s not perfect.

I took out the power tools today. Uh-oh

I drilled a ton of holes in my kitchen trash can, including the lid. Then I started to lay the base with sticks and leaves to aid in breaking things up. With the loose pile of yard waste, I started mixing in my kitchen waste from just today. In went the pineapple scraps, egg shells, apple cores and select leftovers we cleaned out from the fridge. Leaving out the meat, we tossed and tossed and layered the compost.

The only concern I have about my “makeshift” compost bin is that the lid won’t hold up from pesky little critters. The holes are on the smaller side, so I am hoping there are enough of them to keep the process going. This test run is exactly what I needed. I needed to DO SOMETHING! I say that a lot and figured I should live by it. You have to start somewhere and had I waited for the opportunity to BUY a compost bin, I may have never done it. Composting has such an impact on my daily routine as I start to layer this new lifestyle that, I just… HAD TO DO SOMETHING!

If my efforts in composting prove to be a success, I will provide the details and the step by step guide! If not, well…I am sure you’ll hear about it and we will do it all over again! Feel free to comment any tips or questions!