Looking for a way to make incredible compost indoors this winter – all without having to worry about gnats, odors, or trudging outdoors to your compost pile? Believe it or not – you can!
Anyone who composts knows how hard it can be saving scraps in the kitchen for your compost pile. Vegetable scraps, peels, egg shells and other compostable food items draw gnats quickly. And those same scraps can also carry quite the odor. Especially if they stick around too long in the kitchen!
It’s an issue we have fought to gain control of in our own kitchen for years. It can be bad enough in the summer months when trying not to make constant trips out to the compost pile. But when you don’t, the gnats and smells can take over quickly!
Unfortunately, in the winter months, it can be even more difficult to save kitchen scraps without creating a mess. As the weather turns frigid outdoors and compost piles slow down or even freeze over, the issue of what to do with all of the scraps becomes a real problem for gardeners.
Dealing With Kitchen Scraps In The Winter – How To Make Compost Indoors
Piling scraps on a frozen compost pile in the winter can mean attracting all kinds of hungry animals. And it can make for quite the mess as well. But trying to save them indoors isn’t easy either – and brings gnats and odors to wherever you store them.
Sadly, for many gardeners, it’s just too difficult in the winter to do. And because of that, all of those great scraps simply get tossed into the trash and go to waste.
For the past few years, when winter hits, we have tried to save our scraps in 5 gallon buckets in the garage or right outside our door. To keep gnats and smells down, we always used a tight covering lid. It certainly worked – but it wasn’t always pleasant. Especially when you had to clean out the buckets in the early spring!
That is exactly why when we heard about an electric composting machine that could process small batches of scraps in hours – we were more than intrigued. Enough that we had to try it to see if it could really be true.
How To Make Compost Indoors In The Winter – The Electric Compost Machine
We will be the first to admit when we first were asked to trial test an indoor electric compost machine that could make compost in hours from everyday kitchen scraps and more – and totally eliminate odors and gnats while it did so – we were pretty skeptical.
One thing we are very proud about on the farm is that if we are going to talk about something, we need to use it. And not just try it out a few times – but really use it. And have we ever been using this little indoor compost machine a lot!
Using An Indoor Electric Compost Machine
The indoor composter we are speaking of is the Niviop Electric Composter. Although we initially thought of it for winter use, we have since fallen in love with using it year round. It just makes composting kitchen scraps so simple, quick, and best of all mess, gnat and odor free.
In fact, for us, it has become our place to store our small kitchen scraps easily and without worry – and then just turn them into compost in hours!
Let’s face it, even in the summer, no one wants to run out to their compost pile 10 times a day. So you either try to save your little scraps in a compost bin or bucket. In the summer, we used a composting bin with a lid under our kitchen sink.
In went the coffee filters and grounds, banana peels and whatever scraps we created during the day. We tried to take it out every day, but in the summer, it still drew gnats and the occasional bad smells. Even worse, we were constantly cleaning the bottom of the pail of sludge and slime.
So when the Niviop unit arrived in late spring, we decided to start trying it out on our everyday kitchen scraps. Funny thing is, ever since that day, it is our go to kitchen compost pail – and kitchen compost making machine. Not only does it make great compost fast, but it also has ended the issue of gnats and smells for good!
The Niviop Electric Composter – How To Compost In The Winter Indoors, Or Anytime!
To be upfront, the Niviop is a bit of an investment with its $350 price tag, but the benefits of having one in your kitchen go so far beyond just making compost from kitchen scraps. Affiliate Product Link : Niviop Electric Composter
With its locking sealed lid, the Niviop looks much like an instant pot at first glance. But that locking lid feature is a huge plus. For us, it means we can put banana peels, coffee filters, onions and potato remnants and more into it, lock the lid in place, and have ZERO worry about odors or gnats.
We actually do this for a few days until it fills, and then turn it on. And that is when the real magic happens. Depending on what you have inside and the setting you choose, the electric composter goes to work – and in anywhere from 2.5 to 5.5 hours, you have completely odor free finished compost!
How It Works – Using The Niviop Indoor Compost Machine
One of the best things about the Niviop is all you can compost with it. Beyond egg shells and other scraps, it also can compost recyclable cups, paper, leaves, plant materials and more.
Once the unit is turned on, it quickly goes to work, dehydrating and composting the ingredients. It runs quietly as it operates, putting any left over moisture into a tray below the machine. When finished, you simply dump out the water (moisture), and inside the unit you are left with rich, dark compost.
This can be used to soak in water to make compost tea, or mixed into your soil or compost pile later on. The compost tea has been amazing and has done wonders for both indoor plants and hanging baskets!
It is fairly potent fresh, but has zero odor and will not attract gnats. We save ours in a 5 gallon bucket to put into our main pile in the spring – but there are so many ways you can use it. As for durability, we have been using it every few days now since early spring – and it has been flawless. One thing is for sure – it made believers out of us for indoor composting.
Here is to composting indoors in the winter with ease – and to getting more from your kitchen scraps all year around! Happy Gardening – Jim and Mary.
Jim and Mary Competti have been writing gardening, DIY and recipe articles and books for over 15 years from their 46 acre Ohio farm. The two are frequent speakers on all things gardening and love to travel in their spare time.
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