Tag: compost

Tiny Tip

Chrissy Lou2 Comments

Tiny Tip #6- Compost, compost, compost!

Compost your food scraps. Compost your yard waste. Compost your soiled paper. If it was break down in the compost pile, compost it!

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Recycling gets a lot of street cred for being the “green” thing we should all be doing. Well recycling better watch its back because there’s a new mean green machine in town – compost! Actually, composting is the more like the kid  comes back to home after college and is suddenly really hip. In elementary school, they were always invited to the birthday parties because everyone was invited. In high school, while struggling with a bad case of acne and braces, this kid fell out of touch with the popular crowd and found their place in the “alternative” crowd. After going off the radar for a little bit, they make a comeback and hot damn-they’re cool.

For ages, we let Mother Nature do her thing and break down organic material into compost. We composted because everyone composted. Then we realized that compost is a little stinky and if we send it to the landfill we can just ignore it – compost was feeling really left out and uncool. Now we’re realizing that we’ve been fools all along. Sure your food scraps are a little stinky (and brace face might have been “uncool”) but it doesn’t mean it’s not worth your time. Composting may have been off our radar for a while but it’s back and hot damn-it’s cool. Read More »

What are you doing about a bathroom?!

Chrissy Lou1 Comment

This is a really common question people ask when they first hear about my tiny house. Good thing I’m pretty comfortable talking about poop!

I’m planning on using a composting toilet following the methods outlined in the Humanure Handbook. This eliminates a lot of questions about how I’m going to manage waste water.

Even though I don’t plan to use them, we did install the pipes and drains for a regular flush toilet. This way, if I ever find a place to park that has access to sewer lines I can swap out the composting toilet for a real one. I’m not squeamish about the composting toilet and would probably choose to keep it regardless of where I park. However, composting toilets don’t meet code in most  Vermont cities. So if I want to legally park in a city, I would need a flush toilet. Also, if I decide that tiny house living isn’t for me this might make it easier to sell the house.