Milkcrate Composter (vertically stacked)

Step 2: Prepare your milkcrates

Choose your milkcrates

You could decorate them using paint, but you could also leave them the color they are, especially if you have various bright colors. 

A note on composting however: black will generate more heat that will help the compost and speed things up.  But it is not as pretty... 

I decided to use two black ones and one red to add color

Clean them with a rag. 
Cut pieces of your screen/mesh or weed barrier fabric and hot glue gun them inside the milkcrates to cover the side holes.  This will keep your compost inside and prevent pests to go in, but air and water to circulate.  I had leftover of weed barrier fabric that I used for my square foot garden, so I used that, but you could salvage some mosquito net from a tent or an old window that ended up in the trash.  

Comments

[LosingAmy]

First off, let me say how great this instructable is. Perfect for a small space and/or small budget. I'm going to be making two of these myself and it'll run me about $12 since I don't have the weed barrier fabric on hand. I figure I'd need one for myself and one for my husband since we tend to produce a good bit of vegetable waste.

I'm personally probably going to use a little more of the fabric to line the bottom of the bed, or omit this step. I only say this because some holes on the bottom of milk crates can be small, and if so, who cares if that little bit of compost from Bin A goes to Bin B. It's all getting mixed up anyway. Also, I've been reading about some of the colored inks in newspaper can contain metals. Since I'm using my compost for vegetable gardening, I rather not take this chance. So if the holes are big, I'll line with a little extra of the weed barrier.

[a_abbond]

Yes, good point about the newspaper! You have to be careful that it is made with vegetable inks. Good luck with your composters :)

[dmccomb]

The concern about metals in colored inks is outdated, especially in newspapers. Newsprint ink is the cheapest possible and has to be recyclable, which means it is made from soy. Heavy metal inks are expensive! (And dangerous, which is another reason they don't use them any more.) These days, the only inks you have to worry about are the ones which are fluorescent or metallic - they're usually found in advertising supplements or packaging materials, not the general news sections. Anything else is compostable, even on glossy papers.