Having worms take care of your household kitchen scraps is a lot easier and rewarding than you’d think. It is arguably the most ideal method of composting for apartment living. To understand why this worm bin is the way it is it’s important to read the Vermicomposting page for starters. The reason it’s designed with two bins is for these two reasons:

1. Allow for easy removal of finished compost (or hummus)
2. To keep the great majority of your worms out of the soil you’re about to plant or garden with. Worms will follow the fresh new kitchen scraps, so when you get to a good level of fullness on the bottom layer you start putting scraps in the second layer above. When the worms finish with all the goodies on the bottom level they go through the holes of the layer above to the upper bin.

Here are instructions on creating a Simple Worm Bin Composter:

1. First you’re going to need some components to make it all possible.
   • 2 Rubber maid bins 8-16 gallon depending on your waste needs.
   • 2 Lids for those bins.
   • Drill
   • 1/4″ drill bit
   • 1/16″ drill bit
   • OPTIONAL: Sand paper & Pencil
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2. We’re gonna go top to bottom on this creation so grab one of your lids.
   • Using a pencil mark 30 evenly distributed holes in a neat design over the top of the lid
   • Using the 1/16″ drill bit drill those 30 holes. It may help to use an old piece of wood to drill into under the lid.
   • FYI-These holes are strictly used for aeration purposes.
   • The other lid stays without holes. It is used to catch moisture from the bottom bin.
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3. Now to aerate the top of both of your bins.
   • Under the lid of the bins you are going to mark holes in 2-3 rows. Each hole should be roughly 1 to 1 1/2 inch apart.
   • Using the 1/16″ drill bit drill those holes.
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4. OPTIONAL step: sand down the insides of those bin holes.
   • You may notice the protrusion of rubber on the inside of your bins at the points of your drilling. My worry is that those protrusions will catch dirty and no longer serve there purpose of aeration. Here is what I suggest:
   • Sand down all those sharp rubbery juts with sand paper
   • You will want to clear all those holes with your drill bit once more to make sure you can see through them. You just need to poke through using your hand.
5. Time for the bottom of the bins drilling! This is done on both bins.
   • Get out the ol’ pencil and mark around 20 holes at the bottom of each bin. It’s OK if it’s more like 23.
   • Drill with the 1/4″ drill bit.
   • FYI-These holes are both for leakage and worm travel. You’ve created your own worm hole!
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6. And that’s it! The hardest part is over! All that’s left is to put in the starter home for the worms so they can live in comfort while you start feeding them kitchen scraps.
   • Worm bed: rip/cut up newspapers into 1 inch wide strips. Have 3-4 inches of this bedding.
   • Before adding the worms moisten the bedding, making it soggy, and add dirt to help the worms digestive track.
   • Start feeding the worms very slowly. Adding more and more of your kitchen scraps or compost from your Simple-Style Composter as the weeks go on.
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For what to do next make sure to check out the Vermicomposting page.

Want to get worms right away? Make sure to check out this post.