Lay a base layer down. Sawdust, coco, grass clippings... anything that will leave some air pockets and not compact too bad. Usually high carbon content.
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Add your scraps. Avoid meat and heavily processed food. This is my flower bucket, so it gets mostly P, K, Ca, and Mg components added. When you first start it, blend your scraps to a fine blend and it'll start composting much quicker.
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Cover up the scraps with more carbon material.
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Then scraps, then carbon. Then add some water. Damp sponge is what you are looking for. Just enough to soak into the material without water laying in the bottom of the bucket. Then put the lid on but allow airflow... VERY important to have airflow.
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Once the bucket is about half full, put the lid on tight, shake the shit out of it to mix everything around, tap the lid and then take it off and leave your gap for airflow. If there's any scraps on top after the shake, cover them.
I use paper towel and shit paper rolls, unwaxed paper plates, amazon boxes without the ink parts, etc as a carbon too.
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The smaller the particles, the quicker it composts.
Took me longer to write this than to make the bucket lol.