Dealing With Our Own Crap

Braving the Compost Toilet

Since moving into our off grid home at the start of the pandemic, we have had to deal with our own crap, both literally and figuratively. The first thing we did before we even moved in, was to install a toilet. We opted for a compost toilet over one with a water tank. Since water is limited in the desert and our property is too small for a septic tank, the compost toilet seemed like the right choice. A compost toilet relies on bacteria to transform feces into fertilized soil and requires no water. As in all things with our new home, we knew it would be an experiment and we opened our minds to the idea of turning (literally) our poop into compost. Our biggest concern at the time was that it would smell. Unfortunately, that has been the least of our problems.

Our compost toilet did stink for the first six weeks. We were not too worried about it because based on the instructions, we concluded that it would take time for the humanure to become compost. We were relieved at the end of that i…