One of the best ways to cut down on your yard and/or food waste while generating free nutrient-rich fertilizer for your garden is to set up an ultimate compost bin. Instead of a single compost bin, you can use a 3-bin compost system for the best results.

Not only that it will reduce the waste stream but also let you always have readily available compost and continue composting all year long. As such a composting system consists of three bins, you'll be able to pile up the middle and the left bin with your materials and turn them over each week. Once the materials get ready, you can transfer them to the right bin and proceed with composting until you create a rich, organic fertilizer.

Why pay for fancy plastic tumblers when a DIY composting systems can do the trick? It's completely free and quite simple to build. Just follow these steps and make your own 3-crate compost system.

The wood-and-net frames will serve as dividers for the bins.

Form the butt joints from the pieces of lumber - two 36" and two 31 1/2" pieces into a 35" x 36" square. Fasten them with nails. Build up 3 more frames this way.

Before attaching the hardware cloth to the frames, you need to cut it into one 9ft length and four 37" lengths. Once you have folded back the edges one inch or so, center these pieces on each frame. Be sure that the frames have square corners before you attach the mesh with poultry netting staples. The staples should be placed every four inches.

Put 2 dividers at the ends so that they are parallel to each other and 9ft apart. The 36" edges should be positioned on the ground. Then place the other 2 dividers in such a way that they are 31 1/2 inches apart and parallel to each other. That way, all the divider frames will be equidistant, i.e. positioned at equal distances.

Put two 9ft 2x4 pieces on the upper side of the dividers by making sure that they lie flush against each other. Use the 9ft boards to determine the centers of the inside dividers. Then drill the 1/2 inch holes through the junctions of dividers and boards, and fasten the boards with temporary carriage bolts. The long boards need to be placed on the bottom.

Connect the remaining 2x4 lath to the top the same way. Use a carpenter square to check out if the bin is really square. If so, secure all the boards tightly with bolts and staple the 9ft piece of wire from the back.

To make the front of your triple compost system, fasten a 36" 2x6 piece to the baseboard and front of outer dividers. Then take another two 2x6s and center them on the front of the inner dividers so that they are flush with the upper edge and overlap around one inch on both sides. Nail them in place and the front side is done.

For the inside of your DIY bin system, nail the 34" 2x2s from the inside of the divider frames. Make sure they are flush with the upper edge and parallel to one another. There should be a small distance between the 2x2s and front boards to create a one-inch slot from inside of dividers. That will allow you effortlessly slide each slat from all sides.

​Finally, put the 1x6 slats in the 1-inch vertical slots. Note that you'll need 6 slots per bin. Take the shellac and paint the untreated wood. That's all!