We are a family of 3 and we vermicompost. Here's our system. We have a tower of 5 gallon buckets, nested, with holes drilled all through and the bottom most bucket with no holes. With the three buckets in use and the fourth for catching the compost tea, we feed the top most bucket and the worms eat their way up from the bottom bucket, so we don't disturb them too much when we harvest from the bottom.
That being said, we have WAY too much compostables for our system. Seriously, we need like 4 more buckets. Or more. The issue is that the worms take about a month to two to eat what compost material we generate in a week or two. We just simply outpace them. Constantly. So we are throwing in the garbage as well as composting all that we can. It's a little frustrating.
That all being said, it's convenient and not at all smelly. It's quite unobtrusive as well, especially with our system because you are only getting messy the one time in two or three months when you are ready to harvest the bottom bucket for your plants, etc. The system works great, but the volume is our issue.
Oh, and the other thing is that you need to cut your compost material into small pieces so it's easier for the worms to eat. Think carrot peelings vs. an apple core. The core is going to rot before they eat it all, causing the smell, so you need to cut the core up so the worms eat it fast enough that it doesn't smell.
All in all, it's better than bears (or other varmints) in the backyard.
So let me know if you can see this picture of the worm bin we have set up:
