Compost has a variety of uses. Add compost to a sandy soil to increase water retention, add to clay soil to increase water permeability, use as a mulch around the yard, add to potted plants to provide trace minerals.  Over time, adding compost to the soil will help buffer the soil to a pH closer to neutral. 
    Compost is a good source of trace nutrients.  Give houseplants a boost by soaking compost overnight in a bucket of water and using the water to water plants.  Placing the compost in an old pair of nylons or cheese cloth makes it easy to remove the compost from the water.

    For our Michigan area, a place where it is sunny in the morning and shady in the afternoon is ideal, but not necessary.  Your compost pile should be located somewhere convenient for you, perhaps where you plan to use the compost or easily accessible in winter months for composting kitchen scraps.  Once you have selected a site, remove the grass and sod cover from the area to allow materials to have direct contact with soil microorganism.  Be sure not to harm tree roots if your pile is located near a tree.  Also, make sure the tree is not one that will rob nutrients from your pile such as, black locust, tree-of-heaven or willow.
     For quick compost, the compost area should be 3 x 3 x 3.  If time is not important, no exact proportions are required.