I have an apartment with a balcony - the flooring of the balcony is a lot of wood boards. 

My compost bin is a big plastic recycling bin which I have perforated with an awl and rubber hammer on the bottom and sides.

What this means is that when it rains (anything beyond a sprinkle), I have a real hard time turning the compost enough to encourage that water out of the bin. 

If I have newspaper around I shred and toss some in to soak up a bit of the water.

My question is if there's any better material I could use to try and absorb the water a bit more. A few days of sun will eventually dry it out, but generally the water really gets trapped between the compost and wood boards, no matter how perforated the bottom is.

**edit**: I do have a cover and have used as suggested Ed here. This appears to work well barring heavy rain. I have also place bricks under the corners of the bin, which has drained a little water and provided some more aeration.

All the same, I would like to keep the question open a bit longer as I'm still interested in the question of some organic material which may be able to absorb some of this moisture.

**Many thanks** for your help as the bin is already operating better.