Neighbor filled my trash can. Furious. Long vent.

[sunshinemelody]

I guess I view it as a choice between having your entire day ruined and a long term bad relationship with a neighbor vs being ticked off for about 30 mins until I got over it. I will go out of my way to be on good terms with my neighbors just because the alternative is very unsettling to me. However, I don't think the op was necessarily wrong, I just would not have handled it that way myself. Now, if it happened continuously to the point where I could not fit my own garbage in, or if the lid was not shut because she stuffed trash in and they did not take it away, that would cause me to have a polite conversation with her.

And I get that, I do. However, OP was polite about it at first.

I can't imagine that she would've lambasted her off the bat even if that's what she so dearly wanted to do.

Four times a week? Our pick up is twice a month!

Our pick up is once a week.

Then again, I live in the suburbs of Fairfield County. We don't even pay for the bins that the city provided either, that's insane to me.

 

[Mkrop]

We have pickup twice a week and recyclables once a week. We have trash cans that we are suppose to use. It does not matter if the lid is closed. I do not live in HOA.

In our cul de sac, we all have an agreement to just use each other cans if we need to. We might ask if we see the person but most times we dont. So if I saw mine suddenly filled I would laugh and go to the next house in the cul de sac. We also all share a snow blower in the winter so we all help each other out.

But in the OP's case with her restrictions I would be mad. And then when she went and confronted her the neighbor should have apologized and taken her stuff back, not flipped out on the OP.

Although my neighbor did get mad when someone was dumping their doggie poop bags in her trash. It took us awhile to figure out who it was, wasnt even someone from the neighborhood but he decided to use her can.

 

[plutotek]

PS: The thing is, your trash, and your trash can, are YOUR PROPERTY. And, as such, in most areas, this person is guilty of trespass and invasion of privacy, etc.
People have no right to go thru your trash, or to even open your trash bin.

Side note; numerous courts have ruled just the opposite: a person placing their trash receptacle on the street for pick up no longer has an expectation of privacy regarding the contents of the receptacle. If someone goes through it, they are not violating any laws under those circumstances.

 

[Sabeking]

"......God is great, beer is good and people are crazy..."
- Billy Currington

 

[Jaya]

This reminds me of a 50 year old story.

"And I said, "Yes sir, Officer Obie, I cannot tell a lie. I put that envelope
Under that garbage." After speakin' to Obie for about forty-five minutes on
The telephone, we finally arrived at the truth of the matter and he said
That we had to go down and pick up the garbage, and also had to go down and
Speak to him at the Police Officer Station. So we got in the red VW microbus
With the shovels and rakes and implements of destruction and headed on
Toward the Police Officer Station.".............

....and then you had to sit on the Group W Bench, didn't you?

 

[Skiton]

"I mean, I'm sitting here on the group W bench 'cause
you want to know if I'm moral enough to join the army,
burn women, kids, houses and villages
after being a litterbug."

 

[aprilgail]

Four times a week? Our pick up is twice a month!

So what do you do when you do something like rip up carpeting or like clean out the basement or a shed etc? I cleaned out my shed before replacing it and had a bunch of pails of trash plus some other big things to go out in the garbage? I would hate to have to hold that stuff and put it out little by little twice a month!

 

[GaryDis]

Side note; numerous courts have ruled just the opposite: a person placing their trash receptacle on the street for pick up no longer has an expectation of privacy regarding the contents of the receptacle. If someone goes through it, they are not violating any laws under those circumstances.

Caution: There's no general federal privacy rights, but that doesn't mean specific local laws can't create one.

 

[BunsenH]

"I mean, I'm sitting here on the group W bench 'cause
you want to know if I'm moral enough to join the army,
burn women, kids, houses and villages
after being a litterbug."

Every time I hear the term "Movement", I think of this song.

 

[HM]

So what do you do when you do something like rip up carpeting or like clean out the basement or a shed etc? I cleaned out my shed before replacing it and had a bunch of pails of trash plus some other big things to go out in the garbage? I would hate to have to hold that stuff and put it out little by little twice a month!

Here you can call and ask for a pick up when you have a lot more than will fit in your can. You can also leave a large item at the curb on pick-up day (like a mattress). They are supposed to make note of it and send a truck back for it the next day. Other people, rent a large trash container (like an open topped dumpster) when they are doing a huge cleaning or renovation.

 

[Livvie]

So what do you do when you do something like rip up carpeting or like clean out the basement or a shed etc? I cleaned out my shed before replacing it and had a bunch of pails of trash plus some other big things to go out in the garbage? I would hate to have to hold that stuff and put it out little by little twice a month!

You either rent a large dumpster, put it in your garbage bit by bit or wait until the big item pickup, which is one day in the Spring and Fall. If garbage isn't in the container, it isn't picked up.

 

[Mkrop]

Some of the trash restrictions are so odd some places. It is so strict where my ILs live, that they actually brought trash to our house 2 hours away when they did some major cleaning. They were coming anyway but just the fact that it would have taken them months and a lot of money to get rid of all that when here we put it out and it was gone, no big deal

 

[Adelle Dazeem]

When it comes to large stuff like carpet, old furniture, and appliances we have a once a year clean up. It's so into ting when that time of year comes around because we get all of the scavengers that pick through the piles of stuff and take what they need or they can fix and sell. A few years ago, I set out our old dishwasher. It still worked, but wwe didn't need it. It was gone within 10 minutes. I used to loathe the scavengers, but then I realized they do our community a lot of good by recycling versus everything ending up in a landfill.

OP - if that lady was my neighbor, I probably would have ripped the bags open and dumped the garbage all over her lawn and than ran home to call the HOA. I'm kind of a ***** when it comes that that kind do nonsense.

 

[aprilgail]

When it comes to large stuff like carpet, old furniture, and appliances we have a once a year clean up. It's so into ting when that time of year comes around because we get all of the scavengers that pick through the piles of stuff and take what they need or they can fix and sell. A few years ago, I set out our old dishwasher. It still worked, but wwe didn't need it. It was gone within 10 minutes. I used to loathe the scavengers, but then I realized they do our community a lot of good by recycling versus everything ending up in a landfill.
.

Wow once a YEAR? I can not even imagine that. We are always doing something in the house, ripping down sheet rock, replacing cabinets, getting rid of carpeting, replacing doors etc- I would hate to have to save all that stuff up to put out once a year or have to spend money on a dumpster every time we did any work in the house! Today I was cleaning up my bedroom and decided to get rid of the old computer desk I used to use so that is going out in the trash tonight!
How about yard waste? Do they come and take that? once a week we can put out grass clippings, leaves, tree branches etc. do you have to save those for once a year too??

 

[HM]

We pay $7 a month for Yard Waste pick up (it was $50/yr for a long time, then $60/yr). We have a brown bin for it and put it out once a week. Recycling and Trash are figured into our taxes.

 

[Adelle Dazeem]

Wow once a YEAR? I can not even imagine that. We are always doing something in the house, ripping down sheet rock, replacing cabinets, getting rid of carpeting, replacing doors etc- I would hate to have to save all that stuff up to put out once a year or have to spend money on a dumpster every time we did any work in the house! Today I was cleaning up my bedroom and decided to get rid of the old computer desk I used to use so that is going out in the trash tonight!
How about yard waste? Do they come and take that? once a week we can put out grass clippings, leaves, tree branches etc. do you have to save those for once a year too??

We have three containers - trash, green, and recycle, that get emptied once a week.

 

[mom2rtk]

Wow once a YEAR? I can not even imagine that. We are always doing something in the house, ripping down sheet rock, replacing cabinets, getting rid of carpeting, replacing doors etc- I would hate to have to save all that stuff up to put out once a year or have to spend money on a dumpster every time we did any work in the house! Today I was cleaning up my bedroom and decided to get rid of the old computer desk I used to use so that is going out in the trash tonight!
How about yard waste? Do they come and take that? once a week we can put out grass clippings, leaves, tree branches etc. do you have to save those for once a year too??

You are living the good life, and I bet you didn't even know it. Around here when you're doing a project you would rent a dumpster or haul it all to the dump yourself.

We pay $7 a month for Yard Waste pick up (it was $50/yr for a long time, then $60/yr). We have a brown bin for it and put it out once a week. Recycling and Trash are figured into our taxes.

We pay closer to your annual fee every MONTH. It's insane. But we did opt to pay extra for the extra barrel. I can certainly understand the urge to try and get by without that added cost, but would not be ok with someone taking advantage of what we were paying.

 

[CdnCarrie]

Wow once a YEAR? I can not even imagine that. We are always doing something in the house, ripping down sheet rock, replacing cabinets, getting rid of carpeting, replacing doors etc- I would hate to have to save all that stuff up to put out once a year or have to spend money on a dumpster every time we did any work in the house! Today I was cleaning up my bedroom and decided to get rid of the old computer desk I used to use so that is going out in the trash tonight!
How about yard waste? Do they come and take that? once a week we can put out grass clippings, leaves, tree branches etc. do you have to save those for once a year too??

Why would you put a desk in the landfill? Sell it or give it to charity.

If we want anything picked up that is large and doesn't fit in the bin we need to phone and book pick up. It's picked up by someone other than the regular truck with the mechanical arm that picks up the bins. We are charged $10 for the large item pick up on our water bill.

 

[lillygator]

I can't believe someone would have the nerve to do that!

 

[Stacy's a freak]

In our town you have to use a private company - you choose the company you want - and they charge extra beyond the usual one large bin limit bi-monthly fee (about $50). If we have anything remotely useful to the next person (old furniture, appliances, lawn mower) we just post it on one of those local fb yardsale sites and people come out of the woodwork to come and get it and in a hurry. I have tried here and there to sell things on those fb sites but that is way too much hassle. If I'm selling a used push lawnmower for $25, you get what you get - haha. So I just post that stuff for free and it's gone in a matter of minutes. It's awesome!