Sometimes, in some critical situation, when being nice doesn’t really help anymore, you have to go all in. No, not in the sense that the very term “all in” is considered in Dallas these days, but simply take decisive action. Knowing full well that yes, you can be known as a rude person among those around you, but this is the only means that can actually help.
The hero of today’s story, the user u/tway324234234, was also fed up with his new neighbor’s neglect of banal order and cleanliness in the neighborhood, so one fine day, he simply moved on to being petty. However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves in the story.
More info: Reddit
The author of the post and his wife recently got a new neighbor, and she turned out to be quite a sloppy person
Image credits: frimufilms / Freepik (not the actual photo)
At least she made a habit of leaving her garbage bins open in front of the author's driveway
Image credits: tway324234234
Image credits: EyeEm / Freepik (not the actual photo)
So the raccoons did their job at night, and the man had to start his day every morning with cleaning up all this pigsty around
Image credits: tway324234234
Image credits: user788993 / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The man tried to reason with the neighbor, but to no avail, so he just started to kick her bins into her driveway every time he saw them around
Image credits: tway324234234
It worked - at least the lady gradually started to leave less mess, and the man felt himself a true winner
So, the Original Poster (OP), a 34-year-old man, says that he and his wife recently got a new neighbor, a lady a couple of years older than him and, alas, quite sloppy at least in everything that concerns garbage bins. This woman regularly left the bins right on the OP’s driveway and, what’s worse, left them unlocked at night. And at night, the raccoons came…
As a result, almost every morning for our hero didn’t start with those wonderful and positive vibes that are generally accepted (at least if you don’t like to sleep late) as invariable attributes of the morning. It began with the guy cleaning up the results of the joint activity of his neighbor and the raccoons from his own driveway.
The man tried to politely reason with the neighbor, but she obviously didn’t respond to such requests. The OP’s wife took a neutral position—according to the man, largely because she usually wakes up later than him and has never had to clean up all this mess outside. Days passed, and our hero’s patience became thinner and thinner—and one fine day, it snapped.
No, if you think the man went straight to his neighbor and had a loud, ugly fight, you're definitely wrong. It's just that now, whenever he saw her trash bins scattered on his driveway, he, like a pro punter, kicked them back onto the owner's driveway. And you know what? It worked.
At least, despite the obvious disapproval of the original poster's wife (she dubbed her husband's behavior "pathetically low"), the neighbor gradually began to leave less and less mess outside. And this, you see, was actually the author’s direct goal! The raccoons, of course, were upset, but that's a completely different story...
Image credits: volodymyr-t / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Well, if we abstract from the issues of politeness and turn exclusively to the possible problems of living next door to a sloppy person, because of whom various garbage is spread all over the neighborhood, then all this is at least risky both for people and the whole environment.
For example, this dedicated article on the Ecube Labs corporate blog directly indicates that bacteria, insects, and vermin thrive on garbage. In addition, it can cause pollution of the water and air around. No one even talks about aesthetic issues. But, obviously, the neighbor wasn’t unhappy with this - as long as the author cleaned up after her.
Of course, one could try to get the legal authorities involved, but in any case, it would all take time, and it’s not a fact that the man would be able to solve this problem effectively. But direct and harsh measures often work - this was also emphasized by many people in the comments. Yes, most responders are quite sure that the OP did the right thing.
Moreover, some netizens even advised the author that if these measures do not help, she should simply take out all the garbage bins to the sloppy lady’s driveway and shovel the trash back onto her lawn. "Some people only learn the hard way. It's not your fault,” one of the commenters wrote reasonably. So do you, our readers, also agree with these takes? Please feel free to drop your thoughts in the comments below.
People in the comments massively supported the man, claiming that some folks, alas, learn only the hard way
