Where do you keep your trash cans?

[susana1954]

I figured we needed a new topic. I read about some "snobby" woman who wrote her neighbor to tell him/her that they didn't keep the "rubbish bins" in the front of the houses.

The only thing is that I have lived where that was the C&Rs, and it certainly wasn't an upper class neighborhood.  A friend actually froze his kitchen scraps (which I found bizarre) because they had to keep their trash cans in the garage, where he said it would attract mice if he didn't do the freezer thing.  

Now I live in a rural area where there are no rules about where to keep your garbage can, but I do take my garbage can up the hill on trash days and bring it back down after it is picked up.  I think it looks trashy to look at other people's garbage, and I should know because my neighbor-across-the-road keeps theirs on the road all the time.  It blows in my yard, and I pick it up.  I don't say anything because the mother who lives there has cancer.  Most of my neighbors do it my way.

So where do you keep your trash can?  Is it because of C&Rs or the HOA?

[Lizard Queen]

On the side of the house next to the garage. We have 3. We could keep the recycle bin in the garage, but no way would I keep the garbage or yard waste bins in there. Another reason to stay away from HOA's.

[billisonboard]

Our small town runs the trash service. We rent one of two sizes of bins with hinged lids. Most people leave them curbside. Since they are standard color and only the two sizes, they quickly become unnoticed.

[jerseygirl]

We have a shed at bottom of driveway for garbage cans. Good lock to deter bears. Keep recycle bins in garage where it’s handy to throw paper cans glass etc
Yes bring to end of driveway on morning being collected and back . Neighbors same

Our other house had a wood container with lid for garbage cans, painted so presentable, on side of driveway next to the road. Not in a typical development but lots of trees and big lots and the container was in an area with trees and bushes. We had 3 kids at home and driveway was a hill so carrying full cans was difficult for kids. The kids took garbage daily out to the garbage cans. Recycle can also there but then we had co- mingled, paper cans etc all together

[busymom]

Yup, we've got one of "those" neighbors whose undies get in a twist, because we keep our garbage cans outside.  She thinks "proper" folks should store them in the garage, except on garbage day.  The problem with that idea is, we've got a mouse problem here, and I don't want to attract any more mice in the garage than we already get.  So, the cans stay outside.  Too bad for her!  

[susana1954]

I didn't actually say, but I keep mine in the carport.  But these days I am just as likely to put a single bag out on the lawn on garbage day.  We have pickup twice a week, and one person doesn't create a lot of garbage.

[jerseygirl]

Aug 28, 2021 16:07:46 GMT -5 susana1954 said:

I didn't actually say, but I keep mine in the carport.  But these days I am just as likely to put a single bag out on the lawn on garbage day.  We have pickup twice a week, and one person doesn't create a lot of garbage.

Always use a can, critters would tear up bag and spread all over.

[Deleted]

I keep both trash and recycling cans in the garage.  They don't smell all that bad, even in this weather, because I don't eat much meat and I compost some waste (egg shells and coffee grounds) and make broth of the veggie odds and ends.  The bins go out Thursday night, which may be a violation but no one has complained, its picked up Friday and by Friday night they're back in the garage.

I did have a bad odor problem last month and realized that after DS and DDIL visited, DDIL (bless her) had put all my 2-year old grandson's used diapers directly into the garbage can.

[taz157]

We usually keep ours in the garage and bring it down the street the night before trash pickup. Sometimes our pickup is very early, like 4am-5am. At the moment, our trash can is in front of our garage (due to garage mess), but we also have 2 cars parked in front of it along with a stack of rocks that needs to go in our front flower/shrub bed). We do live in an HOA community, but haven’t gotten a letter yet. Our HOA is not afraid to sent letters either. 🤷‍♀️

FWIW, we don’t freeze our meat trash (and never heard of that - not even when we lived in South Florida and kept them in the garage too).

Edited- We do not pay extra to recycle so no recycle bins to worry about.

[Artemis Windsong]

We have 2 bins required and provided by the city. They charge us for the recycle bin. They are one in front of the other by the garage door. I don't see any neighbors bins except on trash day.

Their hoses are also rolled up and out of sight. H.leaves the hose across the yard. I fold it up in front of the porch.

[stillmovingforward]

I have greenwaste (includes food waste), garbage, and mixed recycling. All 3 cans go up against my garage until the night before pickup (which can be a early as 6am) when I take them out next to the alley. I bring the cans back up to the garage when I get home that night. I never leave my cans anywhere but next to the garage except on garbage day because it is windy at my house. Pick up is in the alley and no one in my neighborhood really cares. One person might but we ALL ignore them so they have given up complaining.

[susana1954]

Aug 28, 2021 16:10:45 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

Aug 28, 2021 16:07:46 GMT -5 susana1954 said:

I didn't actually say, but I keep mine in the carport.  But these days I am just as likely to put a single bag out on the lawn on garbage day.  We have pickup twice a week, and one person doesn't create a lot of garbage.

Always use a can, critters would tear up bag and spread all over.

That's why I put it out the day of.  Our garbage pickup is pretty early.  I use a can if there is more than one or if the weather is bad, but so far it's been fine.  

ETA:  I have to drag it up a pretty substantial hill.  Some of the neighbors use a tractor, but my driveway isn't that long.  But it is really taking back the empty can that is bothersome because I usually have Penny with me.  

[TheOtherMe]

Mine is and always has been in the garage.  I take it to the curb either the night before pick up or early the morning of.  Never know when they are coming--anywhere from right at 7 AM to late afternoon.

I do have neighbors that keep the trash outdoors.  I do not appreciate it when the wind blows or when we get thunderstorms with wind and their trash is all over.

[buystoys]

We keep ours under the car port and pull it out on garbage day.  The tenants keep theirs out by the road.  We do get some of their trash blowing into our yard, but, for the most part, they keep the lids closed and things stay in the cans.

[ners]

Outside my back door. Garbage  has a bungee cord on it to keep out the racoons.   The are rolled to curb night before garbage day.

[nidena]

At my previous house, the backdoor was actually on the side of the house that was the same side as the (shared) driveway.  I had one bin on either side of the door and it was always the same bin "assigned" to a side so that I didn't get them mixed up ex: the Recyclables bin was on the Right side and trash was on the left.  Then I could just open the door, step out on a foot, and drop things where they needed to go.

At my current house, the bins are between the house and the garage (the garage corner and house corner line up but the garage is set back 10'), mostly out of sight from the street.

An annoying situation: the neighbors across the street moved out and put the trash bins at the curb, full.  No biggie.  Trash man came emptied the trash bin.  It wasn't recycle week so the recycle bin didn't get emptied until the following week.  The empty trash bin also got emptied because, with the lid closed, they can't tell.  Well, another week has gone by, the bins are thoroughly empty, having each been "emptied" twice now but the landlord has yet to clean up his house.

Yes, I could take the trash bins up the driveway but that doesn't make it any less an annoying situation.  We shouldn't have to take up for the landlord's failures to maintain their property.

[dannylion]

I keep my trash wheelie bin next to the garage (screened by shrubs and out of sight of neighbors) because at present I do not have a place to put it in my garage where it would be easy to move in and out.  When I clear out and rearrange the garage, it will have its own spot next to the recycling wheelie bin, which does live in the garage, conveniently located for access to receive recyclable materials and to be moved out on recycling day.  

This is a moderately upscale neighborhood, but many people keep their trash and recycling bins outside, either next to the garage or off to the side next to a fence but still in the front area.  They are, however, placed tidily together and either right up against the house/garage or fence or otherwise situated fairly unobtrusively.  I expect many people take the house trash to the outdoor bin on trash day (that's what I usually do).  We don't have bears (usually --  last year there were bears in a neighborhood a couple of blocks north, though it seems they were just passing through), but we do have a neighborhood trash panda.  However, it does not seem to be a source of rogue trash blowing around the neighborhood.  It lives in the storm drain.  

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

We live on half an acre in the middle of the town. We have a cul-de-sac for the front of our property and a road at the back of our property with driveways at both. While the neighbors on the cul-de-sac do have to roll their cans out to the street each Thursday, the garbage man asked us to have our can at the back of the property next to our garage. As he goes to the houses on that road, he picks up our can. The placement of it means it's neither in the front of my house nor do we have to ever move it on garbage day! It's perfect!

[kadee79]

We are rural.  Any food waste other than meat or dairy goes into our compost.  All the aluminum goes into a wire basket that holds a 30 gal. garbage bag...and gets sold at the recycling center a couple times a yr...we save them to get a truck bed load of the bags.  The rolling garbage bin in next to the aluminum collection basket by the step railing from our deck going into the back yard.  Easy to put stuff into both from the steps. 
We don't have recycling collection here, but there is a lot in town where we can put things if we want to separate them.

[teen persuasion]

We are rural. The town upgraded from the old recycle totes (which sit in the kitchen to collect boxes and cans all week) to big wheeled bins a few years ago. Garbage is your own cans or bags. So DS5 empties the smaller tote into the recycle bin only on the night before garbage day and wheels it from the patio adjacent to the garage down to the road, and empties little garbage cans (bathroom, etc) into the main kitchen garbage bag, and puts that in a can to deter critters from ripping it to shreds. Garbage is weekly, recycle recently switched to every other week. We might move the off duty location of the recycle bin and garbage can during winter if drifting makes access difficult, or a wind storm might carry them away, but they can't stay at the roadside - town rule is no earlier than 6 pm night before garbage day. And leaving them out after the trucks have been by risks them rolling/blowing away or into the street to get run over at 55mph.

The village (where I work) just added garbage bins in addition to the recycle bins. Same weekly garbage, biweekly recycle system, but the single bin per address limits trash now (previously up to 6 cans or bags). The library used to keep the garbage can and old, smaller recycle totes in the basement, but the wheeled bins are too large, so they get stashed against the side of the building by a side door. We use them to protect the furnace exhaust pipes - a few years back the neighbor snowblowed to that area so that the exhaust was buried and blocked, shutting down our furnace (safety feature so we weren't asphixiated).

[Spellbound454]

Two wheelie bins outside the back door....Green and grey.

I don't like kitchen bins at all.... so any waste goes straight outside.

Then on the collection day they go down to the road.

I have sympathy for the person who wrote that letter, although they ran on a bit... and I would probably just have spoken to the neighbour.
People pay top prices to live in affluent areas... and you don't want to be looking at rubbish and junk from someone else.

The neighbour chose to live in a community which is kept neat and tidy by everyone taking their part. Why they couldn't just have shown a bit of courtesy
and not splash the story all over the newspapers is anyone's guess.
I would have probably talked to them face to face.

[tractor]

I live in the country and keep the garbage can out by the road to annoy the neighbors. I like to annoy them, because they do the same to me. However, the can is empty until we drag it out to the edge of the road on pickup day. I keep any real garbage in a can in the garage, then transfer it when needed.

Our driveway is almost 1000-ft long, so bringing a bag down each time I have one is a pain.

[Deleted]

Aug 28, 2021 16:10:45 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

Aug 28, 2021 16:07:46 GMT -5 susana1954 said:

I didn't actually say, but I keep mine in the carport.  But these days I am just as likely to put a single bag out on the lawn on garbage day.  We have pickup twice a week, and one person doesn't create a lot of garbage.

Always use a can, critters would tear up bag and spread all over.

Yeah, I'm surprised Susana doesn't have this problem.  In NJ the critters (crows, most likely) would knock the lids off if they weren't firmly fastened, pick at the plastic bags and scatter everything.

[Deleted]

In our neighborhood, trash cans can only be visible from a certain time the evening before trash pickup, until a certain time on pick up day. We couldn’t keep ours in the garage if we wanted to, there’s no room. Our 2 cars barely fit in there at the same time. The trash cans are on the side of the house, next to the garage. You can’t see them from the street.

Garbage pickup was never reliable since we moved here, and it came to a head earlier this year. They went almost a month without picking up our garbage, and the whole neighborhood was a mess, overflowing trash everywhere. Besides being unsightly, there are the critters it attracts. My next door neighbor is a family of 6, he had bags of trash all over his garage and in the back of his pickup truck. It was awful.

I don’t consider our neighborhood “affluent”, but I think it was considered close to, in the past. The long time residents are at least upper middle class. The neighborhood association still has a good bit of influence with local leaders.

A private company, WASTEPRO, had a contract to handle service in certain areas that the city has annexed over time, and our neighborhood was not the only one where it wasn’t being picked up. People, including Mister, were constantly calling and sending e-mails to local government, complaining. It made the news. Residents started talking about or initiated a class action lawsuit, because our trash pickup fee is part of our utility bill, so we couldn’t just refuse to pay for the trash pick up services we weren’t receiving, or our utilities would be disconnected. Then the contractor provided a statement saying they quit. GOOD RIDDANCE! So the city had city sanitation employees start picking up our garbage, and we’ve not had a problem since. 

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

We keep our garbage cans outside by the back door. We have a can inside once it's full we tie off the bag and into the trash it goes.

I'm weird I refuse to live where my neighbors can tell me where my stuff goes. I own my house not you. Don't get me wrong I follow city limits rules and we aren't dicks but if I got a letter like that there would be a garage can army on my lawn the following morning.

Our problem here is pick up. They just chuck your cans anywhere that has grass and often don't make sure it actually got in the truck before driving off.

Now there are driver shortages but we are required to put them out on our scheduled days by 6am then leave them till whenever they show up. If you make the mistake of putting them away and they show up you are SOL till next week.

Our day is Thursday the record so far is it sat till Saturday afternoon.

The garbage company is a city contractor that we have to pay taxes for. We don't have a choice in who we use. It's frustrating.

Can't wait for a storm to come through the neighborhood will look like a scene from Wall E.

[Tiny]

The garbage bin and recycle bin are in the alley along the side of my garage. I keep the yard waste bins in the garage (unless they in use and then they are next to the bins in the alley). I live in a densely populated urban area. Trash/recycle/yard waste pick up is once a week.

The guidelines for trash are included in every quarterly Water Bill mailing. The guidelines for trash are on the City Website scrolling headline... you can just click it as it goes by and BAM! all the info in big easy to read font with pictures and graphics incase you can't read. The guidelines are also on another pre-screen when you go to pay your water bill on line.

Waste Management will pretty much pick up anything AS LONG AS YOU FOLLOW SOME GUIDELINES. My neighbors are sometimes a little clueless (as in they pile up their big cardboard boxes outside the bin without flattening/cutting them down). They tend to blow down the alley. If I have to move them to get my car out of my garage I toss the boxes back into their yard. (I use to flatten or cut them down for them - and then I stopped doing that after the 3rd time it happened.). They never figured it out - even when I fessed up to tossing their trash back into their yard because it was all over the alley and some of it was against my garage. I even mentioned the "flatten it" or "cut it down to fit in the bin" and that the dollar store (or walmart) had cheap plastic handle/serrated metal blade steak knives that make cutting up cardboard boxes easy (like cutting thru warm butter) I've got a 15 year old one that still works great!.

Waste Management won't pick up a trash bin that's too heavy - if you can't move it without straining - it's probably too heavy. So filling it with the debris from tear out work you did - probably not gonna get picked up. It's legal to put the stuff in the bin... but you need to do alittle each week. not all at once.

Waste management wont' pick up - say a roll of carpet (from your tear out). You need to cut it down into 3 foot wide rolls. You cut it into chucks to get it out of your house... why not make the one extra cut while you are doing it (and all dirty and dusty and disgusted by the carpet) and be done with it? Nope, gotta put it out and then complain for WEEKS that the WAste management won't take it - and the City/Alderman should do something about it. And now that rolled up carpet is growing mold and has critters living it and the City has slapped with you a Blight fine. REally. It's NOT that hard to play by the rules and it makes everyone's life better.

Waste Management will fix (replace wheels or lids) or replace (cracked or has a hole in it bins) for free. You can call, email, text them. Or you can wait until you get a Blight fine (for broken or lidless bins) or maybe the trash pickup person may report it and get it fixed before you get a Blight fine.

Waste Management will even bring you a second garbage bin and/or recycle bin if you are a Single Family Home and have a lot of trash... no extra charge.

I don't complain about my trash pick up. I love the service. I get every penny's worth out of it. I've managed to have all sorts of "difficult" to get rid of stuff - that was legal to put in the trash - removed with no fuss/no muss. Old Couches, Mattresses, broken stuff that didn't fit in a bin (a call to WAste management to set up a day for pickup - they have "pick up big stuff" days twice a month - but you have to call and put your stuff out on the day they tell you.)   A wall that got torn out of my basement (10 easy to manage contractor bags plus studs cut down to the right size). no fuss no muss. I followed the guidelines.

I'm guessing people can't read. Or are just really good at "avoidance" or enjoy the drama that complaining about trash pick adds to their life.


That said, I have one neighbor who has multiple bins in various stages of decay (no lids, broken wheels) and overflowing trash and then they stopped mowing/cutting the weeds along the fence (which was piled high with trash). It all started about three years ago - when they got the first Blight Letter and threatened with a Fine for the broken down bins - they got upset. They were told to call Waste Management. Apparently they thought the City or the Alderman should have done that. "Their rights were being trampled on! Their freedom was being taken away!" And the "war" began with the Alderman and City. Since then, they seem to be intentionally creating a blight situation because it's their right and they are free to do so. It's well past the point of making a phone call(to Waste Management to get new/fixed bins). These neighbors do the least amount possible to keep the weeds and their trash bins in order. They trim trim the weeds back once or twice a year when threatened - the weeds are 6 feet high - some of them reach into the alley and brush cars going down the alley. Their broken bins are buried in the weeds. At this point, I'm guessing it's all about "sticking it to the man". They are angry - I talk to them as little as possible. I do wonder what the inside of their house looks like. I'm guessing if and when they sell the house - either they or the buyers will be clearing all the fines/fees that they are racking up. The City won't issue transfer stamps for the sale until all any and all city related tickets, fines, money due to the City is resolved. (the tickets, fines, etc may get waived or may not...)

[swamp]

I have galvanized stele cans on my deck outside the door and trash goes into them. Lids must br tight or the raccoons feast. Once a week I bring the garbage up to the road for pickup. My driveway is a 1/4 mile long. . We have a garbage bin and a recycling bin up by the road. They are stored behind the stone pillars that mark our driveway. Sunday nights they get dragged to the edge of the road for pickup.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

We have yard waste and trash bins that get rolled out to the road on alternate weeks.  Recycling goes out with trash.  

The bins are kept on the side of the house, by the garage.  We would have to move a car if we kept them in the garage, both to access them and to put them out on the road.  Trash get picks up very early Friday morning, so it goes out Thur nite.  Even getting trash pick up every other week, we rarely have a full bin of trash….but ALWAYS have full yard waste as branches from trees are coming down regularly.  The 4 houses at the end of the road are pretty generous with bin space.  If someone needs more space, everyone shares.  Our bins tend to be pretty stinky as they have Harriet’s poop bags, and Sheldon’s kitty litter.  

Recycling gets staged.  We have cans in the house by the trash, and these get emptied into the recycling bins in the garage.  These usually need to be emptied weekly, and the bin# go out on trash pick up day.  While trash pick up comes between 6:30 am, recycling pick up doesn’t come until about 2 pm.  

Trash pick up is paid quarterly, about $50 each quarter.  You can call for extra pick ups if necessary.   If we get a bad storm here, TD will usually call for an extra yard waste pick up.

[movingforward]

Mine is in the garage. I live in a townhouse community and the HOA does not allow us to keep it outside.

[bookkeeper]

Our rolling dumpster is tucked beside the garage and our back yard fence. Our garage is not on the front of our house.  Recycle is in the garage in three lidded bins.  We recycle aluminum, #1 and #2 plastic, and paper.  I have made an effort to stop buying products packaged in the other numbered plastics, because they almost never get recycled.  DH takes the recycle to the drop off once a week when he takes the lawn clippings.

We do the freezer thing in the spring and fall before the fish cleaning stations are open.  Fish guts double bagged in the freezer until garbage day.