My Next Door Neighbor Keeps Putting Her Trash on My Trash Can

I find this to be rude. Especially if they are not the 'friendly' type. That makes it more rude. I would never even think of putting my trash in my neighbor's trash can. Wow different strokes for different folks I guess...my suggestion would be to go over and have a friendly talk with her about it and hopefully she'll be receptive to it. Good luck!

I'd simply keep my own trashcans in the garage until the morning of pick up and break her of her new habit.

We pay a flat fee to the city every month for garbage and recycling pickup. The city provides the cans, because they're designed to fit the pickup arms on the trucks. Everyone is allotted one garbage can and one recycling can by the city. The cans are different, so you can't use one in place of the other. If my neighbor's can is full, or if he only has a few things to throw out, I have no problem with him throwing his garbage in my can. Better that than littering.

Boy, if you do that at my house, the garbage man won't take it. They dump it out and there will be a mess in front of your house. Yard waste has to be put in paid-for municipal bags. And if you cheat and put it in regular bags, the garbage guys will know it and just leave the bag laying in front of your house.

I would not accept this. I would go over or call her on the phone and ask her to please not use your trash can without asking, and to never put yard waste in it.

If you have a garage, I would keep the garbage can in the garage until right before pickup, if possible.

Am I stingy about my can? No. But if I can't get my garbage in my can because of my neighbor, it's a problem. It certainly is a big problem if the garbage man dumps things because they aren't supposed to be there.

ETA - What you wrote about the high-end neighborhood you live in and your neighbors being people with means doesn't bother me one bit. I agree with you that people who have the money to pay for their own services have no business stealing yours. And yes, that actually is what they are doing. If you are neighborly with them, then you don't want to hurt your relationship, but come on! You can't get your garbage in your own can because they are using your can as their own! No way!

I had to laugh at this! My mom's husband does this! They live in a community where you have to put your trash in a trash can for trash pick up. You cannot just leave a trash bag on the curb. Well, my mom & hubby usually only have 1 trash bag on trash day (2x week pick-up). He puts the bag in the neighbor's can, so he doesn't have to put his out. When I ask him why, he said he doesn't want to drag it back in when it's empty...I would love to know what their neighbors think!!!

I don't think it means they're uneducated...just rude:)

I would trot myself over, knock on the door, and let her know that she must stop, period. I'd let her know that I pay for that service and expect to be able to use all of the space in the can...even at the last minute. If she argued about it or tried convince me that it wasn't a big deal, I'd let her know that if it continued to happen, I would be taking my bin over to HER house and letting her pay for all of that garbage collection.

I like the idea of dumping her trash in her driveway. I know some of you have said that what this woman does is common practice, but I can't say it is where I live. Our friendly neighbor rule with people we know is that you might put your yard debris or trash in their can, but you always ask first. We are neither upscale or down, just sensible people who have common courtesy and respect each other.

I'd ask her nicely to keep her trash out of your can. If she does it again I'd take the trash out and leave it on her driveway.

File a police report. It's called theft of services. We just went through this with neighbors and that's what one of the other neighbors going through it with these people were told by the sanitation dept. It's against the law to use someone else's trash can without their permission. They are paying for the service. I'm in California and it is NOT acceptable H..

Also, when I discovered our neighbor's trash in our can, I took it out and put it next to their can, on the sidewalk. They haven't D. it again.

Ask her to stop doing it. You already know she does it because she's admitted it to you.

ETA: My nextdoor neighbor sometimes adds his trash to ours, but he always asks me first if we have room to spare. Just tell her that sometimes you need every last inch of space, so if she has excess trash she should ask you first before just leaving it there.

I would walk the trash back over to her house and knock on the door and say, 'Hey there. It seems like your trash has made it to my trash can somehow. Umm, I don't have any room for YOUR trash. Would you like me to put it in your can for you?"
Then look at her with big eyes and wait for her response.
That takes a lot of nerve!

Put a bag of trash on her driveway, if the trash man doesn't stop you have your answer.

I like Gamma G's idea...of not putting the bins out front until it's nearly time for trash pick up..

IF you get into trash talkin" with her :) it could get too uncomfortable and unfriendly..

although, I must tell you... I would be irritated if a neighbor did this where I live.. I have a slightly different problem with our next door neighbor who spits every morning.. However, he doesn't do this is his planter box which is right next to his front door, instead, he comes over to the front of our house and spits in the tree............ I don't say anything because apart from him being a pig, the other 6 people who live in the house are nice ... but I know that feeling of frustration you may feel with your neighbors. I just think some people are clueless....

Sounds to me like she's just too cheap to pay for the service herself. I would NEVER think of putting my trash in someone else's can - but then I guess I was raised differently. I used to live on a street where we had those big dumpster type cans on wheels - I guess if someone asked to put something in mine periodically, it would be ok but not on a regular basis.

My father-in-law (who could definitely pay for the service) is so cheap, he takes his trash to either a business or neighbor late at night when it's dark. As far as I know, he's been doing this for many, many years. But then he's despicable for so many reasons!!

As for what to do - I would tell her to stop it, end of story. Then if she does it again, call the police. Take pictures and document it; seriously!!!

This is just my uneducated, non-fancy opinion!! I'm going to act fancy now and go continue doing my laundry - apparently it's the maid's day off or something; just doesn't seem like anything is getting D. around H. unless I do it!!

Good luck!!

My parents had this problem. In their neighborhood you have to pay for trash pickup and the lady across the street didn't want to pay for trash. My parents live in a very nice "upscale" neighborhood.

My dad asked her nicely to stop, but she continued to do it. My dad solved the problem by removing the bag and putting it on her porch. It stopped immediately--because she chose a different neighbor's can to put her garbage in!

In our area we have one can per house and if you have more garbage than fits in your can you have to pay extra for a sticker. I live in a condo and it's common for people to stick their garbage in another person's can and we do it too. No one seems to mind, we all help each other out that way.

I think it depends on where you live. If you have a problem with it, by all means talk to your neighbor nicely. If that doesn't work, then you can start getting meaner. Chances are she figures it's okay with you because you haven't said anything yet.

H.'s my guess:

She's living in a nice, upper crust neighborhood in a nice big house. She probably has a nice car. She's a little standoff-ish and probably seems like a snob. She could be shy, but maybe not.

It's very possible that she is living beyond her means. The house may be too expensive for her. Maybe they're having trouble paying the mortgage and/or the car payments. Maybe they owe too much money on credit cards. They may have nice things in a nice, big house in a nice neighborhood but maybe her trash pick-up service was shut off because she didn't pay it.

My point is... you never know what's going on behind closed doors. She should have asked you if she could use your trash pick-up service. As it is, she's "stealing" it from you instead of using her own ie. paying for it herself. It's up to you if you want to allow her to keep doing it, or if you want to talk to her to see what's going on and why she keeps putting her garbage in with yours. If you're direct with her she just might be direct with you too.

We have to pay for our garbage service and when we moved in, I told our neighbor that we had no issues if they wanted to put a bag or two in there if there was room (which there always is). I figured why should both of us pay for the service and they are great neighbors. They help out with the snow and lawn if my husband is gone and maybe the little bit of space in our trash can brought a good neighborly vibe. It doesn't hurt anything.

I often put my garbage in my neighbours bin because we have these really large wheeled carts. Since neither our neighbour or us generate a whole lot of garbage over the course of a week we put our garbage into one bin so the garbage truck only needs to dump one bin and not two. People will put garbage in a neighbours bin if they have so much garbage in a given week that they have filled their bin. I'm not sure what the problem is. Is she filling your bin so that you haven't got room for your own garbage? Unless her putting her garbage in your bin actually causes you a problem, then I don't see that you need to do anything. If it is causing a problem, let her know.

Tell her not to do it without asking you first. End of story.

We have a standing agreement around H. that if your can is full on trash day it's OK to see if there is room in one of the neighbors. It's all picked up by the same truck and it doesn't cost anything extra to have a bag or two in one can vs another can. They do take a can even if the lid is not shut tight so having it a little too full now and again isn't going to keep the trash from being taken. Asking each and every time isn't always possible on trash morning because a number of us are on very different schedules.
Is she filling her can each week? Maybe find a way to mention that it's not hard to get a second can. We pay a couple more dollars a month to have a second can. A second recycle can is completely free, we have one of those as well.

it may just be cultural. in some places people would think you were weird if you gave doing this a second thought.
rather than chew on it, or make assumptions about their level of education, why not just say something simple when you see her next? 'hi lucy, i know sometimes it's convenient to drop your trash into our can, but i've been finding that i really need that extra room myself. thanks!'
it's really unlikely that they'll ever do it again, and keeping it pleasant will prevent neighbor nastiness.
khairete
S.

Hello, it sounds like some people were mean on H. and I don't understand it, but that's peoplefor you. It doesn't matter where you live, how you live, etc.....it yours house and your trash cans! You have the right to say don't do it. I would wait and watch them, confront them nicely and say can you not place your trash with mine and/or I'm trying to understand it. And if it continues I would tell them that you are going to report them for trespassing. It's simple, no means no. I can't stand when people do things like this and they think they can. And keep us posted, good luck!

Yeah this is weird. And yeah, I'd be annoyed. Does she have a trash can of her own? I'm unclear about that? If she does and she still randomly puts stuff in your can that is just bizarre and I guess I might let it go if you don't come close to your trash limit on your own.

Now, if she doesn't have her own trash can I would not tolerate that. You should not have to pay for her trash. I would either approach her nicely and say hey sometimes we have a lot of trash and I can't accommodate yours, OR you can just skip that step and call the HOA directly.

I would talk to the neighbor about it. If she cannot afford her own trash pickup it would certainly be neighborly of you to allow her to use yours. HOWEVER, I would insist she put the garbage in the appropriate cans--yard waste in yard waste, pizza box in recycling. I can only assume you have 3 different services out in O'Fallon--we do in STL County. Anyway, if she is really a snob and not friendly at all and is otherwise a rude person, then I would take her trash out of yours and put it on her driveway. People should not be allowed to treat their neighbors like that and then expect their neighbors to be courteous back. I know a lot of these moms have said that it's normal. I cannot say I have ever experienced that sort of thing myself. I personally think it's very rude. My neighbors bring my trash cans in for me every week and put them by our house. So, if THEY were to sneak trash into my cans, I can't say I'd complain about that. Maybe if your neighbor wants to utilize your trash service for free, then she should do something like walk your cans back for you. It's only fair. Good luck!

Thank goodness trash service is free for me. No neighbor except I will put extra garbage in other folk's cans. I do it because I am also the only neighbor to walk the area and pick up litter, trim trees, plant flowers, etc. My neighborhood is lower middle class and the others are younger than I so they consider me eccentric. They love that I plant little plants at the homes that are for sale as it looks nice. They yell hello to me and I wave to them. I like it H.--lower middle class but nice and homey feeling.

You got to get to know your neighbors it makes for good living.

I'm on Thea S's side of this all the way. Nervy girl probably has a really bad relationship with her neighbors. Follow her advice if you want your neighbors to despise you. I live in an affluent area, my husband has a doctorate degree, and gasp, sometimes we sneak our trash into the neighbors cans! If i caught them doing the same I'd think, good for them, sometimes you just overflow your trash. In fact, since we had a huge yard clean out, one of our neighbors actually brought is green waist can over and told us to fill it up this week. Now there's a good neighbor. What ever you do, don't be a passive aggressive jerk by sending their trash back. If anything, go over there, put a smile on your face and laugh about it, let them know you actually needed the space and could they make sure they leave you room for one more trash bag. However you decide to handle it, be neighborly.

Is the trash can on the side of the house between the two properties? If yes, move the trash can to the other side of the driveway. If you leave it down at the curb during the week, bring it up the side of the house. If it is at the curb all week, it is free game for filling.