I happen to live in an apartment that offers door-to-door trash pickup service. Unfortunately, my neighbors suck at following instructions to keep the common areas clean and pleasant.
This site is a bitchfest account of what I get to deal with when I am traveling to and fro from my apartment. It is a diary where I can vent about my very considerate neighbors, who ensure I have a great view when I open my front door. Why wouldn’t I want to be greeted the sight of bags of trash when I open my door?
Rules So Simple, No One Could Screw Them Up
The trash rules are simple:
- All trash goes in one tied trashbag, which goes in the valet trash bin
- The valet bin can be placed outside the door between the hours of 6 pm and 9 pm, Sunday through Thursday.
- No trash pickup Friday and Saturday nights
- The valet bin needs to be brought in by 9 am the next morning.
That’s it.
When #1 is not followed, the valet service is not supposed to pick up the trash–and they didn’t, at first. They would even leave little “violation tickets” that had reminders, but that lasted under a fortnight.
And Screw Them Up They Do
There are a significant number of people who do not read and who cannot understand how schedules and procedures work. Door to door trash service is not suitable for folks like this; what ends up happening is the apartment hallways and common balconies accumulate trash, which leaks and leaves nasty stains. The hallway starts looking (and smelling) like a trash dump all day, every day.
- Multiple bags piled outside the door on the floor, sometimes not tied.
- Trash put out any day (especially Friday), at random times and left out all day.
- Trash that wasn’t picked up due to not adhering to “one tied bag” is simply left out until the workers give in and pick it up days later.
“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.“
— Hanlon’s Razor
I’ve lived in both door-to-door and “self-serve” places over the years and the self-serve ones are much nicer. When folks have to lug their trash to the dumpster, it keeps the trash away from the doors and hallways.
I imagine not too many folks who live in single family homes would toss leaking, smelly bags of trash onto their front porch and leave them there for days or weeks!
This Reminds Me of New York City
Back in the day, I traveled to NYC on the regular (lived upstate for a few months, too). The city is infamous for setting out mountains for trash and not having trashbins.
During summer, those bags get ripe. The entire city smells that way and it takes a bit of getting used to. Unfortunately, that’s a consequence of design decisions made over a century ago: there are no alleys and no place to put dumpsters, thus the bags of trash.
Walkway Stains
Because of whatever nasty stuff people throw out, and the flimsy bags they use, the contents leak all over the concrete walkway. These drips are not cleaned (and the concrete is not sealed) so the drips turn into stains. Big stains. Nasty stains.
The Box
The neighbor directly across from me has a new quirk. Some time in December 2024, they got a box delivered, and they decided to leave it outside—unopened—forever. I have no idea what’s in the box. It hasn’t been stolen (we live in a pretty safe community) or opened. It is a mystery.
What is wrong with you?
Heh, plenty. But I could rage in silent, go crazy and run down the street with no clothes on, or post here.
