to think it's twattish to leave your unwanted crap outside your house for passers-by to take?

[TheIncredibleBookEatingManchot]

I probably am being unreasonable because the person I know who does this is someone I just can't stand for no discernible reason and everything she does annoys me.

Every so often stuff gets left on the pavement outside her house. Sometimes with a note saying "Free to a good home! :)" but usually just left there. Books get soggy in the rain, and seriously, is anyone going to pick up a dog-eared picture book from the pavement and give it to their baby anyway? Wheelchair users can't get past (very narrow pavement) and stuff just sits there for days looking sadder and sadder and I was sure there were more reasons to be annoyed by this but as I type I realise it pretty much boils down to it's annoying because it's her.

But why doesn't she offer her things to friends or donate it to a charity shop or sell it or freecycle it?

I bet she's smugly thinking "I'm being so kind and generous letting anyone who needs my unwanted crap just come and take it. And everyone can see how kind and generous I am every time they pass my house. I bet they talk about how lovely I am all the time."

YOU'RE NOT BEING KIND AND GENEROUS YOU'RE JUST CLUTTERING THE STREET WITH RUBBISH

I'm being unreasonable, aren't I?

ornaments, books and crockery on a quiet road with not a lot of to-ing and fro-ing

I think this is an important point OP - if no-one is likely to be walking down the street, it's not going to get snaffled and will just become a nuisance.

Is this neighbour unable in any way to take stuff down to the charity shops etc (e.g. disability)? If so, perhaps you could help out by offering to take it the next time you go past the shops yourself. She can then leave it on her own property (securely wrapped from the elements!) where you could pick it up for her.

(I appreciate that this may not be a practical suggestion for many reasons.)

It's pretty common practice where we live, I think it's neighbourly and have a few coffee tables / chairs I've acquired this way.

Lemond1fficult - it's the scrap metal boys! We've left a broken oven out awaiting council collection and it was gone in a heartbeat! They're welcome to it - quicker than the council! :)

Blocking the pavement and leaving out in the rain is bad but putting things out for others to take is just an easier way of recycling.

Here in Finland people often leave things in the bin sheds at apartment buildings/terrace of houses so they're sheltered from the rain. When I was moving house I put a frying pan and oven dish out, then ex-FIL went to take some rubbish down to the bins, picked up the frying pan and oven dish and brought them inside saying "Ooo these look good!"

Our previous President has even been known to dumpster dive imgur.com/gallery/P5Grt9X

YABU to not love this I think it's great and used to do it all the time! But YANBU to expect that people who do it should be considerate - if stuff is left out then it shouldn't block a path and should always be brought in at end of day, then taken to the charity shop eventually.

We look after some children from Belarus in the summer (not smug, fact) and last year we had an 8 yo boy at short notice for a weekend. None of the bikes we had suited him, so he was stuck with either a too small bike or a scooter (he didn't seem to mind).

Then one afternoon DP and he were walking the dog and walked past a house with a bike the right size and a note saying 'free'. So, they respectfully knocked on the door and asked if we could have it - little chap was thrilled to bits.

Of course, he couldn't take it home with him but it can be a communal bike for other host families if needed.

So, I like the habit, but it only works where there is passing footfall. And not with small items and not left for long or blocking access.

Pretty standard round my way in London. I have got rid of quite a bit of stuff, and picked up some stuff that way!

We have done this in the past...on our drive though

Once it was an expensive good condition chest of drawers with a note on it saying there was a matching wardrobe and book case

The people who wanted it were so pleased, they couldn't believe their luck and came back with a bottle of wine

Saved us a tip trip

But yeah shouldnt leave crap out in the rain

Lack of traffic isn't an issue really - sometimes someone will phone a friend to tip off about an item they saw in an alley round here. People only drive down alleys if they have to (or if they are trawling for stuff and doing it in a systematic way). I have paired people up with a coffee table and garden pots and a mattress I had a good look at, and people have done the same for me.

I know I have seen crockery and ornaments and old toys and books out (hence the O'Keeffe print book I acquired). Books not so much now that you can put them in the little free library boxes that have mushroomed here. But people will pick up the strangest things if given the chance.

The only problem I have seen is people who take the concept of 'one man's trash is another's treasure' too far. A neighbour and I helped another neighbour get his act together to move out of state (he had problems that caused his family to urge him to move closer to them but the same issues kept him from organising himself to move) and we ended up with several big black bags of ratty old junk left in the alley afterwards, all tagged for pickup (you buy stickers here if you have excess for the waste disposal service). The evening after the seven bags were left out my neighbour and I realised that someone had gone through the bags, some of which contained spoiled food and cat litter, and had made an enormous mess. We had to go out and rebag, find the tags and clean up the alley with our garden hoses. So many flies... We had seen a few people out there but never suspected they would do such damage and just drive away.

HappyFlappy - it's a lovely book. It has pretty much all her work in it - NYC to the desert south west and everything in between, and nicely reproduced.

This is also very common in Glasgow especially in our area which is teeming with students. We have put a lot of furniture out but not small items

no big deal unless it hAngs about for ages

You need to be careful though. Some former neighbours of ours were doing a bit of work on their kitchen floor. For lack of space they put the fridge, freezer and cooker in their front garden while they sorted out the floor. They went out an hour later and all three had been taken

I'm always amazed at what we leave out on our street (common practice in my town in the US as well) and which gets taken - one manky old arm chair that my cat had ripped to pieces all down one side took several days to go, but go it did. As for blocking wheelchairs, we have to put our bins out every Monday on the pavement - they are a lot more of an obstacle, but that's where we are supposed to leave them.

I don't think YABU if the stuff has been out on the pavement for a week.

A better way to give stuff away for free is to Freegle it and keep it in your house/garden until the person comes to pick it up!

I do this and am always amazed by how quickly some things go. You have to plan a charity /tip run if things don't go though.

We had 8 bottles of champagne from our wedding, we don't drink it and it'd been in our attic for about 8 years, so I left it on the street when I was having a clear out. By the time I'd gone to the house and back 2 bottles had gone (moet and something), then by the time I'd done the school run it'd all gone. So funny that, the first at least, people were selective.

YABU. I got a really nice garden table and chairs this way - neighbours left it on the pavement with a note.

I'm in Australia. In my area we get 12 free council clean ups a year that take mattresses and everything. I'm happy to see people take things.

12!!!!! We only get one, and they were going to cancel that until there was practically a riot. We've got a really stingy council though.

In London it's common, things go fast. Only last week I got a lovely coat stand.

My best was a stereo part I needed to complete my decks.

One house even has a mini library, a smal box with a box in bright colours to take and leave good books.

It helped a lot during building works as so much was taken saving a skip, the rest we gave leftover plaster board to remove the real crap to a man

YANBU if she is leaving stuff out, in the way and for a long time, more reason to dislike her
YABU if you dislike the practise in general though, really quick and easy way to recycle and someone gets something they need so win-win. I got these blue toy drawers from outside a neighbours so could afford to make Ds some much needed Lego storage. Happy uncluttered neighbour, happy organised Ds and my feet were very happy from not being hurt by Lego pieces

I wouldn't leave stuff out, definitely not random stuff that'll get ruined in the rain. I left the old bath and kitchen sink unit on the drive to take to the tip later, a very polite bloke knocked to ask if he could take them. Bloody marvellous, saved me a trip.

My neighbour left some large children's play stuff in their front garden with a note saying free to a good home. They were all gone a few days later. I thought it was really nice. But I guess that's because they weren't narrowing the pavement.

Blergh. I don't really mind this in principle but the pavement blocking would really annoy me. What if a person in a wheelchair needed past!?

People near me do it in their front gardens/driveways but half the time it's pissing down with rain so stuff gets ruined.

We recently re-did a room and put a bunch of stuff in the freebies section of gumtree early on a Saturday morning. The lot was gone in 3 hours and didn't even have to lug it out to the road! Maybe let her know of the existence of freecycle/gumtree freebs

We did this just before leaving London, on a summer's day, almost everything went, was fun watching it go!

YANBU . Your neighbour is fly tipping and it is illegal. I expect she puts the notes on there to cover up her crime. Contact your local council they may be able to issue her with a fine or at least send her a warning

It's not fly tipping if it's left out for someone to collect. When people fly tip, they just dump and it's usually hidden, not just outside their door.

If it is something that useful to others, and likely to go within minutes hours, the I don't have a problem with it. My own classroom is furnished with many items from hard rubbish items that I've overhauled and turned into useful items (Yes, teachers often do need to provide their own furniture for their classrooms), and surely that is better than being added to landfill. I have a chair that I reupholstered, a shelving unit that I use to put differentiated work on, a big glass jar that we use for our classroom reward system, several bookshelves, quite a lot of cushions, and a rug. In exchange, last year I put out a fully functioning surround sound system and speakers, a working DVD-R player, an outdoor table, and goodness knows how many other items that disappeared within a few minutes. Pay it forward and stop sending perfectly good items to landfill when others may get use out of them.