To think our neighbors have swapped them while we were out?

[Stigofthedump90]

I’m not sure if I’m being paranoid or not but I’m really upset.

We have had our current NDN (terraced) for about a year and they are really scruffy. Our front gardens don’t have a boundary, and they leave their bins at the end of them full time. Can’t really do much about this, but the thing is, they don’t always put stuff in black bags. I’ve seen the sons just lift the lid when they are off out and put food wrappers etc straight into the bin. It does get annoying especially when they leave the lid up and wind blows their crap all over our garden and path. I do just generally grit my teeth and move it though because I don’t want to confront them and have a falling out.

Today was bin day so I wheeled ours out before I went to work. When I got home and went to put them back, I noticed that the black one really really stank. So I lifted the lid and there was a load of loose rubbish at the bottom, with food wrappers of things we don’t eat and a whole Tupperware container that looks still to be dirty with food. There are maggots all over everything and it’s jusy disgusting. It made me gag. But the the bin has our number sticker on! I feel like I’m going mad because it certainly wasn’t in that state this morning.

I feel like I can’t go round though because they will just deny it and I have no proof - it looks like our bin! Is it unreasonable to ask them if they’ve swapped them around?!

I don’t want to have to clean it and keep the waste for another two weeks until bin day again. They obviously didn’t accept the stuff that wasn’t in a bin bag. I can’t even get to close to it it’s so horrible.

I have NO idea what the reasonable course of action would be here! Does anyone have any advice?

There are companies that clean wheels bins
Always thought it was an odd business idea but just what you need
I would also kill the neighbours with kindness bunch of daffodils and Easter eggs for the kids have a nice chat in the door step eye contact ect and a lovely card, yes it would stick in my thoat aswell but you want to nip any petty neighbour nonsense on the head as these things can get very miserably out of hand very quickly

As you can't prove it was them accusing will only escalate the issue.

But now you can at least aim to stop it happening again.

• bleach the bin
• paint your number on the bin, on the lid and inside the lid.
• get a bin lock to stop anyone using your bin midweek

I’d check their bin out and see if it’s actually yours, if it is then swap them back. Also paint your number all over it or buy more stickers that would be difficult and tedious to remove. A person on my street had adorned theirs with lots of tiny stickers of bumblebees .

Definitely paint number on.

Clumping cat litter.

That’s the answer for gross bins. So still have to sweep it out but it doesn’t smell as bad and should all come out.

Doesn’t stop it getting stolen but it makes cleaning it more bareable.

I’m amazed you couldn’t instantly tell the difference between your own bin and their bin if theirs is so grim and yours isn’t.

Scratch your house number on the bin so they can't do this in the future.

Surely the imprint of your sticker would be visible on the 'stolen bin'?

My DH fished all the disgusting crap out and put it in a black bin bag and slung it (open) in their bin. It more horrible than it looked, there were filthy baby wipes, rotten food, soggy/grimy food packaging etc. None of it belonged to us. He gave it a good wash and now it’s locked in the garage.

He hates how messy they are with their bins even more than I do and this was the final straw for him I think. He wants us to go round and ask them to be a bit tidier/not use our bins. I’m not sure it’s wise as we can’t prove anything or make them keep them tidy.

We shall have to see what happens in two weeks time when the bins come out again

I’d be taking their bin in the night and comparing - could be that they ripped off your sticker and replaced it on their bin just so they didn’t have to clean their own crap out! Get a permanent marker for inside the lid

When you say the gardens have no boundary... surely they do, don't they? Do you mean there's no fence or hedge? Is there anything stopping you installing a boundary?

No nothing stopping us, we’ve just discussed it and are going to put a hedge up or something. Preferabley something spikey.

Since you've now cleaned it out I'd say nothing, just take avoidance measures (and drop occasional rotting fish into theirs 😈 😈)

ask them to be a bit tidier*

Let us know how that goes 😂

For next time I've used an old mop after the kettle and bleach trick.. And if you Google wheelie clean, or something like that, they come and do a one off job.

Use white paint to paint your house number on your bin.

Oh that’s rotten. I would remove the junk and casually dump it in their bin, then just crack on and clean it out. Bleach will be your friend. Paint your house number on the side, but also on the base of the bin, nobody thinks to look there and it’s more protected from the elements so won’t fade or be covered.

Report it to the council and see if they will replace it.
If they won't, there are companies who will come and clean it, but of course, you will have to pay.

I had this problem when I first moved into my place but it was cat poop.... I knew who it was as there is only 1 person in the block that has a cat so I switched it back and they came out. asked what I was doing and I just said taking my bin back as this bin is yours as it has cat poop in it they tried to say it wasn't these so I swapped anyway then paint my bins like mad haven't had a problem since. I should have just cleaned but I didn't want them to think they could just do this all the time. id swap it back but if its going to start drama just clean it.
hope you get it sorted out.

...and get your clean bin stickered / numbered before the next bin day or your neighbours may swap it again and you'll end up cleaning another bin.

My NDN had my bin for 2 weeks. There’s had a huge split in the lid so I knew it was theirs.

Tbf the bin men often leave our bins in random locations, so they quite possibly didn’t realise initially.

Next bin day I was out early and retrieved my beautiful bin. I bought number stickers and there’ll be no mix ups from now on.

Annoyed me so much it formed the basis of a new Netflix account password

Get better stickers
Mine are on a transfer such that you just stick it once but when you peel off the backing, each sticker is individual per letter. So you couldn’t just re stick it’d take all day!

Also use paint to paint your number on the freshly cleaned bin.

Your neighbours sound like cheeky wankers

You’ll get someone along in a minute to lecture you on the wrongs of killing poor defenceless maggots inhumanely.

Or, as I believe they're known in the trade, 'disco rice' (thanks, Susie Dent!)

Definitely white gloss paint - on the side, front, lid and also - as a security measure - on the underside of the bin.

You could always try mocking up a big official-looking note and slapping it on the front of the bin, saying:

"XXXX local council responsible waste scheme. As a thank you for helping us to reduce your household waste, your bin has been randomly selected for this month's £50 LetsWasteLess prize. Please take this sticker to the council offices to claim your award."

Not only will they be clamouring to swap the bins back and insist that yours is actually theirs when you loudly and theatrically 'discover' it, just imagine the fun when they turn up at the council demanding their non-existent prize

Fuck cleaning it - wait for them to go out and swap it back!!