To find this passive-aggressive?

[RogueFemale]

Background: all the houses in my neighbourhood put out food waste caddies on a Wednesday for waste collection Thursday mornings. They're the size of a bucket. I am guilty of not always taking mine back inside on Thursdays, especially if I don't go out, & sometimes I don't until the weekend. My only sin - I am otherwise a model of neighbourly virtue :)

There are a handful of other lazy neighbours like me.

Anyway, this Thursday afternoon I received an anonymous note (typed):

Dear Neighbours
We understand it is so much easier to leave your food caddy out all week...
Unfortunately there are issues with this:
They occupy space on our narrow pavement, making it difficult to walk and they are an eyesore too.
But the most concerning issue is that they are a health hazard, they attract rats.
Thank you for being a responsible neighbour, we like our street to look nice and we sure don't want rats around.
All best, Your neighbours

More context: The pavements are also bristling with bicycles chained to the fronts of houses (no front gardens), far bulkier than a bucket, but not "difficult" to walk past (N.B. even without anything on the pavement it's too narrow for a wheelchair because of protuding front steps). The caddies left out are empty, therefore not a rat magnet, - never seen a rat out front.

Yes, I accept that I'm not being the perfect neighbour, but I don't leave it out "all week" and the reasons given are invalid except for the eyesore thing. And I think anonymous passive-aggressive notes are an unpleasant way to try to address it, if a handful of food caddies bother you that much.

There's a very active neighbourhood email group, and this neighbour could have posted a generalised email saying 'please could everyone take in their caddies on Thursdays', explaining why they felt so strongly - and then no doubt all would pitch in agreeing how annoying it was when people didn't. That would've been fine, if they'd revealed their identity, I just find it creepy to send anonymous, passive-aggressive, sarcastic ("so much easier to leave your food caddy out") notes. I know another neighbour who got the same note.

It would annoy me to get the note. I'm very much a live and let live kind of neighbour.
You could:
Post on the neighbourhood WhatsApp about the bikes being a trip hazard in the context of the request you've received . Start it dear neighbours

Ignore it and carry on

Or just bring in the food caddie on time.

I don’t think the note is passive aggressive.

Woa. Leaving bins out on the street for days is gross and inconsiderate behaviour. Especially when all you have to do is literally step outside your door and retrieve it. Your neighbours have every right to ask you to remove it-
this is basic consideration, an ordinary request and generally there are laws specifying that this needs to be done in a timely way.

I don’t get why you are so hung up on the note being anonymous. Your neighbour- impacted by your selfish, slovenly actions, just wanted you to bring your bin in. (Again, a reasonable request that you have (allegedly) already accepted and intend to comply with). what they didn’t want to do was to cause a personal confrontation- perhaps because you are the type of person to call a neighbour “creepy” and a “cunt” 😱 simply for leaving you a note with a basic request that you do something that you should be doing already.

If other people are getting the notes too then it sounds like you’ve just got one particularly busybody curtain-twitching neighbour. Very annoying but ultimately they can’t actually do anything just hide behind stupid notes.