People not showing pride in their homes

[Auburngal]

Talking about those who leave the front of their homes (owned) in a state.

For example there’s a house down my parents road who has an old fridge freezer on their driveway for 5 years! Don’t understand why people spend several hundred quid on white goods don’t buy them from a retailer who takes the old one for free or for £10. I paid the retailer £10 to take my old washer away and to recycle it accordingly.

Then there’s a house opposite me who had their bathroom replaced and left the old loo and other bits outside the home for several months. A decent bathroom fitter would take the old stuff away as part of the package.

Then another family down my parents road have old children’s toys in their garden- play house, sand pit etc. The kids are too old for these toys now.

Then are properties with hedges on the road and used as a ‘bin’. Unless the owners have mobility issues - then there’s no excuse to remove the rubbish from the hedge.

People spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on their homes but I hate it when they show no care.

People need to show pride.

I am a member of a community litter picking group.

Better things to do than live in a shithole?

OP, I think you found a case in point.

You are going to be shocked when you find out that this a forum about opinions.

Personally, if I can manage to get dressed, and do enough work to keep my job, that's my limit. I can do no more.

So yes, I have better things to do.

This thread has brought out all those who allow their houses to look like a shithole. Your poor neighbours.

The irony is that my garden used to be the 'nice' garden on the street.

Once one of the neighbours decided to 'landscape' their garden [paving slabs and gravel] they chucked all their rubbish into our garden. Yes, I did complain. No, it didn't make a difference. (Other than the fact that the neighbour threatened to have me arrested for 'alarming her child' who had supposedly been alone in the house. When I pointed out that a child shouldn't be left home alone: "My child's 17."

It's amazing how willing some people are to take advantage of a situation where others are too unwell to fight back.

Do my bit how? Leaving it like what? How do I "show pride"?

I am going to make a point of scrubbing my step tomorrow but I have no idea what else I could actually do to show pride. Stand at the pavement and invite any passers by to admire my house.

@WearyAuldWumman I'm sorry you've gone through that.

I used to have a lovely garden. I had pots and hanging baskets and window boxes and a lovely lawn. Now my garden looks like a shithole and apparently I'm "allowing" it, despite the rubbish not being mine and me paying a gardener to do the lawn. And yes, I had white goods in the garden, and at a different time some old furniture, but I paid the council to collect them, but it took them weeks. That's not my fault any of it.

Gosh, I was thinking it brought out all the 2024 versions of the 1950s pinny-wearing bosom-hoikers who stood on their scrubbed doorsteps muttering out of the cotprners of their mouths about how ‘er at Number Fifteen was a slattern because here it was 9 am and the curtains not drawn..

It's heartbreaking, isn't it?

I recall my husband once saying of someone who didn't understand: "They'll maybe know what it's like themselves, some day."

The op has described fridges left for years, litter strewn through the hedge, broken toys left to rot outdoors .... not manicured lawns and scrubbed doorsteps. But don't let that stop you from engineering offense.

In the winter my front garden has both me and my neighbours bins stored in it to save us having to chase them down the street. We live right at the shore front and get battered with the wind in the winter. The front of our houses seem the less impacted. A few weeks ago my old sofa was also sat there, the council failed to pick it up for 4 weeks despite it being booked and paid 3 weeks before!

Everytime I looked at the ring camera I hated how it looked 🤣 but bins are pricey, sore when the wind flicks the lid up and chasing them down the street is not fun nor is picking up all the rubbish from the street/road.

In the summer however my front garden is immaculate, I don’t really mind other folks gardens in whatever state they are. My daughter clearly does as last summer she ended up weeding and tidying the woman’s garden across the road 🙈

The op states that

People need to show pride

Oh give over. Where do you live if having a couple of white goods on your front garden for 5 years is not frowned upon.

Yeah, enough pride not to let their home look like a dump, not up their game to compete with the Chelsea Flower Show.

I'd prefer to keep my bins round the back, but pick-up is at the front of the house and I'm not fit to drag the bins all the way round the house.

I hope to get some kind of a bin shed constructed at some point, but at the moment all 4 bins will just have stay horribly on display.

One of the downsides to mixed tenure. When it costs so much to dispose of goods you can understand why it just gets left outside. Best bet is to wind your neck in, somebody is always going to be critical about something - washing on the line, dirty car, caravan on the drive. My best one is that we had a shitty anonymous note through the door because we grow veg in our front garden. It’s simply not on, you know.

My house (not home) doesn't look like a dump. At all. But I take zero pride in it. Having a roof over my head isn't an achievement so I can't feel proud of it.

You definitely couldn't grow veg in your garden round here. You would be run out of town for lowering the tone.

Are you a peeping Tom?
You wouldn't be feeling safe and cosy if I caught you gurning through my windows early in the morning.
I'd get you with my Donkey Stone

You assume I have a back garden...

@Federiica

unfortunately I don’t think you quite get it

That's exactly what I'm saying. I don't get it at all.

Well our council collect stuff if you pay the £30. But it usually takes 3 or 4 weeks to or them to do so after you have paid . Hence stuff hanging outside a good while waiting. Ironically they used to collect for free on the following weeks bin day. Seems to be false economy though as they now moaning about the cost of fly tippers ..

Oh and my grass needs cutting but it's so damn boggy on the lawn that the guy who does it won't come until it's dried out a bit

What a horrible, judgemental thread. Mind your own business OP.

Why would you put something in your back garden where presumably you sit/your kids play rather than out the front where you don’t?