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.

Very elaborate critical thinking there to call somebody lame for using the word 'cool' as an opposite to the word 'old fashioned'.

You'd hate our street OP,next door but one hasn't been able to open his side gate for three years because of all the washing machines.tumble dryers,fridges etc piled up next to the house.
Last summer he dragged a tumble dryer into the front garden and left it there for several weeks,Another neighbour offered to dispose of it for him but he refused and took it back into his house.

How was I meant to do it myself?
Put it on my back and walk to the tip? Not that you're allowed in without a car?
Somehow force the council to come and do one of the collections they advertise but never seem to be able to book?

@doorsteps

Very elaborate critical thinking there to call somebody lame for using the word 'cool' as an opposite to the word 'old fashioned'.

Fair. But at least I have empathy and can see beyond the end of my own front yard.

Reach out to whom? The magic home maintenance fairy?!

Obviously no one wants rubbish strewn around attracting rats and smelling etc, but with the best will in the world some people are unable to manage their property (and any service working with them, as well as common sense, will tell them to concentrate on the inside if they have limited resources, because that’s the bit they actually live in).

Round here the council would have charged you at least £30/40 to collect it, even if you could get them to come.

They asked £50 for a small plywood ikea wardrobe without any shelves or anything in it- small and light enough for me to lift it alone (and I’m disabled).

They charge here too.

See there is a part the village, everyone talks about here, plays in this.
When I was a child if strangers saw us drop rubbish we would get massive telling off, have to pick it up and take it to a bin. Still happens now.
I grew up with "bin it, if no bin take it home" heavily enforced.
My family was surprised how much rubbish is around on streets in Uk.

Who are the people throwing litter out of car windows? What possesses people to do it?

I don’t think YABU considering the type of gardens you are posting about.

There is a difference between needing a mow and having stoves, old loos and refrigerators just sitting in the front garden.

"fuck it. Someone else will deal with it"

Those people who are willing to donate their services to others! It’s definitely a thing in my neck of the woods, with a community Facebook group and regular pleas for help met with offers of services/support/advice etc. community at its best, but can only work effectively if people ask for help in the first place.

I’d have broken it up and put it in the bin over a few weeks. We were left with carpeting, so we cut it up, and binned it. Fortunately our regular (non recycling) bin never gets really full. We also see regular scrap collectors, anything metal left out front will soon be removed. I understand that some of us may not have the ability, or the finances to keep everything perfect, but when you know your neighbours have no issues, it can be annoying. Especially for anyone hoping to sell.

It’s so depressing, I wish I could afford to move to a nicer place. People on my road (home owners and renters) don’t give a shit. They litter their own driveways and nothing is clean or maintenance. Add to that the fly tipping from other people and litter from nearby takeaway places.

I know there are social elements that contribute but I also think that people are lazy and just don’t care. It’s horrible.

Who cares. It is distasteful!

@Itsokay2020
Some (not all) of the excuses on here are really poor. The entitlement of having a house and gardens but no desire to maintain them is very selfish and demonstrates a lack of empathy for those they live amongst.

Whilst I wholeheartedly support the notion of helping each other, those with white goods in gardens or those struggling to carry out basic maintenance need to reach out for help and understand the negative impact it has on neighbours.

Who do people reach out to for help? I mean we had a carers assessment that lead to a one off payment to help us clear the back garden of brambles and buddleia, but that's it, that's the one off payment done.

I hate that we're the scruffy garden house on the street, but DS and earning enough money to live are the priorities.

People need to show pride.

OP, if you live your life worrying about what you feel other people 'need' to do, you are not going to have a very happy life.

People will do what they do. You don't have control there.

I worked for a council housing department. Many tenants took great care, loved their homes etc., but often one bad apple could spoil it. Communal bins were an issue, stuff dumped around them that wouldn’t be collected, just left to fester.

Appalling state of some gardens, even in areas where the residents’ associations had tools to lend, some households couldn’t be bothered with even the basics. Old sofas on the fronts mainly occupied when the weather was ok, huge house numbers painted in emulsion on the front walls, general litter and rubbish, including used nappies and empty bottles. I regularly pass some flats like, I can imagine when some people are offered one their heart must sink.

@CleftChinare you being sarcastic about the forsythia? I genuinely can’t tell

but if not, it’s absolutely batshit that you think someone with a forsythia is lazy. If you don’t like them, fair enough, but to assume someone is lazy for having one in their garden is probably the craziest thing I’ve ever read on MN.

I'm not being sarcastic in that I really don't like it, and wish I didn't have to look at it, and if people would put in the effort to remove it then my eyeballs would thank them.

The point I'm making is that some people get het up about bins in the 'wrong' place, or some junk in a garden, but I don't, I find forsythia far more unpleasant to look at than a bin in a front garden, and probably about equal with a fridge left outside or overgrown garden. I will admit I prefer forsythia to a rotting settee.

Just because you don't like how something looks, doesn't make the person who owns it lazy for not changing it. They probably don't mind how it looks.

I've never liked things like mattresses or appliances left on the street for ages and it does look awful, but it costs a lot to remove things. I asked for a mattress to be removed about 5 years ago and that cost 40 quid and I'd obviously just had to splurge on a new one.

We take stuff to the tip, but we are lucky to live near one that is open 7 days a week and have a good sized vehicle which enables this. Not everyone has that. If you are living hand to mouth and have to pay someone to take something away it is inevitably going to get put off each month.

As for gardening, well people are really time poor right now. Lots of families are stuck in flats due to affordability and supply, so if their kids want a bike, there is no room for it, so it might be stored outside their flat instead. And yes they need to hand washing up outside to stop mould growing indoors too! We don't all have a spare bedroom or a utility room.

We kicked it to bits and took it to the tip ourselves- we had hoped to add it on to a collection we had already paid for (sofa and mattress etc), thought it might be an extra £20 ish but at £50 extra it wasn’t worth it.

Bit of a reach to assume that a less than tidy frontage = selfish & ill mannered.

Oh and lazy of course.

I literally don't have time to tend both my front & back garden because my time is selfishly taken up doing things for others, so I concentrate on the back garden because I'm not all about 'keeping up appearances' so just do a bit of damage limitation out the front.

but can only work effectively if people ask for help in the first place.

And if such things exist… there is no free rubbish removal round here, or a scrap metal person anymore.

No one to do your garden for free either.

Have you made a complaint to the HA, get a few residents together to sign their names to a letter and make a formal complaint.

Also send an anonymous letter

Dosent surprise me at all that they are HA tennants

@justaboutdonenow

Its selfish to concentrate on your back garden when it is the front one that affects the neighbourhood, your answer Dosen’t surprise me though