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.

The woman next door is young and fit with young DC, see her often going back and forth to her car.

I appreciate not everyone is fit enough though to bring their own bins into their own garden ❤️

@Thepeopleversuswork Empathy would be when you can validate a different point of view and not rush to attack somebody personally.
And have you actually read my previous posts where I talked both about mental illness and poverty as the reasons? You took my short response to somebody else's specific comment and called me lame and lacking of critical thinking.

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

If it's attracting rats, that's one thing. If it's just not entirely aesthetically pleasing, then I refer you to my previous comments about disliking forsythia, yet the bloody stuff is everywhere.

If it's house-prices, well, then it's up to you - if you're that worried about your house price, perhaps you'd invest in a gardener for them? Since it's for your economic benefit?

How exactly is it selfish?

I keep the front maintained enough to prevent it encroaching on my neighbours' properties on both sides & the public pavement out front & planted a hedge of native shrubs, all species I've carefully researched to provide an 'edible hedge' for both passers by & wildlife- my neighbour has taken advantage of this for the last 10 years & harvests the bountiful supply of blackberries.

I have frogs, toads, hedgehogs, newts & even the occasional grass snake, plus many varied species of birds, butterflies, moths, hoverflies, beetles & other invertebrates making their homes there.

I've even had positive comments from several neighbours about my little wildlife haven, so perhaps wind your neck in before making baseless assumptions.

Best thing! We’ve resorted to doing the same with lots of bit and pieces.

I've managed to do that with some things, but it's not doable for everyone.

My method is usually to stomp on anything wooden to break it up. Does take ages, though.

Had to do that when we got our door canopy replaced. We'd expected the firm that did that plus another couple of jobs round the front to remove it. They didn't of course. They also bodged the other work.

I was at work at the time, and they took advantage of the fact that DH was too unwell to realise that they'd cut corners.

Took me months to get rid of the old canopy, though I did manage to drag it into the side return.

I've also managed to do that with carpeting at my mum's old place. At least it was round the back. The firm was supposed to cut it up for me. They didn't. Could hardly cut through it myself. I'd never manage now.

No, if I was single I’d never manage any of these types of jobs. I can only just keep on too of wiping down the loo, sink etc on my own.

Its amusing how many people think that there are hordes of people just waiting to come and do your cleaning and maintenance for free.

Got the numbers wrong DC 1 and 2 have a different father to DC 3 and 4

Jesus christ seems like somebody round here ought to start a business sewing scarlet letters. Would make a packet.

Mind. Your. Own. Business. Nobody in the whole wild world is completely beyond reproach for everything.

My lovely neighbours keep leaving things in front of my flat, an old fridge which has been there for nearly a year, the council want £45 to remove it, even though it's not mine. Before that, it was an old chest of drawers, which a paid someone to take away, before that it was an old coat stand, and so on. If I paid to have the fridge moved, another item would appear, and I can't afford this. My neighbours are taking the absolute p%$, and the neighbours 3 doors down have a teenage son with ADHD who has grafitti'd my outside wall, and then watched me on their cameras try to clean it off.
I would like to keep my home looking presentable, but am living among the scum of the earth.
&%$£*()!!!!!

I charitably assume they are maxed out with life or have bigger issues in their life , both of which happens to many of us. My 10yo cousin used to mow the lawn to try and
make the house look normal, his parents were between them mentally absent and paranoid psychotic, and in the stable times they couldn’t keep an organised house (they lived in a different city). They loved their kids and did their best for them all the times that they could, but the house was always a total dump. I assume most people with a filthy or falling down house / junk in the front yard could use help rather than judgment.

Or possibly sensible if it means keeping a safe place for your child to play in. If I have limited time do I spend an hour out the front for appearances sake, or an hour out the back making sure the brambles don't take over and that lawn is mown so DS can get to his trampoline without getting upset?

Lots of people here keep jumping for skip like front yard to perfect "which is too hard" (obviously) to get the But olympics going, like if there is nothing in between.

It doesn't have to be magazine worthy. Tidy without rubbish is enough.

How big are some people's front yards that they would take more than 15min a week to keep tidy😶

@BeachBeerBbq totally, I would be happy if people just picked up the litter all over their drives. It seems pretty minimal to me and achievable.

I am sick of the excuse that it’s too much for people . I think people just don’t care and I think that’s shameful. People who think it’s mean to have this attitude probably live in nice areas. I live in a shitty area because I am not wealthy. I make an effort to keep the front of my house presentable and litter free. I don’t think it’s bad to say other people should do the same. It’s sucks living on a road where people don’t care.

Aye.

I remember trying not to cry when I realised that the neighbours who had remodelled their front garden had put all their rubbish in our brown/garden waste bin - this included broken pots, a broken brush...

Of course, I had to sort it all out into my 'correct' bins so that I wouldn't get the tag of shame on my bin.

I walk with crutches. I can't bend down to pick up litter and get back up again. I have a frame around my toilet to help me get up and down, and a walking frame in the house because I can't get up off the chair. Perching stool in the kitchen.

I have arthritis in my hands. I'm waiting to have 2 hip replacements. I genuinely can't keep on top of the weeding. Nor can I lift the shit that SOMEONE ELSE has put in my front garden and dispose of it at the tip.

It's not pretty minimal and achievable for me. And that's not an excuse - it is a reason, because I'm disabled.

We get a "contaminated" sticker. I'm so sorry you're going through the same as me it's terrible.

I might manage mine if other people stopped dumping their rubbish there.

I also have a problem with delivery folk taking shortcuts and stomping on my plants.

I tried putting in a low fence as a visual barrier. (Just a cheap thing from B&M.) Thought it might give my replacement rose a chance to grow.

Nope. The fence is currently lying flat. Every time I replace it, it gets stomped on again. So tired of clearing up other people's mess.

@justaboutdonenow

Your garden sounds lovely. I think you may well find you're ahead of a trend. Let's hope so anyway.

With increased paving for cars, artificial grass, plus increased environmental pollutants, herbicides and pesticides, wildlife is badly affected.

@ZingyShaker do you have friends or family looking out for you? It's sounds like you really do struggle?

I'm trying to keep on top of the litter here, but it's not easy. I injured myself moving and handling my late husband and there's a specific problem with my knees which means that they keep locking on me.

One time - I kid you not - I was out front, picking up litter while I had one arm in a sling.

A woman nodded and smiled benignly at me...and then watched as her child dropped litter in the street. I'm right on the corner of our road and the stuff that gets dropped on the pavement all seems to find it's way onto what's left of my driveway. (Gravel. Churned up by parents doing the school run. When I can manage it, I'll try my luck with monoblock.)

What you mean you don’t care if your home looks nice and is clean and tidy?

I have an old freezer in my front garden it’s a store for pet food and wild bird seed rat resistant butt out I also have old toys but my friends have young children who enjoy them butt out oh and my old bathroom I upcycled the toilet and hand basin I’m growing strawberries in the bath we sunk and used as a water garden

I am astounded at how many people are justifying the people leaving fridges etc in front garden's (assuming the people defending this actually do it themselves)

I live in a new build and I am seeing it already after only 8 months of everyone moving in. It generates rats and mice and is not acceptable one bit, why should I have vermin in my brand new house because other people choose to live like! that it’s scruffy, lazy and not the norm

I am astounded at how many people are justifying the people leaving fridges etc in front garden's (assuming the people defending this actually do it themselves).

It seems to me that the people justifying the behaviour are mostly those who are very distant to it - they often start with 'I'm very lucky that my neighbourhood is not like that', and then do the virtue-signalling 'I empathise fully as I am a kind person'.