Neighbour has an opinion on where I put my bins

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We live in on a very quiet cul de sac. The homes have large front gardens and small drive ways. Almost identical to photo attached (not my street just an illustration of our set up). Houses also have a side yard/paved side garden where people keep their bins.

Well I have decided I will keep my bins in front of my garage at the front. We have a dog who gets let out throughout the day. I have a lot of anxiety around my dog being let out as I am not always convinced the side gate is left shut. It gets opened when it is bin day. Every time I let the dog out I have to check to see if gate is close and when I see someone else letting the dog out I shout at them to check. It’s just unnecessary chaos. Ideally I will just put a padlock on the side gate so teens don’t mess up by leaving it open. We live 3 turns away from a somewhat busy b road.

Anyway, a neighbour has since come around and said please can I put the bins back into the side garden as it is unsightly. Granted I am the only person on the cul de sac with them out. But who cares??

I am not the arsehole, right?

edit: whoops looks like I took out voting somehow

So many replies suggesting an automatic closing mechanism for the gate - really simple solution.
OP hasn't responded to any of them but that's what I'd do.

Most people on my street and the surrounding area have their bins on display. Ours are to the side of the front door. They are emptied once a week and I bleach them out on a fairly regular basis, so they are clean and not smelly.

Swap the chore out for your son then!

I get the anxiety about the gate. I still check even when it's DH who's been through ours. But there's a medium ground where you don't piss the neighbours off with the bins/car and you don't get anxiety about the gate.

All takes it one compromise on your sons chore!

It's like you don't want to find a solution bar the one you've chosen.

Good point about front door. My dog is also a bolter so I have to close her in the front room or kitchen when I do the bins (and close my front door for extra safety).

YANBU - it's your house, your land and you can do what you like on it. Your neighbours have got a cheek.

And it’s always the thin end of a wedge which ends with this neighbour writing you self important letters telling you what to do.
You need to put a boundary bin place now. Trust me.

Yes, this 100%

I have an opinion on where my neighbours keep their bins as well and I have a perfect right to have such an opinion, whatever that opinion might be. What I do not have is the right to share that opinion with my neighbours or to expect them to do what I want.

Having said that - if I was your neighbour I would prefer that you didn't keep your bins at the front of the house as I think it looks scruffy. Practically - it means you have to take your rubbish out of the front door instead of the back door. However I can see your point about security and the safety of your dogs. Is there a compromise you can make? I can't see from the photo where your side gate might be - could you move it back and put the bins at the side but at the front? Maybe in a bin store? Or could you put in a second gate further back so you have an air lock so that the dogs would have to escape through 2 gates rather than just one? Just a thought.

What a lot of faff! OP, you don't have to justify your reasons - it's your house so put the bins where you like. (Maybe check your deeds that there's not any weird clauses like those that forbid keeping chickens etc)

Where I used to live, we had a neighbour who was asked to put his bins away from the very front of his garden. So he went all 'Squash and a Squeeze' on his neighbours, by putting a sofa on his front lawn, and then using the sofa to stabilize the packaging for his new kitchen. And putting the old kitchen out front too.

By the time he got around to getting it all shifted, the annoyed neighbours had forgotten they gave a shit about his bins being a bit close to his front gate!

In my community, council rules forbid bins being anywhere forward of garages except on bin day. It's not really unusual to consider garbage bins an eyesore.

Exactly.

Some of us have standards and believe it's worth making a bit more effort.

Our gardens are an extension of our homes. I'd no more keep a bin out front than keep one in my living room.

There's no reason kids and teens can't be trained to close a simple gate, ffs.

Some of us have standards and believe it's worth making a bit more effort.

Good for you. But what gives you the right to impose your 'standards' onto your neighbours? People have different priorities.

Incredibly I live in a house like that and I have no internal door to my garage, neither do my neighbours unless they have taken the time & expense to put one in which just a few have done.

And most covenants were for houses built well before wheelie bins were a thing.

Me neither, and the garage is integrated too. Only access is from the front.

My DD's garage is like this too, attached to the house with access from the outside rear and front only. There is a side path with a gate.
It's not an unusual set up

Why don't you have an emergency/hidden key somewhere outside like most people do?

Do they?

Why are your standards to be imposed on any one else?

It’s not your business.

Exactly!

We live in a terraced house and to get from back garden to the road there are steps. So when we changed to wheelie bins I started leaving mine in the road/beside garden wall. as.its too heavy to lug up and down steps. I expected neighbour to complain and was ready to.say it was fine to leave out..but amazingly he didn't say anything..over time more.and more wheelie bins got left in the road :) who wants dirty old.bins in the back garden :(.still have 5 annoying recycling boxes taking up half the patio tho

Big difference between living room and outside. My bin is in the front garden, on the drive and we do have side access but it’s blocked by van, I can’t be bothered moving the van to get bin in and out so it stays out. I would tell neighbours where to go if they started complaining about what I do in my own garden.

I think you're neighbour is a CF.

Who cares if you don't match your neighbours. Who cares why you chose to keep them there. Unless you're keeping them in an unsanitary way and there's a risk of vermin i think everyone should mind their own business

Who's hiding keys outside these days? Asking for potential break ins and insurance refusing to pay out with that

I am with you OP, your pets safety comes first.

And what about people who can't move heavy full bins back and forth?

Tell your bully boy neighbour, that if they don't like the look of your bins, then don't look at your bins, it's fkn simple. Tell them you don't like the colour of their bedroom curtains, and you find it offensive/ triggering every time you see them, I can guarantee they'll tell you not to look at them 😉