Neighbour has an opinion on where I put my bins

[Opink]

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

If the bins are in the garage you'll have to leave the car out the front. Expect a terse wrap on the knuckles and a water boarding until you comply.

No. A long as your bins don't smell or something it's your land so she's being an entitled cheeky fucker.

Your neighbour is being ridiculous.

What will be next after the bin placement?

I live in a road of terraced Victorian houses-very nice neighbourhood-everyone''s bins are at the front along their paths to the front door because there is no where else for them to go. It is fine.

Your bin your business.

And I'd be much more concerned about keeping your dog safe tbh!!

How a neighbourhood looks is more important to some than others. I'm surprised they came over to you though, I wouldn't have, even though I do think visible bins are an eyesore.

I lived in an exclusive area in another country, surrounded by mansions, and they all had huge bins out at the front of them. I just didn't get it

Bins out the front makes a street look uncared for, and it tends to go hand in hand with people not looking after their front gardens and letting them get messy and overgrown.

It absolutely downvalues a place. Fortunately I’ve never had to be the bin police because I live in a lovely area with wonderful, unselfish neighbours who take pride in where they live!

I would find this incredibly snobby if a neighbour approached me like this, far worse things to be getting uptight about.

Yeah that’s the only thing we would have to leave a big enough gap between car and garage door. Which ironically would probably cause the second car at the back to protrude a tad

Your neighbour is free to have an opinion, and you are free to ignore it.

hang on.....I have run out of popcorn.........ok, as you were.

Can see both sides too, once I started ‘hiding’ the bins the front of the house looked actually much better (so not just a little bit!) but you have a practical reason (our dog is an escape artist too!). Best of luck op

If there’s no rear access, then obviously there’s nowhere else for the bins to go and it has to be done. But choosing to leave your bins out the front when you don’t have to and no one else does is incredibly antisocial.

And I live in an area that’s full of lovely unselfish and not snobby people.

We’ve got lovely gardens, and lovely bins as well.

We have a side gate that we lock. We have to unlock and relock the gate once a week to put the bins out. We are also in the 'nice' (it's all relative) outskirts of our town.

Surely this bin thing is also just a once a week occurrence? You could double check on that one day it's happening?

Or maybe add a new latch to the gate which would make it more obviously closed (I don't know the current gate setup)

FWIW I don't care about peoples' bins placement but if you're saying you'd actually be putting these bins down the side if it weren't for the dog situation, it just seems like there must be another solution.

I’m particularly fond of the old toilet in the front garden look.

Anyone else find it fascinating how bins know not to blow over and get rubbish everywhere in the back garden, but in the front they're always on their sides with crisp pockets blowing in the wind.
Magical.

Who also mind their own bloody business!

If it blows over in your own garden then the contents will generally stay in your own garden. That's the point.

Your street looks a mess. I promise you. You don’t care about the deterioration of the public realm, clearly, and that’s your right. But plenty of other people do.

100%

@Opink your bin, your house, your council tax, your choice

tell the neighbours that you’re happy with the way it’s done now and they need to find something else to be bothered about that they can actually do something about.

especially with a gnome! mega naffness deluxe

Could you not store the buns infront of the side gate? If you planted it up like the photo they could live happily behind the bush. Everyone’s happy. No visible bins, gate locked shut shut.

Put the bins in the garage.

I’m glad I’m not your neighbour - do you also have opinions on what people hang on their washing lines?

People ‘minding their own bloody business’ and being scared to confront antisocial behaviour is why the public realm is deteriorating so rapidly.

We have an increasing number of selfish people in this country who believe they have the right to do whatever they want, with no regard to how it impacts the people around them. It’s no different to people watching TikTok videos or playing music out loud on the train.

You must live somewhere with very tenuous house prices,

where I live is so desirable people are desperate to live here. Bins are Not a concern

maybe OP does too