'I took a picture, called my leasing office, and reported it to them': Neighbors disagree over trash bags in the hallway

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Aug 6, 2023 3:00 PM EDT

After moving in, this dude just wanted to take a quick break before they kept unpacking. If you've ever moved, you know what a massive task it is. You have to box up everything you own into what feels like one thousand boxes. Then, you have to transport all your belongings, or entrust a moving company to do it for you, and hope your precious items arrive intact. And finally, you then have to unpack all your stuff, and decorate your new living space.

The OP of this story, u/cbing1010101, was in the middle of moving with their significant other. They write that they'd spent an entire day moving furniture and boxes, and were breaking down cardboard boxes. Suddenly, they encountered their 'entitled neighbor' from across the hall, and she had a request regarding their trash. 

However, the OP of this story didn't exactly get what they were looking for from this post. Instead of supporting the OP, most of the commenters sided with OP's neighbor. She's not entitled — she's just correct, according to most of the commenters who read the tale. At least the OP owned up to their mistake in the comments, and hopefully they can mend their relationship with this new neighbor. 

After that, these people worked at hip companies that wanted their employees to feel like family… but they shared what was actually going on behind the scenes. 

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  • 01
    Window - 'You were acting like you were entitled to leave your trash in a shared space'
    via Sigmund on Unsplash
  • 02
    Font - My apartment neighbor hates trash being left outside our door! M So my S.O and I have been living in our apartment together for almost a year now. We plan on moving to a new place after our lease is over, but until then, we are stuck here with entitled neighbors.
    via u/cbing1010101
  • 03
    Font - So let's head back to when we first moved in. No farther back, I mean when we were STILL moving our stuff in (furniture, appliances, etc.). We had been moving things almost all day and were taking a short break to compile all the trash we had into a couple trash bags and 3 or 4 broken down medium sized cardboard boxes. Well fast forward about 30 minutes after we had compiled said trash. Our neighbor from across the hall (we will call her entitled woman or E.W) knocks on our door and start
    via u/cbing1010101
  • 04
    Font - in. After about 2 minutes of that, the real point of why she was here came out, and it was obvious she was itching to get to the point. She asked us to move our trash somewhere else or take it to the dumpster because it will attract critters. I told her we had been moving in since 11 this morning (it's now around 4-5 P.M) and we will do it when we get done with moving our things. She was obviously not happy with that and asked again if we could do it sooner. I repeated what I said before
    via u/cbing1010101
  • 05
    Font - Now that you know the context, let's continue on. A few months later, I was cleaning up the house and took the trash out of the kitchen because something smelled pretty rancid and was stinking the house up. I put the bag outside and continued with my cleaning duties thinking nothing of it. I get a call about an hour later from my leasing office manager. She informed me that one of my neighbors (she left it anonymous) had filed a complaint
    via u/cbing1010101
  • 06
    Font - that I had left trash outside my door and asked me to take it to the dumpster ASAP or they will come get it themselves and charge me a $50.00 cleaning fee. Hmm I wonder who filed that complaint?? I apologized to her and did exactly what she said and took it to the dumpster and made sure to remember not to do that again because of our neighbors who care WAY TOO MUCH for some reason.
    via u/cbing1010101
  • 07
    Font - Now I'm irritated. Like why does it matter to her so much that trash sits out there for MAYBE a little over an hour. Whatever. I let it go and forgot about it UNTIL about 2 months later. I come home from a long day at work, walk up the stairs, look to my right and what do I see? A lovely bag of trash sitting by E.W's door. I lit up with the biggest grin and started scheming of what to do. So I took a picture, called my leasing office
    via u/cbing1010101
  • 08
    Font - and reported it to them saying I had picture proof and it had been sitting there since this morning (its now 5:30 p.m). Keep in mind, I had no idea how long it had been sitting there, she couldve very well just put it there. They were nice about it and said they'd give them a call and see if they could take it to the dumpster. I wait.. and wait... and wait, anxiously checking my phone and looking through the peephole seeing if they had moved it.
    via u/cbing1010101
  • 09
    Font - About 2 hours pass and I hear someone coming up the stairs... this is it I thought. I look out the peephole once more and see someone I had recognized from the leasing office walking up the stairs. She picks up the bag of trash, left a note on her door and left. I WON! I actually dont have proof she got charged the cleaning fee, but I have a good feeling she did because I received no warning on my first 'offense' so why should she?
    via u/cbing1010101
  • 10
    Font - Tl;dr Entitled neighbor hates trash being left outside doors because of attracting 'critters' and reported me to my leasing office and I almost got charged a cleaning fee. A few months later I saw she did what she reported me for, so I gave her a taste of her own medicine. Resulted in leasing office people coming up and removing the trash and most likely getting charged.
    via u/cbing1010101
  • 11
    Gesture - OutOfBounds11 I would not want people leaving trash in a shared hallway.
    via u/OutOfBounds11
  • 12
    Font - Ghargoyle The moving trash is understandable. The stinky bag is not. Get that out to the dumpster ASAP.
    via u/Ghargoyle
  • 13
    Font - cbing1010101 OP. I supposed I should've mentioned that our complex has 2 sister complexes (e.g amazing apartments I, amazing apartments II, amazing apartments III) and we share the dumpster with all of them. We have to drive to our dumpster to put trash up, walking it would take almost 10 minutes. I figured I'd just drop it off after I got done cleaning. I understand though. Maybe laziness got the best of me here.
    via u/cbing1010101
  • 14
    Font - bacon-is-se I pay a lot of money to live where I live and trash in the hall would bring down the value of my living experience. Also, we don't want potential residents coming through and seeing trash/cans in the hall. I have reported trash cans in the hall outside of the allowed hours (we have valet trash service and cans are supposed to be out 6pm-9am Sunday- Thursday). It makes the place look bad- your trash also smelled. I'm with the neighbor- however she also deserved the fine for her
    via u/bacon-is-se*y
  • 15
    Font - arm2610 Ya tbh I get that your neighbor was maybe a bit trigger happy with the call to the manager, but you really shouldn't be leaving trash out in the hall. It's just poor apartment etiquette.
    via u/arm2610
  • 16
    Font - moburkes Yep. Even with the explanation of where the dumpster is, that's trashy and nasty. Where I live (in an apartment) outside our door is literally OUTSIDE. I still think it's disgusting and trashy when my neighbors leave their trash outside. Moving in? Meh, deal with it. But trash? No excuses.
    via u/moburkes
  • 17
    Font - razzyspazzy I hate when neighbors leave trash in the hall, especially stinky trash. That means it should've been taken out days ago. I feel for EW. OP stop worrying about revenge and take your stinky trash out.
    via u/razzyspazzy
  • 18
    Font - Incur I don't get why you would leave rancid trash outside in the hallway for 1 hour instead of in your apartment. It's your trash, why do other people have to experience it?
    via u/Incur
  • 19
    Font - anoem Ugh I had neighbors whose door I had to walk past to get to mine. They would put their garbage on my side of the (narrow) walkway so that I had to step over or around it to get to my door but they could get in and out of theirs unimpeded. Asking them not to do it and complaining to the office didn't help. So I waited until there were a few bags out there, opened a nice stinky one then stacked them leaning heavily against their door and rang the doorbell....
    via u/anoem
  • 20
    Font - daedhrotheelf Why don't you leave the trash next to your door inside instead of outside if it's tedious to go to the dumpster? EW had every right to complain Though not cool of her to do the exact same thing
    via u/daedhrotheelf
  • 21
    Font - King_Neptune07 I'm sorry. You are in the wrong here. Why are you so lazy? Put your trash in the dumpster.
    via u/King_Neptune07
  • 22
    Font - everlyafterhappy S ESH Although you suck more. She was entitled to a trash free hallway, and you were acting like you were entitled to leave your trash in a shared space. Your trash when you were moving was at least somewhat understandable, but you could have stacked it up right inside your door instead of right outside,
    via u/everlyafterhappy
  • 23
    Font - and it sounds like she was at least acting civil about it. Putting your rancid trash in the shared hall was definitely an entitled b move, and because of your reaction to her when you were moving in and because of the awful smell she was probably in the right to call the office about you. So I change my mind. YTA. And if you don't get my reference, checkout r/amithea e. You could probably learn from it.
    via u/everlyafterhappy
  • 24
    Font - + [deleted] Cause that sl attracts bugs. Not everyone likes bugs in their apartment OP
    via u/deleted

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Tags

trashy neighbors trash malicious compliance malicious-compliance-reddit petty revenge petty neighbor apartment dumpster door moving day apartments moving
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