Why do some people think that the wheelie bin fairies actually exist?

It's our recycling bins that get left out locally and some people obviously think that they are a decorative feature at the end of their front paths and just fill them up during the week which means that the contents get blown everywhere.
All our houses and flats have a cupboard outside, by the front door or beside the garage, but they can't be bothered to walk the ten or so paces that are required to put them away.

No issues here as we have bags not bins for general waste so they disappear. The boxes used for recycling are usually returned by the crew. If not anyone who spots them or goes out will retrieve and return to the right home. We’re lucky I think, live in a supportive community.

Not quite the same in our previous home. Our immediate neighbour, 30 years younger than us, sat in their living room window enjoying a hot drink watching us shovel snow from the shared drive. Having said that they did retrieve bins if they were left out. Guess snow shovelling wasn’t for them .

I do understand the irritation parlorgames, would suggest you ignore bins belonging to unhelpful people unless they block the road.

We have a bin-returning fairy here - goes in disguise as the nice man next door who puts several people's bin, including ours, back for them.

If I do it I put the bins back on the driveways but not all the way back to the individual houses as that feels like interfering to me. Our close has a footpath to the park running through it so the pavement is busy, especially with dog walkers and on school days.

My DH always puts ours and our neighbour's back and usually cuts their lawn too, otherwise it would be a mess, as there is no division between the lawns.
The neighbours miraculously appear, just as DH has moved the bins or cut the grass, saying they were just about to do it.
DH was out at midnight last night, rescuing their bin, which had blown onto the road, scattering rubbish everywhere.

We live in a cul de sac, which is on a hill and when it snows evryone, apart from them, clears the snow, otherwise we would be unable to get out.
Our neighbour sits at the window and watches, then once the snow is clear, his wife goes out.
It makes me mad!

We know they are taking the proverbial p***, but they also happen to be SIL's in laws, so we don't want to cause any ill feeling, for teh sake of our lovely DIL.
They have always been like this.

and if they have a teenage children they might have naively thought the lazy buggers had brought it back instead of their nice neighbours!

I sometimes get my neighbours bins back if they were my side or whatever as I don't see the point of moving it a few yards from where it lives and then getting on with my own bin

One of my neighbours puts his bin out at least a day before bin men due and then forgets to put it away for a few days afterwards. Its outside my window too as he never leaves it blocking his own drive.Times have changed I think and there is less consideration for other people, probably because everyone so busy.

But in answer to the question in the thread title, the answer is that the wheelie bin fairies clearly do exist because they keep moving bins out of their way.

So stop. And then maybe believers in bin fairies will realise...

Not bins, I know, but....

When DD1 was four or five she asked me on the way to school why certain street lights were still on when most were off. I tried to explain. She said: "I don't know what you're talking about."

Twenty years later when DD3 was five she asked me on the way to school why certain street lights were still on and others weren't, I said that the street light fairies had missed the train that morning and so were running late. She understood immediately.

I really don’t understand the problem. Just bring your own bin in and, if you have to go out in your car, put any bin causing an obstruction on the relevant drive. Or can you not rest until it’s all neat and tidy?

We are one of three houses on an access road and we have to leave our bins on the corner with the main road. Our house is the furthest from the pick-up point and we do not always hear the bin men arrive. If we are home all day, we may well forget the bin is out and not bring it in until the following morning. The bin men come quite late anyway.

As the three of us get on well, if any bin is still out 24 hours after collection, someone will usually put the uncollected bin in the right front garden.

My lovely neighbour usually brings my bin back down my drive for me but then he gets up much earlier than I do. One week I was unusually up and about very early & thought I’d return the favour & brought his bin back down. The bin cleaners turned up a few minutes later and as I’d moved his bin it didn’t get cleaned that week
We are very high up here and the worse thing is when we have high winds the bins that aren’t taken in get blown all over the place.

We had an unspoken arrangement prior to Covid when 4 of us would take turns (really just first there) to return the bins from the given collection point to each house. Now we have different collection points, so it’s changed slightly. Unfortunately, there’s one family that’s very antisocial - they join in nothing and do nothing to help anyone. They have even been known to push their own bin out of the way with their cars and often take a couple of days to replace their bin.

They actually don't leave them too badly in our road as its not too crowded and few cars parked etc, so its not an "issue"

but nice Mr next door always fetches it into my front drive. I reciprocate if I happen to be out the front at the right time, but they are the sort who actually sort of watch out of the window.

However, a wheelie bin cleaning fairy is what I really need....
and wouldn't expect that of neighbours.

I don't move my neighbours' bins unless I know they are ill or away.

I have a lovely neighbour, who is in his 80 that puts the bins/ bags in for a chosen few of us in our cul -de -sac but I always thank him and give him a small gift at Christmas, but there are some who will come out of their houses get into their cars and drive past their bins!.

Bit like the dog poo fairy.... Perhaps it is the same poor fairy....

Perhaps I just have nicer neighbours?

Because the wheelie bin fairy keeps coming to move it??

Only move the ones that are in your way if the neighbours always leave them out. It’s just lazy.

Just put your own bin back.

Don’t know about you, but they exist here - and I am occasionally one myself. Bins emptied today and I found mine brought back on to the drive, tucked between the hedge and car, out of everybody’s way.