Worth the Effort

Waking through the house in the mornings it’s instinctual to glance to my right and out the window at my neighbors house. This mornings view caused pause at seeing my neighbors back door open early, which anytime before 10:00 am is early for his door to be open. I wondered, “Was the door opened this morning, or left open since yesterday?”

It was trash day and I stepped outside to roll the trashcan down the driveway to park it at the street, but looking at my neighbors driveway, there was no trashcan. This added to the mystery of the open door considering he sits his trashcan out on Monday evening. I came in the house to dial his number and asked, “Are you okay?”

He laughed and said, “Yes, Barbara. Why wouldn’t I be?” He likes to throw me off with this question because he knows I’d never point out his age and that I keep and eye on him since he lives alone. Then he said something that I could completely relate to. “There wasn’t enough trash in the can to make it worth the effort.”

I’ve been in that same position. Sometimes I don’t have but one bag of trash from the week, so I leave the trashcan sitting until the following week.

The trashcans provided by the city are big and bulky, and my driveway isn’t paved, so it’s not easy to get it to roll across the gravel successfully. I agree with my neighbor. At this stage of life we have to stop and think…to weigh the pros and cons before we act…just to make sure it’s worth the effort.

Photo by Lesli Whitecotton on Unsplash


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10 responses to “Worth the Effort”

  1. In large cities neighbours never meet or chat. Like myself, you live in a better spot I feel where neighbours watch out for one another. I was reminded of that reading your post. All the best in 2025 ! – David

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Hi David and yes, I love my neighbors. Thank you and wishing you a bountiful new year!

      Liked by 1 person

  2. So True. Merry Christmas my friend.❤️

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you, Dwight and Merry Christmas to you, my friend. 💖

      Like

  3. Whether he admits it or not, I’m sure he appreciates your looking out for him – I would have been puzzled by that back door, too. You’re a good friend and neighbor.

    I love you, too! Happy Christmas!

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Where I live, bins get emptied fornight. Fornightly for recycle. Fornightly for the rubbish. So rubbish one week, recycle following week. Other bins, are different days if you choose to have them. My bins I put out monthly. This month, I have gine over that because I chose not to put my recycle bin out as very strong winds today. It’s nearly full. But it will last another fortnight.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. This makes a lot of sense, Liz. Our trash is picked up weekly and on the same day of the week, but our recycling is fortnightly. I have to set a reminder on my phone to know what week to set out the recycling, or I lose track. 🧡

      Liked by 1 person

      1. We used to have papers from the council to remind us of our bin days. But none given out this year. This I guess is their cutbacks. You can though, check on their website. But I write my bin days in my diary. If I didn’t do that, I wouldn’t remember which week was for which bin with me not needing to put it out every time. 😊

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About Me

Grab a warm cuppa and cozy up to inbarbsworld. I’m Barb, the writer behind this blog and I share through a clear, simple lens. I’ve lived a life filled with everything that money could buy, but in 2014 I left that life to feel myself living. Now, I know what abundance truly is and it can’t be bought.

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