Trashy Habits

My Classic Freedom (SFJ) husband drives me crazy with his trash habits. Our kitchen has a small recycling bin that fills up fast. But regardless of its state of fullness, even when empty, my husband lines up containers to be recycled on the counter top. I noticed his parents do the same — line up their recycling on a kitchen counter so I asked my husband why he put recycling on the counter top, expecting to hear that he did so because it’s what his parents did. Understandable. But then he replied, “I do it so the recycling bin remains ‘not full.'” I hope its obvious why my reaction is best summed up as “#!*&$@!$??”  

Now for those of you who might understand where my husband is coming from more than me, I will further delineate my stance. Lining up cans and bottles on your counter top just means your trash is now on your counter top instead of beneath it in a proper bin. On top of this madness, he also sometimes goes through the recycling bin to put the contents into a free mini grocery store plastic bag to throw it out in order to “save” the not free trash bag. He’s a thrifty Classic (SJ) and so am I, but he was raised by one super thrifty Classic (SJ) and I was not. For example, his parents have been known to pick trash out of the bin and put it in a smaller, free bag to take out a bit of trash when it’s full — in lieu of simply taking out thefull trash bag. I think this is where I’ve “evolved” past my brain’s tendencies to penny pinch or rather was trained by Organic (NF) and Smart (NT) parents that some pennies are worth spending if it means not digging through trash!  

Now my parents don’t even bother with recycling bags, they use the recycling bins that the city of Shaker Heights provides them (someday I will devote a day on the luxury that is the Shaker Heights Sanitation Service — it’s like the Rolls Royce of municpal trash service). But yet I digress, my parents leave the bins right outside the kitchen door and throw out their recycling as it occurrs — Or they line up their cans on the floor so they take it out when they go outside. I assure you that without even talking to them they do not forego bags because of cost. The main reason for this set-up is they don’t have the space for convenient recycling in their kitchen. But, in my humble Classic (SJ) opinion, I think they’re also a little lax about proper homes for things. And I don’t mean this in a judgmental way, I mean that I get a bit of a bee in my bonnet about proper homes for things and they’re more big picture, “What’s the easiest solution.”. I like my recycling to have a proper home, not a makeshift one on a countertop or on a floor. 

I could be totally off base here with my idea to talk about differences in how one likes to deal with trash because I live in a small apartment and am constantly changing it. But, I think others might be silently suffering like me and I should bring trash talk out into the open. Let’s start with my recycling tirade. Why even bother with the bag if you’re that cheap? Why not put the small grocery bag in the recycling container and change the recycling 2x a day. If anyone would like to chime in, I’d love to here if you think it’s okay to leave recycling on a counter top in order to save money on a bag. I’d also love to hear if anyone has random annoying trash habits. I think my Smart Freedom (NTP) brother-in-law takes out the trash and then forgets to put a new on in its place. Now this drives my sister up a wall whereas I say, “At least he brought out the trash instead of picking through half of it!!” Trash habits is new research territory for Pixies so leave your two cents even if you read this post and it’s a year old. It takes years to collect personality type behavioral data.