It got worse This will not be the most exciting thing that you ever read. That said, if you ever stay at a vacation rental or use a site such as Airbnb, it’s important.
I live just a few miles from Walt Disney World. Because of the location, my neighborhood is popular for second homes and vacation rentals. Renting such a place makes a lot of sense. You can rent an entire house for the same price as a Moderate or Deluxe Resort! You’ll have a full kitchen, washer and dryer, and even a private pool if you want to enjoy a chill day. Plus there are plenty of bathrooms. Our house was a vacation rental before we bought it.
I’ve talked before about how people will sometimes forget that these are residential neighborhoods. Most families are great, but sometimes there is a noise problem. Fortunately, these problems are few and far between.
Several homes have been sold lately in my neighborhood. I can’t blame someone who doesn’t live in the house for selling, property is worth a lot right now! Vacation homes are being sold, and many of them are being bought by people who also want to use them as vacation homes.
That leads me to what I want to talk about. Trash has become a bit of a problem on my street. It’s not because people are littering, it’s because they aren’t taking care of the trash properly when they leave.
The picture that I added above was taken after a family spent a week in the home that is directly across the street from mine. They seemed like nice people. They were quiet, and spent their days at Walt Disney World or other area attractions.
The problem came when they left. They didn’t take care of their trash properly. They thought that they did. They filled the county-provided can, and then left the rest in large white garbage bags, tied up all nice and neat.
It didn’t take long for the birds of prey to discover those neatly tied bags. Within two hours, they had picked them apart, and trash was flying everywhere! The people who maintain the home eventually came out to clean it and they picked up most of the mess, but by that time there was trash all up and down the street. It’s several days later, and I’m still picking up trash that blew away.
If you’re going to stay at a vacation rental, please, ask what to do with the extra trash! There had to have been a better choice than to leave it in bags that wild animals could easily get to. We were lucky that it was only birds. This is Florida, it could have been a rabid raccoon, an alligator, or even a bear. There have been bears spotted in my neighborhood.
The problem also could have been alleviated by making sure that any food trash was in the county-provided can with the lid. That wouldn’t have kept a bear out of it, but at least the birds wouldn’t have gotten into it. There were also other lidded trash cans on the side of the house, but for some reason the family chose not to use those.
If you’re staying at a vacation rental near Walt Disney World, please be considerate of the residents. (This also goes wherever you might be vacationing.) I love my neighborhood most of the time. I doubt very much that the family wanted to trash my neighborhood, but not thinking about the non-human locals made it happen.