It's the little things that count

I am very house proud.  Sometimes you wouldn't instantly know this from stepping inside the front door, but in my world I aspire to the view that there is a place for everything, and everything has it's place. Implementation and Aspiration however are not always found together! Anyway, the one area of my home where I like everything to be neat and tidy at all times, is the front of the house. It is a bit like start as you mean to go on. We have recently had the front path tiled with those lovely black and white Victorian tiles, and the bay trees with twinkling fairy lights, blooming window boxes and neat and tidy bike shed to prevent Mr Man from inadvertently getting a telling off for scuffing his bike on the walls in the hallway, make at least the outside of our home look very pretty and welcoming.  Some might say kerb appeal, or a good first impression. I would call it common sense.

So, bearing all of this in mind, it should come as no surprise that one thing that is a sure fire dampener on my day is coming home to find the previously neat and tidy bins and stacked recycling boxes and lids, strewn across the front path and front yard. 

I am fairly sure that perhaps Racing Car Driver, Ballerina or Footballer beat dustman/woman (or whatever the politically correct term is nowadays) hands down on most children's "What I want to be when I grow up" list, but to my mind of being positive and looking on the bright side a bit of pride in your work, regardless of occupation, is a prerequisite. I recognise that not everyone in the world is lucky enough to enjoy their jobs all of the time, but given that on average we spend more time at work than we do with our friends and family you'd think that we would all put a bit more effort into making the best of it, and doing a good job. And if I were a refuse collector, waste recycling officer or surplus household goods manager I'd imagine that not irritating the hell out of my customers was a measure of my performance. Or maybe not.

So how is this one sided view of the merits of taking pride in your performance, a positive thought for the day?  Well today I was delighted to find that our new large wheelie recycling bin, which is the same shape and size as the wheelie dustbin, has been delivered by Southwark council. This single unit is to replace the previous collection of four different recycling containers and so as well as no longer having to separate and sort out glass, plastic, tins, paper and card, there is now only one blue bin to find discarded on the path blocking my front door rather than the previous four. This is a very positive thing in my world as it means that the front of my house will be easier to keep ship shape, leaving me more time to focus on everything inside.  As I said in the title, it really is the little things that can make all the difference.