A convenience of suburbia living is trash pickup. The luxury of a weekly service that arrives at our residences and hauls away garbage is something most of us take for granted. I know we do. To combat this ignorance, I have tried to educate Sloan on this modern day amenity by explaining how the waste management system works and where the trash goes.

Sloan taking in the trash this past Monday.

To make the trash pickup process smooth for waste management workers, we need to take responsibility for a few simple things. They include placing our bins at the end of our driveway on our designated day, paying attention to the holiday schedule, and making sure that trash isn’t overflowing.

Unfortunately, we aren’t always perfect. Some weeks we have to use strength to crunch down our trash bags so they “fit” within the can—even if that means that the lid is fully ajar. The holiday schedule also occasionally throws us for a loop (Sid, it is Labor Day—is our trash getting picked up?). But probably what causes us to think twice the most is our designated pickup day.

You see, for about 34 years, my trash was always picked up on Thursday. It didn’t matter what city I lived in or what residence I called home, the garbage man came on Thursday. Period.

Growing up, the three of us kids would always bring the small trash cans from our rooms up to the front door on Wednesday night for my dad to empty into the big bin. When I lived in a house in Missoula with roommates, Thursday was always the day. In Myrtle Beach, I lived in three different houses and trash pickup was Thursday for each one. When we moved back to Spokane, trash pickup was also Thursday for the first house we lived in. I basically assumed that Thursday was trash day for everyone!

What a shock it was 13 months ago when we moved into our current house and trash pickup was…Monday? It seemed so foreign to me. Perhaps the transition would have been easier if pickup was Wednesday or Friday but Monday just seemed to extreme. More than a year later, I am still getting used to it.

However, when I communicate my struggles to others, they actually say Monday is a great day for garbage day. It comes right after the weekend when trash can pile up and with Monday being the start of the week, trash removal is just kind of a natural thing to have done.

Well, okay. When it all comes down to it, whether it be Thursday or Monday, I am grateful that we have the first world luxury of trash pickup. Don’t Blink.