Good fences made good neighbors, but shared porches made complicated ones.

So when a cleanliness-conscious tenant realized her neighbor had been stepping over the same rotting pumpkin for nearly a year, she decided she was done playing unpaid janitor.

She decided that if the pumpkin was there to stay, she might as well have a little fun with it.

Keep reading for the full story.

WIBTA if I put a birthday hat on my neighbor’s pumpkin?

I share a porch with one neighbor, who is notorious for not cleaning up after herself or her kids.

For example, one time there was a broken longboard sitting right in front of their door that they would step over every day to get into their unit.

Finally, she had to just ask one of the kids to do it.

For 7 months, they just ignored it, until one day I asked the oldest kid (15M) to please clean it up.

He’s a good kid and instantly threw it away. I told him thank you and that was that.

Now, I know I could have cleaned it up myself, but I don’t want to assume that they didn’t want it (idk, maybe it had sentimental value??).

The tenant already feels like she does way more than her fair share.

Plus, I constantly clean up the shared porch. Throwing away trash, picking up cigarette butts, sweeping, clearing cobwebs… I have known her to sweep the porch all of one time in the 6 years she has lived there.

Last year I bought several small sugar pumpkins and placed them on my porch next to my jack-o-lanterns.

After Halloween, I threw all of them away in an unused wooded area next to my apartment complex so they could decompose.

But this wasn’t the last she saw of the sugar pumpkins.

The next day, I found one of the sugar pumpkins back on the porch — outside of her door. I know that it was one I had bought because of the particular markings on it.

Ok, weird, but whatever, I’m glad someone is enjoying it. I figured she would throw it away after Thanksgiving. Then after Christmas. Then after New Year’s.

Of course, the reality was much different.

Well, it’s now been a year and the pumpkin is still there. It is NASTY.

It looks like it has practically melted into the porch. She has put Halloween decorations all around it and still hasn’t cleaned it up.

The tenant wants this pumpkin gone, but she refuses to do it herself.

I think it’s gross, but left it there on principle, because I am tired of cleaning up after a grown woman.

We work opposite shifts now, so I never see her. I also don’t have her phone number because she is constantly changing it.

She begins to contemplate using humor to cope with the situation.

I was thinking of leaving her a note asking her to please clean it up, but I’m worried it will somehow come across as rude.

So, I think I might have a little fun with it… I’m considering putting one of those little pointy birthday hats on it and a sign saying “Happy 1st Birthday!” over it.

But her husband isn’t so fond of the idea.

Personally, I think it would be hilarious and get the point across, but my husband thinks we should just suck it up and clean it up.

Again, I don’t want to do so out of principle. So Reddit, WIBTA if I celebrated the pumpkin’s 1st birthday?

Sometimes if they won’t clean it up, you just have to dress it up!

What did Reddit think?

This commenter thinks her plan is a perfectly harmless way to call attention to the issue.

If nothing else, the picture would make for an amusing memento.

It would be funny, but is it worth the cost?

It’s important to keep it lighthearted.

The porch would still be a mess, but at least she could get a good laugh out of it.

In times like these, you have to laugh so you don’t cry!

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.