Bears Attack My Trash Cans All the Time, but Flies Are Even Worse.
When I first saw 60 gallons of trash strewn across my lawn, I thought we’d been burglarized. I remembered the last burglary: shortly after I graduated from college, thieves had ransacked my dad’s house in Detroit and stolen all sorts of things, including my unopened diplomas, which had just arrived in the mail. But I wasn’t in the city anymore; I was in the Catskill Mountains, home to about 2,000 bears.
I learned the hard way that once bears successfully raid a trash can for food, they’ll come back again and again. This revealed another problem I’d been ignoring: my trash cans stank terribly. I hadn’t cleaned them since I bought the house, which attracted hordes of flies, and then bears, who came every week. Bear-proof trash cans or bungee cords would have been a long-term solution, but I wanted to solve the simplest problem and clean my disgusting trash cans.
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My trash cans smelled like nothing you could possibly imagine—or maybe you could, if you, like me, had never cleaned them. If so, here’s what I used to clean them . And while you’re here, I hope you’ll follow my adventures as a budding homeowner trying to turn my house into the coolest house on the block . Feel free to follow us on our official Instagram , official YouTube , or my personal Instagram . I got rid of flies and bears, then installed permanent outdoor lighting, and now I’m building an outdoor fire pit—and that’s just the beginning. I hope to see you along the way.