Two years ago, my home town handed out stickers to thank your garbage men with. Taking care of someone else's trash, regardless of the weather conditions - a profession that is not to be underestimated. I respect people who take care of my community. So I picked up the self-adhesive stickers at my city council, just to have them linger in my closet and forget all about them.

Until I cleaned out the cupboard. Since I respect print just as much, I didn't throw them out, but decided to repurpose them. Stickers never go out of style, right? (except for election ones, of course)

Stick them, we did. The 6yo and I sorted the trash after a big clean-up. A lot of bags to deal with, so we added the stickers and put them out on a particularly drowsy evening.

The next morning, bags were gone. I could only hope our team saw them.

Two weeks later, I forgot to put my glass container out. As I heard them empty my neighbour's bucket, I ran out (in my jammies, no less) hoping to still throw in mine. They were two houses further down the street on a fixed route. Ah well, next time, I mused.

My garbage man spotted me, came back, smiled, took my container, emptied it and went back to work. His smile rippled as he said "thanks for the note ma'am, we appreciate it."

I have never been more grateful for stickers with a story to tell. Never underestimate the message they might be putting out there.