20 Things You Might Be Doing to Drive Your Neighbors Nuts
Updated: Feb. 28, 2023Keep your neighbors on your good side by avoiding these bad habits.
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Never Taking Down Seasonal Decorations
It’s July, but your mailbox still has a Santa hat on it and your holiday lights are still dangling from your roof. Your excuse? You’ll have to put them up again soon anyway! No matter the holiday, when it’s over, it’s over. No one wants to see the Easter Bunny or rotting pumpkins from Halloween on your lawn months after the fact. If there’s a chill in the air, that means the holidays are coming! Here’s a collection of clever hints and tips that will make your holiday decorating faster, easier and more fun!
Abandoning Old Furnishings In Your Yard
You may think that tossing your old couch in the woods behind your house is an easy way to avoid hauling it to the dump, but if your neighbors see it, it becomes an eyesore and your neighbors will think you’re lazy! Here are 10 things your neighbors want you to stop doing.
Letting Paint Get Ratty
An old, historic house is a beautiful sight, but if you think chipped, peeling paint or rotting wood is rustic, think again! Your neighbors will see it as devaluing the neighborhood. A good exterior painting job will extend the life of your siding and trim and increase the value of your house. Learn the best techniques for applying exterior paint.
Letting Trash Pile Up
If you produce so much trash that you need to pile up bags around your trash bin, you’re probably annoying your neighbors. If your trash bin isn’t big enough to hold a week’s worth of your garbage, get a larger bin. No one wants to look outside their window or go for a leisurely walk down the street and see piles of trash stacked up. Your trash bin doesn’t have to be an eyesore. Check out these genius disguises.
Letting Smelly Food and Trash Stink Up Your Yard
Are you constantly cooking pungent food on the barbecue? Do you throw stinky, rotting foods in your garbage, and then leave it on the street for pickup a week later? If you live within a stone’s throw of others, you can bet your food smells are grossing out your neighbors. Here’s how to banish bad odors in your house.
Ugly Paint Colors
What’s just as bad as chipped paint on a house? How about a pukey green house? What about bright pink? Purple definitely doesn’t go with the rest of the neighborhood either! Experimental colors can work well on islands or in funky cities, but when it comes to a standard neighborhood, those colors are usually unwelcome. Check out these house painting mistakes almost everyone makes.
Too Many Cars Parked Around the House
While some communities won’t even allow you to park your car on the street, and prefer cars to be in the garage, other neighborhoods have no rules at all. But, as a courtesy to your neighbors, don’t have too many cars parked on your lot for too long. Car collectors or those with a passion for fixing up old vehicles may be tempted to store them around their home, but be wary of it looking like a junkyard to your neighbors. Car maintenance seems daunting at first, but start small and work up the car repair ladder. Here are 100 car repair tasks and maintenance you can do yourself.
Leaving Pets Outside
Your neighbor doesn’t have to love Fido to feel bad for Fido. If your dog is chained up in your yard day and night, you’re bound to get some dirty looks and perhaps a knock on your door. Even if your dog is happily enjoying the outdoors in a fenced in yard, if you leave them out there to bark at everyone and everything that comes by, you’re sure to make some enemies. If you’re a pet lover, this collection of tips is for you! Check out these clever and unusual ideas about how to make your pet happier, healthier and more comfortable, using items you’ll find around the house.
Leaving Your Grass Too Long
It may seem petty, but living in a neighborhood comes with some unwritten rules. Having overgrown grass appears careless and messy. It can even be against township laws not to keep your lawn properly kept, as it can encourage vermin, pests, etc. and cause an unsafe situation. Even if you consider your neighbors friends, there are some things they’ll simply never tell you. These 10 phrases are at the top of the list.
Your House is Constantly Under Construction
A big renovation can certainly bug your neighbors, but as long as you have a game plan, and everything goes accordingly, you should have an end date you can give everyone. However, when you keep changing contractors, modifying plans, and adding more embellishments, your renovation and all the noise and mess that comes with it, is sure to garner some snarky remarks and stinky eyes from the neighbors. Check out these 17 smarter renovation and home improvement tips.
Walking Around Outside in Boxers
Unless there’s an emergency, you probably have time to throw on some sweatpants to get the morning paper. No one really wants to see you down to your skivvies while they sit with their morning coffee on their porch, take an afternoon stroll through the neighborhood, or play in the yard with their kids while you mow the lawn or take a cat nap.
Your Kids Keep Hitting the Neighbors House With Toys
Whether it’s a baseball going through a window, a soccer ball hitting the roof of a car, or a Frisbee that keeps flying over the fence, it’s really annoying to neighbors when it keeps happening. You might consider taking the toys away until the kids can prove they can keep them in their own yard, or find a bigger field or park to play in. Teach kids valuable lessons and keep them busy with DIY projects.
You Have an Old Satellite Dish on Your Roof
You probably haven’t used your satellite dish in years, and yet there it is, a rusting old relic on top of your roof for all the neighbors to see. Even worse? You’ve had more than one and they’re all still up there. It’s time to let them go! Learn how to wall mount a TV yourself and save hundreds of dollars with these easy-to-follow instructions for low profile, tilting and full-motion mounts.
Your Security Light Shines Into Their Bedroom Window
Your security light may be your best bet for deterring burglars, but it’s also bound to get you in trouble with your neighbor if you don’t position it right! Be sure that wherever you place it, it makes sense for your home security while also keeping it pointed away from your neighbor’s windows, especially their bedroom window when they’re trying to sleep! Here’s how to choose and install a motion sensor light.
Taking Firewood From Your Neighbor’s Woodpile
There are some things that just feel like freebies, like a loose flower on the ground or a fallen apple that fell into your yard from your neighbor’s apple tree. But when it comes to invading people’s yards for things like flowers or firewood, you’re in for some major confrontation! Check out these tips for buying firewood.
Hanging the Laundry on the Line for Too Long
Every day shouldn’t be laundry day, and if your undies are hanging outside from your line for a week, they have become an eyesore! Be mindful of your neighbor and take your laundry down as soon as it’s dry. Here are 13 laundry tips for washing your clothes.
Watching TV or Movies With the Volume Turned Up
So you have a great surround sound system that makes movie nights that much more special with the family, but if it’s loud enough to make the neighbor’s house rumble, then you should probably turn it down! Especially if you do it regularly, you’re bound to make a neighbor mad. Check out this ultimate buying guide for home theater, sound system and wireless speakers.
You’re a Gossip
Running over to your neighbor’s yard to give them the scoop on why the cops were at another neighbor’s house last night might be fun, but if you’re continuously filling in the neighborhood on everyone’s business, people are going to stop being interested and start being concerned you’ll start gossiping about them!
Staring at Your Neighbors Through Binoculars
It’s so tempting to want to see what your neighbors are up to, but staring at them from your porch with a pair of binoculars, or even just peeping over at them without binocs will likely make your neighbors feel uneasy.
Honking Your Horn Until the Kids Come Out
So your kids aren’t early birds and it takes forever to get them out of bed, clothed, fed and out the door. You’ve now resorted to sitting in your running car in the driveway and honking the horn each minute they don’t come out. It may be a release of anger for you, but it’s sure to build up some anger in a disturbed neighbor nearby, as well. Use a simple fused jumper to pinpoint the problem with a bad horn. Often the fix is simple and cheap.