Becoming Your Best Self - How to Be a Good Neighbor
- Be friendly, but not a pain in the butt.
You don't want your neighbors to hide when they see you coming.
Feel free to wave or smile, but read their response to your efforts to see how welcome your advances are.
You also don't want to start out all Chatty Cathy if you like to keep a distance yourself.
Once you've both passed the 'acquaintance line', there is no going back. - Return all their stuff quickly and in the same (or better) condition.
Good neighbors allow nearby residents they trust to borrow tools or other implements.
Whatever the tool is, the best way to maintain that trust is to bring the item back promptly and clean and ready to go.
Your neighbor should never have to clean a tool you've borrowed. - Keep your pets on your property.
While our neighbors are our neighbors, our pets are family.
However, it's important to remember that not all people are pet people.
And whether they enjoy or own pets themselves, your neighbors have no interest in cleaning up after your pets in their yard.
Do whatever you need to do to keep your pets on your property. - Make sure your outside fits in with your neighbors' front yards.
If every other yard is clean and spruce, you don't want to be the one with an overgrown lawn.
While most people in our neighborhood keep their lawns trimmed, there is one person across the street who never seems to cut their grass.
Trust me, most people spend time wishing she would move out and sell the house to someone with more house pride. - Be grateful for favors performed by your neighbors.
Remember, they don't owe you or need to do it.
Whatever favor they perform, they are doing it to be neighborly.
So either return the favor in kind or surprise them with a gift certificate to a local eatery.
You'll be glad you did when you ask them to do you another favor. - Mind your own business and respect their privacy.
This is the number one rule to follow to be considered a good neighbor.
No one likes a nosey Parker! Especially one that lives next door.
Respect their privacy and they'll respect yours! - Keep sugar on hand for borrowing! (or at least a sugar substitute!) It's a time-honored tradition to borrow a cup of sugar.
I have no idea where it originated, but there's no sense messing with history.
I'd hate to have a neighbor come to the door with an empty cup and go away without their favorite sweetener!
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