Moved here a couple years ago, initially met the neighbors and know their names, but haven’t had more than a handful of couple sentence interactions since then.
On the one hand, I do want a little distance: I’m not trying to hang out all the time or necessarily make new best friends. But still seems like the neighborly thing to know each other a little bit more, to have someone to call in case of emergency, or hey your dog got out, hey the global order has collapsed let’s band together to keep out the raiders, etc.
So interested to know, if you do interact with your neighbors, how did you get started? What is the extent of your interaction?
I’m “that guy” in my neighborhood. Burgers ,beer and football are generally at my house. I invite neighbors to dinner all the time. Just this evening one of them texted a half dozen of us because their shredded cheese was moldy and they had a different set of friends coming for dinner. A neighbor i introduced to this newish neighbor walked a bag of cheese over to them.
Best part is that when everyone gets drunk, nobody has to drive. Or if I’m at a party at their house and need to poop, I can walk an extra 200 feet and use my own bathroom. I have keys to at least 4 of their houses.
Neighbor friends are the best.
I just moved into my first home and I hope to meet a guy like you in my neighborhood. I’d love to just chill and meet some neighbors
I had a bit of an epiphany a decade or two back that I wished the same wish, and realized that if nobody else was going to be “that guy” that I’d have to do it. My neighbors hardly even knock on my door, but just walk right in now. They also know that I may or may not have beer in the fridge, and they’ve realized that they can find their own cups/plates/spoons etc. Its low stress at my house. Not always clean and neat, but that’s on them… if you want a spotless, perfectly planned party, they’re welcome to invite me to theirs lol. So far, nobody’s complained :)
Note that my immediate next door neighbor is polite but has never come to dinner. Half of my neighbor friends are 2-3-4 or a dozen doors down.
Go on walks and just introduce yourself.
I was coming upstairs, as they were struggling to carry a fake dead body downstairs. His back was to me, with his arms hooked under the dummy’s armpits. His buddy was carrying the legs and saw me first. He jokingly went “oh we’re filming a-… Uhh… Porno?”
I responded with something along the lines of “I’m not even gonna worry about it until I start hearing farm animals.”
They laughed. I laughed. We haven’t spoken since (because I haven’t heard any farm animals yet.)
Barely spoke a word with any of them for several years. Got a kid. Now i know almost all of them.
EXTREMELY effective method, but has a few caveats.
This was it for us, kids do not give a fuck about protocol and formalities
My wife is quite sensitive to noises and my neighbor was often playing bass-heavy music in the evening but rarely late, until one night he played until 3 AM (stopped quickly after we ourselves got to bed so I didn’t go and complain that night.) Next day, I knock on his door asking if he’s the one playing music at 3 AM.
To my surprise, the man apologizes, says he was baked and didn’t realize how loud he was. Adds that if he ever is disturbing us in the future, to come and tell him right away.
Now, we’re surprisingly more tolerant of his musical habits just knowing how polite and apologetic he was about it. So what could have been a rocky start ended up with us being cool.
I have neighbors on 3 sides of me. Neighbor to my left isn’t talkative. We wave when we see each other. Neighbor behind me is a nice older lady. She felt bad for me push mowing my lawn so she let’s me use her riding mower for free. I maintain it and do some odd jobs for her. We talk when we see each other. Neighbor on my right is a nice guy. He isn’t home a lot since he drive a semi. We stop and talk every few weeks or so. He has a German Shepard that is a good dog.
I heavily rely on my partner for the social interactions, I’m not as social and outgoing :)
She went round to give muffins when we first moved in and got to know most of the residents.
Since then new people have moved in here and there. The newer neighbors keep to themselves, so we don’t really know them.One of my neighbors was super cool, from the moment I met him. He told me he was throwing a party in a week and I should come. So I did, and then from that point forward we were always inviting each other to things, and planning collaborative BBQs in the front yard.
The neighbors on the other side of my house were friendly, but never beyond a “hello” point for 3 years! Lol. Then their neighborhood buddies moved away and they started talking to us more. Eventually we invited them over for the 4th of July. Then they invited us over to a party, then a dinner, and it’s gone from there. It turns out we have a ton in common, but never knew it because we hadn’t talked much.
That’s often all it takes, inviting each other over for dinner, or a game night, or a party, or whatever. So pick a neighbor and invite them over. Heck, invite all your neighbors and have a big BBQ. Call it a block party.
One of my neighbors threw a neighborhood BBQ. Free invite with burgers and dogs, BYOD. Seemed to draw quite a few people
I was walking to my car and she barked “are you always going to be parked there” (right outside my house) to which i replied “I live here”.
Threatening them and their barking dog at 2am.
This. Same with me. 4.5 years in my house and we don’t even say hello to each others. We are incompatible. Always mean comments in the mailbox regarding “how we cut plants wrong” (plants that separate the 2 properties), etc. Well not anymore, just ignore.
They introduced themselves, nice people. The lady across the street drives my Mother-in-law to her appointments when we can’t.
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They had known me since I was little because the place I have now used to be a family member’s, and I frequented the place when I was little. It’s very communal here.
I just say hi and then maybe talk about their dog, my dog, or something else surface level.(“How about those ‘Sports Team Name’?”, “You see that awesome new movie/show?”, “Hey, did you hear about ‘Local Event’?”). I stop to chitchat when I have time and I usually get to know my neighbors. We keep an eye on each others places/cars/etc., have taken care of their dogs while out of town and vice-versa and one of them is an emergency contact for my kids. Its way better to make friends than just be living close to a bunch of strangers. Not everyone is super social, but I still know pretty much all their names and they know me.
Moved to a neighborhood with intentionally low fencing (no privacy). I know more neighbors well here than anywhere I’ve lived alone.
