Six Ways You’re Guaranteed to Annoy Your New Neighbors (and How to Avoid Them)
A new home is a chance at a fresh start—don’t ruin it by pissing off your neighbors right off the bat.
Moving to a new house and a new neighborhood can be stressful. There’s all the work required in packing up your stuff and making all the arrangements, then all the work involved in unpacking all your stuff and getting your new space set up and squared away. So many logistical things can go wrong it’s no wonder that moving to a new house is one of the most stressful things people can go through.
On top of all the logistical aspects of moving, you’re also introducing yourself to a new community of people—people you’re going to be living next to and interacting with for the foreseeable future. And most people are already annoyed with at least some of their neighbors—which is why it’s essential that you think about the impression you’re going to make ahead of time. It’s surprisingly easy to irritate your new neighbors before you’ve unloaded the last box from the moving truck.
Getting the garbage wrong
Every local community handles waste and recycling differently. In some areas, you just toss a bag on the curb and it magically vanishes; in others there will be strict requirements around sealing garbage cans against rodents and even stricter rules about when garbage can be put out and even the precise location of your bins.
One of the easiest ways to irritate your neighbors is to put your garbage out on the wrong day, at the wrong time, and in the wrong receptacles—especially on those first days after your move, when you’ve generated a spectacular amount of garbage. And you’ll make it even worse and move yourself into straight-up villain mode if you just leave it there for days on end instead of admitting your mistake and gathering it up to put out again on the correct night. If you think there isn’t at least one neighbor who will drop a dime on you to the local government and make sure a fine arrives in the mail, you’re probably wrong, so it pays to look up all the disposal details ahead of time.
Blocking driveways, roads, and sidewalks
Moving is a huge operation. There’s typically an enormous truck involved, a swarm of movers, and your own vehicle crammed full of boxes and (towards the end of the packing process) garbage bags and other random receptacles filled with your possessions. When invading your new neighborhood an easy way to annoy everyone is to block their driveways and make it difficult or even impossible to drive past.
This goes for the sidewalks, too. Just because this is your Moving Day doesn’t mean your new neighbors have cleared their schedules, and making them walk in the street while you move your belongings isn’t going to endear you to them. Being considerate and managing the movers and all involved vehicles might be maddening, but it’s worth it to get off on the right foot.
Not wrangling kids and pets
Moving day is chaos incarnate. There are so many moving parts, it’s easy to lose track of several. If you want to really annoy the people you’ll be texting on NextDoor from now on, make sure the things you lose track of are your young children and your pets. Nothing chills a new neighbor’s heart like a bunch of strange kids tearing through their backyards, or a dog that won’t stop barking (or tearing up their flower beds). In fact, barking dogs are one of the top things that annoy neighbors in general, so imagine that’s how you introduce yourself to them.
Trespassing
No, we’re not suggesting that you’ll spend your first few hours or days in the neighborhood casually invading people’s homes. But in the chaos of moving you might park your car somewhere you’re not supposed to, or leave a pile of stuff on someone’s property, or mistake a private amenity like a swing set or an outdoor grill for a shared amenity.
A new neighborhood is just that—new—so you might be excused for not having all the property lines memorized on your first day on the block. But you should at least make an effort to be cognizant of the property lines, and respectful of other people’s space and things.
Not introducing yourself
When folks notice you’re moving in next door, they’ll take an interest. One way to sour them on you right away is to ignore them or be generally aloof. A wave and a polite introduction will go a long way towards ensuring the neighborhood email chain trends positive when it comes to your local Q rating.
In a recent survey, 28% of respondents stated they disliked a neighbor simply because they gave off a “weird vibe.” Which I think we all understand, on some level. But it also means that you have one chance to not be the “weird vibe” neighbor—and you’d better take it.
Messing up deliveries
Moving into a new home more than likely means you’re ordering a lot of stuff. Old, used stuff gets thrown away, big, bulky things get left behind, and your new house has rooms or other infrastructure your old one lacked, and now you have to order a box of smart light bulbs or three new sets of sheets. If all those delivered boxes wind up being left with neighbors you haven’t met yet they’re going to be irritated. If you can’t ask a few neighbors to be on package duty while you run around trying to cram your whole life into a new home, try to manage the chaos by putting up a large sign for deliveries with your phone number and/or instructions on where to leave packages.