An important part of homeownership, or home renting, is being a neighbor.  We might not give much thought to this in our daily life, but it will either contribute or take away from our well being and quality of life.

If you think you could use a neighborhood makeover, the first place to start is probably with yourself.  Maybe you don’t know the neighbors, or you might know them only when they complain about your dog wandering over the property line to do his business.  Or maybe you have block parties and ‘hood dynamics akin to those on Desperate Housewives.  Whatever the case, it’s always good to ask oneself “what could I do to be a better neighbor”.  If you are like me, there is always room for improvement.

There is one neighbor in my hood that has a long-standing tradition of buying a selection of assorted breads from the local artisan bakery for a neighbor.  He knocks on a different neighbor’s door every Friday to gift them the bread as a neighborly gesture.  When he knocked on our door, months ago now, I was surprised and touched.  How wonderful was that!  That was extreme neighborhood friendliness.  Not to mention delicious and good for the local bakers.

Maybe a weekly bread delivery is a bit more than you would like to get into, but there are lots of good ‘hood behaviors to adopt and I firmly believe that what goes around comes around. And it can’t hurt property values either, right!?  

Offering to bring in mail or tend flowers when a neighbor is away on a vacation, bringing a meal for a family who just had a baby, lending a table for a garage sale, removing trash that might collect on the neighbor’s lawn, shoveling a little bit further along the sidewalk…what good neighborhood behaviors do you suggest?  Post your ideas !  Let’s spread some good hood karma.