How to Have a Positive Relationship With a Neighbor

In a bigger city, it may be easier to not know your neighbors altogether. In a smaller city, it's just about impossible to ignore your neighbor. But regardless, if you have to get to know this person, at least meet your neighbor on good terms. It's not a good idea to meet your neighbor for the first time after hearing her bang a broom on the adjacent wall or banging on your door and peeking through the peephole, daring you to answer. Simple manners go a long way on both ends.

Instructions

1. Make sure your family and friends respect your neighbors. It will eliminate a lot of confusion, whether your family and friends live with you or not. If the neighbor has a problem with your brother, it may make you Enemy No. 2 by default. Or it may cause you to take sides in a dispute that doesn't involve you directly. Playing peacemaker may be a little easier, especially if you can see both sides of the equation. If your family and friends don't live with you, they don't have to put up with the backlash from your neighbor after they leave.

2. Keep your music volume under control. This is a common debate with college dorms, but it travels to adulthood too. Some people feel like since they live in a house, they have every right to have their music up as loud as they want, regardless of whether you like the song as much as they do or not. Be cognizant of time. Blaring a song at 1 p.m. in the afternoon just doesn't sound the same as 1 a.m. Respect the type of music you're playing as well. If the music is drowning in curse words and vulgar language and your neighbor has a child, that neighbor may not want his child to hear the lyrics. And even if your neighbor has the same taste in music as you do, that doesn't necessarily mean she wants to hear the deejay session next door.

3. Consider buying a wall door stop. Depending on the direction that your neighbor lives in, swinging open your door loud enough to bang it against the wall can get pretty annoying. Slamming it is just as disruptive. Avoid making a grand announcement when you enter and leave your place, especially if it's an apartment. In a house, this may not be necessary, but you can really wreck your walls if there's a wall touching your open door with no safety net. Not to mention, in a bigger city, grand announcements about entering and exiting are robbers' lucky days.

4. Ask your neighbor if he's OK with you having a potentially loud party. This courteous move is not only a forewarning for your neighbor when to scram during your party, but it also gives your neighbor a chance to tell whether he's OK with the party or not. Would you rather get the OK from him or the cops knocking on your door about disturbing the peace? And who's to say your neighbor may not be the life of the party? Try inviting the neighbor to see if that could eliminate a potential argument.

5. Clean up your apartment. It may not bother you to have old food on the tables, dirty clothes on the floor, hair and food particles in your carpet, and an overflowing trash can. It also won't bother the roaches, mice and ants you attract. However, when the exterminator comes to find out who the culprit in the building is that has brought furry and small friends to his place, guess who he'll be mad at? Refusing to let the exterminator into your home will definitely put you in the doghouse. Your place doesn't have to sparkle like a magazine ad, but at least maintain it enough so your neighbors don't have to suffer if you're not a tidy person.