Borrowing from the neighbors

[kerriemiller]

Our next door nieghbor borrows all kinds of stuff, without asking from our garage. It drives me insane. But its hard to be mad because they are SOOOOO nice. Seriously the nicest nieghbors you could ask for. And they love my kids, their kids are college age. And do nice things for the kids all the time. Plus he's a doctor and Ive had him diagnose a few things when the kids fall and stuff gives me piece of mind

 

[clh2]

In our old house - we had a wonderful group of friends. As long as you knew who had the keys for "whomever's house" you were able to get what you needed.

My DH and I went for a walk around the block, came around the corner.,.and noticed Bill and Rita had a nice fiberglass ladder for some painting they were doing. DH and I were just stunned. HOW STUPID FOR THEM TO BUY THAT - we had one they could have borrowed. As we got closer - we realized it was our ladder...Peterand Marianne got them our ladder from our garage. Sounds odd - this stuff happened ALL the time. Beer, TP, spices, milk...etc etc. We really missed these neighbors when we had to move due a job relocation.

One of our neighbors managed a huge hardware store, so he had a fabulous "tool area" in his garage...we were able to help ourselves, just needed to return it. This was a godsend, as I had moved into a 40 year old house, on a shoestring budget. So - to not have to buy EVERY single tool for EVERY project was a huge advantage. I mean - really - one time I needed 2 pipe wrenches.,,at about $20 each. I just borrowed them, was done with the project in no time.

This was a neighborhood - where things weren't paid back exactly - i.e. DH and I, oddly enough with no kids at the time, were the "go-to house" for locked out kids, as well as if the kids were uncomfortable being home alone. I(Now this was before cell phones - it would be very different now!) One night - the two kids next door got frightened, (maybe it was storming or somthing) and their parents were 60 miles away. We had the kids just grab sleeping bags, and stay overnight at our house. Left the parents a note. It wasn't a big deal at all. Of course - the next morning, we were probably dropping off one or the other at their soccer match.

I REALLY miss those neighbors...all of them.

I totally agree with:

Good neighbours are to be treasured.

 

[Laura66]

Two wonderful neighbors - and we borrow back and forth all the time! I swear my neighbor Margo gives me my stuff back in better condition! One neighbor none of us will lend anything to cause it ends up broken!
We borrow/lend shop vacs, carpet shampoo machines, tents, chairs, tables, pots, diet coke if we run out , eggs, sugar . . . I also send all my leftovers there and when we make something we know the other likes we send extras over!
Its also understood if we need something and one of us is not home they are welcome to let themselves in to get it!
We are very blessed! My parents are SO the opposite and are horrified by it all!

 

[aprilgail2]

I don't even know my neighbors.

That is so sad- I would hate to have neighbors I didn't even know.


We borrow things all the time, tools, eggs etc from neighbors and they borrow from us. We have the keys to 4 neighbors houses and they have the keys to ours. Very handy when you lock yourself out of your house LOL. We all get each others mail and newspapers when the others are on vacation and watch each others pets. I have a pool and when I come home from work there could be any one of those neighbors in there--I tell them just pull the solar cover back on when you are done and you can use it whenever you want!

 

[Kathi OD]

When we were younger, and lived in a different neighborhood, there were about 5 of us who all had kids who were the same ages and played together all the time. We borrowed things from each other all the time (sugar, eggs, ketchup, a roll of TP, that kind of stuff). 4 of us didn't really care if it got paid back because we knew that next week, or the week after, we'd be the one borrowing. The 5th girl returned everything she borrowed. If she borrowed ketchup, we'd get 10 - 15 packets of ketchup from McDonald's or Burger King the next time she went. Same with sugar; we'd get sugar packets from a restaurant. One time she returned a roll of TP that she obviously lifted from somewhere (the wrapping on the TP gave it away).

Some of the others in our group used to get mad, but I thought it was kind of funny.

 

[Stitchfans]

nope, we just do the "man nod" at each other

Wow, never heard it referred to like that. So funny. Not so funny though, since that is all we have around here too. Everyone is friendly enough to were they all nod and wave but do not expect anyone to talk to you.

 

[tvguy]

Been here 29 years. I would not be afraid to ask, and do not being asked, but I can only think of about 3 or 4 times it has every happened.
And yes, one time it was the lady next door asking to borrow a cup of sugar, at 10:30 pm. No biggie, at the time DW and I went to work at 11 pm, so we were up and about to leave.

 

[lustergirl]

Went through this once but it was more like giving and not borrowing. We had a crackhead move in down the street with her 9 kids. She used to send her littler ones up and down the street knocking on other neighbor's door to "borrow" stuff like a cup of milk, a cup of bleach, some butter, some sugar, some dish soap, a couple of eggs, etc. Needless to say that didn't last too long and neither did she- they moved out quick.

 

[PaulaSue]

OMG, before we moved here we had a family we borrowed everything from. Film, eggs, oil, suran wrap, stamps, PB etc,,, Miss them so much! Thankfully I have great neighors here too and have done similiar things but not as often.

 

[MrsDuck]

I don't think that we've ever borrowed anything from a neighbor.

 

[BKMETV]

Love our neighbours...we even have built a gate in the fence in the backyard to walk back & forth. We most often 'borrow' their hot tub and they 'borrow' our pool!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Oh yea, sure we do. Pumps, snow blowers, car repair stuff, and we help each other out with other stuff sometimes.

 

[crz4mm2]

I have borrowed eggs before, but that's it.
No one (we live in the country) has ever asked to borrow anything from me.

 

[BlovesC]

No. I have a VERY hard time asking for favors, mostly because of the way I grew up. I'd lend my neighbors anything they'd ask from me, but I'd never ask anything of them unless it was life or death.

 

[FayeW]

I just borrowed cake from mine...it was delicious!

(We were at their house for a party last night and there was a lot of cake leftover. I texted and said "Got cake?" she said "Yep" and then I strolled on over...)

 

[Muushka]

I have a new neighbor. Single mom, adorable son. She has a tendancy to borrow milk and I have no problem giving it to her.
Because when I returned from FL and was in dire need for AM coffee, I loved that she was so happy to return the favor.
It will be the same thing with tools. She has borrowed ours in the past, but the other day I noticed she has some awesome loppers.
I love to lop, mine are sort of lame. I know she will be happy to lend me hers.

And that's the way it should be!

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

I did with our old next door neighbors. They borrowed more from me than me from them but they watched over our house for us when we were gone - bringing in UPS packages and stuff. So it all evened out.

They moved just after Thanksgiving last year and the new neighbor isn't friendly at all. I miss them.

 

[Janepod]

No. I have a VERY hard time asking for favors, mostly because of the way I grew up. I'd lend my neighbors anything they'd ask from me, but I'd never ask anything of them unless it was life or death.

I'm the same way. I don't know why.

 

[Muushka]

I did with our old next door neighbors. They borrowed more from me than me from them but they watched over our house for us when we were gone - bringing in UPS packages and stuff. So it all evened out.

They moved just after Thanksgiving last year and the new neighbor isn't friendly at all. I miss them.

Sad when neighbors aren't friendly.

I am very fortunate that my new neighbor replaced my old neighbor who used to take care of my cats while on vacation which included insulin injections!

The other side of our house, neighbor not so friendly,

 

[hops&dreams]

I think we all (on our cul-de-sac) borrow stuff pretty regularly. Neighbors tend to borrow my DH because he's rather handy (he used to work maintenance at a large apartment complex... he can pretty much do anything to a house, and generally has his own tools to do it). If a car is broken down, or a water heater went out, DH is usually one of the first calls, to "assess" the damage and come up with a game plan. Sometimes DH will offer to do the repair himself, or sometimes he'll suggest they call a plumber, or AC guy or whatever. But if he has the time, he'll genterally do it.

We're the youngest on our block by about 10 years, but we all get along well. We actually all went out to dinner one night to celebrate 3 of the guys' birthdays, one (DH) turning 30, one turning 40, and one turning 50!

Sometimes someone will come over and ask to use our lawn mower because we have a bag catcher and they want to mulch with their clippings, or we'll go snowblow someone else's driveway because we know she's working an overnight shift, and she's divorced, and her son is away at college.

If we see someone piling carpet up outside, we go see if we can help out (basement flooding - neighbors don't know what they would have donw without DH - they were able to save the drywall!).

Weirdest thing we've borrowed was a beer bottle capper. Ours broke when we were only 5 bottles into bottling a batch of beer. We just called up neighbors down the street who are also hombrewers, and he had his high-school aged daughter run it over to our house.