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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to ask the neighbours to open the curtains?

434 replies

cocostrawberry · 21/01/2015 14:41

A youngish couple with no children bought a house on our estate about a year ago. They don't get involved with any of the activities such as the summer bbq and basically seem to isolate themselves from the rest of us, their loss. However my main bug is that they NEVER have the living room curtains open and quite often leave the other ones shut also, today every single one of them are shut and I know they are home.

I've hinted a couple of times that it would be best for them to leave them open, the girl mumbled something about a projector and watching films, but they can't be watching films all the time.

AIBU to just point blank ask them to open the curtains during the day, it really depresses me to look across to their house with all the curtains closed, it doesn't look inviting and it looks odd compared to the rest of the estate, we all manage to open their curtains everyday, so why can't they? My DH thinks I'm BU and should just leave them to it but I think when it effects other people I have a right to say something?

OP posts:
OnIlkleyMoorBahTwat · 21/01/2015 22:05

Someone up thread mentioned washing etiquette. I was surprised to learn that there are people who are bothered by other people's washing, to the extent that they think that they should use tumble driers even on nice days and support ridiculous clauses in tenancy agreements banning the drying of washing on balconies and communal gardens. There was a long thread on here not so long ago.

FoxgloveFairy · 21/01/2015 22:07

I think they are barbeque avoiding, spy vampires who are developing a sideline as drug barons in order to pay for net curtains. They have probably killed and drained the witness protection people. I'd overlook the closed curtains op.

lemisscared · 21/01/2015 22:08

i never open the curtains in my front room as we use the back room. the op is clearly barking

ByeByeButterfly · 21/01/2015 22:09

But we are watching films a lot of the time.

It's better than having to see you and your husband naked on the sofa which is why the curtains are shut get a room !

vivideye · 21/01/2015 22:10

the best thread ever! I have been pmsl the whole way through. OP, THANK YOU.

SnapeChat · 21/01/2015 22:13

This reply has been deleted

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Lweji · 21/01/2015 22:17

The op has vanished.

Or banished.

lookingforsunshine · 21/01/2015 22:19

best thread ever. I'm having a horrible month. This has really cheered me up. Can't remember last time I laughed so much. Crying with laughter. Don't care if this is real or not, it's just hilarious.

pluCaChange · 21/01/2015 22:20

cozietoesie, DH would kill me if I put holes in our new window frames! Shock

FoxgloveFairy · 21/01/2015 22:20

I shall now, as a gesture of protest against window drapery oppression of all kinds, have one set open and one closed. All the time.

cozietoesie · 21/01/2015 22:24

Strewth, plu - tell him you would be striking a blow against oppression. (I'm not entirely sure what kind but it will come to me doubtless.)

lemisscared · 21/01/2015 22:27

Does anyone remember their parents whitewashing the windows whenever the nets were washed?

fallon8 · 21/01/2015 22:28

If I lived opposite you, I would close the curtains all the time..haven't you got enough to do?

cozietoesie · 21/01/2015 22:32

Two sets of nets is the thing, lem. You just have to have the second (and clean) set ready to whip up with minimal bare window time. (After sticking your head out and checking for potential passers by coming your way, of course.)

Dawndonnaagain · 21/01/2015 23:06

Just like to point out that my front curtains are frequently closed, although if anyone could be arsed, they'd work out it's weather dependent. I have books, the last thing I want is the sun on them.

LisaMed · 21/01/2015 23:26

Not only am I the only person in this house that can switch a light off and change a toilet roll, I am also the only person that opens the downstairs curtains.

DH opens his bedroom curtains, and will close curtains if there is a chance of a flash of something inappropriate, but apart from that it's me that does the open and shut stuff.

I haven't closed the curtains in the bedroom I currently use yet. At this time of year there's no point.

And the people at the corner really need to rethink their bathroom window coverings. I can tell that she stands up to wipe.

FoxgloveFairy · 22/01/2015 01:05

Curtains of the world, be strong. You may be open, you may be closed,you may be lined or net, held back with brassy, chippy things but above all, you must be freeeeeeeee!

Germgirl · 22/01/2015 06:31

TookALittle are you a chubby bloke with a car with a hilarious personalised number plate? If so, you could be my dad's NDN. otherwise there's a battalion of old boys wandering around in the buff with no curtains.

ScrambledEggAndToast · 22/01/2015 06:42

Maybe they're nudists?

Missymum6 · 22/01/2015 06:53

Does anyone else really want to know if she went round there?

highlighta · 22/01/2015 07:06

I have just checked. My neighbour across from me still has their curtains closed and its 9am.

OP, i need some tips on how to approach this travesty with them.

And what do i reply when they tell me it was because they were having wild passionate sex?

You see, I need advice on this, as it is something that never ever crossed my mind until now....

fucks sakes, the OP has turned me into a curtain spotter now!

MrsGeorgeMichael · 22/01/2015 07:13

am i the only one who is going to keep my curtains closed all day just for the craic :)

LaLa5 · 22/01/2015 07:24

This thread is amazing. Definitely one for classics. My favourite bit was the insinuation that not opening curtains is activity worthy only of people in apartments, not 'a nice family estate'

Because everyone who lives in an apartment lives in a dump...?

OP please come back, I love your barking-ness!

resolves to study curtain etiquette immediately - does one have a book on this?

lbsjob87 · 22/01/2015 07:28

We don't have curtains, just Venetian blinds, because we're common. The front one in the bay window has broken so you can't open the slats with the handle, you have to use your hands. A lot of the time, we don't bother.
I am genuinely supposed to be picking up a new one today but am tempted not to bother, on the remotest chance that it might vaguely piss off one of my neighbours.
Although it probably won't because they all have lives of their own and the fact that none of them has mentioned the broken blind suggests they haven't noticed or don't care.
If only more neighbours were like you, OP, taking it upon themselves to tidy people's windows one house at a time, I might have fixed it months ago....

EleanorAbernathy · 22/01/2015 07:30

I was wondering if WE were OP's neighbours until she said they had net curtains - we don't! Grin

I work nights so the upstairs curtains are shut most of the time - and at the moment even on days it's dark when I leave AND when I get home so it seems pointless opening them!

We keep the downstairs front ones shut anyway to stop people looking in - we can't get nets as the cats would swing off them (although I like leaving them not QUITE shut so the light can get in round the edges)

It's actually quite open plan downstairs with windows all across the back with the curtains open all the time, so we're not sitting in the dark all the time!