...to tell neighbour her obscured glass is completely ineffective?

[HarlinRay]

The neighbour across our back lane has slightly frosted glass in her bathroom window which is about 20 feet away from my office window, but it obscures NOTHING and she wears NOTHING and she spends a lot of time in there doing complicated ablutions - leg up on sink to clean or examine genitals is a favourite pose. Her other curtains are always closed so I think she may be a bit of a nudist at home as she's literally always nude in the bathroom, even if it's just to pop in for a pee. I'm pretty well acquainted with her daytime bathroom schedule - and before you say don't look, I can't help it, unless I work for 8 hours per day with my back to the window which I'm not prepared to do.

Anyway, I'm not disgusted or offended or anything, and if she doesn't care then I don't care - but what if she doesn't know? What if another neighbour does care more than I do and decides to be unpleasant about it, or what if someone decides to take photos? Should I pop by to tell her, or just drop an anonymous note so she has plausible deniability if she wants to continue her exhibitionist lifestyle? Or should I just ignore it?

@HarlinRay

How long has it been going on?

She moved in a month ago. Previous occupant had a little curtain on suction cup hooks but I assume they took that when they moved.

Might be worth mentioning previous neighbour's little curtain?

She'll have no idea, poor woman.

In the front bedroom of my 1930s house the light is just in front of the window. I thought it was a strange place to have it when we first moved in, but MIL explained that this is so that you don't throw a shadow onto the curtains if you are undressing!

I don't know what you should do about the neighbour OP, but you should listen to The Living Room podcast from Radiolab. Be warned though, you'll cry.

www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/living-room

Where can you get cheap opaque blinds? I am panicking now!

Just say ‘Hello, I thought I should warn you that your bathroom window is less opaque that you might realise. The previous owners had a little curtain which made a big difference. I hope you are settling in well at number 22? Best wishes Jill‘

@MayFayre

We have a similar situation with neighbours. Our kitchen has a view of his bathroom. We see them having a wee and the teenage son wanking! I could never say anything but would if they asked. They took away a perfectly good blind from the window when they moved in.

Big yike.

Oh god Mayfayre I hope you are not my neighbour defo measuring for blinds tomorrow

Serendipitty that is fascinating. I have lived in 2 old houses (inc current one) where the pendant bedroom ceiling lights are placed in front of the window rather than centrally. All makes sense now!

Do tell her. I keep having to remind DH that our bathroom window is actually very see through.

How do you know the previous curtain was on suction cup hooks? How could you see them from outside?

So... I'm going to be making sure my blinds are down from now on...

You have to tell her OP. Just...do it anonymously an as vaguely as possible. I got a note about similar once- though not THAT similar, no genital examinations! Simply that in the evening it was possible to see me undressing in my bedroom from their bedroom. They graciously wrote an anon note along the lines of ' So sorry to raise this but for your own information and privacy, your bedroom window has very clear visibility to your neighbours of an evening when the lights are on. Kind regards.

All very mortifying but i was grateful they chose not to detail what scenes exactly they had witnessed and felt my dignity was er...somewhat preserved by their tact.

@Cyberattack … because it was slightly smaller than the window itself, rather than completely covering the window edge to edge, and there were small round circles at each of the top corners of the curtain. Sorry not the smoking gun you were looking for mate.

@SerenDippitty

We have this set up in our 30's house!!! Always wondered what the hell it was all
about...
Thanks for solving the mystery!

Ghoulwithadragontattoo I think your wording is perfect.

We used to have a ground floor flat with a bathroom window right by the road. The previous inhabitants had no blind there and obviously just relied on the frosted glass.

I thought I would just double check the visibility by getting DH to stand in the bathroom with the light on while I popped outside. OMG YOU COULD SEE EVERYTHING. Straight to John Lewis for a readymade blind.

It does make me wonder about the previous owners, who'd clearly been flashing the neighbourhood for years unawares.

The suction cup blind is genius.
I rent so blind allowance varies. Plus they always get mouldy and grim after a short while.

Good luck telling her op

We don’t have any frosted glass in my en-suite window (it’s a huge window as well) and it faces into the ‘courtyard’ of our building. I was always using the main bathroom so hadn’t really thought about the window in the en-suite. Next doors flat is at a right angle to mine, they sent me a photo of the empty shower cubicle via whatsapp. It was night time, the light was on, you could see everything. Boyfriend had given most of the building quite the show when he had a shower, next doors balcony is about five feet from the window

Tell the neighbour!

@HarlinRay

''doing complicated ablutions - leg up on sink to clean or examine genitals is a favourite pose'' - your wording made me laugh in tears

I will be testing my bathroom frosted glass for the level of privacy today!

Thank you for this thread!

Tell the neighbour!

Yep - I used to work in an office in central London that was opposite the bathroom windows of a block of flats which had frosted glass for the bathrooms. That really opened my eyes to how "see through" frosted glass actually was and I now make sure I have blinds on any bathrooms in my house.

My son told me his friend regularly sees DH and I taking a bath together. The bath is in front of the window with frosted glass. We now have proper blinds! Tell her.

I remember when I decided to be helpful but I think the lady in question was too embarrassed to say thank you lol

It was christmas night and a woman had posted a picture of her christmas presents on Instagram. One of the presents was a mirror. She had obviously taken the picture whilst naked...can you see where this is going

I could see her vagina very clearly and magnified in the reflection of the mirror so I messaged her to let her know. She promptly deleted the photo.

I would tell your neighbour but coming from you. Not an anonymous note. If you went down the note route she may then be paranoid worrying about who sent it.

Eeek. I think face to face is better than anonymous though, no matter how nicely worded. Or if you're not comfortable with that, def leave your address and phone no, so you don't come across like a stalker.

And now I must check our shower over the bath right in front of a small frosted window which I've always hoped is ok...

We have a blind on the bottom half of the window only - full blind down was awful.. A curtain swept back on one side.