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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To want our neighbours to not dry their laundry on their front drive?

347 replies

Hop27 · 30/12/2021 06:55

We have new neighbours, they seem to live out their garage. Constantly fixing their 3 cars, parking their cars in front of other peoples drives. Sitting in their cars with the door open talking on their phone via the speaker, vaping - music blaring. Now drying their laundry on an airer on the front drive. AIBU to think put it in your back garden like normal people FFS. The rest is bad enough, but the whole street doesn't need to see your pants!

OP posts:
Ritasueandbobtoo9 · 30/12/2021 08:47

@Youngstreet

Calm down Hyacinth!
Grin
Offmyfence · 30/12/2021 08:47

@Youngstreet

Calm down Hyacinth!
😂
toomuchlaundry · 30/12/2021 08:48

I’m sure when we bought our house, on a new estate, that one of the covenants was no washing to be in the front garden. It is definitely in the terms of the lease for DM’s flat that no washing be dried on her balcony or in view

TheAntiGardener · 30/12/2021 08:48

Agree with every word of your posts @invisiblereally

I spent time in the US as a child and there were very strict rules about how houses and gardens were to be kept in our neighbourhood. For precisely the reasons of visual harmony and keeping things looking neat. It may not be as bad as noise or ASB, but clearly it’s not unusual or weird to dislike this.

Stormbraver99 · 30/12/2021 08:49

I would never hang my washing anywhere other than the back garden, but maybe that's just me being a funny bugger.

Next door neighbour hangs hers on her drive which is right next to ours, so every time I open my side door to step outside I have a full view of their underwear. It's not the most pleasant site, but I just let it blow over the top of my head (literally!).

girlmom21 · 30/12/2021 08:49

If you are someone who likes to sit quietly with a book, by the window on your sofa enjoying the light and view from the house you chose, then it would be a bit jarring to have a view of other peoples drying washing at the front of their house.

If I'm reading a book I'm not looking out the window. If I wanted to 'enjoy the view' I wouldn't buy a house opposite other houses.

Booksandwine80 · 30/12/2021 08:49

I can just picture OP peeping through the net curtains, clutching her pearls and fretting about the washing 🤣🤣

watchingrnfire · 30/12/2021 08:50

Am surprised a lot of ppl don't think drying in front is a issue.

It is a issue. It makes the area look tacky. A lot of flats that are sold have in the contracts that no clothes to be in the balcony as it gives the impression it's a council estate.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 30/12/2021 08:53

I'd be more worried about them blocking drives, having music blaring, conversations on the speaker with the car door open than a bit of washing!

Original poster
Hop27 · 30/12/2021 08:54

We had a strict covenant when we built our house, down to the type of window covering we used in our street facing window. So yes I'm probably being a bit 'mrs bucket' to let it bug me so much. But really, your back garden is closer to their washing machine than their front and it 30 deg, it's not a matter of getting the last of the winter sun. It goes without saying that the other anti-social stuff is much more troublesome. But it seems so unusual to dry your pants in full view of your neighbours!

OP posts:
Monty27 · 30/12/2021 08:54

OP just don't look or listen
Enjoy your own space even if you feel the tone has been lowered
Or move
It's your life

Pottedpalm · 30/12/2021 08:56

Do they own the property, or is it rented? They do sound a bit chavvy.

inmyslippers · 30/12/2021 08:58

It's just not something I could get mad about.

grapewine · 30/12/2021 08:58

@HangingOver

Not all of us are glued to the TV of our phones. Some of us notice our surroundings

Lol nice assumption there pal. I do notice my surroundings - I just don't give a shit about seeing clean washing being dried in an eco friendly way. I don't find it unsightly at all. It's just people going about their lives.

All of this. I'm just not bothered. I'm also not remotely cool.
3scape · 30/12/2021 09:01

They're just clothes. Music blaring would bother me a bit, but only at late hours. If you don't like being aware of the day to day lives of other people then you need to live somewhere isolated.

RowsOfHolly · 30/12/2021 09:02

Save me from suburbia!

daimbarsatemydogsbone · 30/12/2021 09:04

YABU about the washing and car mending.

Noise and anti social parking YANBU.

HeronLanyon · 30/12/2021 09:05

We don’t have a strong cultural norm in the uk of living our ‘domestic’ lives in the front shared spaces of the street. Particularly where there is back space available. I remember around 40 years ago a family in a street of small terraced houses with no back garden started to grow full on crops of sweet corn and runner beans in their tiny front garden right on the pavement. Very sensible but seemed ‘odd’ for a bit before I realised it was a great idea. Some neighbours never got over it.
I’ve looked at houses where the only garden was at the front and what a waste of space not to use it if I wasn’t bothered about privacy etc but it always put me off.
Others who are used to shared spaces being used for all sorts must find us (those of us who do find pants being dried in a front garden visible to all) very odd.

BackBackBack · 30/12/2021 09:07

Meh. I used to live in a back to back terrace, so the only place to dry clothes was in the tiny front yard. Every house had a washing line pole and bracket on the wall for this very purpose!

However I know that it's easy to get annoyed about even little things when you live cheek by jowl to people. My NDN and their tatty collapsing fence and messy (as in rubbish) garden is really annoying. But they are otherwise very nice neighbours so I grin and bear it - and no doubt I do things that frustrate them.

Try and ignore it. You can't stop them doing it, you can't change what's happening. The only thing within your control is how you react to it.

Lovemusic33 · 30/12/2021 09:09

The washing wouldn’t bother me, I don’t really care what others do in their front garden as long as they are not being noisy. Same with the ‘working in their cars’ and ‘loading their cars’, I would only be bothered if they were being overly noisy.

MerryChristmas21 · 30/12/2021 09:14

I'd focus on the 30° & enjoying your life if I were you!

Yes it's a bit 'chavy' , but the noise & vaping would bother me a LOT more than a bit of washing drying.

However it's grey & raining here, so I'd take 30° & neighbours pants drying on the airer!!

BaronessEllarawrosaurus · 30/12/2021 09:14

Another here whose washing line is in the front garden. There's a large number of properties round me who have, small terraces back to back so no rear space, farmhouses with a farm yard at the back and only a garden at the front. Houses built back to front so you have a garden looking over fields at the front and the road access at the back.

mylovelydd · 30/12/2021 09:16

@HeronLanyon Agreed. It's always 'chill about everything' day though on MN. No matter what anyone posts about posters always ride up with "none of your business' 'People can do what they like' 'YABU' 'Could not get bothered about this' blah blah fucking blah.

You could literally watch your neighbour shoot a dog on their front lawns and everyone would be like "YABU he can do what he likes, it's his garden' and the best bit is they are all full of shit.

Doing all those activities on your front garden is chavvy as fuck and there isn't one poster who wouldn't be driven insane by the makeshift car repair garage opposite.

PriamFarrl · 30/12/2021 09:17

All the other things they do would bother me more than the washing.

My next door but one neighbour’s front garden is full of rubbish. I’d sooner see washing.

HeronLanyon · 30/12/2021 09:21

mylovelydd Grin