Reminds me that I used to live on a farm. We had one neighbor who had a house with yardage (no farm), but used to complain about farm smells, eg manure. Ahem, we didn’t pull a bait and switch on ya! The barn, shed, fence, Holstein cows, garden, tractor, farm implements … all perfectly visible when you and the real estate agent came out to the house. And it wasn’t just us … there were 5 small farms around you. Its not our problem that you had an image of country life but your nose was disappointed. Or that you saw the cows, but failed to take that natural step of imagination to note that they excrete.

Next thing I know they are washing their cars on our driveway so they can do it “in the shade”

Soon I was being questioned as to what I was going to do with items I had out in my yard. I recycle, so once a week or every two weeks I load up my car with everything. In the mean time I have it sorted in boxes out in my carport..oh that wasn’t good enough for them. Then. We had a lot of construction equipment and materials we stacked on the side of our garage.. Some of it was on craigslist, some was just sitting there, because it can.its our place. No one can see our property from the street, especially the garage.

Well one morning the neighbor comes down to question me when the items on the side of the house were going to be removed. I explained that it wasn’t my stuff but the other neighbor who rents a room on the property, and that only one item belonged to me, but one of my friends was going to come pick it up when he can bring his truck..

Well a out 2 weeks go by..and one Monday morning the neighbor comes down demanding I move everything(3 items) from the side of my garage area. Now I was just over it.

I told him it will be moved when it gets moved and maybe he should just look the other way.

Well that threw him into a tizzy..he then said he was going to move everything into the middle of my driveway so that I can look at it just the way he has to..

Well I went and got the other neighbor, a big tall dude with a mouth on him. He stopped the guy from touching his equipment, told him to get off his property and never to come down into our area again.

We then called the landlords to complain. They drove over themselves to see what all the hub-bub was about.
After they took a stroll of the property, they could not see anything that looked like an eyesore, improperly stored, or out of line. Mind you, we even have remodeling of the downstairs portion of the house going on..we have the sheet rock and tiles outside too..and it looked fine to them.

The next day the crazy neighbor took a weed whacker to all the flowers and plants he had planted in the adopted area, cut down small trees and bushes as well, all in a tantrum.

Thinking back, I sure would love to have the old neighbors back.. A noisy young couple who had loud barbecues every weekend..they weren’t perfect but they were sure nice and didn’t care about what we did on our part of the property!

What I would give to have them back, an occasional fallen Heineken bottle or chicken wing under their deck would be warmly welcomed instead of any crazy petunias!

Now we were dealing with a nut!

If we hadn’t put a stop to their requests and comments then what would happen next? Would they tell us they don’t like our make and model of cars parked in the driveway!

I say some people should move to a gated community if they don’t want to live amongst us “average Joe’s”
Sometimes the neighbors are freaks and you just have to put them in their place, or they will mow you right over!

Seems a little petty on your neighbor’s part. I would think she could put up a privacy fence if it bothered her that much. It’s your property.

If your situation, Jennifer, had happened to me, I would have politely, but firmly, told her that as long as she doesn’t pay my property taxes, I will continue to put my clothes on the line. I would do as you did, however, by discreetly hanging up my skivvies between the linen on the inside lines. I would still do this anyways since I don’t believe in “airing my laundry” both metaphorically speaking and literally.

If I had a neighbor complain about my laundry outside and I knew I was within my rights, I’m afraid I would have just said so sorry but this is what I do. None of her business what you do on your own land. hanging laundrey is good exercise, very soothing and saves on utilities. It is good for you!

Every year I get a letter form the city stating that someone complains that my grass is too high and that the the rule is that no grass is too be higher then 12.” Their letter says that if I don’t get it cut within a few days the city will send someone out to cut it for me and send me the bill.

I contacted the people that the city contracts with to cut grass and they wanted $1,200 to cut the grass! I finally got my guy to cut it for $300.

Still it is another example of a neighbor nosing their way into somewhere it doesn’t need to be. I guess it is because they don’t have anything else better to do.

I would continue to hang the clothes outside. Thanks for the article. It makes me want to hang my clothes outside. There is no rule against that where I live either.