At one point in everyone’s life it seems like they are plagued with nosy neighbors. Sometimes it’s the couple down the road and other times it’s the next-door neighbors who seem to have nothing better to do with their time than to sit there listening to everything you say.
You are out there in the evening, sitting in your backyard enjoying the fresh air over a glass of your favorite chardonnay. How do you know they’ve been eavesdropping? You hear bits and pieces of your conversation filtering back to you from other neighbors. As you’ve reached your breaking point, it’s time to take action. Here’s some of what you can do.
Install a Privacy Fence Along Their Property Line
St Louis fencing companies like Outdoor Living suggest privacy fences will at least keep them from seeing what you are doing. They may still be able to hear you, but at least they can’t gossip about what you wear around the house when no one is supposed to be looking! That is, they can’t see you unless they climb a ladder and at that point you’d catch them in the act, so they won’t do that. The next couple of tips will help obscure what you are saying.
Plant a Line of Shrubs Along Your Side of the Fence
Shrubs and flowers should help to absorb sound. Consider for a moment what happens when you walk in a room with nothing there but the four walls. Any sound you make will echo off the walls, making it appear louder than it is and directing the sound in a given direction as well. But once you start adding furniture and anything with texture you will notice an immediate dampening of the sound. Shrubs and plants along the fence will have that effect as well.
Install Wireless Speakers Along the Fence
Depending on the length of the fence bordering their property, you could install two or three wireless speakers. Before you come out in the evening for your relaxing glass of wine, turn the stereo on with any kind of music you enjoy. The trick here is to keep the volume up just enough to obscure what you are saying but not loud enough to violate any local nose laws. You only want enough volume to obscure your conversation and if possible, use a genre you believe will annoy them. Do you have any of the kids’ rap tunes laying around? Those might work like a charm. And if the volume is low enough, even if they call the police, you are violating no laws so they will need to live with it, or stay out of your life for good!
If all else fails, you can always give them a dose of their own medicine. Make up a story about other neighbors who have been listening to their gossip and make sure you confront those people about what you heard. When asked who told you that obvious lie, say the nosy neighbors (Mr. and Mrs. So and So) have been telling the whole neighborhood. Now it’s your turn to sit back and have some fun. You know what they say about what goes around…
