Apartment Etiquette.

A good smile makes a good neighbour. It has become a trend to opt for apartments, considering the safety it gives its residents. While we choose to live in apartments, we need to follow certain rules and regulations to ensure discipline in harmony.  First and foremost one should go by the policy live and let live.

Be sensitive to water. It is a common practice to keep the tap open on finding there is no supply of water but one forgets to close it. When one leaves the house during water scarcity time please check whether all the taps are closed properly. Many times when one forgets, the water goes waste .Water is precious; the day is not far off when we would have to buy water as petrol and diesel.

Close the doors , grill doors softly and do not bang them at any given time of day and night. Pulling or dragging the furniture may cause inconvenience to senior citizens, babies, and patients. So be gentle in handling the furniture.

Do not throw garbage out thro’ windows and balconies and thro’ the bathroom window shutters, at the same time do not flush the nappies, napkins, tissues in the closet as it might block free flow of disposal.

Dragging your stroller early in the morning and late at night is quite irritating that it disturbs the sensitive ears of deep sleep. Please be sensitive to others’ feelings and carry for some distance.

If one celebrates any social get-together within the premises try to wind up latest by 11 pm and make it a low volume affair.

If there is a children's park in the middle of your apartments, make it a habit to wind off the kids by 7 pm thereby not disturbing the residents who live close to the park area.

If you are going out of station, inform your neighbours and  leave your contact number or address with them for emergency purposes.

It is quite common to see people coming out to balcony or the common place to talk over mobile phones due to lack of signal. But it’s not customary to talk so loud that others come to know the conversation you are into! Keep to a low volume.

It’s advisable to have a common place  for bursting of crackers, and for Holika dagan, Lohri etc to avoid inconvenience to others.

Keep the garbage out only in the morning and not at night itself , some have the practise of keeping the empty  pizza cartons, shoe boxes out in the night itself .

Know your neighbours, keep talking and be courteous and do not cross the limit of knowing too much.

Parking the car or taking out the car from the parking lot with the reverse horn and with the funny music in the early morning and night time causes in convenience to the residents, especially those who are on the ground floor; either switch off the reverse horn music or park your vehicle in such a way that you do not have to reverse it.( Vaastu says it is a good omen to park in this way as reversing signifies that day’s work also reversing ).Instruct the car cleaning  boys not to play loud music while cleaning the vehicles in the early morning.

Parking vehicles as per your convenience would invite trouble and brand you as a trouble maker. Follow the parking rules.

Those who have flowerpots and their mini garden with hanging plants, remember to pour water only to them and not sprinkle your blessings of water on co-residents .

Fasten the windows and check the hinges especially during monsoon season to avoid the windows falling down causing casualty. If you have pets make it  a habit to walk them and they do not become a nuisance to fellow residents.

To save  electricity try and avoid switching on the lift fan and on coming out see whether it’s switched off and insist the same thing with others like paper man, courier man, servant maids, gas refill man etc.,

Try to work out with the carpenter, plumber, and electrician a set of time to avoid disturbing fellow residents. For that matter any repair work is to be carried out from morning 8 am to evening 6 pm with a break of two hours from 1 pm to 3 pm.

You may be a good bathroom singer and your voice may be enchanting but it may not be so with your neighbours that too when your washroom is adjacent to your neighbours’ bedroom!

While watching TV neighbours need not know what channel you are watching, it should never be a sight in one house and sound from another! 

As we live in a community, let’s take part in happiness and grief equally and show that we are there for each other. Live and let live. Healthy mind in healthy surroundings.