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Kind things to do in your neighborhood
Within walking distance. Most of these are for people you half-know: the faces you recognize on the same street every week and have never actually spoken to.
Showing 1–30 of 172 ideas
Invite the new family twice
The first invitation is often declined out of uncertainty. The second is the one that establishes it was real.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Rated higher · 1 person rated this
Learn to say their name properly
People with unfamiliar names spend their lives being mispronounced and told it does not matter.
5 minutesFreeA stranger1 person did this
Rated higher · 1 person rated this
Explain how the system here actually works
Registering with a doctor, council tax, school places. Obvious to you, opaque and consequential to a newcomer.
An afternoonFreeA neighbor1 person did this
Rated higher · 1 person rated this
Ask again the person who always says no
People who decline every invitation are usually not uninterested. Often they are waiting to be asked a fourth time.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor3 people did this
Rated higher · 1 person rated this
Take one regular journey off the car
Not driving less in general. One specific trip you make every week, done another way, permanently.
Half an hourFreeThe planet
Not rated yet
Leave the fledgling where it is
A feathered bird hopping on the ground is not abandoned. Picking it up is usually the thing that kills it.
5 minutesFreeAn animal
Not rated yet
Refill the one thing you keep rebuying
Pick a single household item and stop buying new packaging for it. One item, permanently, beats a good fortnight.
Half an hourUnder $10The planet
Not rated yet
Pick up the litter you did not drop
Two pieces on the way home, every time. Not a campaign — a habit that takes eleven seconds.
5 minutesFreeThe planet
Not rated yet
Take decent photographs for an animal rescue
Shelter animals are rehomed on the strength of a phone snap in a concrete run. A good photograph is worth weeks.
An afternoonFreeAn animal
Not rated yet
Give it away while it still works
Not when you have finished with it and it is nearly dead. Now, while somebody would actually want it.
Half an hourFreeThe planet
Not rated yet
Walk the dog of somebody who cannot
After surgery, during a bad stretch, or in the weeks after a bereavement. The dog is often the thing they are most worried about.
Half an hourFreeAn animal
Not rated yet
Plant the tree you will not sit under
Whatever you plant now shades somebody who has not been born yet. That is the whole appeal.
An afternoonUnder $10The planet
Not rated yet
Check under the car before you drive off in winter
Cats sleep against warm engines and inside wheel arches. Ten seconds and a bang on the hood.
5 minutesFreeAn animal
Not rated yet
Slow down at dusk, where the road meets the fields
Most animals are hit in the half hour either side of dark, on roads people know well enough to stop concentrating on.
5 minutesFreeAn animal
Not rated yet
Leave the accessible toilet alone
It is not the spare one when there is a queue. For some people it is the only one in the building.
5 minutesFreeA stranger3 people did this
Not rated yet
Read the form out loud for someone
Around one in six adults reads below the level most official forms are written at.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor1 person did this
Not rated yet
Buy two and leave one
Suspended coffees, paid-forward meals and school-fund top-ups exist. Most people have never noticed the option.
5 minutesUnder $10A stranger1 person did this
Not rated yet
Wait for someone who stammers
Finishing the sentence of someone who stammers is meant to help and does the opposite every time.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Keep including the person whose language it is not
Groups drift back into the majority language within minutes, and the one person left out never says anything.
5 minutesFreeA stranger1 person did this
Not rated yet
Buy from the list rather than guessing
Food banks and shelters publish exactly what they are short of. Donations that ignore it create sorting work.
Half an hourUnder $10An organization
Not rated yet
Give the good version away, not the worn-out one
Charity shops and refuges throw away an enormous amount of what is donated because it was not really a gift.
Half an hourFreeAn organization
Not rated yet
Offer to take another child as well
You are already doing the trip. One more in the car is the cheapest help a parent can give another parent.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor1 person did this
Not rated yet
Let a child finish the sentence
Adults complete children's sentences constantly, and the child learns that their version was not worth waiting for.
5 minutesFreeA friend4 people did this
Not rated yet
Ask something other than where they are from
For anyone who looks or sounds different, it is the first question of every conversation, forever.
5 minutesFreeA stranger1 person did this
Not rated yet
Go to the thing even though it is dull
The assembly, the match, the recital. Children scan the audience, and they are counting.
An afternoonFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Say something when the room lets it pass
A remark lands, everyone pretends not to have heard, and the target learns exactly who is in the room.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Tip in cash where the card tip may not reach them
Card tips are sometimes pooled, taxed through payroll or partly retained. Cash usually goes to the person.
5 minutesUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet
Ask what they did before they came here
A great many people doing low-paid work were engineers, doctors or teachers somewhere their qualifications do not count.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Buy the thing they would never buy themselves
People under financial pressure cut the small pleasures first, and those are the ones that hold a life together.
5 minutesMore than $10A friend
Not rated yet
Let a child overhear you praising them
Praise reported to a third party is believed in a way that praise delivered directly is not.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet