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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 151–172 of 172 ideas
Translate the letter someone cannot read
An official letter in a language you do not read is frightening in a way that is hard to convey.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Tell the owner, not just the internet
A small shop owner may never see the review. Saying it to their face is the version that reaches them.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Warn the street before the building work starts
Scaffolding and skips are tolerable when you knew they were coming and infuriating when they simply appear.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Turn up for the team that is losing
Supporting anything is easy when it is going well. The useful attendance is in a bad season.
OngoingUnder $10A friend
Not rated yet
Do one shopping run for three households
A single trip that collects three lists costs you ten extra minutes and saves three people an afternoon.
An afternoonFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Quietly cover the person who is skint
Someone stops coming out because they cannot afford it, and tells everyone they are busy instead.
5 minutesMore than $10A friend
Not rated yet
Tell someone their tire is going down
A soft tire spotted in a car park is thirty seconds of mild awkwardness against a blowout at seventy.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Do the jobs that need a ladder
Light bulbs, smoke alarms, curtain hooks. A short list of small jobs becomes impossible at the same time.
Half an hourUnder $10A neighbor
Not rated yet
Sit with whoever came on their own
At any gathering there is someone standing at the edge working out how soon they can leave.
Half an hourFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Check whether the heating is actually on
Many older people ration heating in silence. Cold homes cause a large, measurable share of winter deaths.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Ask the person crying in public if they are okay
Everyone walks past. The calculation people make — that privacy is kinder — is usually wrong.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Drive them and wait in the car park
The journey to and from a hospital appointment is often harder than the appointment, and is done alone.
An afternoonFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Be the easy customer at closing time
The last half hour of a shift is when tiny inconveniences decide whether someone gets home on time.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Put the courgette glut on the wall
Anyone who grows vegetables ends up with more than they can eat. Most of it is composted rather than offered.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Organize two hours of clearing up
A litter pick is mostly an excuse. Forty neighbors meeting each other is the actual output.
An afternoonFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Clear the drain outside someone else's house
Ten minutes with a rake in autumn is the difference between a puddle and a flooded front room in the next heavy rain.
Half an hourFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Introduce yourself to the neighbor you only nod at
You have lived beside each other for years and exchanged nods. Neither of you can start the conversation in an emergency.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor
Not rated yet
Bring the trash cans back up
Sixty seconds of your afternoon, and someone comes home to one less thing.
5 minutesFreeA neighbor2 people did this
Not rated yet
Leave quarters at the laundromat
A few dollars in coins, left on the machines, for whoever counted wrong tonight.
5 minutesUnder $10A stranger
Not rated yet
Ask about the person who died
Grieving people are usually far more afraid of their person being forgotten than of being reminded.
5 minutesFreeA friend
Not rated yet
Learn the name of someone you see every week
There is probably someone you have exchanged a hundred nods with and never once asked.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet
Tell someone's manager they were good
Complaints reach managers constantly. Praise almost never does — which is exactly why it carries weight when it arrives.
5 minutesFreeA stranger
Not rated yet