Browse

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 151–162 of 162 ideas

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Bring the trash cans back up

  Sixty seconds of your afternoon, and someone comes home to one less thing.

  5 minutesFreeA neighbor

• Leave quarters at the laundromat

  A few dollars in coins, left on the machines, for whoever counted wrong tonight.

  5 minutesUnder $10A stranger

• 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

• 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

• 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