This post is from the archives when I lived in New York City, but honestly, still relevant to my current city living (except we are in a townhouse now on the West Coast instead of an apartment building.)
When you live in an apartment building in an urban area, there’s a good chance your window looks into someone else’s window across the street… maybe even just a courtyard separates you from your neighbor. This was new for me coming from the Midwest where everyone has fences and yards.
I love sunlight. One of the reasons we chose the apartment that we did was the sunlight. In order to have sunlight, you have to keep your shades open. The natural light was worth the initial creepiness of all of it.
In the two years living in our apartment, I’ve done my fair share of giggling about my neighbors. The man who works shirtless every day from his desk next to the window, the kid with the Megatron toy that creeps me out because it is always in the window, the apartment that didn’t buy black out shades so they just put up cardboard in the window.
The other night as I closed the windows, I finally wondered what people see when they look in our apartment. Yep, I know what you’re thinking. Why hadn’t that crossed my mind in the first 23 months we’ve lived there? I’m as concerned as you are, but I really don’t have anything to hide.
The shades are closed every night and we don’t have windows in our bathroom, so there’s no real peep show coming out of our apartment. I decided to make a list of things I think they would see from across the street, above and below us.
What My Neighbors in the Apartment Building Across the Street May See:
- Wine on the window sill while I read, write or binge on Netflix.
- The constant fixture of the dogs in the window sitting on the back of the couch. There are certain dogs that they love that they make crazy noises out the window. There are certain dogs they don’t like that get lots of loud barks. People get to see me pull them out of the window when things get out of hand – at least three times a day.
- Dance parties while cleaning. Sometimes they really escalate before I remember that the windows are open.
- Lots of pacing back and forth since we are very conscious of the number of steps we take in a day and if we are close to 10,000, we walk around while watching TV. It probably makes us look insane.
- Our plant that dies and comes back to life weekly when I remember to water it. I should take a before & after picture one of these days. I’m still amazed it makes comebacks. It’s a great plant for non-green thumbs like myself.
- Lola’s race car track which is our entire apartment. She sometimes gets really wound up and runs through the apartment using the back of the couch as her turning point. It’s widely entertaining and from outside, it probably looks like a blur.
- Whatever books, magazines or other objects are currently sitting on our end table next to the couch.
It’s funny to think of the glimpse into your life people get just from the few things they can see in your apartment. I’m very aware of our windows now, but that pretty much just means that I don’t run around without pants on before shutting the blinds.
I’m currently watching the sunrise reflect off the windows across the street and my neighbor that is just shutting off her lights at 6:00 AM when I’m waking up. Must have been a long night.
Apartment living isn’t for everyone, but I really do enjoy it.
Do you live in an apartment? Are you extra aware of your neighbors?
