How To Meet Your Neighbors When Living Off Campus

By Francine Fluetsch on September 4, 2016

Living on campus came with a lot of good and bad, but what it was really great for was meeting your neighbors. You could easily pop your head in next door or walk with your neighbors to the dining hall or wherever you were going, since all of your rooms were so close together.

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Meeting people was never an issue on campus. Now that you are moving off campus, will it be the same? Probably not entirely, so here are some ideas for meeting your neighbors when you live off campus.

“Borrow” something:

If you just moved in and want to see which neighbors of yours are friendship material, go knock on some doors and ask if you can borrow something. Maybe you need to borrow a bottle opener or some butter or whatever you can think of, and you’ll be able to judge the neighbors off their reaction.

If they are willing to help and welcome you to the neighborhood, you’ve got friend potential! If they stare at you through the peephole or are rude about your request, you can rule out some people who just want you to leave them alone.

Just in case the neighbors all know each other quite well, make sure to borrow something different from each, but also make sure to give it back! Don’t be that new person that just moved in that also happens to now be the neighborhood thief.

Get outside:

I remember how surprised I was when I first noticed just how many people were out and about around 7:30 a.m. in my neighborhood walking their dogs. I, of course, was up against my will to make it to my 8 a.m. class, but around that time was the perfect opportunity to meet some of the neighbors.

If you stay inside your apartment/house all day, you aren’t going to meet anyone, so make sure that you go in public areas around your place to give yourself a chance to get to know the community and the people who live around you.

Maybe you can meet fellow dog lovers, or join a group of people doing yoga on the grass, or find some other students studying outside and realize you actually have class with one of them and can bond over it. Many students tend to find off-campus housing in the same locations, so even if you think you won’t know anyone, chances are really in your favor.

Bake something:

You could always take the old fashioned route and make some goodies for your neighbors and go knock on their doors. They’ll be delighted to meet you, and you’ll start off on the right foot since you brought them some goodies. This way, you can know all the people in the places right next to you and you can start to build a rapport with them, which is essential when you live off campus.

You want to have a friendly relationship with everyone so if an issue ever comes up, they will talk to you about it first before thinking of going to the landlord about it because they value your friendship or at least your friendly acquaintance. This relationship is vital, so even if you’re thinking that you don’t want to meet your neighbors because you don’t like people, it will really end up working in your favor.

Plus, who can be mad at you when they are eating fresh-from-the-oven banana bread?

‘Meet the neighbors’ potluck:

Why not host a potluck/party in your new place so your neighbors can stop by, meet you, see what you are all about, and enjoy some food? You can let people casually know that you are going to throw one when you see them getting their mail or taking up their trashcans, and you can ask them to help you spread the word as well.

Or you can also slip the invites in their mailboxes if you haven’t really seen anyone out and about yet. Make sure to do this during the day on a weekend to get the largest turnout possible. Most people are usually very excited to meet a new person who is moving in but often don’t want to intrude or bother you, so if you are the one hosting a small potluck, it will show that you are open to meeting everyone as well.

From this, you will hopefully click with a few people and can then invite them over again for a movie marathon or game night or what have you so you can keep the friendship spark going.

These are just a few ways that you can get out there and meet your new neighbors. Be nice to everyone, you never know when it will pay off! There are at least some decent people living by you — now the challenge is to find them. Good luck!

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