Beyond the polite “Hey, how’s it going”. Close enough to hang out at each other’s apartment, maybe even ask them to water your plants or feed your pet while you’re away.
Beyond the polite “Hey, how’s it going”. Close enough to hang out at each other’s apartment, maybe even ask them to water your plants or feed your pet while you’re away.
Personally I love to bake, so when I first moved into my current apartment I made a bunch of small coffee cakes and just cold knocked on the doors of all my neighbors one evening. Some folks weren’t home, but for the people I did meet it broke the ice and set us up to chat more when we ran into each other in the hall. And I was lucky enough to even make 3 good friends who I trade pet/plant care and favors with!
This exercise also quickly identified some people that I would not be friends with and that was valuable too.
How often do folk accept your cakes? Have many new neighbours come by offering you baked goods too? Have you met folk who won’t accept your baked goods? Is it awkward?
Sorry for all the questions! This is only something I’ve ever seen done in tv and films and I’m so curious.
I’ve thought about doing this myself a few times and ended up coming to the conclusions that as I just don’t trust the hygiene or humanity of strangers enough to be comfortable with consuming food offered like this, and so it would also not be right for me to bake for strangers by assuming they should trust me and my hygiene and humanity, either.
Have you ever had neighbouring folk offer you baked goods that made you sick? Or that in hindsight once you learnt more about them and/or saw their homes, you regret eating the food they gave you?
No one rejected them! Although I can’t confirm whether everyone ate them lol. None of my neighbors reciprocate with baked goods, so can’t comment on that, but I am satisfied with the trade even just for good will for me and my barky dog.
But I can confirm that I have baked for years, and have passed out enough goods around the building that no one has cause to mistrust me. I definitely wouldn’t have gone this route if I wasn’t a competent baker.