Oh FFS, not another one!

The thing is, all our neighbours are so nice, and so grateful to us...

So they should be Indianna. Difficult - if it were the odd one or two I guess that just happens, but if there is a regular delivery - the wine - could you politely suggest to your neighbour that he has it delivered to his place of work? Lots of peopole seem to do this nowadays - and there is the click snd collect option for a local pick up point too. Perhaps you could say 'It was lucky we were in ... '

You are not being uneasonable - 'b****y check!' comes to mind.

Indinana You say your neighbours are all so nice and so grateful to you and there is one sure way to change all that and that is to refuse to take in any more parcels. I think you would really prefer to keep the friendliness going and you are clearly being a blessing to them all. If you are busy and it is inconvenient to stop what you are doing when they pop round then just ask them to come back in another 10 minutes when you are finished. You need to be the one to set the rules so you have to take charge and do that. We only get just so many gaskets to blow!

Vans with deliveries for the terrace of houses where I live have to stop in view of my kitchen window. If I see a driver returning to his van with a parcel, I open the window and offer to take it in. Some of them know me now, and ring the doorbell. The neighbours are always grateful and I am happy to do it. I well remember the problems of having to pick up things from the depot when I worked full time, even getting to the Post Office was inconvenient.

These days, for Ebay items there is often an option of picking up at Argos within the local Homebase store a couple of miles away. This has made life much easier for many as they have long opening hours.

As the terrace is set back from the road, behind landscaping, we all put our wheelie bins on the kerb side, but guess who takes them all back to their frontage, especially when it is windy? On alternate weeks it is 3 bins per property!

We have a shared car park and I am the only one willing to clear snow. Am I a mug, although I enjoy keeping busy?

I work from home so have quite a lot of deliveries and pickups (currently waiting for FedEx as I type). The delivery people know where to leave parcels on the odd occasion I'm not home but one day I came back to find he'd put one box in the bin!! I don't really mind taking in my neighbours parcels if they're out but it's then having to go round myself to deliver them when they're back which is a bit annoying!

As someone whose neighbours sometimes have to take in my parcels (for which I am enormously grateful btw) I would have assumed that collecting them when I knew they were at home (eg outside cleaning the car) was the best time to do it. Now the OP has said what a terrible burden it is to "turn the hose off" I'll make sure I ring their doorbell at 5am when I get home from my nightshift!

Where did I say it was a terrible burden? Oh well, I suppose that's one thing that is guaranteed - no matter what is posted on GN, there will always be some who are hostile, if not downright rude

The fact is, I don't really mind because I know how difficult it is to organise deliveries when you're working full-time. I always had things delivered to my work address, but I know not everyone can, especially if they have to carry something bulky home on a bus.
I do have lovely neighbours and they do appreciate me helping them, so I will always take things in for them. I was frustrated at having to come downstairs to open the door twice in quick succession to take in parcels for neighbours, that's all.
Sorry, folks. I am nice most of the time. Obviously, in order to please some people, I'll have to work at being nice all the time

A somebody who also works from home - and who needs to concentrate on what they are doing instead of running up and down the stairs every five minutes to take in yet another parcel - I have had to put a complete stop to this, as it was starting to take up too much time.

Just because I am here does not mean that I have nothing better to do than act as an unofficial Post Office for the entire street and I can see nothing wrong with politely saying no. Companies do deliver to work/office addresses so there is no reason why these people cannot arrang their deliveries accordingly.

Funny you should start this thread Indinana - I said to DH just this morning that we should rename our house PO Box No 33

The neighbours do usually come and collect them because there is usually but not always a note pushed through their door.

Goodness knows what they do when we are away!

And when I had a delivery of part of a dinner service when we were out, the delivery person threw it over our wall into the back (on to concrete!). Luckily it was well packed and nothing broken.

Yes, Jalima our neighbours usually call to collect their parcels - I don't go delivering them for them . Once, though, we had a bulky parcel for a couple of days and I was on the point of knocking on the addressee's door to check that they were there. Then the fellow knocked on our door and asked if we had it. Apparently, they'd had a card through the door which told them, unhelpfully, that their parcel had been left at No. 40. They live at No. 40 . So they'd been up and down the road trying to find it (we are several doors away and their parcels don't usually find their way to our house!)
Heavens, you were lucky with your dinner service delivery! My DD has had parcels left in her wheely bin a couple of times, with no card through the door to tell her - she just came across them when she went to the bin.

The large box which arrived today was for our newish neighbours across the road (who are lovely): word must be getting around about the PO Box.

Jalima

It doesn't bother me (I work from home too) because I know it will be reciprocated by my lovely neighbours.

The title of the post "FFS" and your comment "Oh don't worry, I'll just stop what I'm doing, turn the hose off, don't mind me " - was what made it sound like a burden to you! And I wasn't being hostile or rude, just pointing out that it probably made sense to them to collect the parcel if they know that the neighbour who has kindly taken it in for them is at home - I fail to see what your neighbour has done wrong in coming to see you when you are outside, carwashing or not. If you don't want to take in parcels just say no. If you have taken them in and it's not convenient to get them just say so. A lot of fuss about very little imho.

We take in a few parcels too, but my feeling is our neighbours are so nice that I don't begrudge doing it. Surely it's not that big a deal?

I think the original OP was written a bit 'tongue in cheek' edmontonkitty. At least, that was how I read it. I'm another one who seems to be the collection point - I grumble, we all grumble, but we know we have the answer in our own hands - don't say yes! - but we always do. Because we are nice people. And yes, you sounded hostile and rude.

It is called being neighbourly, and although it can be a bit irritating, it is all part and parcel ( see what i did there? ) of being part of a small community. You never know when you may need the help of any of these people when your car wont start or there is water pouring out of a burst pipe........

Thank you mollie - good to see someone at least understood me. edmontonkitty would you prefer that we all only post nice happy clappy threads in future? I'll see what I can do

I also take in parcels for neighbours but have no objection because I get on well with them and I really want to keep it that way. The postman and couriers know of my 'safe place' where my packages can be left, so neighbours don't get lumbered with mine - anyway, they're the ones who are out at work.

Oh Indinana I thought you were truly feeling very put upon!

Just like Anno- I believe it is about being good neighbours. We have retired neighbours in our block of flats in the UK who are always taking things in for us, and also check our letter box and forward things. But we have discussed this with them and asked for permission. wouldn't dream of doing so without permission- and we always thank them and take presents with us when we visit, like chocolates and champagne, flowers, plants.

I would be very annoyed if people did this without asking- or if they didn't say thank you afterwards (and a little gesture from time to time if it happened often).

I take in lots of parcels for neighbours and it doesn't bother me as long as the driver puts a card through their letterbox telling them where the parcel is. It's nice to be nice!

I don't mind doing it for our neighbours - to be fair, I'm the one relying on them much more often than they do on me! When we mind DGS2 at his house we have at least 2 drop-offs a day for their neighbours, and I can imagine it's distracting for DSIL on the days we're not there to field them, as he works from home. I do think it's only considerate to leave details of a "safe place" if possible with suppliers you use a lot. Saying that, our "safe place" is in our bin 'oil and I sometimes wonder just how safe it is (though fingers crossed it's worked so far). Not to mention the parcels that have nearly disintegrated in the rain (the roof leaks) and the last one that was left on the ground instead of on the bin and was hefted in by DH covered in baby slugs (the package, not DH).

Anything's better than the card through the letterbox though, telling you to collect the item from the convenient depot 9 miles away....