Noise on a Sunday

We use to live in Germany also where mowing the lawn (and using any machinery) was illegal on Sundays. even hanging out your washing was illegal. I once had two very stern policeman knock on my door to tell me to take my washing in. They behaved like I had just robbed a bank. It would be nice if we could have a Sunday no noise rule but I think it would limit a lot of people. Have to make do with very good earplugs!!

They have relaxed the rules Re gentle gardening (by hand) and hanging out washing on Sundays, Nanny27.

At least, I think so. The washing thing definitely.

My neighbours push mower drives me insane! Just get a lawn mower, have it done in 10 minutes rather than the hour she takes for a stamp size! And every 3rd day, I'm sure she measures it to the millimetre.
What with that and my next door neighbour arguing/fighting/music from 6am onwards I'm a nervous wreck......

Quite surprised that some people expect Sundays to be as they were in years gone by. Really doesn’t bother us hearing garden machinery on any day of the week, as has been said, those who work don’t have much choice other than to do gardening or DIY at weekends.
The thing guaranteed to get right up my nose (literally) are those inconsiderate people who light garden bonfires, at any time, without any warning, on whatever day, left burning for however long just because they can. Even during lockdown until we complained.

I loved Sundays growing up----Sunday dinners Thick dripping toast for breakfast if it was beef, or I'd be in the garden picking mint if it was lamb. Lovely times. Only next doors hens, but that was part of our lives and we didn't class it as a noise, just a lovely sound of fresh eggs

It's a quiet area where I am but I can't say that a noise on a Sunday would bother me unduly, it's been a rarity here I must say. I just take each day as it comes as they all tend to roll into one after you're retired anyway.

Where we live the peace and quiet of Sundays is shattered by lawnmowers (and other garden tools) and motorbikes! I don't mind the garden tools but the continuous stream of bikers roaring past the house on the (very long) coast road can be quite irritating, especially if we're working on the front garden. They open the throttle as they leave the village and by the time they get to us they're really really noisy. It used to be just during the summer months but now it's all year round. The silence during lockdown was heavenly.

Here in Belgium the law is the same for public holidays also, and the Belgians have a lot of them !!!!
Car washing on the street is banned but not on your own property, and hanging washing outdoors is banned in Brussels and other cities.
I had lived in apartments without gardens until I moved in here, I went to cut the grass one morning, and SIL came running out in a right panic. It was a public holiday, I knew about the Sunday rules, quick learning experience for me.

I love it when the weather is nice and the neighbours are all in the gardens. The sound of chatting, laughing and children playing means.......... life. I must admit not so keen when they get all their electrical equipment out and there is hedge trimming, strimming and sawing going on. That noise grates on my nerves. But i do understand it has to been done to maintain gardens and properties.

JackyB - had to smile! My Australian cousin, married to a German diplomat, told me about the time, on first moving to the country, she made the mistake of mowing the lawn on Sunday and caused uproar.

I have hated Sundays all my life - even as a small child. I have always loved Saturdays. I like noise on Sundays. I wonder if my loathing of Sundays is related to the return to school - which I also detested.

When I lived in Germany you were not allowed to hang washing outside on a Sunday either. Not sure if that's still the case. Washing a car in the street thereby allowing polluted water to enter the drains was also illegal.

I rather liked Sunday’s as a child I took myself to church parade then there was the family service, Sunday School in the afternoon and I could sit and read to my hearts content. Growing up in the East End of London there was very little mowing needed well none so all quiet. The only thing I didn’t like was that school was the next day

I hated Sundays when I was a teenager. Unless a friend was staying for the weekend I didn't see anyone. Forbidden to go to the 'pictures' which was labelled, 'common' so unless we had a family outing I was bored stiff.

Joining the church choir was a smart move because Evensong meant I could get on the bus for the short journey rather than walk and buses meant bus stops. Very convenient meeting places!!!

Maybe you would like to turn the clock back to the 1960s/70s when the shops were shut and you only really left your house to go to a place of worship ?

I certainly wouldn’t. The only good thing about Sundays used to be the food! Oh, that sinking feeling in the evening when you remembered the homework you should have done for next day. I still don’t shop on a Sunday, but just because I have the sheer luxury of being able to shop when other people are at work.

Reading through your replies I think I had better give up and shut up and just be glad we are free to do as we like 7 days a week.
Until quite recently on the Western Isles the only occupation allowed was reading the bible on Sundays and there were protests when ferries started to the Isle of Lewis on the Sabbath in 2009.

Yes being retired , the quietest days are week days. We pre-covid always treated week days like weekends so left days out to the workers at week ends, and enjoy the peace in the garden during the week days.

If you work all week, Saturday and Sunday are the only time you have for gardening. Maybe retired people forget that.
It doesn’t bother me at all. We all have things to do.
But object to tradesmen working on Sunday if they’re noisy.

Noisy Building work, especially long term, and DIY neighbours should try to use their machines over five or six days a week and give the resident neighbours a day off - that's why when shops didn't open on Sundays, it was a quiet day, and that would be good for everyone's mental health these days... sSo

Really?
It was raining for most of the day where I am and the only person I saw out on the street was my son when he went to the shop!
Unfortunately Sundays are very often the only day that a lot of people get the chance to do things such as cut the lawn and do DiY. Difficult to do that in the evenings at the moment as often dark by the time you have had a meal.
Maybe you would like to turn the clock back to the 1960s/70s when the shops were shut and you only really left your house to go to a place of worship ?

There are police on duty at the weekends in Denmark, and I only wish we had the German rules about noise at the weekends and about having to go to dog training classes if you want to own a dog, but we don't have this very sensible rules.

Shops are open on Sundays and other holidays, people mow lawns, fell trees, cut hedges etc. as and when they please.

We have a golf tee about 12 m over the hedge from our garden and all through the summer months we have to put up with shouting and quite a bit of swearing on a sunny Sunday, especially when the family come round. So over the weekend during the rain it was peaceful for a change.

Grammaretto you are not being unreasonable. I do think that once full lockdown finished, all the building projects that had been on hold were begun. To catch up, builders have been working 7 days a week. This is awful for those of us who have to suffer the noise all week. And it is the type of noise - constant drilling, sawing, loud music from the builders' radios and then the builders having to shout over the noise of their radios! There have been three major building projects within my road and the road behind. I would really have appreciated a break from this and Sunday seems a reasonable day to have some quiet. I asked two people, but there came no answer other than: it's ending soon. However, it went on for months. Sunny days out in the garden were impossible. Oh for the days of just hearing a lawnmower or two.

Sundays were miserable for me as a child. Boring church service in the morning, home to learn verses for Sunday school. Sunday school in afternoon, then sometimes another church service in the evening. Children were not catered for in church. You were expected to be quiet and not fidget. I am more than glad that Sunday is a day of relaxation these days and I dont care if others are making a noise.

I live somewhere that would normally get a lot of visitors on a Sunday. I’m really missing the noise, it makes me feel sad.

My quiet Muslim neighbours have vacated the house next door. I am apprehensive about new neighbours who might do barbecues. The stink of dead flesh roasting drives me indoors.