I gave in and ordered a No Solicitors sign, as it's been getting out of hand at our house. Would we like to sign a petition to ban plastic bags statewide? Would we like to donate money to this? Would we like to donate money to fight that same thing? They often come at ungodly hours, like 8am on a Sunday morning. Unless you have a petition banning door to door petitions, I want you to GO AWAY (except for you, I like you).
We bought it from this Etsy seller, from whom we also bought our house numbers.
And then I took down the bird feeder in back so I could hang up the disco ball. More fun for us, less fun for the birds. And possibly less sleep for our neighbor; that might be his bedroom window behind the fence there.
8am on a Sunday? Seriously? That's just wrong.
ReplyDeleteI yelled at that guy SO HARD. And I asked him, "What's WRONG with you?!?" Jerk.
ReplyDeleteAre you "those people" because of the sign or the disco ball? ;-) I finally broke down and put up a similar sign--it was just too much: new vinyl windows, student painters, roofers, landscapers, and endless petition requests. Can't they see that my house is newly painted and roofed and landscaped etc.? Maybe I should find it kind of insulting--especially the landscape part.
ReplyDeleteMy sign is right above the doorbell and I have found that most of the solicitors still come to our house but now they knock. Aaaarrrgh.
Best--Emily
Haha! Funny. When my baby was tiny and screaming and someone knocked on the door, I opened it up and before he began his spiel I said, "No. Just no." Then I closed the door in his face. It was almost the rudest thing I've ever done, but it kind of felt good. I hope your sign works (it sure is pretty). If not you could get a motion activated dog barking mechanism. If they exist. Wait, there's my $100,000 idea!
ReplyDeleteOh no, they don't listen to the sign? Well, at least I can be bitchy with a clear conscience.
ReplyDeleteOh, I get so mad for my friends with newborns. You just get them to sleep and then someone rings the doorbell to ask you if you're happy with your cable. Grrrr!
ReplyDeleteI would pay top dollar for a motion activated dog barking thing to scare the neighbor cats out of my garden. Do it!
I love the sign and might get one for myself, though our problem is more that people leave menus for restaurants we don't visit. I wonder if there's a "No Menus, Your Food Stinks!" sign on Etsy!
ReplyDeleteThere are loads of signs on there that basically say, "We've found Jesus, we're happy with our cable, and unless you're selling cookies go away." I'm sure you could find someone to make a custom sign. :)
ReplyDeleteCanvassing at 8 am on a Sunday morning is just dumb and very counterproductive for the canvassers. I definitely understand how you're feeling on this, but having done a fair amount of door-to-door in my youth (and sometimes even now), I don't have the heart to put up one of those signs. Actually, I'm a pretty soft touch for kids selling raffle tickets for the football or soccer team, kids collecting donations for worthy causes, etc. However I will not engage with salesmen of any kind, or religious proselytizers.
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I agree about the kids with raffle tickets--I always buy from them. The crazy thing is we never get them. It's all home security systems and people trying to get us to let them do a bid on our windows. It was funny, we had a Jehovah's Witness come to the door and they were like, "You're not interested? Cool! We'll take off." I'd remembered them being so hard to get rid of.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever read White Teeth by Zadie Smith? One of the great novels of all time. One of the characters is raised by a Jehovah's Witness grandmother and she dies a thousand deaths from embarrassment when she is made to take part in proselytizing activities. There's also a good BBC production you can watch on netflix.
ReplyDeleteI loved that book! I haven't read it since it came out, so my memories of the details are fuzzy. I didn't realize they dramatizes it, I'll have to check it out. Thanks!
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