Windchime Etiquette

[Breezygirl]

Now that summer is almost here many people open their windows in their houses for fresh air, to cool it down....  I really dislike windchimes and the noise they make. The quieter, smaller one I guess I could bare, but many times over the years I've lived in places where the neighbors would have them and they would drive me crazy. I would be unable to sleep or think as some of the windchimes are now gigantic and very loud. I just put up with it but would dream about taking them down,lol.

 Luckily none of my neighbors have them around me now. There is one house about a block away that has over 20 whindchimes of all sizes all over their yard. It's her yard so she can do what she wants, but the amount of noise those things make 24/7 would drive me batty if I lived near her.

 So whats everyone's opinion, are they alright etiquette wise since they are in their yard even though they might bother the neighbors?

[Suze]

one per house I think would be the limit for me.

While I love the sound of the BIG ones I don't think that I would want a whole yard full.

[Cupcake Fiend]

I love windchimes, but would never put out more than one at a time.  I used to have a set of beautiful wooden ones that sounded gorgeous.  They got lost in a move.

[Morty'sCleaningLady]

I'm in a condo and don't care for them.  Fortunately, I'm on a really busy road (lots of semi noise) so I need white noise to drown that out.  It also takes care of my chime problem.

[chamoisbear]

Now that summer is almost here many people open their windows in their houses for fresh air to cool it down....  I really dislike winchimes and the noise they make. The quieter, smaller one I guess I could bare, but many times over the years I've lived in places where the neighbors would have them and they would drive me crazy. I would be unable to sleep or think as some of the windchimes are now gigantic and very loud. I just put up with it but would dream about taking them down,lol.

 Luckily none of my neighbors have them around me now. There is one house about a block away that has over 20 whindchimes of all sizes all over their yard. It's her yard so she can do what she wants, but the amount of noise those things make 24/7 would drive me batty if I lived near her.

 So whats everyone's opinion, are they alright etiquette wise since they are in their yard even though they might bother the neighbors?

You must be my long lost brain sister!  I can't stand the noise either.  My old neighbors (when I had an apartment), had at least 6 of them hanging from their balcony.  It drove me nuts on windy nights.  When I bought my house everyone wanted to know when the housewarming party was.  I never had one.  I just didn't tell them that the reason I wasn't having one is because: 1. I didn't want people to feel they should bring gifts, and 2. I was scared that one of those gifts would be wind chimes.  

[AmethystAnne]

Windchimes are kind of like barking dogs to me.   After a while, I can tune them out.

I've seen really big ones. The deep, repetitive chiming must really get on your nerves.

If I had installed a really big one or had the amount that your block-away neighbor had, I would ask the neighbors if my chimes bothered anybody.

I can sympathize with you. Having a radio on at work, really makes me want to jump out of my skin.......

Yesterday I came into work and there was a boombox on the dryer playing. Sonia thought it was great. And she turned it up so that she could hear it. (Her work station was in the back part of the kitchen). Which drove me crazy, because the boombox was pointed right at me (my work station was less than 5 feet from the b.b.). 

I wouldn't have minded it being on, if music had been playing on it, but it was talkradio station, and it was really full of static, and it competed with the fan, and the ovens, and the big exhaust fan, and the other noises common to a school kitchen.

No one said anything when I turned it off. (I am ssoooo glad!)

[baritone108]

 I had to laugh when I saw the title of this thread.  Clearly this is an issue where no etiquette exists and some would be welcome.

 I have two windchimes I usually hang in the front of my house.  Any time it has gotten really windy and they are chiming like crazy I go out and remove them, usually with a comment along the lines of, "My neighbors are gonna have a stroke."  The funny thing is that all of the neighbors have wind chimes (some more than one) and they don't bring them in when it's really windy.

[Bobbi Flekman]

I lovelovelove the sound of wind chimes.  My ex and I actually gave them a a gift years ago when my cousin and her BF moved in...right next door to us.  My aunt in Los Angeles lives in a neighborhood full of wind chimes, and the sound of them is just oh so pleasant.  That said, anything overdone or too large could definitely get to be annoying. 

The sound reminds me of the very best of delightful Summer evenings. 

[Cyndi]

We have three in the back yard that play great chords when there's a breeze. Our neighbors across the street has a Feng Shui type of chime on their front porch and it tinkles most of the time. I don't notice unless I listen, though I DO hear it...it's just a background noise.

Now if they were causing dissonance or really high pitched, OW.

I think if chimes make so much noise that you can hear them through closed windows, they're too much.

Sorry to say this but I think you just have to put up with it. It's their house and it doesn't sound like they're as bad as the one house described earlier in this thread. THAT I can see being a bit much(thought I'd probably love the wooden ones and the big, metal, lower pitched ones )

[Brentwood]

Windchimes are kind of like barking dogs to me.   After a while, I can tune them out.

Same here. I think I might be jarred the first time I heard 20+ windchimes going at once, but eventually it would become white noise to me.

[hyzenthlay]

We have one large deep one, that we do take down if the wind picks up to the point it's clanging, and one smaller three sided one.

You can't hear them in our house once the windows are closed, at least not with anything else on. And by 9PM the wind is usually gone.

Frankly I was a bit worried about hanging them in our relatively quiet neighborhood, and then, with spring . . . dogs barking, kids playing, wind noise, more traffic noise . . . I don't think they audibly stand out.

[Bijou]

Much as we would love to have a big wind chime out in the yard, we wouldn't put one out because not everyone wants to listen to something just because I think it's beautiful.

[veryfluffy]

I think windchimes are one of those odd noises -- they either don't bother you, or you like them, or you hate them. I think I would put one out, because I like the sound, but if anyone at all said they disliked it, I'd not mind taking it down. No one NEEDS a wind chime -- it's not like a real lifestyle issue that you can expect your neighbours to accommodate. But you also can't predict if someone will be bothered, so it's fine to put it up until someone complains.

[Shores]

I hate them with an undying passion. They drive me absolutely insane. Unfortunately, I do tend to believe that since they're not in MY yard, I can't really complain. Other people have the right to have them on their property... but I still loathe them. A neighbor having one prevents me from being able to sleep with my windows open and thats just annoying.

[camlan]

The sound of *some* windchimes is lovely. Others, not so much. I have a nice one that was a gift. However, I live in a neighborhood where all the houses are very, very close together and most are multi-family homes. The backyards are small and nearly every home has a porch or balcony in the back. The potential to really annoy the neighbors with a windchime are just too great, so I hang mine in the kitchen window, so I can at least look at it.

Friends of mine have a very nice apartment in a building where each apartment has a balcony. Their neighbors have, at last count, 30 windchimes on their balcony. I'm sure some of them have a pretty sound, but when all of them are chiming at once, it is a cacophony. My friends can't really use their balcony because of the noise.

When I'm visiting those friends, we try to come up with reasons why the neighbors have so very many windchimes. The current theory is that the MIL gave the bride a windchime as a wedding present. The bride hates windchimes, but hey, it's from her new MIL and she wants to have a good relationship with her, so the bride waxes very enthusiastic about the windchime and hangs it up. That, of course, is the kiss of death. The MIL spreads the word amongst the family that the dear bride LOVES windchimes. Since the husband's side of the family doesn't know the bride very well, they latch onto windchimes as a good gift. So the poor bride is inundated with windchimes, at least one at every possible gift-giving occasion. Stuck with the original lie she told her MIL, she is forced to enthusiastically every windchime that comes her way and hang it up on the balcony.

Either that, or the couple is hoping to drive all their neighbors out so that they will never have to hear any noise from any adjoining apartment. And in the meantime, the windchime noise blocks the footsteps of the upstairs neighbors.