How Soon Should You Start Discovering Your New Neighborhood?

Knowing How Soon Should You Start Discovering Your New Neighborhood

You have made the move into a new neighborhood and your first instinct as the newbie is to lie low and try to seem invisible. This move may work for a few days but you will soon need to go out there and discover your new surroundings. This is both for your benefit and the benefit of your neighborhood because community thrives on mutually beneficial relationships.

So then, how soon should you start discovering your new neighborhood? There are no rules in this game. However, here are some pointers that should guide you.

• One to two weeks: Get organized and settled in: When you first arrive in your new neighborhood, you should take a deep breath and take stock of your current situation. This involves ensuring that your moving company got your new address right and your essentials are arriving or are about to arrive. You will also need to settle bills you may have incurred as you were moving such as the shipping costs. It is also important at this time to contact the local service providers like cable services, water and electricity companies to ensure that all these are up and running. Different neighborhoods are usually assigned different times of the week to have their trash picked up; make sure you make all the right phone calls to establish this. This will also be a good time to call on the neighbors and introduce yourself and your family.

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• The first one to two months: Explore: By now, your home should be running in its normal routine, like it did before your relocation. Now, you can venture out and explore what your neighborhood has to offer. It is time to begin dining out occasionally so that you can get a feel of the restaurants around you. You could also extend invites to your neighbors to dine at your home. Since you are now establishing social networks, it is time to explore festivals and social gatherings that happen regularly. You can now check out churches, clubs, gyms and other social amenities such as these. Plug into social circles now, as you have made some friends and received invitations to the same.
• The first six months to a year: Extend your assistance: By now, you should have made inroads in all areas of life in that community. If you are a business owner, it is probably time to begin formulating how to set up your business to better your community. Extend opportunities for internship or apprenticeship in your business. Offer opportunities for professionals in your neighborhood as the need arises for their services within your business. As an ordinary citizen, participate in charity events, offer help to your neighbors for example doing school runs, babysitting and so on.

As you have seen, there are no rules or a rule-book by which you should adhere as you begin discovering your new neighborhood. It is a very organic process that in the end will get you plugged in and make you one of the cogs of that neighborhood.