The one product saving me from my noisy neighbors right now
When I first started working from home in the middle of March due to the pandemic, I anticipated a few things. I knew I’d be waking up a lot later, for instance, and that I would likely work from my couch while in pajamas. What I didn’t expect was that the people in the rest of my apartment block, all of whom were abiding by social distancing mandates like me, would essentially be my new, accidental roommates.
I soon learned that through the thin walls of my apartment, I can hear the daily goings-on of the family next door, the dog across the way who is always howling, and my upstairs neighbor who, I imagine, solely wears clogs. Every day at around 2 p.m., I get a front row seat as the two children next door progress into meltdown mode: First they run around. Then, someone inevitably gets hurt. From there, the bickering starts, and finally, the screaming. Yes, I’m sure the kids are very bored, but their noise doesn’t exactly make it easy to concentrate.
So when another neighbor in my block started regularly sharing the tunes of G-Eazy with all of Astoria, I decided it was time to do something. I’m not one to listen to music while I write or edit because it always distracts me, so blasting my own playlist wasn’t an option. I tried listening to rain sounds on Youtube, but even that felt like too much noise. I needed something that could compete with the racket surrounding me from all sides, but that wouldn’t be another deterrence from my work. Looking into noise machines on Amazon, I finally stumbled upon the holy grail.
Shop it! $42.51, amazon.com
The Adaptive Sound Technologies Lectrofan came highly recommended as Amazon’s choice white noise machine, with over 6,000 positive reviews to back it up. One reviewer even commented that purchasing the Lectrofan “stopped [her] from doing bodily harm to her neighbors.” I could sympathize, so I quickly hit “buy.”
When the noise machine arrived, I browsed through the 10 sounds it offered and adjusted it to a volume that worked for me—loud enough to drown out my neighbors, but not too loud that it became distracting. Immediately, I noticed a difference. The soft sound of a whirring fan quickly disappeared into the background, along with the kids’ tantrums and the upstairs clogging. It was like having an air conditioner on; I barely heard it, but something about the sound was definitely soothing.d
The Lectrofan worked so well, I decided to try it out when I went to sleep. On top of noisy neighbors, we also have clanking pipes that turn on and off in the middle of the night. While the noise machine didn’t mask the pipe clanking completely, it masked it enough that I was able to get a good night’s sleep with the addition of ear plugs.
A little over two months into using the Lectrofan, it’s become a must-have. Despite most of my neighbors still remaining in their apartments, I finally feel like they’re not living with me.
