Has anyone put a No Soliciting sign on their property?

[ChristusG]

I live in a subdivision. I really dislike people ringing my doorbell during the daytime. The only people that do so are ones going door to door selling things. And usually it is a man. Sorry, I'm not going to open the door to a strange man when I'm home alone with the kids during the daytime and everyone else on my cul-de-sac is gone to work. So instead I get someone knocking on the door, I'm trying to keep my kiddos quiet, the dog is going nuts, and usually the guy at the door knocks and stands there several minutes, knocks again, stands there, etc.

 

Sorry, not answering.

 

I thought about putting up a "No Soliciting" sign....but I'm wondering if it really deters seller from ringing the doorbell or knocking? Has anyone done it?

[Lovedtodeath]

We did. I still get someone occasionally (I would guess 1 out of 10) who hasn't noticed the sign, but it cut them way, way down.

[MomtoCandJ]

Just make sure it is very obvious, or if that don't work beware of dog or cat signs work. I used a beware of cat sign after Bob (the cat) attacked some Jehovah Witnesses.

[Mabeline]

:iagree: It will deter most people. Although I did get a few "not selling anything" people, but I would just piont to the sign and say I am not interested in whatever it is. Or a quick "no thanks" from behind the closed door and they go away quickly.

[QueenCat]

About the only people I've seen ignore them are kids selling stuff for Scouts or school fundraisers. I don't think they know what "soliciting" means. They don't bother me like grown men, and sometimes I'll buy from them. Especially Girl Scout cookies :001_smile:.

[hornblower]

I've got a hand printed index card (so not Martha Stewart :lol:) written in red felt pen, stuck right above my doorbell. I think we were doing our lessons when I got interrupted once too many times & stormed out there with my index card & scotch tape.

 

It says

 

No, Thank You.

No Sales.

No Missionaries.

No Gas Contracts.

 

(we have door to door natural gas salespeople swarming through neighbourhoods for the past year or so b/e our gas monopoly got de-regulated. They are obnoxious.)

 

Once in a while someone will ring the bell & then when I open the door they're sheepishly walking away & apologizing for not seeing the sign but generally we aren't bothered by people any more.

[Daisy]

Yes, I have one. It is written in English and Spanish. It does work. I use to have people almost every day trying to sell me strawberries, want to seasonally trim my tree, etc. Now I don't get any of that. Even the religious folks stopped coming by. Very nice. :D

 

The few time I've still had people show up, I've just looked out my kitchen window at them and pointed to the sign. They get the point.

[Nicole M]

Yes, I have a pretty one. The only people who still ring are the occasional JW and politicians. Hello? You just lost my vote, buddy, if you can't read the **** sign.

 

http://www.retroplanet.com/PROD/13332?CPID=GDF100&utm_source=google&utm_medium=datafeed&utm_campaign=GoogleBase&utm_content=13332

[Murphy101]

I have one. But they leave flyers which really tick me off bc it's no different than liter IMO.

[Remudamom]

I have three. They're furry and four legged. Backfired on me once though, when they held the Jehovah Witnesses hostage in our driveway. Only idiots or people with knee high boots get out of their cars at our house without an invitation.

[kym]

Yep, we have a hand-written one too. It doesn't seem to deter most people...especially the ones I wish it would deter! I still want the girl scouts to come to the door! Maybe I need to make the sign more specific.

[Hathersage]

I have one. But they leave flyers which really tick me off bc it's no different than liter IMO.

 

If you don't want them to leave flyers, you'll want a no handbills sign as well.

Although I don't know if they'd understand the term "handbills"

[MariannNOVA]

Yes, the one we have at this house seems to do the trick - particularly the NO TRESPASSING sign at the end of our driveway (too little, too late, apparently, but what the heck!:glare:). It HAS, however, appeared to deter door to door solicitors - and I HATE being bothered, intruded upon, and dealing with those folks.

 

I did have a handwritten one at the house we lived in prior to this one -- it was mostly to keep the neighborhood kids from ringing the bell while we were doing school -- it was taped over the doorbell. When that was no longer effective, we disconnected the doorbell. One little girl began to use the door knocker. :glare: One day, I finally could not take the knocking anymore, and I answered the door (and, yes, I had asked her mom to ask her not to come around until she saw my kids outside - )and I said, "Alice, sweetie, you know the sign says please do not disturb since we are doing school." "I know." She replied. "But that sign is always there so it doesn't mean anything, right?" :banghead: I caved. I told her to go home, get a book that she was reading for school, and ask her mom if she could sit with us and read quietly while we finished our lessons. ;)

[JFSinIL]

Out here it would have to be also in Spanish to be fully effective. Plus - No Sales works better - some folks have no clue what soliciting means.

Now - how to convince the Jehovah Witnesses etc. that they, too are "selling" and should not knock on my door???

 

I do buy Girl Scout cookies....but those kids are local and KNOW it the sign does not apply to THEM!!!

Edited June 15, 2010 by JFSinIL

[Guest]

...One little girl began to use the door knocker. :glare: One day, I finally could not take the knocking anymore, and I answered the door (and, yes, I had asked her mom to ask her not to come around until she saw my kids outside - )and I said, "Alice, sweetie, you know the sign says please do not disturb since we are doing school." "I know." She replied. "But that sign is always there so it doesn't mean anything, right?" :banghead: I caved. I told her to go home, get a book that she was reading for school, and ask her mom if she could sit with us and read quietly while we finished our lessons. ;)

 

That is so sweet!

[Guest]

I've been thinking about getting one. Everyone else on our street is gone all day (except for one older lady). I donot answer the door because it is always some man, and it scares me. I have given the neighbors we know our phone number and explained that I never answer the door, so if they need me, to call and I will come out if they need me to. Weird, but it helps knowing it's not them knocking, so I don't even bother trying to figure out if I need to answer the door.

[Ester Maria]

 

Nice and concise. :D

[hornblower]

Oh, I couldn't go with the one you posted Ester Maria.

 

I specifically put a huge sticky on top of the index card during elections & it says "politicians are welcome!"

 

I adore talking to candidates who are campaigning. :D

[KS_]

I have one I just printed off the computer, taped to a window right next to our front door. It has worked for the majority of people trying to sell stuff. A couple have claimed not to have seen the sign, and one other claimed not to be selling anything. . .but before that, we had a lot of people ringing the bell.

[MaMa2005]

I bought one at an office supply store and placed it above our doorbell. It has been there for at least four years and the only time I have a knock on the door is from the neighborhood children selling fund raising stuff. YUCK!

They quickly get a vocabulary lesson on the meaning of 'No Solicitations'. :seeya: I have yet to have a repeat offender.:hurray:

[KnitWit]

I've got a hand printed index card (so not Martha Stewart :lol:) written in red felt pen, stuck right above my doorbell. I think we were doing our lessons when I got interrupted once too many times & stormed out there with my index card & scotch tape.

 

It says

 

No, Thank You.

No Sales.

No Missionaries.

No Gas Contracts.

 

(

 

I would have to add:

 

No, we do not buy meat out of a freezer which is strapped to the back of a pickup truck with bungee cords in 100*+ weather!!

[funschooler5]

Yes. We used to get tons of soliciters. DH finally put up a sign a few weeks ago that says "No religous, commercial or charitable solicitation. All violaters will be air-horned". And yes, we do keep an airhorn by the door. We haven't used it yet, though.

 

So far, we've only had one guy ring the doorbell. Lucky for him, I answered it (I don't think I could ever actually use the thing). It was priceless to see him eyeing the sign nervously, though. I think he thought I was just waiting for the right moment to blast him. :lol:

 

DH is dying to get a chance to use it.

[akmommy]

We had a simple No Soliciting sign on the door of our last place. It didn't stop the JW's in our area. Yes people, when you go door to door trying to convert people you are selling something whether or not any money changes hands.

 

The only group it really seemed to stop were the ones we didn't mind. Girl Scouts selling cookies, and the High School Choir selling fruit. When you live in a state where it can be tough to get good fresh fruit for a large part of the year you look forward to having that box of fresh Florida fruit delivered in Jan.

 

Adults selling things more often than not ignored it.

[Nicole M]

I specifically put a huge sticky on top of the index card during elections & it says "politicians are welcome!"

 

I adore talking to candidates who are campaigning. :D

 

I bet you do. :D I wish I could send all our soliciting politicians up north to talk to you!

[beezus]

I put one up last year. It may have cut down somewhat on the door to door solicitation traffic, but not entirely. There are plenty of people who think it doesn't apply to them. Solicitation does not mean just sales. My Websters says to "solicit" means "to seek for (something) by entreaty; earnest or respectful request, formal application; (2) to entreat or petition; (3) to seek to influence or incite to action..." There are several more listed, but none specifically refer to sales. Maybe we should require door to door solicitors to take a test before they go out knocking on anyone's door, kinda like people have to do to get a food handler's license - nothing too involved, but just covering the basic definitions. I guess people are free to go seek the attention of others for whatever their cause is, but I wish they would be respectful of other people who've expressed an explicit wish to be left alone.

[Just Robyn]

Hmm... we don't ever get anyone selling anything. I guess if adults came to the door selling stuff I would consider one. I kind of wish we had a neon sign pointing to our house that encouraged soliciting though. I would buy girl scout cookies or other fundraiser items if children were selling them, but nobody sells around here.

[momofkhm]

Dh hand wrote one and put it in a page protector on the door. It works like a charm. We went from at least one person a week to the very rare person who for some reaosn didn't think it applied to them. The only bad thing was it also deterred girl scouts selling cookies!

[Beth in TN]

Nice and concise. :D

 

Love it!

[Big Buckin' Longhorn]

I just don't answer the door. I don't bother keeping everyone quiet either. I just go about my day. If the dead bold isn't fastened I click it shut. That usually gets the message across.

 

Dh thinks I am nuts but I have been known to wave if they are presumptuous enough to look in my windows.

 

This is my door and my phone and I will not allow anyone else to dictate when I answer either of them.

 

:iagree:This is me too. Exactly!

[*Inna*]

We have one and it does work. Though we get occasional Kirby salesman "I know you have a 'no soliciting' sign on your door, but..." :glare:

[*Inna*]

Yes. We used to get tons of soliciters. DH finally put up a sign a few weeks ago that says "No religous, commercial or charitable solicitation. All violaters will be air-horned". And yes, we do keep an airhorn by the door. We haven't used it yet, though.

 

So far, we've only had one guy ring the doorbell. Lucky for him, I answered it (I don't think I could ever actually use the thing). It was priceless to see him eyeing the sign nervously, though. I think he thought I was just waiting for the right moment to blast him. :lol:

 

DH is dying to get a chance to use it.

:lol::lol: This is great!

[Hannah C.]

I live in an apartment complex which has a very prominently posted "No soliciting allowed" sign at both entrances. We still get advertisements taped to our door on a semi-regular basis. I think we've only had an actual person knock on our door once -- or we were only home once.

 

If you are home and don't want to answer the door, don't. Peepholes are useful for this as well, if you have one. Of course, if they can hear the people inside for some reason, they might be more persistent..

[keptwoman]

Yes, I think I got the idea off this board. We went from multiple door knockers a day to NONE!! We did have these annoying people who left a catalogue in a plastic bag by the door with a note that they would collect on Tuesday. The first time I kept it and they didn't come back, the 2nd time I threw it out and told them when they arrived to get it that it was in the rubbish and would be everytime, the 3rd time I shredded it and left it in the little plastic bag on the door on the tuesday, and changed the sign.

 

All our friends ask if it works, then go home and make their own.

Mine says:

NO THANK YOU TO:

Your power or phone company

Your catalogue (by Tuesday it will be compost)

Your survey or charity

Your God

[Hathersage]

I'm going to need a sign that says "No lawnmowing work here"

 

Umm. I usually get one guy a year looking to to mow my yard. Not the same guy every year. Not generally a problem. But this year... Even after leaving his card with me, this one keeps coming back. Today, I decided not to answer the door. He knocked three times at my front door, then he goes around to the back and starts knocking at my back door!!! Ok, so I think he is gone right? No, he went around back to the front door and started knocking again! I am still in complete panic mode.