micky wrote:
For those of you who shovel your sidewalks by hand, no snowblower or
employee doing it, how wide do you shovel?

Without exception, as far as I can see, my neibhbors shovel the whole
width of their personal sidewalk (to their door) and the one at right
angles to that (to the neighbors), which is about 3 feet.

OTOH, I shovel the width I need to walk on the sidewalk without
getting snow in my shoes or in the cuffs of my pants, about 18", which
is two widths of my lightweight aluminum shove. or two overlapping
widths when I use the coal shovel I found in the trash and cut off to
be relatively straight at the end.

Which do you do?

If you do the whole width, do you look down on, despise, people like
me? Or do you wish you could be like me? or do you ignore me?

I do not have sidewalks along the road in front of my house. I have a
single width driveway with a flower bed on one side and a lawn on the
other. I typically clear the driveway from edge to edge and then widen it
about 36" by removing the snow from the lawn. For the walkway from my stoop
to my driveway, I typically double the width, again by clearing the snow
from the lawn along side it. My snowblower, tilted back at a slight angle,
makes quick work of this.

As the snow piles up, the extra width gives us room to walk, open car
doors, move the snowblower around in the driveway, etc.

I also clear a 24" path (the width of my snowblower) across my front lawn
from my walkway to my neighbor's driveway so the mail carrier and newspaper
lady don't have to trudge through the snow or walk all the way out to the
street and back.

When the snow is really deep, I will run the snowblower all the way around
my house so I can get to the back door, shed, deck, etc.

When I was growing up in NYC, I always frowned upon the one or two
homeowners on our block who either didn't clear their sidewalks fully or
didn't clear them at all. Obviously, there needs to be some leeway for the
elderly or frail, but as for the homeowners who are just too lazy to make
it easier for people (especially the elderly or frail) walk down the
sidewalk, well, I definitely looked down on them.

There were a few of us who made sure that the stoops and sidewalks of the
elderly and frail were kept clear of snow for their safety. The occasional
batch of cookies or the offer of a cup of coffee made it all worthwhile.