I’m really struggling with noise pollution.
A lot of it comes from leafblowers, so I got out the old broom, and started sweeping the sidewalks in hopes of less leafblower noise in future. I don’t have a rake yet.
Any particular advice? e.g. to keep leaves from just blowing back onto the sidewalks?
I figure it might help to pile the leaves under trees if and when I do have a rake.
Getting them into yard waste bags would be the ideal solution.
Barring that, if you get them wet, they will clump together and blow around less.
I hate to trash perfectly good leaves. Of course that’s what the lawn crews do.
If you want to create more dirt, mulch the leaves and spread them on the lawn. You wouldn’t get a traditional lawn, but it would be long-term healthy. 
Can you compost? I use a rake and move the leaves all in the direction of a compost pile off the back edge of the yard. That’s been going for a long time and there’s good dirt with rootlings and worms in it now, if you dig down far enough. Raking takes three full afternoons every fall, and that’s even with waiting until they’re all done falling.
I know none of this helps you much, sorry.
If I get a rake, I can try to pile some of the leaves in the woods, not sure what else I can do.
Getting them into yard waste bags might still be a good solution, though, even if you don’t actually keep them there. It could be easier to move them to somewhere they’ll stay together as a few units instead of a lot of individual sweeps. I’m not sure how easy they are to fill without a rake, though.
What is recommended is to leave them on the lawn. I do it because it’s not only difficult for me to do it by hand (I too try to eschew machines, but for different reasons from yours), but I am lazy as all-get-out. Perhaps raking them evenly over the lawn’s surface, if possible? Also, I don’t know the details of the outside of your residence, so I may be way off the track on this.
WARNING: Opening close-up of leaves is very bright; no animations that I could find.
https://www.treehugger.com/lawn-garden/skip-rake-and-leave-leaves-healthier-greener-yard.html
It’s a windy day today, blowing leaves onto the sidewalks as fast I can sweep them off. Which explains why painblower crews sometimes come around for another pass, but not why they fire the damned devices at all.
Leave the on the lawn and run a lawnmower over them. It’ll cut the leaves up into mulch.
I can’t get them to stay on the damn lawn, and I cannot and will not fire a painmower.
I do not want to hurt other people with so much noise, and am doing this to try to reduce noise. I can barely even stand up at a good distance from painmowers or painblowers, while wearing my best ear protection. I can’t walk, take my hands of my ear protectors, etc. So I can’t operate the things.
Anyone with a manual mower you can borrow? There was a Renaissance in that market.
Thank you, but not that I know of. I figure sweeping might still help when it isn’t too windy. After that, I might pick up a rake and try to get some leaves into the woods. But a hand mower sounds like a lot more work.