Where it's fine to put googly eyes, and where it isn't

Sticking a pair of googly eyes on something is a small act, and most of the time nobody minds, because most of the time nobody's property or safety is at stake. But "most of the time" is doing real work in that sentence, and the whole point of this guide is the rest of it: the cases where a decision that felt harmless in the moment turns out to have been somebody else's to make, not yours.

None of what follows is legal advice, and it isn't meant to sound like law. It's the same judgement you'd already apply to sticking a note on someone's door, just written down for a specific object. Where a line actually matters, it's worth saying plainly once: criminal damage and defacement of property are real offences in most places, adhesive residue on stonework or paintwork can count as damage even when nothing is broken, and "it's just googly eyes" is not a defence a shopkeeper, a council, or a police officer is obliged to find funny. Use your judgement, not this page, as the actual authority.

Public property is the friendliest category, not a free-for-all

A postbox, a bollard, a bin, a lamp post, a fire hydrant: these are the classic googly-eye targets, and generally fine, because street furniture is built to survive weather and handling and nobody's personal stake sits on it. Even here, though, don't cover anything that's doing a job: the reflective strip on a bollard, the slot on a postbox, the sensor on a crossing button. If it has a function, work around it, not over it.

Private property means asking, even for small things

A letterbox at the end of someone's driveway sits on the street, but it belongs to the house behind it, and the honest version of this hobby treats that as somebody's rather than nobody's. The same goes for a garden gnome, a parked bike, a wheelie bin with a house number painted on it. If you know whose it is, ask. If you don't and can't, that's usually your answer: leave it, and find something that's unambiguously public instead.

Shops and businesses: ask, and it usually works

This is the category where asking pays off, because a business getting a harmless splash of attention on its own frontage is, more often than not, a trade it's happy to make. Ask the person behind the counter, not a head-office phone number nobody picks up. A café is far more likely to say yes to a googly-eyed sugar dispenser than to eyes stuck on the door handle customers use forty times an hour, and a boutique will usually be fine with its window mannequin and unhappy about its price tags. The difference is whether the eyes sit on something decorative or something the business needs to keep clean and functioning. Ask about the specific spot, not just the shop in general.

Heritage sites, monuments, and public art: genuinely risky

This is the category to slow down on. A statue, a war memorial, a listed building facade, a fountain: these often carry legal protection well beyond ordinary property, the material underneath (soft stone, old bronze, historic render) can be damaged by adhesive in ways that never show up until months later, and the meaning attached to the object can matter more than its surface. googlymaps' own automatic photo checker treats this whole category as a grey area it won't decide on its own: a photo of googly eyes on the backside of a centuries-old statue always goes to a person to look at, rather than being auto-approved or auto-rejected, because a machine has no way to weigh "this is public art" against "this looks irreverent." If the app's own checker won't make that call automatically, that's a fair signal that a person sticking the eyes on shouldn't either, without thinking about it first. If you do decorate a monument, use the gentlest possible method (nothing that leaves residue, nothing that needs force to remove) and take it off yourself rather than trusting the weather to do it for you. Memorials to the dead are their own category again: even where nothing is technically protected, this is a place where the considerate answer is usually just no.

Someone else's vehicle: don't

A stranger's car is one of the few places where "it'll wash off" isn't enough, because adhesive on paintwork, a side mirror, or a door handle can leave marks that only show under the right light, and because most people find eyes appearing on their own car unsettling rather than charming, even when nothing is damaged. It reads as someone having been close enough to touch your property without asking, which is a different feeling from finding eyes on a bin outside. Your own car, or a friend's with their actual agreement, is a different matter entirely.

Nature and wildlife: look, don't attach

Living things aren't street furniture. Adhesive on tree bark can trap moisture against the wood and invite rot exactly where it's stuck, and googly eyes pressed onto a leaf or a flower just kill the leaf. A gap in a hedge, a knot in a trunk, a mushroom already shaped like a face: photograph what's already funny about it, rather than adding eyes to a living plant. And a wild animal is never a googly-eye subject, full stop, however still it holds. Approaching one to attach anything is a stress you're imposing on an animal that never agreed to be part of a joke, and it's a different act entirely from what's below.

Animals and pets: yes, with real care

googlymaps explicitly welcomes the family dog, the neighbour's tolerant cat, a docile tortoise. But an animal isn't a surface, it's a participant, and that changes the method. Use tape, never glue: glue in fur is a genuine mess to remove and an unkind one to inflict. Only do it with an animal that's visibly comfortable and an owner who's actually said yes, not assumed. Keep it brief, get the photo, and take the eyes off straight afterwards rather than leaving a dog to wander off wearing them for the rest of the day. If the animal shows any sign of minding, stop.

Anything a child might put in their mouth

A single googly eye is exactly the size and shape of a choking hazard, and loose ones end up on the ground more often than you'd think: wind, a brushed sleeve, adhesive that gave up faster than expected. Think twice about anywhere a toddler is likely to be at floor level, a playground, a childcare centre's fence, a low table at a family café, and check the ground underneath after you've finished, not just the surface you were decorating.

Never over a sign that matters

A googly eye on the post holding up a street sign is fine. A googly eye over the face of that sign is not, and this matters most with traffic signage: a stop sign, a give-way sign, a pedestrian crossing light, a hazard warning, a house or unit number that someone relies on being legible. None of that is about being a stickler; it's that a sign exists so somebody can act on it in a hurry, and a joke that costs someone a second of confusion at the wrong moment isn't one anymore.

Take it with you

Eyes fall off. Adhesive fails in ways that have nothing to do with how carefully you applied it: hot glue that held fine on a garden gnome in the shade lets go by mid-afternoon on a dark metal railing in full sun, painter's tape peels within a day of actual rain, and even a good adhesive eventually loses to a bin lorry brushing past or someone leaning on the spot. The moment an eye is on the ground, it isn't a joke anymore, it's a small piece of plastic litter, and small plastic litter is exactly what ends up eaten by a bird or washed into a drain. Two things reduce this: pick an adhesive suited to where the eyes are actually going (reusable putty or double-sided tape for anything indoors or sheltered, something genuinely weatherproof for anything outdoors and exposed, nothing at all for anything living), and if you're decorating something temporary, or something that isn't yours, go back for the eyes once the joke's had its moment rather than assuming someone else will deal with it. The map records where a googly eye was found or placed. It was never meant to record where one was abandoned.

Last update: 2026-08-25 AWST