Do you lock your doors

[Scrambledegghead]

When you’re in the house? So you’ve come in, shut the door behind you and you’re going to be in for at least a few hours. Do you lock it behind you or leave it unlocked because you’re in? We leave ours unlocked and DM has made me promise never to do it again but I can’t get out of the habit! She locks hers when she gets in even if she’ll only be in for 5 minutes before going out again, whereas unless we’re going to bed, ours stayed unlocked.

should I be making more of a conscious effort to lock it, lest a murderer or a burglar comes in or am I in the majority?

I lock it after a delivery driver walked straight into my house one day! Back door is sometimes left ajar but my back garden isn't accessible from outside (apart from cats and foxes).

@Scrambledegghead

that’s exactly what my mum says, in a very serious way.

'We could all be murdered in our beds', my mother used to say, and now, so do I. Why pay for a lock and not use it?

Could you get a latch, yale type lock put in?

We don't live in a particularly unsafe area (I don't think) and we usually keep ours locked, unless someone is planning on going out again shortly.

I know of two people who have had strangers come into their house, one was upstairs on their computer and a random man came in the front door shouting angrily. Went quickly once he realised he had the wrong house, but I don't think it's worth the risk.

Plus we keep our car keys and my handbag is hung up just inside the front door! (rightly or wrongly!!)

Ours is locked automatically in the sense that you can’t just open it from the outside - it’s a composite door where you lift the handle to close it properly and need a key to open it. But we don’t do the thumbturn lock and chain until we go to bed.

Yes the doors are always locked. I live in a nice area but I’m confused by people who think that living in a good area means they don’t need to lock their doors. Criminals do have access to transportation and will probably find more stuff to take 🤷‍♀️

Our front door can only be opened from outside with a key. The back door is locked if we're out.
We live in East London. We've never had a burglary or attempted burglary. I once went to the cinema leaving my front door wide open. Nothing happened.

During the day when zi might be up in attic, in the garden, in the conservatory, shower etc... yes it's locked.

After school when kids might be in or out... unlocked. (Unless we are in the pool).

So basically... depends on whether we could hear people enter!

I live in a very quiet/safe area, but I work upstairs most days, so I've put a cabin hook on my main door, as a bit of a compromise. It means I don't have to faff around with keys to lock myself in in the daytime, but am reasonably secure. After several years, it's become second nature to use it.

God this has just reminded me i need a new safety chain.

I used to live in a rough area and locked it all the time. We live very rurally now and my husband laughs at me as I still sometimes do this on autopilot. We woke up this morning and had left the door unlocked over night, and we regularly go out and leave it open. That said, we are VERY rural, but I think we are still poss a bit gung ho!

I always locked them until I moved to a rural area. Now I rarely even lock the car overnight. I do lock the house doors at night time. Totally depends on where you live and your experiences surely? If I were alone in the house even where I live now, I’d lock the door because pp May jest but some of us have had people walk in their house and rape them.

We always lock doors and the back gate is locked and bolted. Anybody could wander in.

@Newusernamee it's interesting you are more relaxed being rural, I grew up rurally and the houses out in the sticks and farms etc were much more vigilant than us in the more built up areas as they were the ones more regularly targeted due to not being overlooked, I remember there being a local campaign by the police to raise awareness. Vans would knock on houses "asking for directions", obviously checking if anyone was in.

My front doors have always had a yale lock so you need a key to get in.
Back door needs to be physically locked and they're open all day if we're home.

I've left them accidentally unlocked whilst on holiday and it was fine.

We only lock the door if we're going to be away from the house overnight, and even then sometimes forget to.

We got a new door recently with a working lock, as the old one was broken, and got quite into locking it up every night but the novelty has worn off now 😁

Several of my neighbours are the same, and it makes for very nice group chats : 'can someone let themselves in and feed the cat, we're away' sort of thing

I don't always lock mine if I'm out never mind when I'm in.

I used to leave the back door unlocked, if going to the shops for half an hour. A few years ago, there was a series of daytime burglaries, including my neighbour, who was in the house, asleep! Now, I always lock it, even if I go to the corner shop 1 minute away.

The front door's got a Yale and we only lock the Chubb if we're going away.

Yes, I lock it immediately. I don't feel safe with it unlocked. I live in a block of flats so anyone from the building could just wander in.

Honestly this literally gave me shivers of fear at the thought of doing that where I live

Our doors are almost always unlocked if we are in. I go round and lock them before I go to bed but during the day both are likely to be unlocked.

We live in rural Cheshire which has a very low crime rate. I would probably act differently if we lived in a city.

My door is locked unless I'm walking through it basically, it's just automatic for me to lock it straight away when I close it as its where I keep my keys, in the lock.

Front door is almost always locked but if I am expecting DC home in an hour or so I will leave it open for them. Back door is only locked overnight.

And rural car thefts are REALLY common, thieves from big cities used to target our rural area driving hours to get to us. Really surprised how relaxed some people are because they live rurally, I'm actually much more relaxed now I live in a town vs rural! Cul de sac with lots of neighbours keeping an eye out, and we all have Ring cameras ha.

The village Facebook does have posts about people targeting local farms like this, but they are still a way away from us. I’m definitely more cautious than DH! We have been here 3 years now and I don’t think I’ve seen anyone that wasn’t specifically invited even at the bottom of the lane, never mind on our land. Hope I haven’t jinxed it now!