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?

We live rurally and, even though we have a neighbour, no-one would see if there was a prowler sneaking around. I keep the doors locked all the time. Me & my husband drive each other mad. He'd leave all the doors unlocked all the time.

My Dad used to leave his back for unlocked and, one time, he walked into the kitchen and a drugged up looking bloke was there! He asked my Dad for a ciggie and wandered off. My elderly Dad would've been no match for him if he'd been violent.

Always locked as I have bad anxiety and I honestly think about strange people just walking into my house.

i'm amazed at the ignorance of folk saying if they lived in a city they would lock but they're fine "they live in a safe area" . what is a "safe area??
so break ins, rapes murders don't happen to people who live outwith cities??

Locked unless one of the kids is playing outside. We have a very unfriendly lab though who wouldn't take kindly to any strangers appearing.

No 😂actually I rarely lock the door when we go out. If we are all out for a full day, yes. But it's only occasionally that everyone is out of the house and not just to pop to the shops. We live in the middle of nowhere with no neighbours. I know it's sensible to lock the doors, but I just can't see anyone breaking in. The only crime we have around here is stolen farm equipment/tools and those aren't in the house (dh in charge of locking those up). MIL (who lives nearby) literally only locks the doors when they are on holiday. One year it took about a week to even find the keys because they hadn't been locked in a year and no one knew where they were. 😂

I used to live in a big city though (not London, outside the UK) and yes, locked my doors as soon as I came through them. I wouldn't have even gone to the laundry room downstairs and leave the door open. Kept all balcony doors locked as well, and windows.

Ours looks automatically but if it didn't we would keep it locked. A friend's daughter met a man coming up her stairs once , her door was open and he just walked right in. I think most break ins are opportunistic and there are a lot of desperate people about so it makes sense to lock up.

I lock ours, there are opportunistic thieves who will try doors and pick up anything of value in the hallway. Did happen to us once, I was near the door, saw someone walk up, try the handle and walk off again. I leave the backdoor into the garden unlocked though. And only close windows when I go out instead of locking each one, much to my mum's horror!

Pretty much only lock it if going up to bed or the bath or out. Sometimes remember to if we are all in the back garden.

I couldn't find my keys the other morning so did the school run without locking it. It is only a 5 minute walk in a village admittedly.

Sometimes DH locks it behind him if he gets in before me and I get really annoyed about having to find my keys and not being able to walk in.

Our front door locks when it's closed (from the outside, it's a latch one).

Back door is nearly never locked, and very often in this weather left wide open for the cat to come and go.

Our garden is very difficult to access from behind/either side and neighbours two doors down on each side are nearly always home.

Unlocked here, we lock it when we go up to bed at night.

I live in London. The front door automatically locks when closed.
My back door is open (I mean the door is wide open, not just unlocked). It remains so if I'm upstairs in my office, though I will lock it if taking a nap or something. Obviously I lock it overnight.
But I have two dogs who will bark/growl and I'm mid terrace so someone would have to climb over a few fences to get to my house.

For unlocked in the day. But perhaps we should lock it. We live in a market town near the centre. We also don't have a lock into the back garden which I've been meaning to sort for years. I ought to check the insurance clauses.

I keep both front and back doors locked when we're in. Not because I worry about an axe murderer but because it would take seconds for someone to nip in for car keys/handbag/purse.

Surely it depends where you live.

We try and remember to lock them going to bed.

Rural, with 4 dogs instead of a doorbell

I find it weird that so many people seem to have front doors that don't lock automatically on closing!

Mine is a Yale lock so it’s effectively locked once closed. My backdoor locks automatically too - can't go in the garden without a key or else will get locked out!

I always lock it behind me, I’ve got 2 kids, why would I take the chance of some random person walking in?!

I do now because we’re on a farm, my son is only a toddler and he’s desperate to be out with his daddy and the tractors. It’s far too dangerous to risk him getting out on his own so the doors stay firmly locked at all times. I never used to though, they’d be locked last thing at night but otherwise they’d never be locked.
To be honest, if anyone came with dodgy intentions, they’d have to get past my two huntaways (massive, very loud, very protective) in the yard and if they did that, I’d be very surprised if anyone thought robbing the house was a better idea than raiding the sheds. The risk to the machinery in the sheds is much higher.

Always unlocked during the day. We live on the top floor, so it was always more important to me that the Dc could get out in an emergency than worry if someone would come in. I suppose I could re-think that now the DC are older. My neighbour always locks hers and was shocked I never locked ours. She found out the day DC2 locked us out on the balcony and we had to ask her to come in and let us in!

Locked. Otherwise people could just come in. It's not a terrible area but certainly not "safe" either, someone forced their way in 10 years ago, it was terrifying.

Yes I lock the back door when I am here on my own during the day. The front door (like others have previously mentioned) is one of those that is automatically locked when you close it. When my DP is here, the back door tends to be unlocked in the daytime, although I often lock it from force of habit. At night it's locked. DP doesn't really 'get' the need to lock it but he's not a woman!

Front door is generally unlocked if we are at home, but if i was going to be upstairs or in the garden for a long time, I lock it. DH doesn't.
We also lock it if one of us goes out and everyone else is still in bed.

I have to lock ours as NDN has dementia and often tries to open my door. Not sure whether he genuinely gets mixed up between mine and his own or not (there is a back story, he's annoyed I won't be his unpaid carer basically) but he's a big bloke and can be aggressive so I don't feel safe with it unlocked now.

I live in a safe area but I automatically lock my door when I come in. I'd never leave it unlocked

Lucky if my back door is closed during the day never mind locked, was the same growing up as kids. We are rural though

Yes mine are always locked front and back. Front because it's the furthest away from where I might sit and I think it would be easy for someone to sneak in. Back because whilst the garden is secure it's a habit to lock up every time I come in.