Front door or back if you have one? And why?

[hairyhaggisgreen]

We have never used our front door, always the back door and I think it's more common to do so but looking at my neighbours, they all use the front door. Our driveway is to the side of the house so when unloading the car it's easier to go round the back as that's the kitchen side.

All who visit us, come to the back door too, there isn't even a door bell as it's a patio door so they just knock or see us through the glass.

Using the front door would feel abnormal now!

Yes us too, we don't quite have a back door, just a side door.

Growing up we never used the front door, which was further to walk than the side door. I had a side door in my current house but following an extension we lost it. We rarely go around the back. Everyone uses the front door.

Always used the front door in any house I’ve lived in

Front door for us, and for every house I go to regularly, family and friends.

My cottage is set in the middle of its own garden and everyone walks past the front door using the door knocker on it to let me know they're coming. Then they use the back door. The front door opens onto the carpeted hallway and the back door comes into the kitchen where I mostly am and where there's a tiled floor.

Always the front for us but I know a lot who use the back.

All depends on your layout doesn’t.

Growing up we never used the front foot, visitors only.

Ive never really lived anywhere where using the back or side door was an option since then, either flats or mid terraces where you couldn’t easily get round the back.

We’re in a detached now but both sides have locked gates so we don’t use the back/ side door except to go into the garden. They were there when we moved in, but might as well keep them locked especially with DC and a dog out in the garden a lot too.

Mid terrace here so definitely the front door!

Everywhere I've lived is usually the front door. In my current house it has a side return but you have to unlock two gates to go through so I only really leave/return that way if I'm going out on my bike as it is locked up near the back door. When I lived at home we'd use the back door if going out with the dogs as their leads were by the back door. But that's all. Visitors couldn't call at the back door as there was a high gate with a bolt.

I'm envious of you folk who live in lovely safe places where you can leave open access around the side and back of your house! There's always scumbags on the prowl around here.

Front door.
We have large fencing/gates on either side of the house so the dog doesn't get out and people can't get in, so unless they could unlock those, they wouldn't be able to get to the back or side doors.

On my lane, most of us are farm workers and use the back doors, so outdoor clothes go just inside it, or in the nearby outhouses. In my case, the downstairs loo and sink are right next to the back door, which is perfect on days when you're desperate! As neighbours, we only really use the front doors when we are off work and in "respectable" clothes.

As my house is side-on to the lane, delivery people are usually unsure as to which door is the front and which is the back, as the definition of 'porch' seems to vary. Mind you, they also leave my next door neighbour's parcels there, too...

We exclusively use the back door, but then we don’t have a front door.

Ive got a front door and a door to the "garage" right next to each other, garage used to the kitchen, we converted it from a garage into a utility room, removed metal garage door, bricked it up and put a door in.

We use the door into the "garage" because my front door leads to a small square hallway approx 3ft square.

We're a shoes off household so while one person is removing their shoes the other is stood outside.

I have a seating area in the garage, somewhere to hang coats and loads of room

We use the front door. There’s a door that opens on to the side of the house the back door and the garden, and for security reasons it’s usually locked.

Always the front door, same with every house I've lived in.
I park at the front door why would I traipse round the back?

Back door here - it’s easier as you can just walk in so it was easier when the children were little and playing out with friends. It’s also closer to the driveway.

The front door needs a key to open so it’s just not as easy.

I was thinking about this the other day. The house I grew up in (where my parents still live), the front door would seem the obvious choice, but we always walk past it, down the shared driveway to the back door. All family and friends use the back door as well. Only occasional visitors knock on the front door. Strange, but that’s what we’ve always done!

I had a lot of childhood friends on the same road and they also always used the back door. I notice now when I visit my parents that newer people who have moved in over recent years use the front door (the one that makes the most sense, but would seem very strange for me to do that after 40 years of using the beck door!).

Always front here, we have a passage down the side but it has locked gates at the front and back for security, our side door is on our extension behind the second gate. I’ve never lived in a house where the back door was easier than the front.

Someone would have to have cracking run and jump skills to scale over my back fence to get in via the back door.

We always use the back door as the front is pedestrianised so parking is at the back. I would like to use front but I need a ramps putting in to get my scooter out. In all my previous houses we used the front with the exception of my parents house in the later years after they had bought the land at the back and built a large parking area.

We use both equally. The back door leads straight to the driveway so we use that if driving, but the front door if not.

Both doors are actually on same side of house.

Front door.

I can't remember ever accessing anyone's house through the back door.

I live in Yorkshire and found it startling when we moved here, that people would routinely come to the back door. It felt like an intrusion of privacy that they'd let themselves in through the garden gate and come through the back garden. Now I'm used to it. We have house martins nesting over the front door in the summer so I put a note up asking delivery drivers to use the other door, and I use it myself if I have the baby in his buggy, because there's a slope rather than a step. I do use the front door for speed, though.

Depends on the layout of your house, surely?

My front door is down the side of my house, so I’d have to walk past it and through my back gate to access the back door, which would be totally illogical.