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!

I've never lived anywhere where the back door wasn't inside a locked garden with no direct access so I've only used front doors.

My current place only has one door, but it takes ages to get to it (walk the entire length of my flat, into a hall, do a U turn and walk all the way back to get outside. Since my living room window is a fire escape and right next to the main door I just open that when someone rings the bell to accept deliveries and pass over keys to friends/family to let themselves in.

Front door because although both front and back doors are level access there is a step at the back gate which makes getting my little one's wheelchair out difficult.

It is very dependent on the house layout. Ours is front door as nearest driveway. Back door is awkward as means going through a locked gate.

Some other family members use their back doors as closer to their drives.

Just about everyone I know uses their front door. You would have to climb over a high locked gate to get to our back door.

Growing up my mother's friend had a superstition that you couldn't enter and leave by the same door. So we went in the front but left by the back door, fumbling our way through the garden in the dark 😅

It's going to totally depend on the layout of your house.

My friend's house has their driveway down the side of the house, and their 'back door' is actually on the side so it makes absolute sense to use it as it is the nearest, before you get on to other reasons like them not having a hallway, so you'd have to go through the living rooms to bring in shopping, let alone a pram with wet wheels or a dog who had been out in the rain.

Like several other posters on here, you'd have to be some sort of reverse Houdini to get to the back door of our house, due to no access to the back garden without pole vaulting over several neighbours fences, hedges and trees.

Front door if I'm going out out. Back door with the dog as it goes into my utility room where the dog leads and walking boots are.

Yes this was the case in the house I grew up in too. Front door would be for visitors whose coming was more of an occasion really, anyone we knew well would use the back door.

Has to be the front door for us because the back door and the conservatory entrances are both behind locked gates! We’d have to cut across our neighbours driveway to go in through the back door too. As we park right next to the front door, it seems a bit daft to use any other entrance!

Back door for me too. Even though my front door is literally next to my drive. It opens into the living room, id rather use the back into the kitchen than walk shoes on the carpet. Guest do use the front door though.

I live in a terraced house so front door is the only option.

Front door, DMIL insisted that using the back door and just walking in was more friendly so we put up a fence with a locked gate.

We got on well so long as boundaries were maintained.

Always the front and never been to anyone’s house where the back door was the primary point of entry

we use the back door to go out into garden only or back patio

We rarely use the front door, that is for people that use the bell.
No-one ever comes to the back door as that goes straight into the garden and the garden gate is locked.
We & close family, friends etc always use the side door which goes into the utility and then through to the kitchen, much more convenient.

We use the front door here, unless we are bringing in stuff for the garden then we go via the back door.
At my parents it was always the back door, and my grandparents come to think of it. It felt very formal to use their fronts doors

Growing up we never used what was technically the front door, but the house had two doors that were the same distance from the pavement and both faced the same way, so it was a fairly arbitrary distinction. You couldn’t really tell from the outside which one was the “proper” front door.

Now we always use the front door because the backdoor is through a side gate, round the garden, and over the other side of the house.

Is this another one of those polls for euphemists? 🤔

Front door,off the drive,gate at the side locked, from the garden side. Every property in my road has the front door in the front or side, then fence, some have a gate into the back, not all. It's a long walk round.

Must admit I thought that when I first read the title! I thought Center Parcs was the code to use the back door from a previous thread on here.

Yes, we're the same as you @hairyhaggisgreen Driveway goes up the side of the house, and the car ends up at the side of the house, parked by the side door. (We have a 'back door' into the back garden at the back of the house!)

We have steps going up to the side door, and everyone just comes to that. The front door is another 5-6 seconds walk around the front of the house - (obvs!) and because of how the garden laid out, you have to walk past the side door to get to the front door.. So, as I say, everyone just comes to the side door, and we always use that one...

I don't think we have ever used the front door. It's actually got a table in front of it, (in the hallway,) and we have stuff underneath the table (boots/shoes etc,) and we have plants and ornaments on ...

Only got one door.

we use the back door to go out into garden only or back patio

So do we.

Isn't that a bit of a fire risk? Are you in a flat?

We mainly use our back door as it's nearer where we park. Our front door is in a stupid place and hard to find. Most of our visitors come to the back as well as delivery people.

Front door mostly as nearest driveway and have to walk past it to get to back door but back door if taking or bringing dogs back from a walk