Why do some people not use their front doors?

[FlowersAndShit]

Why do some people only ever use their back doors? I just don't see the point in having a front door and walking all the way round the back to use the back door. Is there some sort of logic to this?

My grandma always made us use the back door because the front one led into the good room and we weren't bloody royalty. Yorkshire. I can't really tell which of my doors is the front one!

I routinely use the back because I park in the lane behind the garden.

I also subscribe to the Pratchett theory of the 3 occasions when you are carried. Plus we also have the New Year tradition of leaving through the back to carry the old year out and coming back in the front to bring the new year in.

I consider the front door for use by invite or appointment only. If I am not expcecting anyone then it will usually be chuggers or god botherers so I generally don't deign to answer it. Friends know to come round the back or call first.

If that helps, we never use the back door and we live 'up North'.

However, some houses here are laid in such a way that parking is at the back so the easiest and more normal way is to use the back door.

My grandparents are "come to the back door" types and freak out if anyone dares to ring the doorbell at the front door

Working class southerners both of them if that helps

In current house, sideways on to road, it is same distance from road to either door. Which I use depends on where I'm going (post box is nearer back door, school is nearer front) or where I've managed to park. Also if it is really cold I'll use the back, so I can leave the curtain closed and sausage draught excluder in place on draughty front door.
The front door goes into a hall, with a cloak room for coats, rack for shoes so it actually makes most sense to use the front. Backdoor is straight into the kitchen. DP always uses the back (don't think he even has a front door key!). I think proibably becasue he would get home late and struggle to aprk so tend to be nearer the back. But it means he has a habit of coming in and dumping his bag on the kitchen table, then trailing through the kitchen and living room to the hall to change his shoes....
In house we are supposed to be moving to the front door is definitely the nearest, most convenient. It is one of the positives - DP is more likely to use that door and therefore dump his bag in the hall (hopefully in the cloakroom) rather than in the kitchen...

I cycle to work and go out the back door because I need to get my bike from the shed, which I then take out the side gate. It's a habit so I still use the backdoor when I'm driving somewhere too, even though that means using the door and the side gate when I could just use the front door and I'd be straight by the car...

In my defence I have a door curtain and draft excluder up over the front door in the winter since I rarely need to use it, and that then puts me off using it even more since it's a faff moving stuff out of the way! If someone knocks I do answer it. Though if it's family visiting I make them come around the back!

My kids (and dogs) use the back door because they can't be trusted with muddy shoes (or paws).

Grow-up use the front door . I much prefer if my friends and family don't treck through the kitchen, they don't need to see the mess.

Front door goes into lounge which is a pain with wet coats, mud, cold air etc so we built a mudroom/cloakroom off the back door and everyone (apart from posty/deliveries) knows to use it.

It's a hangover From visitor etiquette. Visitor/guest shown into parlour or. Drawing room. These rooms were the rooms that were used on special occasions. Lifestyles are more informal nowadays

My back gate opens to a shortcut to and from the bus stop.

My house is the bottom end of a long row of terrace so we'd have to walk further to get to the front (much grumbling occurred when the back gate got broken in the storm recently and we had to go round the front)

The front of my house is technically below ground level (very steep hill) and I have to walk down thirteen very steep, dangerous steps with no hand rail to get to the front door. I am by nature a clumsy person.

When I lived in an old house, the front door opened onto the street and led straight into the living room, and it was swollen up with damp and hell to open or get shut again (hadn't been used in years). The back door was the one that worked!

In another house, the front door also opened from street into living room and during all the cold months of the year we never opened it as you immediately lost all the heat and everyone in the living room froze. The back door opened into the kitchen which was small, easy to heat and closed off from the rest of the house.

ours is out of use in winter because it sticks! The 'back' door also works out nearer the car.

I can't get the double buggy through my front door.

We always use the back door- even though it is further to walk, but we do live on a busy main road.

Back door straight into utility area, which is tiled and a dumping ground, and then into kitchen which is family room we spend most of the time.

During the day front door is always kept bolted and dead locked but the back door unlocked but 6ft side gate bolted so we can come and go into the garden and shed etc without worrying about security.

Both PiL and my DM both use the back door for same reasons. Never thought it odd to be honest or a northern thing (we are northerners)

Our house is one a corner plot so it's the same distance to front and back door from the street. We use the back because it's straight into the kitchen and easier with shopping. There's also size steps to the front door and two to the back so it's easier for the pushchair and unsteady toddlers.

We use our front door but growing up we used the back door as the drive lead to the back door and we parked on the drive.

Round me (Yorkshire) people often put plant pots on their front doorsteps as a signal that they're not meant to be used!

I don't think I have ever entered anyone's house by the back door. Can't actually think of any houses of friends or family where this would be practical? You couldn't get to my back door without bulldozing my garage.

Are these all massive sprawling country piles?

No Ladystark, but often quite deliberately designed so that the back door was actually at the side. My grandma's little bungalow was like that.

My parents always used back door where ever they have lived. Usually door on side though going into kitchen.
I can't use back door as back gate only opens from inside. So I only use back door when putting bins/rubbish out or hanging out washing.

On yes, I had this when growing up with my mad mother.

I think she wanted to keep the front door 'for best'. Despite having to walk 3x further to get to the back door, past an awkward gate as well.

Much like 90% of all the clothes, home accessories and furniture she used to buy and never use. I am now clearing out mountains of brand new stuff still in 70s style cellophane wrappers. What a waste!

Mind you, I have gone too far the other way as I realised on Sat I had taken my brand new handbag to the football field and plonked it down on the muddy grass in the rain!

Apologies for veering off topic.

Only strangers would have come to the front door of our house when we were growing up. Back door was never locked. I rebelled when I used to visit my folks after having kids.

Oh yes, we were never allowed to use the front door when I was growing up. Even though our front door was actually on the side of the house - that's Nottingham City council for ya.

When I was a child and used to call for friends at the front door there would always be a yell of "go back way" from the parents.

My Parents always use the back door because they have a hall at the back but only a tiny square of space near the front.

We have to use the front because using the back would require knocking on the doors of two houses and asking them to open their gate for us then climbing over our own 6 foot gate.

Because I park the car about 5 feet away from the back door (2 if it's raining!) it's where the drive way is. To go in to the front door would mean walking down the drive, through the gate and across the lawn. Our house has the garden in front of it, so not the norm.