To not answer the door during the day if I'm not expecting anyone

[InkedGreen]

Anyone else not answer the door if they're alone at home and not expecting anyone?

There was someone that knocked twice then sat outside in their car for 20 mins.

My house is for sale, but the sign is down and been marked as sold for 2 months now.

Should I have answered it? They didn't post a note through the door or anything so I didn't think it was important 🤷‍♀️

Not answering the door because it might be someone collecting for charity (or not charity), religious peeps or people trying to sell things?
Seriously how long does it take to say "not interested" and shut the door?

Why waste your time when you can just not answer and they move on.

I never answer the door if I’m not expecting someone.

There is any door rule stating one must jump up immediately to a knock

I hate surprises and people on the ‘drop in’

It takes way longer to go downstairs and open the door and say not interested than it does to stay in the office and do nothing!

What is up with people on here not wanting to answer their front doors?

Just answer the door!

Not this again.....

Twenty minutes is a long time to be checking on what's going on outside though.

I work from home a lot and our flat is in a small tenement building. At some point I was expected to take in everyone's parcels. When the guys upstairs lost their keys, they expected someone else to let them into the building and buzzed all flats until someone opened. Ours first, of course.
There is a council flat in our building that is treated as emergency flat and about once or twice a year the ever changing tenents will fight in the close or outside the door. Certainly not getting involved in that. (I have offered help if its seemed appropriate/safe but they were all waiting to "get their children back SS" and didn't want to involve anyone - it was scarily cliché). They are also always the first to ask for a vacuum/sugar/fuck knows what and we never saw it again.

Needless to say I stopped opening the door unless I am expecting someone or something now.

Thehouseintheforest Tue 17-Sep-19 15:44:37
Just weird and agree .. only on MN !

Do you all live in some crazy high crime area.

So far today I have answered the door to a neighbour wondering if I want any shopping (we are miles from nearest shop) . To another neighbour who was returning a borrowed screwdriver, an amazon delivery and my brother popping in on the way home.. none were planning on kidnap or blowing me away on the doorstep.

That's a possibility. I saw an episode of crimewatch once where these people knocked on someone's door in the middle of the night so the bloke opened a top window and they shot him in the head with a shotgun. I think he survived though. Case of mistaken identity, they got the wrong house.

I don't answer the door unless I'm expecting someone or a parcel.

If someone rings my doorbell during the day and I am not expecting a parcel or a visitor it will be one of the following:

• Religious nutjobs keen to convert me
• Someone offering to pressure wash my drive
• Someone selling something
• Someone wanting me to commit on the spot to a charity direct debit

So unless I’m expecting something/someone, I often don’t bother to answer. I’m not nervous about it, it’s just a waste of everyone’s time if I do. Also, if I’m home on a weekday I’m usually working, and I can’t leave a Skype meeting or a webinar to answer the door anyway.

I'm getting one of these.

I do't answer for religious groups as once they know you are in, they continue to pester. Apart from this I open the door to whoever calls.

I answered the door today it were the in laws.Only got rid about 2 hours later.
Bless them came to drop some money for DS19 before he went back to Uni.

Are you my neighbour?
Totally weird.

I used to get the Jehovahs witnesses come around and try to convert me.

Once I came to the door in a towel and the woman still wanted to talk to me, even though I was naked except for the towel and had explained I was running late. The male with her diverted his entire face with his hands.

I now don’t answer if I’m not expecting anyone.

Weird

Is this a British thing to never actually answer your door? Or a mumsnet thing? I always open mine, could be important, could be anything.

I look through the peephole first but I don't answer it to the Jehovas witnesses who knock on Wednesdays and Saturdays and I don't answer it to anyone wearing a tabard as they are chuggers or political parties. Delivery people I do as I take in a neighbour's parcel if she is out and anyone official looking I open the door to but that happens rarely.
I tend to think that if, when I open the door, I'm only going to say no thank you it's not worth the effort of unlocking the door tbh.

Mumsnet la la land again. Dont understand it!

When people say the effort of unlocking the door isn't worth it. I always imagine a door with 10 different locks on it, or a castle moat. Surely it's just one turn of the hand to unlock the door?

"Is this a British thing to never actually answer your door? Or a mumsnet thing? I always open mine, could be important, could be anything."

Planet Mumsnet.

Sometimes the unexpected callers are neighbours though, I've had two neighbours who have knocked on my door because of emergencies - it's not always sales or religion.

Two neighbours recently, not in my entire lifetime that is

Well for me I'd have to put the dog in another room to unlock the door so it's not worth the hassle of shepherding the dog into another room and shutting her in to then go and unlock the door to say no thank you. It's the same result only with less effort. Plus the Jehovah's Witnesses have been knocking for years and years and I've never once said more than not interested or no thank you so you would think they would have got the message by now. The Wednesday lot stood with their parents when I started living here and now they come with their own children twenty years later.

There will be a reason why it can't possibly be neighbours Chic. There always is.