Do you lock your door when you’re in the house?

[patienceandprudence]

Inspired by another thread (no prizes for guessing which).

I was surprised that people lock their doors sheen inside the house. Granted, we live in a small house, but it’s in a ‘bad’ area. We never lock our door when someone’s in, except at night if someone remembers. I’d say we leave it unlocked while out a good 30% of the time so if the kids come back or someone drops by to visit they don’t have to wait outside.

In my area this is the norm, and most of the time if you knock you’ll just be called in and told to walk right in next time. We tell anyone the same, even the regular delivery-people know that they can open the door and put the parcel in if it’s open.

Our doors are never locked, we don't even have a key for one of them, but I also leave my car open! No one where I live locks their doors not telling you where it is but one of the safest places we could be :)

PPs were asking about which thread where there was a talk about locking doors. Have whizzed through & can't see it's been linked- apologies if it has

http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/amiibeingunreasonable/4380159-To-have-left-them-outside-for-10-minutes

Always, always lock front and back door when home and put security catches down too.

Also never leave keys in front door cause we had a spate of people using a grabber through letter box to steal them in our area

Won't have a cat flap either because they weaken your doors

If going out close and lock all downstairs windows and make sure any open upstairs are locked on 'night vent'

But I really do live in a 'rough' area and you'd be an absolute fool not to

I lock the car door if I'm in it waiting for it to de-ice and it's dark. On road parking, live in a terrace and have those awful really dim street light bulbs that do virtually nothing to help you see/make the area safer

Most of our neighbours have blink cams. I don't, simply cause ignorance is bliss sometimes and I think I could easily fixate if not too careful

We have Yale locks so the doors are always locked other than when they are opened with the key or put on the latch.

They lock shut behind you. Most of my previous homes have been similar type of lock?

Current house has an extra key lock but we don't use or it. Never have done in 7 years.

Quiet area, go out to the car, come back, lock the door.
Nip out to the bins, come back, lock the door.
Never ever leave it unlocked, like to feel safe and secure in my own home.

I always lock my doors out of habit when my DD was little and would try and open them.

I hate locked doors, always feel I’m being locked in rather than being protected. Mostly lived in villages though.

I close the door 99% of the time because if I leave it open we have a running toddler

Another one but not the front door this time, but all the windows.

I lived in flats that were having double glazing installed, taking months.
There was totally encircling scaffolding up with ladders providing access 24 hours a day.
They didn't even put the ground to first floor ladder away at night.
You would hear people at night, in the early hours, running or, worse, sneaking around.
You had to keep all windows shut during the day to prevent the windows getting smashed in the event of the work men dropping something. It was mid summer and night was the only time you could open the windows for fresh air. We were asleep on the sofa at about four am one night when we were awoken by someone trying to break the security limiter latch thing on the kitchen window by violently shaking it, about 8 feet from where we were lying asleep.
That was a fucking scary four months, I tell you.

Always lock it - my husband insists on it and I've got into the habit of always doing it. We are lucky to live somewhere that has an extremely low crime rate and is known to be very very safe, but my husband grew in an inner city area with a high crime rate and is very aware of security in general.

Yes

Dh locks the door when he leaves for work in the morning and I'm still on bed.
If im in the house by myself the door is usually unlocked. The postman and Hermes delivery guy usually open the door and shout that they be left the mail or a parcel.

Jesus, yes. Always lock. Completely habitual for me. I would feel on edge if I hadn’t.

I only lock it at night but my DH would lock it during the day. To be fair, I think he's right

We are gated and there are gates to the house. Very low crime area.

We have four doors to the outside. Doors often open to the garden often but only if side gate is locked and we are about.

Doors are double locked at night, alarm goes on, CCTV is always on, security lights are on.

If we were out and a door or window was unlocked our insurance wouldn't be valid.

Always lock our doors and the back gate. It isn't just about locking your doors but the type of door lock cylinder fitted. If your lock cylinder is not TS007 3* then you are still at risk of your lock being drilled or snapped. Consider changing the cylinder for something more secure and it can be done by someone with basic DIY skills.

Always locked, it opens right onto the street and it's bad enough with kids banging on it as they pass by, if they thought they could open it I imagine they're be at it for a laugh right away.

Anyway, doesn't leaving it unlocked invalidate insurance?

We live in a nice enough area and sometimes it feels like my middle class neighbours are trying to attract thieves.
Leaving belongings in their front gardens, side gates open, cars unlocked etc.
There has been footage on social media of a car dropping teenagers off at 11pm a few roads away so they could try the car/front doors to see what they could get and collecting them 30 minutes later.
Juvenile sentencing is very light here, so there are a few Fagans around.
My front door is always locked and the back door locked if I'm not in the room.
Re the other thread the only thing the OP did wrong was not getting in the shower every time her DP was expected home without keys when he started this butler nonsense.

I lock the back door as it is out of the way and we’d have no idea if anyone came in. I lock the front door if going for a nap or a shower, but the rest of the daytime it is open.

*unlocked, not wide open!

We have two doors, a porch door and an internal door. We always lock our porch door when at home and the internal door also gets locked at night. Several neighbours of ours have had car keys, wallets and handbags stolen from inside the house because they didn't lock their door when they went upstairs. I've always been very security conscious though anyway.

No 😬 we live in the arse end of nowhere with our nearest neighbor a ten minute walk away. You wouldn't know there's a house where we are unless you already knew if you see what I mean.

When I lived in a city I locked it. Tbh we probably should here anyway!

Yes because occasionally we get people trying doors in the area.

it's one of those threads where everyone says they live in a 6 bed detached in a nice area. Because how else can we fuel our insecurities ?

The front and back doors are unlocked daytime - front door on chain - unless my husband is out, when it’s locked. As a deaf woman I feel safer that way, and if I pop out, hubby can get in as the chain isn’t on, and vice versa. It’s just as critical that we can each get in in an emergency if the other one is on their own, as we both have our own vulnerabilities.

Both doors are locked at night, of course. Never have the key in the lock, but during the daytime my keys are in my jeans pocket, so can unlock quickly for deliveries, and at night by the bed, so can be equally quickly grabbed in an emergency.

I keep my handbag upstairs by the bed at night as well - I never leave my purse or valuables downstairs at night.