Is your house always locked?

[momtoboys]

A previous thread got me thinking. Our house doors are never locked during the day because of the steady stream of comings and goings and no one being able to keep a key. We do lock them at night when we are in bed but will frequently leave them unlocked until a child gets home after we have gone down.

Is this unreasonable? Are your doors always locked?

Front door is always locked. Back door is unlocked if people downstairs/in the garden. As soon as no one downstairs or in the garden the back door is locked.

But then people do go around trying car doors and house doors in our area (recent development probably due to cost of living)

Yes, the door locks behind me. Three adults and 2 dc here, 2 of the adults are autistic but have learned to always remember to put keys in the same place when getting home and to take them with you when going out. It's not exactly hard. I live in Central London, but even if I lived in a sleepy village I'd still lock up, it just seems naive and lazy not to do so.

Yes but my door automatically locks when closed, can’t imagine leave it open..

Funnily DH and I have just been having this conversation.

I've worked from home for around 12 years, my office is upstairs but in all that time I've never ever heard anyone try to open our doors.

Wow this is wild to me! I’ve lived in about 10 different homes and they’ve all had Yales so i’ve never left a house unlocked. We double lock it when we all go out, but that’s rare we’re all out at once.

Front door I keep locked but dh sometimes forgets.

Back door mostly unlocked but our garden is enclosed with a locked gate.

I often leave my front door on the latch if the kids are coming and going and the back patio doors are always open in the day time. I like the feeling of it being open and don't like feeling locked in, except at night.

First thing I do is lock the door behind me.

Only locked at night or if we go out. The postie even opens the front door to put parcels in. I usually do also lock the doors if it's just me in and I'm going in the shower, just in case. We live in a quiet village so feels pretty safe to leave doors unlocked though.

I have to because my three year old went through an awful phase of opening the doors and running whenever we weren’t in the room so I no longer have a choice. Found him half way down the street once and that was enough of a shock for me to know it has to be locked at all times.

Yes.

Always locked.

Back doors locked at night or if we're going out.

We have an alarm and ring doorbell/cameras covering back garden/side entrances/garage etc too.

Isn't much crime around here but we're London suburbs and I've always lived in London so just always been a door locker and had a burglar alarm since I was a child when my dad had one fitted after a burglary.

Happy that my house has a lot of visible deterrents.

I live very rural, no one locks their doors during the day, many don't at night. People don't tend to lock cars either.

I lived in a city for a while, the need to lock everything and be vigilant took some getting used to.

yes I live in a maisonette and I’m upstairs, my front door is down stairs. I always make sure my door is locked and wouldn’t be able to sleep if my door was unlocked.
I live in a very safe, quiet area but I just have to have locked doors.

Always locked if out or at night. We often leave the door on the latch if popping to the shops or for a run if someone else is in. Often have the back door open during the day and leave the front open if DD is out playing.

On paper we're in a high crime area, zone 2 London but actually there seems to be very little where we are. I've often left unlocked bikes, scooters etc out during the day and postman leaves parcels outside if we're out - never had any issues

At night yes, if I remember, if we go on holiday definitely, during the day no. We have nothing worth stealing and DDog would herd them into the kitchen once through the door anyway, either that or trip them up with her special forces, just behind you at that bend in the back of your knee/gravity is a bitch type manoeuvre which you have to have lived with her long enough to be able to out fox, but which is lethal to a stranger !

Never locked day or night. No idea where keys even are.! Live semi rural in safe place though.

Yes always locked live in the countryside but have had break in’s close enough.

Have got few frights as have left the conservatory unlocked few times, discovered in morning ( blaming teenager), keep my gates closed at all times too.

Always. Back gate always locked too and I'll lock the back door if I have a shower kn the daytime.
My front door is 6ft from a footpath, anyone could be in and out in 30 seconds.

No- in fact if it’s a nice day they aren’t even closed. We live in the middle of nowhere.

That said, the other day a random man came into my house- came downstairs to find him wandering about “looking for his dog”. Very odd, he wasn’t even embarrassed.

Yep, always locked because we had a thieving scumbag try to creep in.

No, lucky if the doors are actually closed in the current temperatures. But neither door is actually visible from the street.

This thread is an eye opener for me too. I've always lived in houses that have had doors with Yale locks and need a key to enter. Genuinely surprised by how many people leave their front doors unlocked.

French doors at the back are always unlocked while we're at home, and wide open in the nice weather. We have no side access though (unless you unlock the garage and remove the car and unlock the back door).

Yep. Garden doors only left open if side gates are locked. We are gated within gated, tucked away at the end of a tiny road with open land beyond the garden. That's why we are always locked. Nobody would know, nobody would hear the scream.

The front door is locked if it is shut, unless I put it on the latch on purpose which is rare. Back door is usually open when we are home in the day from at least May to September. Kitchen window at the front often open a few inches.

I leave it unlocked to pop to the shops , do the school run etc. I live in a very low crime safe area