Do you or your friends walk into each others houses without knocking?

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I wouldn't dream of doing this but apparently some people just don't care.

A few years ago a girlfriend of mine would laugh at me because I always knocked before entering her house, all of her neighbours and friends would just walk right in.

I have another couple of friends who also don't mind people just wandering in at any time.

Has the world gone mad?

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 13 May 2005 09:49 (twenty-one years ago)

If I'm expected, yeah, there are a couple of people who are easy with this, but the fear of walking in on one of my mates and seeing their WILLY..... ewwww!

My door is always locked, I stay in a scary street and I also have a security entry system so nobody could walk in on me in the nude even if I wanted them to.

― Rumpie, Friday, 13 May 2005 09:56 (twenty-one years ago)

I always knock before entering someones room, let alone someone's house! It's just good form.

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 13 May 2005 10:02 (twenty-one years ago)

um, i lock my front door. call me crazy! so they kind of have to knock, yes.

― N_RQ, Friday, 13 May 2005 10:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, of course you knock! It's just impolite to not. It might be one of those Happy Slappers otherwise.

― Come Back Johnny B (Johnney B), Friday, 13 May 2005 10:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Obviously this isn't going to apply to latch doors where you can't open without a key from the outside.

― Ste (Fuzzy), Friday, 13 May 2005 10:09 (twenty-one years ago)

In Streatham? What were you thinking?

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 13 May 2005 10:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to walk into CarsmileSteve's house without knocking. Then he got a lock.

These things are not connected.

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 13 May 2005 10:11 (twenty-one years ago)

erm i always knock even if im expected

in fear of catching them naked unawares or doing stuff.....

― battlingspacemonkey (battlingspacemonkey), Friday, 13 May 2005 10:18 (twenty-one years ago)

If there's more than six people already there, I'll just walk inside. I'll still knock on the door as I'm opening it, though.

I'm the guy who bought a house with a doorbell and gets 10% pissy when people still knock on the door. I've got a doorbell now, dammit!

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 13 May 2005 18:09 (twenty-one years ago)

http://members.aol.com/seinfeld/kramer.gif

― latebloomer: the rebel sound of grits and bacon (latebloomer), Friday, 13 May 2005 18:12 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/images_tv/lav004.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 13 May 2005 18:17 (twenty-one years ago)

http://img236.echo.cx/img236/9427/richardramirezhorns8up.jpg

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 13 May 2005 18:19 (twenty-one years ago)

"One of these things is not like the other..."

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 13 May 2005 18:38 (twenty-one years ago)

dudes! where do you all live? you don't just stroll into someone's house!

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 13 May 2005 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

if i'm expecting someone, i'll prop the door open sometimes so that they can walk in if they want to.

― kelsey (kelstarry), Friday, 13 May 2005 19:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Apparently all ILXors live in Mayberry.

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 13 May 2005 19:25 (twenty-one years ago)

have we never seen

http://www.dacre.org/flash/www/us102530.jpg

??????

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 13 May 2005 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

When I first read this title of this thread I thought of two things - hippies and Kramer.

I wouldn't dream of entering someone's home without permission unless it was a very extreme situation. (ie, they've been missing, I fear they might be dead.) I'm very protective of my own space and privacy and it's kind of a golden rule sort of thing.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Friday, 13 May 2005 19:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Do you people never poop or masturbate?

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 13 May 2005 19:55 (twenty-one years ago)

If I'm expected at a friend's home, I'll do the knock but don't wait for them to answer and just go in thing.

If I'm expecting someone, I'll unlock the door so that they can do likewise.

― peter in montreal (spaces are allowed), Friday, 13 May 2005 20:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I wouldn't dream of showing up at someone's house unexpected so I don't really understand when people do it to me. Especially now in the cell phone age, it's so easy to call and ask.

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 13 May 2005 20:05 (twenty-one years ago)

My other answer is, only when I'm on the tequila and that's just because I miss the door.

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 13 May 2005 20:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I have certain friends that expect me to walk in and vice versa. Really - if they know I'm coming why make them go through the trouble of getting up and doing something I'm perfectly capable of doing myself? And I expect the same from them. When I'm at the intermittent stage of a relationship (or if I'm not expected) I will do the knocking-open to test the waters. Never had a problem.

I had one friend, quite a few years ago, actually try to catch me in the act with my gf. On one occasion, had he been a minute earlier, he would have gotten his wish! We kinda thought it was funny.

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Friday, 13 May 2005 20:09 (twenty-one years ago)

If I'm expecting someone, I'll unlock the door so that they can do likewise.

-- peter in montreal

wait wait peter in montreal but aren't you canadian so your door is unlocked anyway? did michael moore lie to me?

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 13 May 2005 20:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think I've ever showed up at someone's place unexpected in my entire life.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Friday, 13 May 2005 20:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Were you a planned pregnancy?

― n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 13 May 2005 20:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I used to almost never lock my door when I was at home actually, but since I've been living with my girlfriend, she insists that I keet it locked.

― peter in montreal (spaces are allowed), Friday, 13 May 2005 20:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I've stopped by at Kelsey's place a few times unexpected. She's probably the only person, though. I probably did it much more often in college, though -- but that was also in the pre-cell-phone age.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 13 May 2005 20:19 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't see what's such a big deal about walking into a friend's house. I don't mind at all when people do it to me. I think it's kind of weird how some people are like "I wouldn't DREAM of it" and stuff. I mean, they're your FRIENDS! I've had friends who would come over at night and let themselves in and I would wake in the morning to find a friend sleeping beside me, and it was so much fun because then I had a breakfast buddy. But I'm not very concerned about my space, or any of my stuff, so maybe I'm weird that way. I'm certainly not a hippie, though.

― kirsten (kirsten), Friday, 13 May 2005 20:26 (twenty-one years ago)

When I lived on my own, there were times when I would take a book to bed and read for seven hours, not answer the door or the phone and people thought I was depressed. Actually, sometimes I just like being alone. If you came to my house and the door had been left open, I would have felt an obligation to be hospitable. Plus there are times when I'm doing potentially embarassing things and I don't relish the thought of them becoming laughing matters or horror stories for someone else.

― M. White (Miguelito), Friday, 13 May 2005 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

This actually happens?? This thread has totally thrown my view of the world, I am pretty much not exagerrating.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Friday, 13 May 2005 22:20 (twenty-one years ago)

i always knock, lest I walk in on something i really don't wanna witness. plus, growing up, my dad would never fucking knock and that irritated the shit out of me. you gotta respect others privacy. but walking into someone's bedroom is different than walking into their home.

― ()ops (()()ps), Friday, 13 May 2005 22:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I just think of my apartment as a place to sometimes sleep, really. I don't consider it to be this intensely private space that friends can't enter without my consent. I usually lock up when I leave for more than an hour or so, but I wouldn't blink an eye if I returned home from a short trip, like a jog or something, and found a friend hanging out in my house. I honestly don't see what's weird about this.
x-post with Oops, and yes, I would probably knock before going into someone's bedroom. Nobody's ever in their bedrooms, though! I don't know anyone who hangs out in their bedroom, especially not with the door closed, unless they're sleeping or having sex.

― kirsten (kirsten), Friday, 13 May 2005 22:34 (twenty-one years ago)

So, I guess I would take a closed bedroom door as a signal to leave quietly.

― kirsten (kirsten), Friday, 13 May 2005 22:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Where do you live, kirsten? And how heavy is your television set?

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Friday, 13 May 2005 22:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Haha! The TV is a piece of crap! Go on, take it!

― kirsten (kirsten), Friday, 13 May 2005 23:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, you silly people and your arcane rituals of knocking and ringing doorbells! I'm pretty much on the same page as Kirsten. Friends always just drop by and let themselves in, and it's the way I like it. Door is always open at night to let the cooler air in, and I rarely bother locking things up unless I'm going out for a while.

― AR, Friday, 13 May 2005 23:17 (twenty-one years ago)

But don't people steal all your stuff?

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Friday, 13 May 2005 23:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Like, where my mum lives is a really nice part of London, tree-lined streets etc etc, and people try to break in roughly every nine months or so? I sort of assumed that any central part of a major city it would be more than that.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Friday, 13 May 2005 23:53 (twenty-one years ago)

(If one really can do this in other places I am excited about getting to do it, soon!)

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Friday, 13 May 2005 23:54 (twenty-one years ago)

The only things I have worth more than $100 are my computer, my keyboard, my guitar and my sewing machine, and they are all replaceable. I like my home to be open and welcoming to my friends, and full of fresh air and outdoors sounds for me, and that's more important to me than any of my crap.
Wait. Am I a hippie?

― kirsten (kirsten), Friday, 13 May 2005 23:54 (twenty-one years ago)

The unlocked-door thing from Farenheit 9/11 has been bugging me lately. My neighbors are selling their house and mentioned on the ad that it's the kind of neighborhood where there "are few locked doors." WTF does that mean? That there's nothing worth stealing around here? Why is it supposed to be some kind of admirable thing not to lock your door? I don't buy that whole silly philosophy that we're really all locking ourselves in rather than locking everyone else out and that locking your door is a sign of our overly paranoid society.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Saturday, 14 May 2005 00:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Although I guess it is mostly psychological since a burglar is going to get in anyway.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Saturday, 14 May 2005 00:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I would imagine that an ad boasting about "few locked doors" is meaning to imply that the neighborhood is safe, or that the neighbors look out for each other, as is the case on my block. All my neighbors' doors are open all day, and once, when there was a kind of shady thing happening, people printed up flyers alerting each other and we had kind of a neighborhood meeting about it.
I don't really see the difference between locking oneself in and locking others out. Both seem kind of stuffy and paranoid to me.

― kirsten (kirsten), Saturday, 14 May 2005 00:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, surely in a reasonable neighbourhood you can not lock yr doors when you're home? Its not like a crim is much likely to bother doing you over if youre right there, when theres an unoccupied house 2 doors down. My parents place had a locked front door no one uses - everyone goes up the side and round the back and just cooes or taps on the screen door then comes in - but you can see people coming up the drive, so you know they've arrived. I live in a security flat in St Kilda, so I lock thw door at night when Im home, and no one can get in unless I let them - there have been a few occasions where some psycho has gone round at 3 am buzzing all the flats, maybe to see who's home? It always freaks me out.

But yeah in a nice smaller city/suburban area, I dont see why a locked door during daytime when youre IN the house (unless perhaps you live alone) is needed.

Ive even hippy friends who have mates climb in and out their bedroom windows at all hours to say hi. That I wouldnt like, but theyre hippies.

― Trayce (trayce), Saturday, 14 May 2005 00:09 (twenty-one years ago)

My parents street, to illustrate the point, had a single little shit crim kid do over half a dozen houses in one hit some years back - first and last time anyones been robbed in that street in the 30 years theyve been there, and it caused a MAJOR ruckus, which goes to show how safe some areas are.

Mind you, theres plenty of domestic violence and horrible fighting and drama, but thats the suburbs for you.

― Trayce (trayce), Saturday, 14 May 2005 00:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Someone tries to break into your mom's house every nine months? That's pretty bad!

I leave my door unlocked most of the time, even when I'm out. If people really want to get in, they'll go in the backyard and break a window or something. I'm more worried about locking myself out than burglary. And I a live in a major city.

― Chris H. (chrisherbert), Saturday, 14 May 2005 00:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, surely in a reasonable neighbourhood you can not lock yr doors when you're home?

Yeah, I kind of conflated the two issues there didn't I? I wasn't really talking about locking the door while you're home though that's kind of what the bit in F9/11 seemed to be about (and I've certainly done it in the past when I lived in a bad area).

I would imagine that an ad boasting about "few locked doors" is meaning to imply that the neighborhood is safe, or that the neighbors look out for each other, as is the case on my block.

I guess so but I think it's a stupid way to say it (and a bit of a lie).

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Saturday, 14 May 2005 00:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, I think of locked doors not as a way to keep out determined burglars but bored suburban teenagers.

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Saturday, 14 May 2005 00:30 (twenty-one years ago)

This thread has totally improved my view of Western civilization!

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Saturday, 14 May 2005 00:30 (twenty-one years ago)

What's a bored suburban teenager going to do? Drink your beer? Who cares?

― kirsten (kirsten), Saturday, 14 May 2005 00:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Some mates of mine lived in a large old share house in a very dodgy street in inner Melbourne (junkie central, basically). Yet they happily left the front door open when home at night in summer, with the screen door shut, to let in air.

One night they found some guy they didnt know standing in the hall looking a bit lost. He asked if they had any panadols, he had a headache. They were somewhat alarmed, and kindly but firmly made him leave.

I dont know if they started locking the door after that but they mightve.

― Trayce (trayce), Saturday, 14 May 2005 01:01 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean, I'll admit this even though I think it's a bit silly to leave your doors unlocked unless you're Sally Field in Places in the Heart...

1.) I load up my guitar, mic stand, amplifier, and gig bag into my truck. I practice with the band for three hours. I return home. As I dig my keys out of my pocket, I look up to see my two cats looking back at me from behind the unlocked screen door.

2.) After a different practice, I stop by Kroger, the big grocery store. I spend an hour inside. When I come back out with a full cart to my truck in the parking lot, I notice that my guitar, mic stand, amplifier, and gig bag are sitting in my truck bed right there in the full out-and-open.

Though I still think that I just incredibly lucked out in both instances, I still think that it's a good idea for anyone to lock their doors. Fair warning never hurt anyone.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Saturday, 14 May 2005 01:18 (twenty-one years ago)

No, I've never had anything stolen. Though I suppose there are somewhat valuable things around, the only ones I am particularly attached to are my guitars and amps. Not something I really worry about. Fact is, if someone wants into your place, they can easily go through a window, and most locks are actually quite shite as well.

― AR, Saturday, 14 May 2005 04:14 (twenty-one years ago)

A locked front door probably keeps out 90% of the people that would try to steal from you. If the front's locked they assume the back or side are too, and breaking a window alerts the neighbors. They go try the next house, til they find an unlocked one.

― nickn (nickn), Saturday, 14 May 2005 07:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Front door at my family home in Minneapolis suburb: not locked, but callers knock/ring doorbell which sets off the GUARD POODLE in the evenings (GUARD POODLE goes to work with my mom in the day). People in our street don't lock, generally - burglaries NEVER happen.

When I lived in New York: locked doors, people dropping by casually.

London: locked doors, people phone before they come over 80 per cent of the time.

― suzy (suzy), Saturday, 14 May 2005 08:11 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

Someone accessed my apartment in Chicago and fried my new laptop. :(

― VM 9001 (dymaxia), Monday, 11 July 2005 14:41 (twenty years ago)

twelve years pass...

my close friends have a 2 year old and don't want their dog reacting to it and him up from naps so they started just leaving the door open for me when they'd invite me over.

out of habit they still do it and it is the weirdest feeling but makes me feem like family a little

― fuck the NRA (Neanderthal), Wednesday, 28 February 2018 17:34 (eight years ago)

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