Front door or back door (house related)

Wow, I have never heard of such a thing--ever. We have owned and lived in 4 different homes over 26 years, and never has anyone ever used a back door (in SC, TX, or NC). Our current home has 4 doors--the front door and 3 doors on the back of the house. We also have a door from one of the garages but people couldn't get to that because the garage doors are always closed. The front door is on the first level but walk across that room and you are then on the 2nd level because we are built on a hill. We have a walkout basement that has two doors from different rooms that lead outside. Then the 3rd back door is up the deck that leads into the same room as the front door. To get to any of the back doors, you have to walk down another driveway by another garage, through our fenced in yard, and then choose which of the 3 doors you would knock on. I wouldn't hear you at any of them except the one off the deck.

We have a front, back, garage door. People only use the front door. The back door goes to the screened lanai, so they'd have to cut through the grass, into the screen door, by the pool. Just not practical. If someone did that, I'd think it very strange, in deed.

It all depends on the set-up of the house. Many of the older homes in my town have detached garages set back on the property. So people pull all of the way up to the top of the driveway, and there's the back door, so they use it. The front door becomes the out of the way door.

I knew a kid in school who had furniture against their front door because no one ever used it. They had a house that basically had 2 front doors. One closer to the drive was actually a mudroom that opened to the kitchen, but there was a door on the front and back of that mudroom addition, so as you looked at the home from the road, you saw 2 front doors. They used to call the mudroom doors the front back door and the back back door.

I can actually think of a lot of people around here who have 2 fronts doors.   In those cases I think the one closer to the sidewalk or drive is what get used, whether it's the formal entry or not.    One house had doors that butted up to one another.  You got on the porch and there were double front doors, but then on the adjacent wall was a single door.   You'd ring the bell and sit there wondering what door would be opened.  


Our back door is a pain to access from the driveway, so it's exceedingly rare that someone comes to the back door. I think I can only recall it happening once, and it was someone who knew us well. When we didn't answer the front door, they came around thinking that maybe we didn't hear their knock.

The way our house is situated, we have a front door and a side door that we call the back door. Both are accessible from the driveway. The side door is behind the fence and is pretty much only used to let the dog out or to take trash out. All visitors come to the front door.

In previous houses, the back door was pretty much only used by family and closest friends. If there's a knock on a door, odds are we are not expecting you.

If someone came to my back door, they would probably get a gun in their face. The house I live in now, everyone comes to the front door because the other doors are only accessible through the garage or a 6 ft. high gate.

The last two houses before this one. Most people came to the side door because it was the one that was the most accessible.

I guess it sometimes depends on the design of a house and where it is located. Then sometimes people are just weird, I guess

Strangers mostly use the front door, but occasionally use the side door as it's right at the end of the driveway. Family & friends all use the side door. It enters into a hallway (bordered by a half-wall to the breakfast room) that serves as an entryway so it's no big deal.

All the other exterior doors would be very awkward for people to get to. There are two glass doors onto a high deck on the back, a slider from the walk-out basement, and a utility room exit door.

We have a front door, a garage service door that is also in the front, a back door that goes directly into our laundry room from the back deck, and a sliding patio door that leads to the back yard (also via that back deck). We also have a door between the house and attached garage. The laundry room door is always locked unless we are actively coming and going doing yard work. The only other people who use the patio door to come in are our next door neighbors, and that's pretty infrequent. That door is also always locked unless we're coming or going in and out to the yard. The garage service door leading to the outside is blocked by a bunch of 5 gallon water bottles. Everyone else uses the front door. We usually come in through the garage. To come in the back patio doors, you would have to walk all the way around the house and through the grass to get there. It's not the most direct route.

All of the outside entry doors to our house have tiled flooring, so no matter which door anyone comes in it's easy to keep the floors pretty clean. I would hate having carpeted entryways.

ETA: No matter which door someone would decide to come to, you will be greeted by two very large, very noisy dogs who will be onto you the minute you come up or into the driveway (or anywhere even close to the property, LOL). No one ever gets even close to the house without setting one or more of them off.

This is exactly why I think it happens.    People get out of their car and go to the closest door.  If the parking situation places them closer to your back door, then they'll probably use that.

Front door only. We have 2 patio doors for our back doors, but, the only way someone could access them is to climb a ladder to our deck, which at the back of the house is probably close to 15-20ft from the ground, then climb over the railing.

We've got a front door, a side door (that is off the driveway, right next to the garage. It leads to the laundry room) and a back door.

Friends and family use the side door. Deliveries, repairmen, solicitors, (people we don't know at all or don't know well) come to the front door.

Very rarely will someone come to the back door (you have to enter our fenced yard to access this door). This only happens when people I know are coming over to look at the animals and they go out to the barn first. They'll then come and knock on the back door since it's the closest one to the barn.

I would not like random strangers entering my yard to knock on the back door.

My old house had a fenced back yard so no one ever came to the back door. What I did find strange though was if my garage door was open, some people would come into my garage to the door there, rather than to my front door.

One of my daughters friends and her mom came to our house for the first time recently and they came to our front door. My daughter and I cracked up about it because NO ONE EVER comes to our front door!

Also back door only. We have a beautiful front door and porch, but the sun comes in through the windows right onto the tv, so we have to 'curtain it off' and for a long time we kept our treadmill there.

So, we are one of those, that only strangers try the front door.

Back door is accessible to to driveway, and dogs very friendly