Do you open or close your curtains/blinds when you go out?

PasturesNew

What I used to do, when I worked away all week, was to have venetian blinds at the windows tilted so from inside you're looking down the gap. From outside you have to look up the gap so can only ever see the ceiling/top part of the room at best. Then, I put up voiles. Then, lamp on a timer.

With the right mix of venetian, tilt angle and voiles nobody can tell if you're in or out. Of course, a car/no car's a dead giveaway!

Here, for now, I have nets up at the patio doors as I potter around in a T shirt and thong .... and don't want to be spotted. I pull leggings on to go outside, then take them off again.

Rain_Shadow

PasturesNew wrote: »

I potter around in a T shirt and thong .....

Thank you for that fascinating insight. :cool:

ouraggie

Up North where I grew up closed curtains in the daytime usually meant someone in the house had passed away!

happyinflorida

I've always had net curtains to keep things a bit private during the day and then when the light goes on the curtains are shut in the lounge. Bedroom curtains are opened when I get up and closed when I go to bed.

My neighbours have venetian blinds at their lounge window and close them when they go away and half close the bedroom curtains? I have always thought it mad!

I had one lady I lived opposite who was paranoid about being burgled and when she had to go away for a week for a course she made me go into her house morning and night to open and close her cutains upstairs and down and feed her fish! I also had to put on a light in her lounge in the evening and every other night, her kitchen and go back and turn it off when I went to bed! I was so glad when she came back and I didn't have to do that lot anymore!

Janbob

No. Curtains/blinds are closed only at night when it gets dark so people can't see in any room with lights on. Once up in the morning the curtains/blinds are opened.

[Deleted User]

I open mine in the morning when I get up and I also turn down the duvet when I am making the bed first thing to air it . I then gets shaken and replaced when I go to bed at night .I close the curtains when it gets dark but not before I have never thought about burglars ,although we did get burgled at our previous house but we were away for the weekend at the time. My son-in-law always seems to have the curtains drawn and I always am the one to let the blinds up in the kitchen and open the curtains in the sitting room, but I think its more that both he and my DD are always in a rush in the morning to get out for work,I go around about 11 and open them up and stack the dishwasher for them and let the dogs out so I often am around between my house and theirs during the day and am always there by 3 in the afternoon for my DGS coming home from school

lillibet_dripping

Sayschezza wrote: »

It's common in the Netherlands to leave curtains open at all times I have been told. Will check it out in july

You are absolutely right! We lived in the Netherlands for seven years. Nobody closes their curtains at any time or has nets up at the windows. We were told it dates back to the days of German occupation when closed curtains meant dodgy dealings. Whether the Germans demanded that curtains be left open, I don't know, but the Dutch all still do it today.
Dutch housewives are constantly cleaning their windows and every house will have rows of plants on the window ledge.
Another custom is hanging your duvet out of the window every morning....

VfM4meplse

I didn't close my curtains when they were fitted to "train" them....and haven't actually closed them since, 15 years on! I have voiles that offer privacy and let the light in so there is little point.

Plus I have just updated my alarm system so burglars can do one :p:p

krlyr

Venetian blinds on tilt, opened for more light when needed but mostly half to three-quarters shut (they're light coloured so still let tons of light in). Stops the dogs barking at people passing by, and a bit more privacy than open curtains.

MandM90

Did anyone else read this thread, come home, throw open their curtains and sternly tell their OHs that we must remember to open them every day before we leave for work? No? Just me then :rotfl:

Ours are often left closed as we like to leave them closed at night for privacy/warmth but we leave the house at 6.45am and aren't back until 6.30pm, at which point we often just sit at the dining table and then retire to bed!