I say this because several points have come to my attention lately:
- According to Nick Harmon, my garage door is open far more than the average neighborhood door.
- According to my husband (though why he didn't mention this at some point in the last 9 years since we've been homeowners, I am not certain), normal people arrive at home, park in the garage, and immediately close the garage door.
- Apparently both Michelle Davis and I deviate regularly from this standard procedure.
I am pointing my finger at several possibilities:
- Casdorph's don't do a lot of things that "normal" people do. And we fill any potential void with plenty of things others generally choose not to do. I've never particularly considered my time on earth to be the norm.
- I grew up on over an acre of land in a house set back significantly from the road with a garage that doesn't even face the street. Perhaps the reasons others close their garages (according to Nick, people steal things in broad daylight...) didn't seem as important to us?
- I don't like to do things that I will soon have to un-do. I don't like to make my bed, knowing that less than 24 hours later, I will just need to un-make it. I'm not a big fan of sweeping the floor if I know I'm serving the kids crackers with the next snack. I don't like to close the garage knowing that at some point in the next 3 hours, I will need to open it. And how often am I truly home for longer than 3 hours?!
- I'm no good at things that have to be done regularly. Taking a full 10 days of antibiotic? Not happening. Putting on my seat belt without the annoying insistence of my dinging car? Nope. Routinely remembering to close the garage door? So not high on my list of priorities.
- Next door neighbors pulled into their garage around 9:30 a.m. and promptly closed the garage right behind them. Really?! I had truly thought Nick and Kirk were both crazy. Hmm... seems normal people do close their garages. Mid-day!
- I got home from work and left not only the garage door open, but also the house door to the garage open. I was blissfully enjoying the natural breeze and the sun, until I started to feel self-conscious about having left the garage open. Kirk got home soon after and closed both doors. :(
- Sure enough, mine really is the only house with it's garage open in the middle of the day! I've started paying attention. I look up and down both sides of the street, and there they are: rows of houses with closed garages. Apparent kudos to you, neighbors. You can proudly consider yourselves within the bounds of the norm.
- I don't like the idea of closing my garage! Now that I've been made aware, I don't want to stop being me just because Kirk and Nick say so. (Again... why didn't Kirk mention this before?!) But now I am paranoid that our stuff will get stolen and it will all be my fault.
So I'm curious. Should I be closing* my garage? Do people really steal stuff mid-day? (They will now that I've told the whole internet that I'm just sitting there with my garage open...) Does anyone else confidently (or absentmindedly) leave their garage doors open?
*Clarification: I close my garage door when I am home asleep. I close my garage door when I'm not home (theoretically). I'm just talking about mid-day when I am home.
So I've posted a poll. Please weigh in and help me make this life-altering decision. To close or not to close? Help me!
6 comments:
I want to vote "Obviously!" because my parents have have stuff stolen from their garage twice when they've forgotten to close the door, and I'm kind of anal about that kind of thing anyway (my bedroom and closet door have to be closed before I can fall asleep).
However, if you haven't had a problem thus far, maybe you're ok. Maybe your neighborhood is the exception? Plus, I totally understand about not wanting to close it when you're just going to open it again quickly. You're saving energy!
I'm completely opposite of you on this so I would say to close it. I'm the paranoid type whose afraid someone will steal stuff even when I'm home. I also have a crazy imagination and constantly worry that some random guy will just walk through the door and rob our place or hold me at gun point.
I just have 2 words for you. West valley. Have you seen the kinds of trouble makers running around the neighboorhod. Have you seen or heard about the kids that destroyed every sprinkler in the park. Have you heard about the multiple break ins in our neighborhood where the perpetrators actually had to break in. Just sayin. I'm glad to know you actually care about what I think and take my words into consideration. I just care for your families safety and know the types of people we need to hope never drive by when your doors are open. An btw, I have seen your garage completely empty and open many times. I thought about helping myself to lunch on a couple of occasions. Lol.
Unfortunately, in today's world, I do think we need to close our garage doors. We are lucky to live in an area where I feel we are ok if we accidentally forget (as we have).
With that being said, my best friends growing up lived down the street and we would always know they were home by their garage door being open. When we wanted to go play, we would just walk outside and look down the street, if it was open, I'd proceed down the street to his house, if not, well...
Like most things in life, this is going to be a compromise between safety and security versus efficiency and convenience. With a garage door open that often, it isn't a matter of IF, it is WHEN and HOW MUCH. So take the value of the things likely to be taken when the occasional theft occurs, and compare that to how much the efficiency and convenience is worth to you. It will be harder for someone to criticise if you have a logical... even mathematical reason behind your choice.
We close our garage door always BUT when we lived out by you several times we ended up accidentally leaving the garage door open all night long and nothing was taken. Maybe we just got lucky? Interestingly enough there has been a theif going around Daybreak for the last several months targeting open garage doors and stealing mostly ladies purses that they have left in their unlocked cars. I think that's weird too because I would never leave my purse in the unlocked car with the garage door open. Anyway, I think it's easier for the theives here because there are so many alleyways so they can get in and out of a lot of garages fast. I tend to be a little paranoid and not only shut my garage but have all my doors locked during the day unless the kids are going in and out. I wish it weren't so but there are a lot of crazies out there!
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