# Do you close the bathroom door? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 24, 2011, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834 "2011-01-24T21:11:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/1 "2011-01-24T21:11:49Z")
I was just wondering what other people’s habits were with regard to closing the bathroom door. I don’t like to close it, because I like to let the cats come in and out the rest of the time. If I need to go #2 I use the bathroom off the master bedroom which means that nobody can see in unless they come all the way into that bedroom, which nobody ever does. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/2 "2011-01-24T21:14:08Z")
Our cats do not allow any interior door to be closed, especially if one of their “hoomans” are on the other side. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/3 "2011-01-24T21:16:27Z")
Yes. Trust me, it’s better for everyone involved. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/4 "2011-01-24T21:16:51Z")
Yeah, the cats make a fully closed door noisy. I close it most of the way, most of the time (if my husband is home - we’re not public bathroom people around here). I also close it most of the way for showers so the smoke detector doesn’t go off. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/5 "2011-01-24T21:45:09Z")
The toilet is enclosed with a separate door within our master bathroom. If I’m taking a dump, I’ll shut that door, but otherwise the main door to our bathroom stays open, with the exception of in the morning when I’m getting ready for work, I’ll shut the main bathroom door, so I don’t disturb my wife while she’s sleeping. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/6 "2011-01-24T21:48:31Z")
If I close the door to the bathroom while I’m copping a squat, I wouldn’t be able to see the strategically placed TeeVee. I’m a multi-tasker, you understand. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/7 "2011-01-24T21:55:45Z")
The population of my house is comprised of me, my wife, and two kitties. I can verify that kitties don’t like any closed doors anywhere in the house, but on the other hand, the wishes of my wife and me _usually_ trump the wishes of the kitties. In this case, though, they don’t have to. Bathroom doors are always open in our house, no matter what we’re doing in there. Neither of us happens to be particularly modest in front of one another in any context. Unless, of course, we have guests. We’re not animals. ---
**Author:** ![NinetyWt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/cc9497/32.png) [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/8 "2011-01-24T21:56:14Z")
I always close the door. It’s a kind of “cocoon” thing with me - anytime I’m in a room by myself, I prefer to have the door closed. Hubby leaves it open when he showers, because he doesn’t like it when the mirror fogs up. Otherwise he closes the door. We have no cats or other indoor pets who need to get in. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/9 "2011-01-24T22:37:28Z")
The bathroom door is wide open at all times. The only other person ever in the house is my partner, plus the cats like to visit when I’m in there. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/10 "2011-01-24T22:51:45Z")
Stays open if I’m alone or if my wife is there, which is most of the time. Stays open of the bedroom door is shut also. I almost always close the door to the little bathroom off the laundry room though. Not much problem with the dog anymore, though she used to like to come in and deposit a bone on my lap when I was sitting on the pot. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/11 "2011-01-24T23:09:11Z")
I really don’t pay much attention to it. Sometimes I shut the door, sometimes I don’t. But there is one time when I always shut it: when it’s cold in the house and I’m having to use our space heater to keep it warm. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/12 "2011-01-24T23:10:11Z")
Open. Cats. All that needs to be said. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2011, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/13 "2011-01-24T23:32:39Z")
I Never shut the bathroom door unless there’s guests in the house. I don’t like the bedroom door closed either. Worries me that I can’t hear the rest of the house. If someone breaks in, I don’t want to find out when they kick open my bedroom door. ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/14 "2011-01-25T00:04:47Z")
I live alone, so only if there are guests in the house. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/15 "2011-01-25T00:59:25Z")
I live alone. No intentional pets. Maybe the occasional lizard gets in…but I don’t think they really care about my bodily functions. So door open, unless someone is over visiting. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/16 "2011-01-25T01:04:07Z")
Yes and no. I mean that literally: there are two doors to the bathroom, and the one into the generally low-traffic laundry room is usually opened a little so the cats can wander through. The other door, the one into the hallway, is closed when the bathroom is occupied. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/17 "2011-01-25T01:16:49Z")
There’s never been a better thread to tell a story from my family’s history. My mother had a very free attitude towards personal matters, and never closed the door to the bathroom no matter what (as long as there was only the two of us). After she was grown, her father divorced and remarried, and she ended up with another “mother”, my grandmother, who was more…shall we say…conventional. We all shared a cottage every summer. It was a cottage in every sense of the word; although it could sleep up to 12 very friendly people in bunk beds and under the eves, it had only one bathroom, in the middle of the house, with the only natural light from a tiny, grungy window in the side of the shower which looked out onto an enclosed porch. Much like the lighting in the rest of the house, it had a bare bulb in the center of the room, with a string that you had to grope for or do without. One dark day my grandmother went to use the toilet. She entered the bathroom, closed the door, pulled down her pants in one swift motion as usual, then let out a scream. “Beatrice! Why the fuck don’t you close the door??!?” She had sat on my mother, who was already occupying the toilet. From then on, my mother always closed the door. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Credible](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a8b319/32.png) [@Justin\_Credible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Credible)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/18 "2011-01-25T01:36:09Z")
Only if there’s someone else in the house. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/19 "2011-01-25T02:21:37Z")
In our old house, bathroom door was open, unless I was taking a shower and had the heater going. We have cats. In the new house, I have the master bedroom/bath, and I keep the cats out of that suite because I have my sewing machine in there. Cats like to eat needles, thread, and various sewing notions. If I’m in my suite, I don’t close the door, unless I’m taking a shower with the heater on. In the new house, if I go in the main bathroom, I generally leave the door open because of the cats, who complain bitterly that they’re not getting nearly as much quality bathroom time as they did in the old house. ---
**Author:** ![gravitycrash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@gravitycrash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gravitycrash)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2011, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834/20 "2011-01-25T02:41:52Z")
That was one of the few things that I absolutely hated about my ex-wife. I could be brushing my teeth or shaving and she would just come in and pee/poo while talking to me like nothing was going on. Blech. Bodily functions having to do with evacuation pretty much disgust me so yeah, everything in private for me. I guess that means golden showers aren’t really my thing either. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-close-the-bathroom-door/568834.md?page=2)