Do you keep your curtains closed during the day?

In My Humble Opinion
1

It’s 8 am, a few days ago. The rain trickled down the windows of my living room as I sat in my overstuffed recliner, sipping the day’s first cup of coffee. I don’t have the TV on in the mornings, nor the radio or any other modern distractions. I sat and, as I do most mornings, watched the neighborhood outside slowly come to life.

One thing I noticed as I sat watching the world is that, without exception, every single house still had their curtains drawn or their blinds lowered. Our house sits on a small rise that overlooks much of the neighborhood, so I think I have a pretty healthy sample size. A few hundred yards to the east runs a well-travelled highway with several businesses scattered along its length. Behind them is another residential neighborhood and the builders were gracious enough to design them so the majority face my living room, thus allowing me to conduct my informal study. It appeared that they all—or at least the ones I can see—had their blinds / curtains closed as well.

Later that day, after the rain stopped and the sun came out, I stepped onto my front porch to have a cup of tea (yeah I know. I like my caffeine, ok?). Looking around the neighborhood I notice that all the houses still have their curtains closed and blinds drawn.

This morning, as I write this, it’s almost 9 am. Outside my window the streets are busy and the businesses along the highway aren’t wanting for customers. It’s another rainy day, which will be the norm well into May.

Yet every house still has their curtains or blinds closed.

This seems odd to me. Perhaps it’s because I have a bit of claustrophobia. Or maybe it’s because the winter days here are dark, gray, and rainy and I want every bit of natural light I can get. Regardless, I open my blinds during the day.

So I’m curious, fellow Dopers: do you open the blinds or curtains in your main living areas during the day? I can certainly understand keeping the blinds in the bathroom and maybe even the bedroom drawn. But in the kitchen, dining room, living room, and the other spaces that get the majority of the day’s use, do you open the blinds or cutains?

If you do keep them drawn, I’d like to hear your reasons for doing so.

2

I feel claustrophobic behind closed curtains/blinds. I don’t need them for privacy because I’m on the upper floor and nobody really has a direct line of sight into my living room or bedroom. Having the curtains open makes my living space feel “bigger” and I like having a view of the outside world. In the summer I’ll close the blinds in the afternoon to keep the sun from shining into my living room and heating the place up.

Most of my neighbors have their curtains and blinds shut all day every day.

3

Most people work?

I have some of mine open during the day when I’m home, but my house sits relatively close to the street, so I don’t pull them all (they’re honeycomb blinds) up, and the ones I do open don’t usually get pulled all the way to the top.

4

I don’t even have curtains or shades in most of the house. I open most of the shades in my bedroom as soon as I wake up. Sometimes I don’t bother to close the shades at night, since there are no neighbors close enough to see in. I installed the shades mainly so the early-morning sun won’t wake me up too early, which is a bigger concern in the summer than this time of year.

5

Rooms with the contents visible from the street have the curtains closed.

6

Our curtains are drawn, but the furniture is real.

Seriously, we keep them closed unless we want to look outside. We just installed a new large window that will probably stay uncovered more often. Most of this is because my wife doesn’t like the idea of people looking in at us. I don’t either, but there’s little chance of that happening most of the time because trees and block the view from outside our property.

7

I usually have mine open when I’m home but sometimes not when it’s cold as my windows are old and leaky and the blinds provide some protection from the drafts. I’m slowly getting the windows in my house replaced as I can afford it. I just have the basement and the big front window left. That project took a little setback when I had to get a new roof.

8

Our curtains are pretty much always open. We have deer, turkey, squirrels, songbirds, birds of prey, etc all frolicking about at any given time.

9

I keep them closed because
a) I always feel like someone’s watching me while they’re open
b) I like sitting in the dark (I don’t turn on my lights during the evening/night unless I need to do something which requires light)

10

I live in a two-story house in a city on a busy block, and my curtains and blinds are open all day every day, except in the bedroom when I’m changing clothes or if I’m napping. I draw the curtains at dusk for privacy but opening them up, and on nice days opening the windows while I’m at it, is the first thing I do every morning.

11

The front room curtains are closed quite a bit of the time for a couple of reasons. With the curtains open, you can see right into our house from street level. Also, the dogs can see everything happening out on the street and get very excited and bark. In the summer, the heat from the afternoon sun warms our house way too much. We have blinds and curtains to combat the heat. If we’re home, and it’s not hot out, we will have them open. We can keep the dogs from getting too excited at passersby.

On the other hand, I can’t remember the last time I closed the dining room or kitchen blinds. They look out to side yard and the sun doesn’t directly hit that area.

12

Closed to keep the house cooler and the dogs quiet.

Open if it’s raining. (I like watching the rain)

13

I live in an apartment that faces a communal courtyard. The living room and kitchen windows open to the courtyard. Kitchen window has rabbit goo film on it so I get the light, but no one can see in. Living room curtains get opened every morning and closed at night. Bedroom and bath windows face the parking lot. The windows there are about 12 feet off the ground so I leave the bedroom curtains open all day and most of the night.

14

I started a similar thread a while back - I think I asked folk if they even closed them at night. We rarely close our drapes - night or day. My favorite chair is right next to the front picture window. At night, I’ll sit there reading. Don’t really care if anyone can see me or not. I also feel confined if the curtains are drawn.

We like to garden. One of the main considerations is the view you have of various plantings/ornaments out of various windows. So yeah, the shades are open. We just furnished a spare woom - it is obvious that the 2 main chairs are positioned so as to maximize the best views.

When I look at prospective houses, perhaps the BIGGEST thing I note is the size and number of windows. If not enough, I wouldn’t consider placing an offer.

15

I keep the blinds down at all times, and honestly would be fine not having windows at all (well, until I’m caught inside while the place is burning down anyway). I don’t much like the outdoors and don’t like the idea of people looking in at me and my possessions.

I’m planning to go househunting sometime next year, market allowing, and once I own my own place I’m seriously considering installing shutters - in part to keep my rooms dark when I’m sleeping/using my projector, and partly just to keep the outdoors even more out.

16

We have Curtains and shears behind them. Curtains stay open. Shears stay closed. They let in plenty of light.

17

My window dressings never change. My big front picture window has some shears on the sides but it’s always open. The slider to the backyard doesn’t even have window dressings. The two bedrooms have blinds that are always closed.

My office window has blinds drawn and black foamboard in them from October to March when the sun blasts through on to my computer. The rest of the year the blinds are open.

I do open my front door every morning for the dogs, and close it every evening. The front and back windows being wide open is probably for the dogs, too.

18

You’ve reminded me that when the IRA were active many people had sheer net curtains to protect against flying glass.

19

We have a sliding door with vertical blinds. When it’s very hot in the summer, I will keep them closed sometimes because then I can turn the a/c up and it’ll still stay relatively cool inside. The shih tzu likes to look out at the traffic passing by though, so usually I open them.

20

We keep things as-is. So curtains and blinds in bedrooms typically stay closed. Our living areas actually have quite a lot of full length windows and glass sliding doors, and none of them have any window coverings at all. We planned on doing it when we bought the house, but never got round to it and three years later don’t really miss them. It helps that nothing but the kitchen window faces the street. Those are the only blinds that sometimes get opened or closed.