Why do people not have curtains anymore?

[kimberf]

It's interesting the way it's different for everyone. We have coverings (drapes, blinds, or plantation shutters) on all our windows, but I would never dream of closing them except in the bedrooms. I keep the living room ones halfway up all the time. We have a very well-treed yard and a gate around the property (about 4 feet in front, 8 feet on the sides and back). I guess I just don't even think of putting the living room ones down, since they're off to the side and a person looking in wouldn't see much, since that area is my son's play area (no furniture or anything.) On the flip side, I would never ever be able to sleep with windows uncovered in the bedroom.

[Lvbabydoll]

^Yup, we're similar. We have curtains on the main window in the living room and fabric blinds or plantation shutters in every room. I've watched people's houses overnight for a couple weeks at a time and babysat for a few neighbors who don't have anything covering their main windows and it creeps me out. One house's bathrooms are across a hallway with big French doors that have absolutely nothing on them. Their porch is super dark and it's creepy to walk past those doors to the bathroom when I babysit there at night. I always feel like there could be someone on the porch peering in.

[lurkernomore]

Two houses have sold recently in my neighborhood, and neither household has put up blinds or curtains. I walk my dog every night, and I have to admit, I can't help looking in now that it gets dark so early. I don't stop and gawk, but I can see them lying on the sofa, I see what is on tv (those are some big screens!), or them eating in the dining room. I always close my blinds, I like the enclosed-shutting out the world feeling.
To each his own, but if you are going to live in a fish bowl - people are going to look!

[admat97]

Originally Posted by karmenzsofia

Dust.

Exactly!

Most of the people I know who have drapes use them in formal living areas. They look gorgeous in larger homes but in my smaller, informal home they would just suffocate the rooms.

[boomie]

We have blinds but no curtains. I open up the blinds during the day to let light in and close them at night. I don't like curtains...they're a pain to put up and seem too fussy for me, not sayin' I think other people's curtains are fussy though! I bought some from Ikea and nearly had a panic attack trying to find the right color/length/price and the right curtain rod price/length/color etc. that the stress just wasn't worth it :P There's just too many windows and that's be a lot of curtains!

[bnjj]

I recently tried to find window coverings for an 8 foot wide living room window. Man, what a chore. Nothing is made to fit a window that large. I did finally find drapes and a rod. This is for a house that I am selling so I wasn't overly particular as long as I could find something relatively attractive, matched the rest of the house and did not cost a fortune.

In my townhouse I have room darkening drapes in my bedroom as it faces west and I need to keep the sun out, blinds in my living room and kitchen and in the 2 spare bedrooms I have curtains.

[Pursegrrl]

^^ that sounds like a nice look for that wide window, bnjj. Just a nice, light touch and something the new owner could keep or replace pretty conveniently since it's not too elaborate.

In our townhouse complex, we have a rule that all windows facing our street view must have plain, neutral-colored blinds...meaning, anything from white to off white, tan, taupe. One of my neighbors has chocolate brown Roman shades and it looks really good.

And my dorky neighbor decided to put fire engine red blinds on one of his windows awhile back. FAIL, LOL. We had to make him add a white liner facing the outside!

[lovinalotofbags]

We have blinds at the windows and curtains. They are not for privacy since we live on 15 acres and have privacy. I also look into windows of houses as I drive by just to see how they decorate if their blinds are open.

[blah956]

i have solar blocking curtains up! sometimes i forget what time of the day it is cause they block out the sun really well!!

the other day, i was throwing trash away, here in my apartment.
it was night, and i walked past a couples place who don't have curtains. well lets just say the girl was topless and was straddling her guy...i let out a loud "OMG" and just ran back to my apt. hahah it was a bit cold outside so i was hoping that they heard me and closed the windows and the blinds.

[Bella]

^ lol! I just had something similar happen, except I heard this woman. It's cooled off here, the windows are being opened at night. Took my dog out to do her thing before bed.... and I swear this gal was so loud it startled me.


Speaking of curtains though.. the ones I got are the thermal kind so I'm looking forward to them working, keeping out the cold this winter, but particularly next summer. Boy was it hot in two of my rooms with just blinds. Hope they work!

[conrad18]

^^ LOL That happened to me and my best-friend, we were like 12 at the time and I was staying over at her house one weekend. Late that night we heard her neighbors....uhh....getting busy. When we looked out her window (which faced their house) the neighbors windows were wide open, and not only could we could hear all their dirty-talk and moaning but we could actually catch a glimpse of them moving around!

[Necromancer]

Originally Posted by Fashionista_

LOL I don't understand people who sit in their living rooms in the evening with the curtains wide open or the blinds up allowing all and sundry to peer into their house! The same people start cursing when their house is robbed the following weekend!

My next door neighbours do this. By the looks of it, they have nothing to steal.

[lauriebell]

Curtains are a must for me - I have energy saving/room darkening curtains because I live in a converted factory with tall ceilings and big windows and living in the city there would be light flooding in 24/7... plus I don't want creepers looking in. But, the strange thing is all the units on the front of building have wall to wall, floor to ceiling windows (in other words, pretty much the entire front of the building is glass) and less than 25% of the people have curtains or anything on the windows so people can (and do) constantly look in at what is going on in there. I used to live on that side of the building and would people watch all the time, which was always interesting (peeking out from behind my curtains). Now I live on the other side and more people seem to have them up on this side, maybe because we are have a direct (closer) view into another building and vice versa. I can't imagine not having something on my windows though - I like having some semblance of privacy.

[jburgh]

My friend and I just had this discussion last week because our neighborhood has had a lot of daytime burglaries, and robberies. We have the top down/bottom up blinds so we can adjust them. My friend has curtains. She leaves them all open when she is not home, because she feels that if someone breaks in, then others can see the robbers in your house with no curtains. Does this make sense to you? I do not think that would be a deterrent.

[Bella]

^No. People might think I'm paranoid, but I try to mix it up, never doing the same thing all the time. People, bad people, that look for opportunity look for routines. I don't know what the statistics are but I believe much of the time burglaries happen to houses that are picked for one reason or another, it's not random.

I love natural light, during the day my blinds are usually open, but closed depending on the time of day, the sun, privacy etc. I also don't always answer the door just because someone knocks. I might be working or simply just not feel like it. I almost always close or tweak my blinds when I go out, for example if someone questionable was at the door/window trying to see if I'm home... and they could see in, they'd probably get a good feeling I wasn't home vs. not being able to see in.. I'd imagine they'd think the idea someone could be in there and not answering a possibility.. particularly because I don't always answer. I'm positive my neighbors know this about me. Love being neighborly and I am , but sometimes it's not convenient. Not being predictable is key in my opinion.

I know this is taking the topic down another road, but if someone reads this and considers what I'm saying to make some sense, great. I am amazed at how many people don't think about stuff like this thinking it could never happen to them. But there are simple steps we can all take to make it that much more difficult for someone to take advantage of a situation.