Ring the bell!

MissAdventure: plant some berberis or similar so that nobody can cut through as they are very spiky and the thorns hurt.

Many of your replies make me laugh out loud ? but you topped it in your reply about the bathroom window situation.
BTW, I too stand back after knocking/ringing the bell. Perhaps I simply copied my parents. It's disconcerting to see a face looming inches away, the minute you open the door.

Yes Giulia , I live in a retirement flat there is a woman who comes round and not only tries to peer in through the letter box"s but bends down and puts her ear to the letterbox trying to listen to conversations going on in the flat.

jaguar the area around my flat belongs to the council, so we aren't allowed to plant things, sadly. I wonder if they'd object to a small moat?

I live in a Park Home (Mobile Home), lucky it's a dead end so I don't get many people walking past. One of my neighbours will tap on the window & call out so that we reach my front door at the same time. All my neighbours know I sit at my dining table, in the front window, ideal for doing crosswords, reading the newspaper or on my laptop. I have vertical blinds but I like the light so they are rarely closed.

When I moved into my home there was a bell push which wasn't connected to anything, as I have my back to the window I don't see people walking past, they would press the bell push & wait, some people would knock loudly, others didn't bother.

No hiding place for me & I can't walk around in my Birthday suitdon't want to frighten the neighbours, I'm not a pretty sight

A moat sounds like it has possibilities MissA you could claim it’s a secondary drainage channel in case of flooding. Just make sure it’s good and deep.

With some crocodiles in it, just to be sure.
I suppose all of us should be brave, and just point out to others that its polite to knock, stand back and wait..

My husband is guilty of looking through windows before knocking. He does this when we visit our son or daughter. I prefer to let people know we're there by ringing the doorbell.

Not exactly the same problem but annoying.We have a bungalow on the same level of the lane where we live, we moved here four years ago,the house was new, most people have stopped looking in every window as they pass, the novelty has worn off I suppose, BUT there is a lady who goes past on her horse, and she looks in until she has passed the house , and then on her way back, I think by now she must have seen everything, or has it beome a habit!

You should try holding up a piece of paper saying "Hello There!" as she passes.

Or ‘I can see you!’

I got so tired of people hammering on the glass pane in our front door instead of using the doorbell that I photocopied the picture from Winne-the-Pooh of Pooh looking at the notice outside Owl's front door and hung it up in a frame outside our door. (Pleas ring if RNSR is requirred) IT WORKED.

You can buy film that can be applied to window glass so you can see out, but others can't see in.

Fortunately our front garden is 60ft long, and the house is set higher than the pavement so no-one just passing can see in!
Our front door is on the side of the house, and occasionally folk would peer in the front bay window rather than walk another twelve feet to ring the bell. We soon put a stop to that by putting enormous pots along the strip of path under the window, filled with aggregate to a depth of two feet, then a very sandy soil mix, and planted up with Eryngium (sea holly). They're so heavy that there's no way of moving them without first emptying them, they're close together so nosey people can't get between them, and anyone leaning across them will get a sea holly in their face!
With being right on the prom, we don't use the vertical blinds, we have a great view and want to see it. They're really there for when we go out.
We use lamps in the living and dining rooms (both on the front of the house) at night, and if anyone attempted to walk up the drive to 'have a peep' the security lights would catch them forty feet from the house!
I value my privacy!

Had to laugh at my Mum she didn't want to see someone so didn't answer the door, the lady living opposite rang mum to tell her someone was knocking the door, and told the caller Mum was in as she answered the phone lol!!!

We have a square bay window next to our front door with a small settee in it.

One day I had migraine and was curled up on the settee covered by a rug, dozing, when the front door bell rang. I really didn't feel well enough to answer it, so as my head was at the end of the bay furthest from the front door, I gently pulled the rug over my head and lay very, very still until the caller went away. I do not think they looked into the bay window or noticed that whatever was under the rug on the settee was body shaped

I had a lot of laughs reading these posts, so funny.

I don't have that problem - I've got a lock on my gate !!!

I love my vertical blinds. I angle them so I can see into my garden but no one walking up the path can see me sitting in dressing gown at a shamefully late hour reading the paper.

Lindiann, your post made me laugh. I well remember when DS2 was very small and I was sleep starved, that one afternoon, I celotaped the letter box shut, so that, hopefully, no one would knock. A while later my next door neighbour's young son, rapped loudly and said " auntie, do you know your letter box is stuck?" Bless his little cotton socks.?

I get this bloody great Labradoodle dog which runs up to my window, jumps up at my cat sitting there and just barks it's silly head off! The owner does nothing, just stands there with an indulgent grin on his face! My ex-neighbour used to look through my window to see if my husband and I were having sex! She said one time that she was just checking "we were still alive, as we were lying down".

We live quite close to the pavement - small front garden - but in a dip - so people naturally look into the lounge as they walk past. The way we stop this, is waving to them, as though we know them well. It doesn't take long for them to get the message - now only new people to the neighbourhood tend to look in now.