Unless you have been consuming a lot of fictional stuff and horror movies, the question of whether to leave your closet doors ajar or closed on your way to bed has probably never crossed your mind.
Still, there are plenty of other factors that might make you contemplate it.
Should You Sleep With Your Closet Doors Open Or Closed?
It depends, but there are more reasons to close them than leave them open. If you believe in monsters and have always been scared something could pop out of the closet at night and grab your throat, then it would be good for your peace to close them before retiring to bed. So, YES – close your closet doors at night.
Four Reasons To Keep Closet Doors Closed At Night
Here are the real reasons why closet doors need to be left closed at night:
1. It’s Basic Feng Shui To Keep Doors Shut
According to the principles of feng shui, closing your bedroom door and your closet doors allows positive chi to stay in the room and, more importantly, as close to you as possible.
Open doors cause negative energy to flow into the room and all over the place, which isn’t nice. So, please do it for your chi and lead a great and more productive life.
Also, sleeping with your doors shut – your closet and main bedroom door – helps promote security and safety feelings, bringing you peace and calm of mind.
Back to feng shui – closing all desk doors and dresser drawers help trap all the positive energy in the room.
2. Keep A Clear Walking Space Around The Room And Furniture
You know how hard it is to walk in your room with open closet doors.
If you leave them open and wake up during the dead of the night for an emergency, chances are you’ll hit yourself against them and sustain injuries.
Because most bedrooms are feature plenty of other amenities, including veritable shoeboxes and even a TV, and cabinets, floor space can be a precious commodity.
It might take a big deal of ingenuity.
Still, the principle of chi recommends arranging your furniture neatly so that access to every piece is possible from any side – you can’t achieve this with open closet doors.
If you must climb over your bedroom furniture or even the bed to reach other amenities, or navigate around open closet doors to remove something from your closet, or even push your nightstand aside to close your closet door or mail door, the comfort of your bedroom would have declined to a sorry state.
3. Keep it clean!
Yes. You ever noticed that a closed closet makes your bedroom look clean?
That’s especially true if you are prone to leaving it disorganized with misarranged clothes and wrong stuff hanging in all wrong places.
A tidy room is always a comfortable space.
When the is cluttered, your entire mind will be cluttered as well, making it a bit hard to focus on anything.
4. Shut Closet Doors Prevents Fire from Spreading
A comprehensive study has been conducting on this – closing your main door and closet doors help prevent a fire from spreading (UL Firefighter Safety Research Institute).
According to firefighting experts, every second you have in your hands, count during a fire outbreak.
Home fires can easily double in size in every passing minute. It is estimated that over half of deaths related to home fire outbreaks happen between 11 p.m. – 7 a.m. when most of us are asleep.
But here is the good news: There is a simple step anyone can add to their nighttime routine to stay safe.
- Closing your bedroom’s door and even the closet doors help cut the chances of the fire spreading all over.
The same findings indicate that leaving the doors shut reduces smoke damage and might even save lives.
Very much like having the a homeowner’s insurance ready in place, a little preparation for the foreseen fire outbreak can help you mitigate the situation if occurs at all.
Here is why it works:
Flames tend to spread faster with the amount of rich oxygen they find. Keeping your bedroom’s door closed and keeping the closets shut can reduce the spread of fires and cut the level of toxic smoke.
How?
- A closed closet creates an airtight compartment that prevents air inside it from escaping and mixing with that in the rest of the bedroom.
- The rest of the bedroom, on the other hand, creates a near-airtight compartment that prevents air inside it from readily mixing with that in the walkway.
So, when a fire breaks out in the room, it is more likely to use up the available oxygen, run out of it, and fail to spread or increase in size.
That’s great. But where would you be the whole time?
You probably would be choking with fumes and running around in the clear area, looking for a fire extinguisher – another perk of leaving your closet doors closed.
Having the correct kind of extinguisher somewhere in the room can help.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, the flames themselves have lower chances of causing the occupants’ death; it is usually the smoke that causes most of the deaths through asphyxiation and choking.
Three Fire Related Benefits Of Keeping The Doors Closed
When a door to your bedroom as well as closet doors are closed during a home fire outbreak, the occupant in that room will experience these:
- More survivable temperatures: Most of the time, temperatures typically stay under 100 degrees Fahrenheit
- Less toxic CO (carbon monoxide) levels: About 100 parts of space per 1 million parts of carbon monoxide
- Livable oxygen levels: The levels of livable oxygen levels stay in the region of 18 percent. (For comparison purposes, regular room air is normally about 20 percent oxygen)
Three Fire Related Consequences Of Leaving Closet And Bedroom Doors Open
However, when you leave the doors open – closet and main bedroom door – and a fire breaks out, you are exposed to:
- Less survivable temperatures: Room temperatures can soar to over 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit
- Extremely toxic CO (carbon monoxide) levels: The level of CO can soar to dangerous heights of 10,000 PPM CO
- Low oxygen levels: The level of oxygen can drop to 8 percent, making it incredibly hard to breathe
So, how much time does one have to escape?
Forty years ago, an individual was expected to escape from a home fire in the first 17 minutes, beyond which the chances of suffocation or death rose significantly.
Today’s homes, whether manufactured or site-built, permit just 3 minutes.
Does it mean today’s home is less safe?
Partly yes.
Modern homes make heavy use of synthetic construction materials and home furnishings, most of which are flammable.
Such materials and contemporary layouts permit fire to spread out and become toxic faster than in older homes.
But don’t fret – even 2 minutes can be long enough to escape house fire if you stay collected, have a well-thought plan, and keep doors shut.
Related: Why Do Sliding Closet Doors Make Crackling and Popping Noises?
Conclusion
Should you sleep with your closet doors open or closed? It all depends on a number of things, but there are more reasons to close them than leave them open. If you are the superstitious type and believe have always been scared something could pop out of the closet at night and harm you, it would be good for your peace to close them before retiring to bed. But there are even more convincing reasons why you should keep them shut.
Closing your closet doors helps create clearance in front of the close so that, in the event, you wake up at night for any reason, you can walk around without hitting yourself on the doors.
And because most bedrooms are feature plenty of other amenities, including veritable shoeboxes and even a TV, floor space can be a precious commodity.
If you are a feng shui aficionado, then you have a reason to leave your closet doors closed when retiring to bed.
According to the principles of feng shui, closing your bedroom door and your closet doors allows positive chi to stay in the room and, more importantly, as close to you as possible.
Open doors cause negative energy to flow into the room and all over the place, something that isn’t nice. So, do it for your chi and lead a great and more productive life.
Did you know you can cut the chances of dying in a house fire by closing your bedroom door and closet doors?
Research conducted at UL Firefighter Safety Research Institute shows that closing your bedroom door and even the closet doors help cut the fire’s chances of spreading all over.
The same findings indicate that leaving the doors shut reduces smoke damage and might even save lives.
Very much like having the a homeowner’s insurance ready in place, a little preparation for the foreseen fire outbreak can help you mitigate the situation if occurs at all.
