Door from kitchen to garage, opens in towards the garage. Husband is relegated to smoke his pipe in the garage. (He is good about it, has a lounge chair he's very comfortable.) When I open the door into the garage I almost hit him if he is coming into the kitchen at the same time. I am usually able to bang on the door before I open it, but sometimes my hands are full. (Washer and dryer are in the garage.) I can kick the door with my shoe, but was leaving black marks on the paint.

Is there an easy peasy solution? Hang some bells? I can't visualize how to hang bells so that the door brushes against them as it opens yet they won't be in the way when the door closes? I'd need the bell to make a noise as soon as the door starts to open, not after it's opened five inches so so.

I try to open the door slowly and carefully, but of course the one time I don't is the one time I almost hit him.

Either I'm too stupid for my door, or I'm stumped!

 

Tell him to start standing to the side of the door when he opens it to come back inside.

 

I can't see this as a problem. What I imagine is happening is that he hears you struggling at the door and comes to help just as you open it.

If you want to do something about it, just get a cheap cordless doorbell that you can hit with an elbow and put the ringer in the garage. And tell him NOT to answer the door when you ring it!!

Or get a peephole!

 

Thanks, the cheap doorbell may work.

 

I don't understand this at all. Why not just move the chair out of the way of the door? Problem solved!

 

I'm suspicious of how you can open the door with your hands full but can't let him know you're opening it. Perhaps you subconsciously don't want to solve this problem but want to feel you've tried. After all, can't you just open it slowly?

 

Norm:
He is not in the chair.

Seems like a good opportunity for a kid's toy that activates by motion and can customize message: "WARNING: Wife approaching!"

or a Whistling Gnome

 

Yea, I missed that.
We have a similar condition in my house. Our bathroom door interferes with our house to garage entrance door ever since I changed the swing of the bathroom door from into, to out from the bathroom. Once in a while we have a collision. So, what? Can't seem to understand why it's problem. Seems like a very minor annoyance. We have learned to open the garage door slowly and try to keep the bathroom door closed or nearly closed most times.