[Fiction question] Does an old-fashioned outhouse door open out or in?

It opens out.

The latch can be almost anything, my grandparents’ was a sliding board.

Outhouse

It opens out. You get a good look at it near the end of the movie Unforgiven.

Out. :)

Could be weathered barnsiding, roughhewn boards, door opens to the outside. Has a hasp on the inside to lock it. Perhaps a crescent cut moon for ventilation.

The one on our family farm is exactly how @PandoraBoxx explained it [Except it’s a horse not a moon shape]. I’m not sure what a hasp is… but there’s a wooden peg to keep it closed inside, and the door is just very heavy to keep it closed

I assumed it was out with a peg or hook inside. Mostly because of all those images of outhouse doors banging in the wind – outward.

Not to mention their small sizes would make it ridiculous to open inward I’d think.

And now that I’m thinking about it, the outhouses I used in Ecuador in the mountains all had hooks or a wooden board that you slid into place and opened out.

It opens out, of course. Not very different from the porta-potties. Inside, there is a handle and a latch, outside there is an optional lock.

The one at my granpa’s opened in, I remember because I had my knees banged by the door a couple of times. I was afraid to latch it because I might not be able to get out!! It had the old time vertical handle with a thumb thing at the top, you pressed down on the thumb thing on the one side and it lifted a horizontal bar out of a catch on the other side. It was a high class outhouse, heheheh

@rooeytoo High class, my ass. Flawed design caused it to bonk your knees and you praise it here?! Jst kidding of course, but that is exactly why it must open outwards.

I meant high class because every other one had a peg or hook. This one had a proper wrought iron latch.

(and opening out is fine unless you have a heck of a case of the trots, then in would be better!)

Always out. There should be a Sears catalog in there!

or a corn cob

The one I knew had a gate latch; a U shaped piece that went through the door and was lifted by a peg handle from either inside or outside. It just held the door in place.
There was always a way to lock your little brother in. The best being a length of rope tied around the outside.

One outhouse I knew about had two piles of corncobs. One pile was red, the other white. The reds were for finishing the job, the whites to make sure the job was finished!

The door opens out. Ours had a rope tied to the door latch that ran inside where it could be reached while seated. That way the door could be left open during nice weather, and if someone else happened along, a quick yank on the rope closed the door.