This could easily degenerate into useless hypothesis and palaver, when the answer is going to be one of personal choice.
I think that coloradokevin's comment "...where we differ in opinions on this subject probably only falls under the "effort free" and "convenient" sections... the reason I don't wear the gun while lounging around the house is that I simply don't find it to be comfortable in this environment" sums it up for many of us.
So, the questions
for each individual would seem to be,
- What is comfortable;
- what is convenient;
- what is safe; and
- what is effective?
In our case, we move from living room to dining room to kitchen and onto our front porch and back porch and back again rather frequently. Each location is, to a varying degree, isolated in terms of lines of sight from the others, and a person in one location could be cornered by someone in another. And then there is the basement, and the upstairs.
There is no single place in which to stow a firearm that would enable fast access in the event of a tumultuous or stealthy entry from any of four possible points of ingress. We could either move one around all the time; stow more than one; or carry.
I have found carrying to be secure and comfortable and unnoticeable by others, and it obviates the need to move a firearm around or to stow more than one where someone else might access one of them.
Personal dress preferences, floor plans, physical condition, and/or other circumstances of others may lead to a different decision.
A little floor-plan analysis and what-if charting led to my decision
for me, after many years of not having given it adequate thought. For others, a different decision may be equally obvious. If there is doubt, perhaps some simulation would settle it.
I will say that there are probably several other mitigation strategies to attend to first, such as locks, door integrity, gravel under windows, lighting, some thorny bushes properly placed, and so on.
I will also say that, had someone suggested to me several years ago that I would
ever be outlining reasons for carrying a firearm around the house in our or any peaceful neighborhood, I would have immediately questioned their judgment and perspective.
Heck, when I got my CCW permit five years ago, I intended to only carry on the odd occasion on which I might "feel the need" to....
Sometimes all it takes is a little analysis to cause one to discard long-held assumptions and paradigms.