People Are Sharing The Most Bizarre Things They've Ever Seen In Someone Else's Home, And Color Me Curious
Reddit user u/ZestycloseNobody8857 posed the question: "What's the most bizarre thing you've seen in someone else's home?" The thread quickly filled with some rather shocking decor decisions! Here's what people shared:
1."A taxidermy squirrel nativity scene. It was not Christmas. There was also a baseball team and a jazz band made of squirrels, though the jazz pianist might have been a more mangled chipmunk. They all had hand-crocheted outfits made by the father. It was the one time my mother forced me to go to a kid’s house to play to be nice. After Squirreltopia, she let me trust my gut."
2."A life-sized, quite realistic-looking Grim Reaper statue. Scythe included. It was my parents’ house. At first, it stood in the corner of the living room. Later, it was moved to the hallway where it moonlighted as coat rack during birthdays and holidays. They gave him a Santa hat during Christmas. It was wild, but also adorably eccentric. They were so fond of it, they even gave him a name. After a couple of years, they sold it to someone who ran a haunted house. I hated it so much. I was a teenager at the time and was so embarrassed. Eventually, I kind of began to appreciate how my parents were unapologetically themselves, and I vowed to grow up to do just that. Still working on it, though."
3."I went to an estate sale where the person had clearly been very into doll-making, so there were dolls, doll clothes, and doll heads, but all the heads on (and off) all the dolls were the same, and they all looked vaguely like the Olsen twins. I’m not really one to be spooked by dolls, but it was time to go."
4."'Last Supper' picture with him in it instead of Jesus over the TV."
5."I was looking to buy a home, and we were at a house being sold by an Amish Family. They had a dozen large bricks of Velveeta! No bathrooms in the house, but a ton of cheese!"
6."A horse...just standing in one locked room...alive."
7."A taxidermy cougar in the corner of my uncle's best friend's lounge room wearing a sombrero and aviator glasses."
8."A poop ladle. I wish I was joking. Their septic tank wasn't the best, and to put less stress on it, they scooped their solid poops out of the toilet, put them into a plastic bag, and took them to the outside bin. Toilet paper also went into the trashcan, and pee was only to be flushed after the toilet had been peed in multiple times. I learned this after asking why there was a takeout soup container next to the toilet with a ladle inside."
9."A (presumably) life-size wooden carving of the occupant's penis and scrotum sitting on a knick-knack shelf."
10."I knew these people for 20 years. I met them when they were dating, went to their wedding, went to every family function, spent at least one night a week doing activities with them, and then one day I went into their house, and they had this huge glass case that was a shrine to Dale Earnhardt. I never even knew they were NASCAR fans, let alone that they worshiped #3. You think you know a couple."
11."Years ago, my friend’s girlfriend’s family lived in an enormous old farm house. They pretty much just lived on the ground floor and it was nice, but the rest was Grapes of Wrath. We were in the basement a lot because there was all kinds of old, neat stuff down there. We moved a set of old stadium lights and found a door behind it that nobody knew about. We opened it, and behind it was a 1923 Rickenbacker automobile. It was covered in dust, but it appeared to be in fine shape."
"We told her parents, and they didn’t believe us until we showed them. They called a local expert who came out and appraised it. Apparently, it was 1 of 50 of that particular model made. He made a deal with them to fix it up and sell it and split the sale down the middle, and they agreed. It went at auction for $225k, which was good money in the late '90s. They used the money to pay for their daughter’s college and fix up the rest of the house, and in doing so, they found tons of other weird stuff to sell, like OG Pachinko machines, scrimshaw, and Japanese WWII army supplies."
12."I have a small pet-sitting business, so I spend a lot of time alone in other people's houses. One time, a client had a taxidermy peacock mounted on the ceiling. It was a high ceiling and probably only accessible with a very tall ladder, so getting the peacock up there wouldn't have been easy. I asked about it, but I never did get an explanation."
13."Giant, naked portrait of the homeowner's wife on the living room mantel."
14."Bought something on Facebook Marketplace and went to pick it up. Typical house in a suburban development, two-story with a big entry foyer. When the guy opened the door, the two-story foyer was filled with a giant jungle gym/play structure, like the kind that belongs outdoors or in a McDonald’s. Literally all I could see in that room was this enormous play structure."
15."A friend, who lived alone, had a large portrait of themselves (a photograph) framed and on the wall. Like, are you concerned you might forget what you look like?"
16."I went to a party at a guy's house when I was in college, and he had shelves in the bathroom with tons of coffee cups sitting on them. Weird to have coffee cups in the bathroom."
17."A boar’s head. It was stuffed and hanging in the hall. Someone stuffed a cigar into its mouth and a put a Boston Bruins hat on its head. It was my house as a kid. The boar came from a museum. They were tossing it out."
18."A collection of carousel horses surrounded (protected??) by neon orange traffic barricades."
19."Back in the '80s, my friend's bathroom had wall-to-wall carpeting. The toilet tank had carpet wrapped around it. The toilet lid had carpet, and the actual seat you sit on had carpet. At 9, I thought it was cool, but now at 50, I'm wondering WTF was wrong with my friend's mom."
20."When I was house shopping, I saw some interesting stuff. One house had what felt like a maze in the basement, like a labyrinth of tiny rooms. In one of the rooms was an old-school phone booth with a working phone. It looked like the room had been built around the phone booth. I ended up buying a different house down the street, and that home has since sold and been remodeled. I still wonder sometimes what they did with that weird basement."
21."My old friend's dad had a life-size armor set of Boba Fett in his gaming room — real metal and everything. I’m a huge Star Wars fan, and seeing that during my childhood was amazing. My uncle also works at Disney and has a full custom armor set of a Storm Trooper and with a blaster, and I got to wear it. It was soooo cool."
22."My mother's sister lived in a really pretty old Victorian house, and it was filled with hundreds of teddy bears."
23."I made friends with a kid in eighth grade. We hung out a bunch, but it was a year before I was ever invited into his house. Their basement had a dog poop corner. They had two large breed dogs that would just poop in the basement by design, and they would scoop the poop and toss it into the corner with a snow shovel. This kid slept in that basement!"
24."A toilet, out in the open, in the middle of a living room."
25."Oh, the most bizarre thing I've seen in someone else's home has to be a life-sized taxidermy of a mythical creature. It was this mix of a unicorn and a dragon — definitely an unexpected and unique choice of decor. It sparked quite the conversation during my visit!"
26."My friend has a human skull, which I'm guessing is illegal. He is a retired surgeon and got it years ago in medical school. I'm guessing he wasn't supposed to take it."
27."A toilet in the lounge with a potted plant growing in it."
28."I did home staging for a minute, and there was this one house in a really nice area we had to stage. There was bright green carpet wall-to-wall in the finished basement level, even in the bathroom. We were trying to figure out a way to minimize the impact of potential buyers seeing wall-to-wall Kelly green carpet. The owners, who were an older, retired couple, kept bragging about it like it was a selling point. 'It's brand new!' There were also nude female and nude male statues all over the property that were NOT Roman or Greek copies. They were clearly made by the people selling the house. We asked if they could be removed for the viewings, and again, very proudly, they said, 'This is our original artwork. I posed for my wife and she posed for me. Aren't they lovely?'"
29."A black velvet painting of the trinity: John Wayne, Jesus, and Elvis. Gotta admit, I almost want one because it was so garishly awful."
30.And: "I went to an open house to a place across the road out of curiosity, and I still don't know why there were two toilets next to each other (no, neither one was a bidet). They were in two different rooms, one an actual bathroom, and one a laundry room. They had a sliding door between them, but they were so close that if two people used them at the same time, they could hold hands."
Okay, I'm dying to know: What's the most bizarre or memorable thing you've ever seen in someone's home? Tell us in the comments!!
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.