“The Horrors I Saw In That Home Nearly Broke Me”: 27 Weird Things Workers Have Seen Inside Strangers’ Homes
Article Created by: Justin Keturka
Day to day, we walk past countless windows, doors, and homes. From the outside, they all look ordinary enough. But behind those walls, there’s often more than meets the eye. And sometimes, what’s hidden inside can be downright surprising.
Reddit users arnujr, Rexdaneand EternityPrevails- asked workers whose jobs take them into strangers’ houses to share the weirdest things they’ve ever come across. From an eyebrow-raising number of celebrity photos to unusual animals even a replica of Frankenstein’s monster the size of a basketball player, their stories don’t disappoint. Scroll down and check out some of the wildest ones!
Not me, but my dad works for a delivery company. He went to drop off a package and an older lady answered the door in a panic. Her husband needs an air tank to breathe, but she couldn’t turn the handle on it to turn on the air. Her husband was sitting in a wheelchair suffocating. So my dad ran in the house and turned on the air tank.
He got a write up for entering a customers home, and an award for great customer service when the older lady called his company and left a review.
They lived in a huge house and had one room dedicated to Christmas called “The Christmas Room.”
It had a massive fake tree, unopened gifts, garland and lights and the creepy factor: Christmas music playing year-round.
It’s amazing how people can just let their cats treat their whole house as a litter box.
I can contribute, but at this point I don’t think anyone could see it.
I was a water meter reader. Many of the homes (at the time) had their meters in their basement.
There was a large, old farmhouse that was 25% an apartment for a guy who rented, and 75% a house that was SOLELY for all her dogs. And there had to be at least a dozen if not more in there. The dude who lived in the apartment was nice enough, but the meter (naturally) wasn’t in his apartment. I had to be escorted through to a basement in the dog house. It was horrifying. Dog feces was everywhere. The dogs peed on the old wood floor, so the basement was essentially a catch-all for excrement. Worst part was that my first (and subsequently only) time I went in the house was Mid-July.
I promptly notified my boss to call animal protection and left. I also told my boss I wouldn’t be returning to that home. Ever.
I do volunteer disaster recovery work.
I was once attacked by an elderly man who didn’t want me to remove his floodwater soaked drywall. It turns out that he had 60 year old canned goods stored between the studs.
It was just sad. He was clearly terrified of of going hungry or being robbed for his food stash.
A lot of hoarders and just filthy homes in general. As far as weirdest items, a 7 foot replica of Frankenstein. Standing right in the corner of the living room. As we were clearing the house in the middle of the night because the alarm was going off and the front door was open with no one answering inside. I screamed like a little girl.
When I was in social work, I had to help this guy move out of his apartment. He was unstable, off his meds, etc.
His apartment had one of those old-skool refrigerators that was basically just one door and 10 shelves. It was like 8 feet tall, 3 feet deep, 4 feet wide.
The entire refrigerator was full of gallon milk jugs full of this dude’s urine. Like, 6 wide, 4 deep, 10 tall. 400 gallons of crazy dude urine.
I had his brother take them down to the communal bathroom and dump them out.
Im a decorator, i once went to give a quote for a job at an old ladies house. This woman had spent her whole life exploring the world and researching various animals and lost cultures. Her house was like the mansion in the intro to uncharted 4, filled with historic artifacts and exotic animals like piranhas. Also there was a secret hallway system that ran through the house, bookcases moving to uncover a small entrance etc.
Plumber here, I have seen some disgusting, and some sketchy things, but by far the weirdest encounter I have had is when I had to fix the pipes under this woman’s sink and the moment I stepped into her house I was greeted by hundreds upon hundreds of statues and pictures, and even a mural of pigs with wings.
I told her that check was the preferred payment option and she told me “let me go look in my piggy bank”
Additionally I was offered a porcelain pig with wings for “doing such a great job”
It might be worthy to note that she couldn’t have been more than 45.
It’s not that strange but it was pretty cool. I painted this guy’s house and after the job was finished on the last day he showed me and the rest of the crew this bar he had in his basement. When I say bar I’m not just talking about a counter to make drinks with storage behind and underneath. I’m talking like booths and tables etc. It was designed like a bar in the belly of a ship. We referred to it as his “Pirate Bar”.
I’ve seen dirty houses, hoarding etc but this was the coolest(and a little weird too I guess).
Working as a handyman in a very upscale residential building in Manhattan you sort of get used to seeing strange art in apartments. Most of it isn’t worth looking at twice, since I’m not really into art. But this apartment had one of their living room walls covered in Popeye erotica. Maybe two dozen nicely framed paintings and drawings of Popeye and Olive Oil doing various acts. It was such a strange thing to see in one of the overall fanciest apartments I’ve ever been in.
Couple of things:
At one house, a microwave on top of a toilet. You couldn’t enter the kitchen due to the amount of hoarding, so if they were hungry they would plug the microwave in, place it on the toilet and microwave some food.
At another house – lots and lots of empty boxes. Stacked in every corner of the house, in case they ever had to return items. I can somewhat understand that mentality but when you’ve used that item for years, return policies don’t apply anymore.
Part of my job as a nurse is to visit elderly people in their homes to check out how they’re doing, see if they need any services or aides so we can help them stay in their own homes as long as feasibly possible.
It’s unbelievable how filthy their homes can be, simply because they can’t see the cobwebs coated in dust and grime on their dishes and debris on their carpets. Their houses are usually *tidy*, as in, cups are all lined up in the cabinets, just not washed properly and stained.
I think the strangest was a little old lady living in a one bedroom unit by herself, widowed over a decade ago who had had all her pets taxidermied in various positions and then placed around her home as if they were still alive. She had a Pekenise curled up on a cushion on the couch, a chihuahua with it’s head bed down, plastic bowl filled with kibble on the floor to make it look like it was forever eating, a tabby cat with it’s paws tucked under it sitting on the windowsill, forever watching and even a cockatiel with it’s wings outstretched, beak open on the kitchen bench, claws permanently wrapped around a wooden free standing perch.
She introduced me to each of her “babies” by name and talked to them as if they were still alive.
I always wondered if she tried to get her husband taxidermied.
Window washer here. I’m in a mansion’s downstairs guest room and this (extremely well groomed) dog is just staring in my general direction from the middle of the guest bed. I realized something’s wrong: the bed is perfectly made around him, not so much as a crease. Give him a poke and yup, stuffed dog. I have seen this done TWICE now, yikes.
I went to a company employee’s house because the company-owned, high-end graphics workstation at their home was flakey. There was not a spot of dirt in sight, nothing in the house was out of place, and their four kids were cute and polite. I have been on calls where everything at the employee’s house was messed up, but it was this one that freaked me out.
[I’ve been doing electrical for almost a year now, mostly commercial, but every now and then we’ll do a remodel on a home. A few weeks back, we did a remodel on the home of some surgeon and I found this in her closet. ]
My sister’s ex’s family were part of a repo service. One house was empty and filled with blood and messages on the wall, and doll heads on sticks and such. Turns out the blood was fake, but still pretty weird, I’d imagine.
Going to get buried at this point, I’m sure, but I’ll throw my bit in.
I work as a cabinet installer with my dad. He’s been doing it for 30+ years, so he’s seen some stuff. A client called from a job he did about 10 years ago wanting some repairs and some advice on how to freshen up their kitchen since the style is very much out of date at this point. As we’re working, I happen to notice an odd little figure standing on half wall between the kitchen and living room. This is hands-down the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen in a client’s home.
Rotating for home care agency:
Stuffed animals!!! Omg!!! Elephant legs, a full monkey, a giraffe head, multiple zebras, and two elephant ivory whatever you call it at the entrance! Even the coffee table was carved with African animals, and windows were custom elephants etc.
I was working collecting donations. Some old man donated so i went to his apartment to get it. 2nd floor walking up i began gagging on a heavy urine smell. Halfway up he yells “come on up, the door is open.” I walk into his apartment and get blasted with the urine stench and see the old man has no pants on or underwear. He’s free-balling and they were swollen. I didn’t blink an eye. I told him I was there to pick up the donation. He pointed to it, I grabbed it and told him to have a nice day. The End.
Chickens and roosters strutting around the house like they owned the place.
A snake coiled in a big glass jar full of brown liquid. Apparently it’s a traditional home remedy for people of this ethnic background.
I went into the home of a customer who had over 20 cats. I had to go into the basement to fix a wiring issue and before I opened the door she told me to ensure the cats upstairs don’t get downstairs. Apparently the cats downstairs all had feline AIDS. There were also an undisclosed number of dogs present in the backyard – as far as I could tell at least 5 or 6.
They had a room that was off limits to touch. It was made up like a living room but you weren’t allowed in there.
