Cleaning up after people or animals or people who behave like animals can be a miserable job. Being a maid or cleaning worker is hard, honest work and after hearing about some on the job issues it is clear that they are outrageously underpaid. And under appreciated. We all wonder what goes on behind close doors but when we find out.... we instantly regret asking.
Redditor u/goSaya wanted to know if all the maids out there felt like sharing a few horror stories by asking.... Hotel maid staff, what's the nastiest room you've had to clean and why? (NSFW)
Gagged!
Not a maid, but I worked as a maintenance man and had to clean out apartments. One apartment I had to clean had a refrigerator stuffed full of food because the occupants had been evicted. Unfortunately, the electric company had shut off the electricity so the food had been rotting for well over a month. It was the most god awful smell I've ever encountered in my life. Rotting fish, rotting chicken, and a lot of stuff that was so rotten you couldn't even tell what it had originally been. However, the boss said I had to do it so I did it.
I lost control and vomited several times while trying to scrape the goop out. I sprayed the fridge with strong cleaning chemicals and spent an hour scrubbing the hell out of it but I couldn't get the smell out. I finally gave up and told my boss about it and she insisted on seeing for herself. She walked into the apartment, gagged at the smell, and told me to throw the fridge out without even looking inside. All that effort and puking for nothing! Mange-Tout
Not a Charmin moment....
Not a maid staff but used to work front desk at a hotel in Myrtle Beach. So many wild stories from that job... Once we had a customer check in late at night & came to the front desk to complain about a large chocolate stain on their sheet in their made bed. After some checking turns out the maid that cleaned the room, it was her last day on the job & she had decided to wipe her butt with the sheets & then make the bed. The customers ended up with a free stay. jettisonbombardier
Stays in Vegas.
I can tell you one room I was in where someone set a cleaning trap.
Laying in bed with my wife, she felt a piece of paper down by her feet. It said "they don't change the dirty sheets in the room, check out the blood stains and pubic hair down here" which was both their.
Called the front desk and we were moved to suite in the other tower of this casino hotel in Vegas. scott60561
Luckily the guest wasn't there.
Not a maid but I used to install wifi systems at hotels across the midwest. The job required us to go into every other room and install an access point. One of the jobs was at an extended stay, and we only had one more room to finish. However the guest was being difficult and didn't want to let us into the room. According to hotel staff the guest hadn't let any of the maids into the room in several weeks. Finally the Assistant GM had enough and escorted us up to the room to let us in. Luckily the guest wasn't there.
It was one of the worst things I'd ever seen. Trash and cloths everywhere, cigarette butts all over the place. It appeared there was a dog living in there, as there was dog poop everywhere as well. The smell was horrendous. It looked like something you would see on one of those hoarder shows. We hurried up and got our AP installed and got out of there. GarageguyEve
Got Gloves?
Not maid, worked front desk:
My coworker picked something up in the hallway and brought it to the front desk asking what it was. It was a butt-plug and he was holding it with his bare fingers. polkam0n
Flinging Poo!
Another "not maid staff, but..." response: I used to work security at a resort. The worst that I witnessed was the aftermath of a couple getting into an argument. A husband and wife were drunk and taking a bath together, and then got into an argument. The wife pooped in the bath, picked up the turds, and threw them at her husband like a monkey. Then the husband accidentally stepped on one and smushed it into the carpet. I felt terrible for the 5 housekeepers that had to clean it up, and even worse for the couple's 2 kids that were in the room. Zed89
Atrocious.
My fiancé's uncle owns a motel and I'll help out during the summer and there have been a few rooms , one was this midwestern family who literally would use the swimming pool in jeans and what not, only asked for towels the whole time except for the day before they were supposed to check out and it was such an atrocity in the room, fried rice and blunt guts all over the floor/ bureau / the bathroom sink as well as the whole bathroom being stained purple from hair dye, literal baby poop/pee soaked sheets and pillows festering in a corner sooo we told the front office and they got kicked out. The people were atrocious especially for having 3 children ranging from like 14-6 with them. MDizzleee
Puker....
I'm a housekeeper at a 3 star hotel nothing fancy but not a motel. Young and need money for a new car I hate it but gotta do what I gotta do. Recently since its the holidays so many single people renting rooms and drinking loads of liquor (and eating cupcakes??? Idk why) and puking... everywhere. I don't expect tips but come on if you vomit please leave me something it takes 40 mins to clean that room they're so trashed. The smell is awful and they'll smile at me to check out and walk away I go in and its just pink/orange puke everywhere. Its depressing job for a young person I'm going to be honest but its a job so I'm thankful. pizzauwuw
Those Pearly Whites.
Not maid staff but I did general maintenance at a 5 star hotel in Ontario Canada. We had a room that the toilet would continuously plug up after a few uses. We would dump drain cleaner down it, plunge it, snake it, nothing seemed to work. So I remove the toilet to see what the blockage was. In the bottom of the toilet, caked in poop was someone's false teeth. An entire top plate with all the teeth.
Freaked me out a bit to see teeth looking back at me from a toilet. I gave them to management and they were able to determine who they belonged to and return them to their rightful owner. We assumed that during a drinking bender the owner must have been puking something fierce to loose his teeth like that. dukunt
2 liters worth....
SIL was a housekeeper in a hotel which got a lot of business through organized vacations. Tourists would get dropped off by a coach. The coach driver would get a room too. Well, she walked into one coach driver's room, and she found the bed thoroughly soaked with urine. On a bad day, a guy might pee close to half a liter of fluid. This guy must've peed like a full 2 liters worth. Must've had some serious distended bladder issue. It was soaked through to the bed frame and leaking onto the floor below.
They had to wrap the mattress and throw it out. GrammatonYHWH
Serial Killer Toys.
My ex worked as cleaning staff at a crappy motel in Florida. A few years ago she found a bunch of those realistic looking baby dolls and a small pile of used condoms in the bathtub - all had been partially burned/melted. Ejgee
Traumatized....
I was a line cook at a hotel back in the day and I remember this poor maid came out of the service elevator screaming bloody murder. She was from Haiti and was praying and crying at the same time. Everyone is asking what is wrong but she was hysterical. We later found out she went in to turn down a room and found the guest in the tub with his wrists opened. Apparently there was blood everywhere and lots of it. Poor woman. She quit that day. Sirnando138
Days Out.
Had a friend that worked cleaning a Days Inn right off the interstate by a truck stop. She had some messed up stories. Most wrapped around bizarre places to find used condoms, like behind the TV or on the windowsill behind a curtain. She made it about 5 months. six_mpossible_things
The Aftermath.
I walked in to the aftermath of an attempted suicide. A man had slit his wrists and drank LOTS of vodka. We called the ambulance and they took him away, still alive. The mattress was purplish brown with blood and pee, it soaked right through 2 'waterproof' mattress covers. We didn't even try to wash the sheets and covers, just stuffed them in black trash bags and chucked em in the dumpster.
The hotel owners wanted to try to salvage the mattress, so we stood it up and sprayed it down with all sorts of disinfectants and let it air out, but no dice. They even had to remove the carpet in the room because it held onto the sick blood smell.
UPDATE: I just got home from another fun day at the same hotel. I scrubbed lots of vomit out of a bed skirt this afternoon. Thanks for everyone being so horrified/interested in my hotel tale. SallySmallpox
With Friends.
A couple of friends of mine had to clean a room here in town after a suicide. Guy blew his head off with a shotgun. Congealed blood, chunks of brain and bone.
For what it's worth, they successfully sued the owners of the motel afterwards, but I don't think the owners ever faced criminal charges for improperly disposing of biological material, which is crazy. Ashybuttons
Help our Vets.
Elderly Vietnam Veteran rented a room for the sole purpose of having a private space in which to commit suicide by overdosing on pills. His family found out a bout his plan and called the police, they arrived just in time to find him, and the room, covered in poop and vomit. He survived.
I was a scared young girl.
My first 'real' job was stripping beds in a small motel at the age of 14. I would start a bit before the maids so that they just had to remake the beds. Easy enough job for a 14 year old.
One room was a stay over and I knocked on the door. Guy answered and I asked if he wanted service that day. He was in poop stained briefs. He said yes, he wanted service. I told him I just strip the beds and I could come back later with the maid and get it all done at once. He told me to just come in then and strip the bed and dirty towels out. So I did. When I went to leave I told him the maid would be to his room after a bit to give fresh towels and make the bed. He got angry and wanted me to make the bed right then.
Mind you there were nasty dirty underwear next to the bed and in the bathroom along with a ton of dirty magazines on the other bed.
I explained again that I don't make the beds, just strip the rooms. I was a scared young girl. He got angrier and I dipped out of the room fast to go talk to the head housekeeper. She was supposed to tell me that morning before I got started to stay away from that room and forgot to pass on that info. So since she screwed up she went with me and the maid and we had to make his bed and put in fresh towels while he was sitting there staring at us in his dirty nasty underwear. WyoGirl79
Hopefully someone isn't missing a kidney.
My Dad works in the hotel industry for a major chain and showed me pictures of what they thought was some sort of crime scene at first. The sheets were all bloody and stained and there was transfer on the sheets from a person of what looked like dotted lines of magic marker. They think someone used the room for a back-alley plastic surgery of some kind. The police were called, but I don't know what happened after that. Hopefully someone isn't missing a kidney. Herpmancer
College Days...
My college would rent out dorm rooms at a low cost and students could work as cleaning staff. I did it one year and decided it was not worth it. We had a baseball team stay at one of the dorms and they spit chewing tobacco and sun flower shells everywhere. You would lift the trash bag out of the can and it would have a puddle of chew spit at the bottom of the can. One of them also wrote Forget you in poop on the wall of the bathroom.
Edit: It was only during the summer not the full year. Protists
Meow.
Not a maid staff, but I once checked in at a small motel and was greeted by the feline employee when I entered my room. I thought that was cute until I saw the welcoming present she left on my pillow, a bloody dead bat. purplejackhammer26
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/
Dating and the search for love and companionship... What a nightmare.
This journey plays out nothing like in the movies.
Every Prince or Princess (or everything in BTW) seems to have a touch of the psycho.
The things people say during what should be simple dinner conversation can leave a dining partner aghast.
Like... do you hear you?
Redditor detroit_michigldan wanted to discuss all the best ways to crash and burn when trying to make a romantic connection. They asked:
"You're on a date and it's going really great. What can another person say to ruin it completely?"
I once had a guy ask me if I was willing to follow him into the woods, depending on the price of the meal.
Yeah. No steak is worth that.
Plans After...
"Thanks for the ride but I have a date with someone else, I figured you wouldn't drive me if you knew I was going on a date with someone else and I really needed a ride."
"Online dating, talked to her for a while, finally got the courage to ask her out and then she said that as we got there."
iareyours
Mirror Image
“'You look just like my wife!'”
catalinachild
"I did have a guy tell me I reminded him of his son. I don’t believe English has a word to adequately describe my feelings at that time."
UnicornMagicRainbow
"That would definitely do it."
chaotica78
Third Wheel
"'Hope you don't mind if my mother joins us.'"
ofsquire
"Actually had a girl do this on a first date because she had anxiety issues. Honestly wasn’t bad except that 90% of the time she was silent and her mom talked over her."
"I didn’t mind that much and wouldn’t have minded trying again when she was more comfortable except that she was let go at the company we worked at and she deleted her social media profiles and she never responded on her number. Ah well."
Seightx
Liar
"'Hey bro aren't you gay? I made out with you last night.'"
"Random dude I've never seen before in front of my (f) date."
JHXC16
Was he lying though?
Filter Issues
"'You looked better on Tinder.'"
waqasnaseem07
"Isn’t it basic knowledge that everybody looks slightly worse than the worst picture you can find?"
no_user_ID_found
The Past
"'My ex used to do that too.'"
xxIvyOF
"Yep. I’ve definitely had two otherwise-decent-guy date-situations sour because the ex-comparisons just would not stop flowing. No woman wants to be seen as interchangeable—I’m not here to perfectly fill that ex-sized hole in your life. Focusing on the present moment and a future we could build together is a courtesy we need to grant each other in earliest dates of dating."
LarkScarlett
Powerless
"'I'm an alpha, you cant handle my top energy.'"
Midnightgay28
"I actually left a dude in the middle of dinner, in part, for saying this. I ordered an Uber under the table while pretending to listen to him. Went to the bathroom, and never came back. That was when I was young. Now I’d just say, 'How about we enjoy this meal in silence, before we head our separate ways.'”
UnicornMagicRainbow
Mommy...
"'Mother says I should be back by 9.'"
"Saying 'mother says' just feels weird."
bunnyrut
"That gives me Norman Bates vibes."
Werewolf_lover20
"'Mother says alligators are aggressive because they have an overabundance of teeth, but lack a toothbrush.'"
sodaextraiceplease
Obvs...
"'If you were going to be murdered, what method would you prefer. Purely hypothetical. Obvs.'"
Specific_Tap7296
If it looks anything like a Dateline NBC episode... RUN!
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Despite the advancement of technology rendering people left to their own devices–literally–to entertain them, there are some leisurely activities that will never go out of style.
Or so you would think.
Do people still knit to pass the time? Are people actively collecting stamps?
It depends on who's asking.
Curious to hear about hobby trends, Redditor gizehgizeh asked:
"What are once popular hobbies that are slowly dying these days?"

Before we've become conditioned to living on our phones, these activities used to keep people occupied.
Before Texting, There Was This
"Letter writing."
– littlekingMT
Literal And Tangible Joy
"Well the internet killed pen pals for sure. I do remember I had a Japanese girl for a penpal maybe back in 2007 or so. I honestly don't remember how it started, pretty sure some website, but that was a fun experience. But now I can just straight up talk to foreign people real time, lol. But yea getting a physical letter that someone took the time to write and mail still is hard to beat feelings wise."
– skyburnsred
Model Trains
"When I was growing up, every town had a model train store in it. Now I have one in region and everything else has to be bought online."
– Hairy_Effective1172
Pretty Rocks
"Don’t see anyone playing marbles anymore, I had an awesome collection in school."
– sheeple85
"I had some marbles as a kid in the 90s. My grandma got them for me and I had no idea what I was supposed to do with them. I always imagined them as a thing kids in the 40s played with."
– Ryoukugan
People Were Moving Canvases
"Paintball has been dying a slow death since 2006. Sad, really."
– hobo_recycler
Before the general population began hating clutter, collecting was once a "thing."
Precious Coins
"Coin collecting... I'm a silver/gold nut and I'm always hunting for precious metal coins. whenever I go into a shop they get all excited because 'no one under 70 collects coins anymore.'"
– ThatFishySmell99
Post It
"Stamp collecting."
– spooky_scully_mulder
"Collecting in general, really. Of course there are still prominent collectors but it's slipped more into enthusiast and niche territory than being a popular hobby that you might expect anyone to have."
– iuytrefdgh436yujhe2
What A Gem
"Rockhounding was immensely popular back in the 1950's and 1960's. Personally, I think it's a fascinating and fulfilling hobby, but when I go to a meeting at a rock and gem club, I'm usually the youngest one in the room by several decades."
– filthy_lucre
People once enjoyed making things.
Admiring The View
"Stained glass. I learned how to make it from my old man, and my junior high art class teacher also taught it. Very few artisans are still around."
– brobeanzhitler
Metal Vocation
"Black smithing."
– kenworth117
"I bought a forge to try. It’s insanely hard work, and crazy expensive. I still haven’t finished a piece."
– DSentvalue
Scrapbooking
"Yeah. I'm watching the arts and crafts stores around me completely uninstalling their racks for specialty paper. Now the only thing they have is mega packs of repeating colors/images. To boot all the inclusions like papercraft/die-cut things, washi tape, scissors, stickers, etc have gotten so expensive I would rather go buy $5 bags at value village to get an assortment of things versus buying anything new. I really, really miss yard sales for the same reasons."
– Phantasmai
I envy people who have jobs that are basically their hobbies.
Not everyone gets paid doing what they actually enjoy and have a profound level of passion for.
If they do, kudos to them.
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When we first meet someone–whether through mutual friends, at school, or in a new work setting–we generally feel people out to determine if they're worth getting to know.
While the process could take time, some people make our jobs much easier after spotting instant red flags.
Curious to hear about our general radar of people, Redditor xxFluffie asked:
"What is something that makes you immediately dislike someone?"

Some people just think they are absolutely hilarious and never realize they're the only ones laughing.
Next In Line
"They laugh about having screwed someone else over. If you think you're not next, well, you'll learn."
– whiznat
Unfunny
"when you mention you don't like a thing and they immediately do that thing 'as a joke.'"
– wayfinder
Playing Devil's Advocate
"Kneejerk contrarians. People who, no matter what you say you like or believe, just have to dismiss it and say they like or think the opposite."
– BubbhaJebus
People who put others down get slammed here.
Bad Parents
"When they treat their kids sh**ty in public. I don't mean handling tantrums, setting a rule, having to hurry to the train etc. I mean perfectly normal-behaved kids getting in trouble for trailing along peacefully, looking at things, asking questions etc."
"If you don't like tiny humans who learn the world, why have them??"
– raxeira-etterath
Public Humiliation
"Treating people sh**ty in public for laughs. Like being rude to service workers because they think it’s funny. Big red flag."
– Ok_Personality_1080
Simply Uncalled For
"Someone who is a d*ck to other people or animals for no reason."
– xebt1000
Those with ulterior motives rubs people the wrong way.
The Scheme
"If they try to get me to join their MLM scheme."
– spazmcgee1
Hard Sell
"A guy I used to be friends with in high school reached out a couple of years after graduating about a business opportunity he wanted my opinion on because 'you've always been smart', then he set up a Skype call and brought some other dude into the call and they started trying to sell me on what was clearly an MLM scheme. The guy went from friend to 'I'm never talking to you again' in a matter of 10 minutes."
– Mental-Afternoon-164
A Timeline
"Good gawd, this! I've had more than one exposure to this abject bullsh**tery..."
- Back in the late 80's/early 90's I was invited to a meeting of literally the OG "Pyramid" where you're recruited to pay in, and then you go out and recruit others to pay in, and the last in line got f'kall.
- In 1995 I had a coworker try to reel me into Amway, which was a hard no.
- In 2000 it was Pampered Chef, though to be fair they did have useful products.
- In 2009 a coworker tried to get me into some stupid video calling service that was obviously stupid from the description. He even got offended when I called bullsh*t.
– Mystical_Cat
Too much ego is a no-go.
I Can Do Better
"Being a b*tch just to stroke their own ego."
"We get it, you can lift 5lbs more than the 12 year old, you don't have to rub it in their face just because you're slightly better"
– Livia_Pivia
Can't Top This
"Oh, you did <story that's been told>? That's nothing! I did <implausible story>.
"I get the whole empathy through relating common experience, and I'm someone who does that (which drives some people crazy on its own), but there's a big different by empathising through common experience, and one-upmanship."
– Tisarwat
Lacking Conversational Etiquette
"Starting to talk over me when I was already talking."
"Stop it you rude, arrogant jerk."
– R33Gtst
If one or more of these traits sound familiar to you, you're not alone.
We don't have time for braggadocios, pyramid-schemers, and conversation interrupters.
And that's just for starters.
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Children tend to believe just about anything they hear.
That there are monsters under your bed, watching too much TV will make your head explode, and silly faces will be permanent if you make them too often.
The sky is truly the limit when it comes to silly things that children will believe.
Some call it naivitée, other's youthful innocence.
But it's hard not to look back with embarrassment on certain things we believed as a child, that today might simply seem dumb.
Redditor Disastrous_Toe_6548 was curious to learn the multitude of silly things people believed when they were children, leading them to ask:
"What's the dumbest thing you believed as a kid?"
Pleading to deaf ears...
"My dad told me he had hearing loss and couldn't hear me if I whined because my pitch would get too high."
"Would completely ignore me until I asked him questions in a normal voice."
"Trusted him implicitly until I was 12 and he yelled at my younger brother for whining."- Tyrion_Stark.
Get it while you can.
"That they took everything off the shelves when the supermarket closed."- fgyfddg.
Silly superstitions.
"My grandfather used to tell me that if I played with the fire, I'd pee the bed."
"I believed him for a while, until I got older."
"I think he was just trying to protect me from the fire."- teddypa1981.
"Rain, rain go away..."
"That if it was raining where I was, it was raining everywhere in the world."- morningshartz.
Age is just a number.
"My parents used to seem really old to me, so much so I believed they grew up like cave people as children, wearing giant leaves for clothes and what not."- Laleena_.
So that's how they're made!
"That smokestacks from the power plant created clouds."- Scaniarix.
An instant cure.
"The sun gives you sunburns, therefore, moonlight should heal them."- velocipeter.
Better safe than sorry.
"Don't drink and drive meant all drinks."
"My dad was super confused when I told him he wasn't allowed to have any soda until we got home."- hulagirlslovetoparty.
Don't believe everything you see on TV.
"There was an episode of Mickey Mouse where Mickey couldn’t reach something at first, so he tried again and somehow his arm was long enough to reach it."
"As a small kid I believed that if I couldn’t reach something, I should just try reaching for it again and my arm would then somehow be long enough to reach it."- That-Dutch-Person.
The miracle of childbirth.
"That babies are pooped out."
"When I was like 7 I was listening to my aunt as she explained that childbirth was pretty intense and painful for her, and I was all solemnly like, 'yeah, sometimes just my poops are painful, I don’t think I could get a baby out' and she went 'um, WHAT?' and her reaction made me realize real quick that I had f*cked up somewhere and I tried to change the subject while my mind was just reeling lol."- thesoundingfurrows.
Oh to be a child again.
And to believe literally everything you're told.
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