Working in someone's home must feel like your walking on eggshells, but instead of organic, free-range eggs its the Fabergé kind. You're in someone else's personal space, their sanctum, where a litany of secrets and revelations could be revealed to you if you open the wrong cabinet or peak under their bed by accident.
You never know what's going to happen when you open their door, and that's what these people found out one day.
Reddit user, ConAir161057, wanted a look into stranger's homes when they asked:
"People whose jobs require them to enter someone else's house, what was the weirdest thing you've seen at a customer's house?"
Everyone has hobbies, and sometimes those hobbies involve collecting things. While you might imagine glass cases filled with small, porcelain baby angels or a wall of comic book art, some people choose to collect "different" things.
When Plants Are Your Children
"Customers built an additional room for their plant, Frank. It was a +30yo schefflera. It had the best sun and a huge pot and automatic watering."
"Def my kind of weird."- x4ty2
Everyone Collects Something
"Taxidermy chickens dressed in raincoats"- TheCookMan1
Leaving Behind What You Don't Want To Use
"I've done foreclosure clean outs. I'm amazed at how many people own sex machines, and how often they are left behind."- turningfoodintopoop
We Just Want Our Guests To Be Comfortable
"One Easter week, I tuned a piano in the home of a girl who was my music student."
"Her mother greeted me at the door in a Playboy Bunny suit and kept offering "refreshments" as I tuned her piano."- Back2Bach
playboy bunny GIF by PlayboyGiphyWhat people do in their own bedroom with their partners in whatever consensual manner they deem acceptable is up to them.
It's when those choices leave the bedroom and start to impact other people that we have to raise our collective eyebrows.
That's One Way To Discipline...
"I babysat for this family that had a live in maid."
"A little weird but whatever."
"She was nice."
"Dressed in a strange outfit but whatever."
"Parents get back and ask me how the children were."
"Told them I changed a few diapers nothing big."
"Then they asked how the maid was."
"I told them she was fine."
"Woke up the kids once while she was cleaning."
"Mom gets this look on her face and disappears."
"Dad pays me and tips me well!"
"Asks me to check on the kids one last time."
"I do."
"As I’m leaving I go to say goodbye to the Mother."
"She has the maid over her knee, and is just spanking her."
"Obviously I’m horrified."
"They explain their live in maid is actually a live in sex partner."
"So the strangest thing I’ve seen is a live in sex maid while babysitting."- cleaning-meaning
Classiness, Amid The Chaos
"Very large vanity style nudes of the lady, probably from a decade prior."
"Some were normal frames, one was like an old style velvet painting."
"The apartment was in squalor."
"Bugs everywhere, food just left out."
"Then you had those pictures."
"That was the weirdest."- Muliciber
Homes are supposed to be safe space, areas where we can unwind and be ourselves. Unfortunately, who we are can be a lot sadder than anyone might have ever known.
An Inescapable Odor
"It's not what I saw, it's what I didn't see."
"Old cat piss has the pungent aroma of ammonia."
"In this house it hit me like a truck."
"I saw no cats. I saw no dogs. Only humans."- Rhomagus
cat box GIFGiphyWrong Definition Of A Skylight
"Home healthcare worker."
"Met with a patient who refused to let me enter his house."
"Our first visits were conducted on the street, between his car and mine."
"As he grew to trust me, we graduated to sitting on his front porch."
"The outside of his house had seen better days, and could use some fixing up, but it really wasn't all that bad."
"It was the inside."
"At some point the roof had progressed from 'needs work' to 'caved in' and he essentially had no roof, as it was all hanging down in his living room."
"He didn't have the money to fix it, or a good tarp."
"But he did have the money for a tent."
"And so he lived in a tent inside his house."
"He still had electricity, and a partial roof over the kitchen."- floridianreader
A Testament To What's Lost
"Not really weird but sad."
"An 80-year-old woman who lived alone had a Christian type of 'shrine' dedicated to her daughter in her living room."
"That's pretty normal I guess, she said she had lost her 40 years ago and kept her pictures and small items in it."
"But the thing is, it turned out that her whole house was filled with similar items."
"She had written things that she wanted to say to her daughter on small pieces of paper and taped them all over the walls and the cabinet doors."
"It was everywhere, and it was clear from what she'd written that she had been on her mind 24/7 for the past 40 years."
"My job was to do household chores and basically keep her company while I did it."
"One day she asked me to look for some items that her daughter had made."
"She had misplaced them and was worried that someone had thrown them away by accident."
"I couldn't find them at first, but she looked so defeated that I went to look for them again and actually found them in the back of her storage room."
"She was so happy."
"She said that I reminded her of her daughter because I searched so adamantly and didn't give up."
"She couldn't move very well and had chronic pain and would often talk about wanting to be with her daughter already."
"She was a super nice person, one of the nicest I've worked for."
"She was just in so much pain that I almost hope that she got her wish."- humanoid1013
A most bizarre display
"I’m a forensic entomologist."
" I’ve observed every grotesque remnant of human decomposition and its concomitant evidence of heinous crimes but the most perplexing was a victim’s extensive taxidermy collection congregating like a macabre audience in her living room where she was decomposing."
"They were frozen perpetually in scenes of frenetic gaiety with miniature champagne glasses and a chess table with a vulgar mouse in a tu-tu salaciously positioned upon it for a line serenading rats."
"Debauched rodents were ubiquitous in her living room on every surface."
"I’m certain the white powdered snouts were simulated drug consumption!"
"These creatures solemnized her undignified demise with their impeccable suits reminiscent of debonair aristocrats and one anachronistic ferret petrified in a Liverpool united knitted jumper."
"Taxidermist rodent pornographer was her sobriquet, designated by my flippant colleague, and she became notorious in our lab and the story evokes raucous laughter every time someone remembers."- VelvetDreamers
mice GIFGiphyBarely acceptable for a pig!
"Babysitter here!"
"I’m not really one to judge people’s houses, but if conditions are bad, then I’m judging."
"When I say 'bad', I mean as in they COULD do something about it, they just didn’t."
"One time, I was babysitting a little boy."
"He was a cute little fellow, very friendly."
"His house was disgusting."
"The parents left for some sort of work dinner, I wasn’t really paying attention."
"Their house was incredibly outdated."
"Then, they give me a small tour of their house."
"It helps me get to know the area and make plans to keep the kid occupied."
"So I get brought up to this kid’s room."
"Unlike the rest of the house, it’s pretty clean."
"It’s your average 6 year old kids room, he seemed pretty proud of it."
"He opened the doors of other rooms, just to show me what’s inside."
"All of the rooms were just plain messy."
"Lots of stains, towels on the ground, SO MANY chips in the walls, the house looked so beat up."
"When we got to the parents room, the kids opened the door and I was horrified."
"The parents room was relatively clean, but it was full of animal pelts and rifles."
"I’m vegetarian."
"I felt like throwing up."
"I think that hunting like this even upsets many meat-eaters."
"These weren’t faux pelts or anything, no, they had been skinned directly by the hunter."
"Of course, I couldn’t tell the child my opinion."
"The best way to preserve the kid’s innocence was to just ignore the current situation."
"So I did."
"We spent a majority of the night playing games in his bedroom, he was a very nice and polite kid."
"I eventually put him to sleep and decided I didn’t want to sit down anywhere, the place was filthy, so I just saw paced around downstairs and scrolled through my phone."
"Parents got home, and the usual stuff a babysitter does happens."
"I get paid and I leave."
"I’m never accepting gigs from those people again."- BananaFatFace
Aracnaphobia!
"One home owner had 50+ pet tarantulas!"- Thief025
The perfect pet
"Not me, but recently had a window salesman out at my house."
"Asked him about the weirdest thing he had ever seen at a customer's house."
"His face lights up and he tells me this story about a trailer where the owners were letting a 500 lbs pot belly big free roam the house."
"Thought he might have been bullsh*tting until he pulled out his phone and actually showed me photos."- PsychedelicGoat42
First impressions can be misleading
"Found a couple who travelled a lot for over night dog sitting since dogs got separation anxiety and also had chickens who needed to be tended to."
"As we go out to this creepy looking storage shed to show me where the chicken feed was, it was floor to ceiling with mannequins all covered in gore, masks, chains, etc."
"Like a double car garage sized filled to the brim with limbs, torso's, heads, etc."
"I kind of froze and was shocked, there was probably like 75-100 of mangled gory a** mannequins in there."
"Wife could see I was like wtf and she laughed and said that they are huge Halloween buffs and every October they have a huge Halloween party for the whole block."
"They asked me to help them hang them a few months later and it was a lot of fun! "
"They had about 2 acre back yard with a trail, and they did hay rides through 'the haunted forest'."
"Even had a little cemetery with a bunch of spooky stuff! "
"Party kicked a**, and I ended up dog sitting/house sitting and other projects for them for about 6-7 years before I moved."- Woah_man34
Halloween Party Hard GIFGiphyMulti-purpose room
"86 yr old man’s house, a giant train set in a room full of tape cassette porno movies."- Jeebzus2014
Who knows what dangers lurk below...
"My husband is a chimney sweep in the North Shore of Massachusetts."
"He was working in a home that had an unused in-law basement apartment."
"While on the way to inspect the boiler room, he was greeted by a life size Crypt Keeper doll wearing a reflective vest sitting in a wheel chair in the kitchen."- SuperClassyKind
Be kind. You never know what someone might be going through.
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.
