35 Times Homeowners Seemed Normal, But The Inside Of Their Homes Revealed Another Story

We make assumptions about people all the time, but our assessments aren’t always correct. People can surprise us, and not always in a good way. Recently, Redditor Large_Draft6126 asked, “What is the most disturbing thing you have seen in the home of someone who appeared to be a ‘normal’ person?”

#1

Image source: IndividualCurious322, Narciso Arellano/unsplash

A genuine Egyptian mummy which was stolen by their father from the Museum he worked at.

#2

Image source: ritual_tradition, Faruk Tokluoğlu/unsplash

This story is less disturbing and more, ‘whoa.’

Several years ago, my family and I were on the hunt for a new house. We were moving across the country to be closer to family. We picked a weekend and spent several days touring homes for sale in the new location.

One home we toured seemed pretty normal, if not unimpressive. The experience was a little strange because the owner was actually at the home while we were touring, which is not typical, at least in the US. Normally, it would just be the realtor and the prospective buyers walking through the home.

In this case, however, the seller — a lady who was in her late 60s — asked an odd question…”Do I have to declare EVERYthing?”

And my response was, “Well, if you want to sell the house, yes.”

She obliged.

There were two things she showed us:

1. A walk-in closet that had been “converted” to a home office. As she fiddled with the keys to unlock the three deadbolts on this “office” door, she looked over at us with a smile, “I do some work for the church.”

Upon glancing inside the closet/office, it appeared to be a fairly normal office setup. Nothing to see here really.

2. The secret room. The aforementioned office was previously a walk-in closet for the primary bedroom. Also off the primary bedroom was a secret room. And when I say secret room, I mean, there was zero evidence whatsoever that this room was there. The owner pulled on a small decoration sitting on a shelf on an adjacent wall, and the door to the secret room on another wall unlocked with metallic ‘POP!’ and partially swung open. (Also, by “door,” what it actually looked like was just a segment of the wall.)

Inside the secret room was a small armory. Everything from AR-15s to MP5s and plenty of handguns. All of the weapons had magazines loaded. I wasn’t able to tell if rounds were chambered, but the owners were definitely ready to defend themselves from whatever may come their way. The weapons were displayed much like you see in the movies – several of them under the lights, hanging on the wall, and others – the AR-15s, in racks on the ground.

None of this is against the law in the US. In fact, I would commend them for how well they were securing their firearms.

But to this day, I still have to think…they were doing a whole lot more than just a little “work for the church.”

#3

Image source: CourtClarkMusic, Annie Spratt/unsplash

My best friend in middle school. Only child with a single mom who worked all the time. The first time I went to his house, my nostrils were invaded with the worst smell one could imagine. Couldn’t figure out what it could possibly be, but it was strong and almost burned the nose.

We went into the unfinished basement to play with his massive model train set (which was quite impressive), where I saw against the length of the farthest wall were newspapers covering the floor, with the occasional pile of dog s**t on them. *Ok, the dogs s**t and p**s there… gross but I guess that explains the smell.*

It didn’t take long to realize that there were *several layers* of newspaper there, where it became quickly apparent that the family never cleaned up the dog excrement, they just *put new newspapers over the old dog s**t and p**s*.

#4

Image source: stillanewfie, laura adai/unsplash

I had to complete a home (sewer backup) inspection at a residence years ago, the man was the Principal of a local Jr. public school, while his wife was a Vice-Principal at another. The Wife came from a prominent local family.

Anyway, I entered the laundry room and on one wall there was a row of coat hooks, maybe 4 or 5. Each hook had at least one pair of underwear hanging from them…men’s and women’s. EACH pair of underwear was inside out and caked with sh*t. I have never seen anything like that in my 20 years doing that job.

#5

Image source: ElowynElif, Faruk Tokluoğlu/unsplash

Some very rich people, who moved near us when I was growing up, had a large estate. When I was maybe 10, the teenaged son (14 or 15) gave me a tour of the main house. It had a bunch of short hidden passageways so you could go from one room to an adjacent room without being seen. In the master bedroom, he also showed me the headboard, which could be pushed down to reveal a large hidden area. It was filled with bricks of pot and had a s*****n on a rack. The father was a celebrated head of business who often received national attention and awards.

#6

Image source: ButttRuckusss, Neakasa/unsplash

After 4 amazing dates with a guy I thought was a real catch, he invited me over to his house. I was hit with a powerful stench of cat box. He had two cats and it was clear looking around and smelling his home that he neglected the f**k out of them. He seemed like such a thoughtful and intelligent guy when I was getting to know him.

#7

Image source: old_Spivey, Getty Images/unsplash

A neighbor in her late 70s asked me if I could unclog her toilet. While doing that I noticed a huge veiny d***o suction cupped to the rear wall of her tub/shower.

#8

Image source: HallettCove5158, Getty Images/unsplash

Not necessarily disturbing, but I’ve built domestic extensions and surveyed homes all my life, so I’ve been in more homes than a lot of people. I’ve seen more than my share of completely n**e arty photos of the wife in pride of place on the walls. Always thought it odd that something so intimate would be on show for visitors.

#9

Image source: Sestomatic, Getty Images/unsplash

My family owns a pest control business…I’ve seen some s**t…

…literally.

First thing that comes to mind:

My uncle (owner of said business) calls me morning of a day

“Buddy, I need you to meet me for a job (gives me the address and time) we have a fly job”

“Bring your masks. Bring chewing gum, and bring am extra set of your uniform. We’re about to see some s**t”

He didn’t know it at the time, but he was being literal.

Now, being in pest control, it’s very unusual to get a job for “flies” outside restaurants. So this was intriguing.

Fast forward, we are at the front door of an otherwise unsuspecting suburban house, in a middle class neighborhood. Everyone has groomed lawns, it might as well be Pleasantville. We approach the front door and we both immediately notice there are THOUSANDS of fruit flies just on the windows inside surround the front door…

I think “f**k, there’s a dead body in there”….

Nope. Just a house that when you walked into that was like getting punched in the face with the smell of human urine. We go into the living room, while the 6 “inhabitants” all were present. Me and my uncle are trying to be professional and do our jobs but the sheer need to gag and puke was in full effect. We walked through this house and saw unimaginable amount of flies…I can’t even describe. The smell was horrendous…but the had become immune. If you didn’t know, the olfactory sense(sense of smell) only works with changes of odor. I.e. these people were so used to it they didn’t notice and 2 pest control professionals (who have smelled the worst things you can imagine regularly) felt like they had to hurl in the presence.

We had to figure out the source…we came across a living room floor so bowed out of shape from moisture damage that the floor boards were about 2 feet elevated in a mushroom shape in the middle of their living room. Going further, they had a reclining couch that on the area where you would put your legs to lay back all comfy had a mound of s**t between where a humans legs would go. It was a mound EASILY weeks old if not months.

We proceed further into the house and find an “office” (all these adults living here were employed, allegedly) and we proceed to find an elephant-in-a-f*****g-zoo sized pile of human s**t below the desk chair that was pulled up to a functioning modern PC….whoever was the owner seems to “Eric cartman in make love not war craft style” s**t on the floor instead of stopping their work in their office chair.

We proceeded to get out of the house, I puked, we came back and talked to the home owners and respectfully described what needed to be done to rid them of the flies. It was not an easy conversation. We went back in dawning masks and suits and did our thing. Told them they needed to do certain things, i.e. clean up their own f*****g s**t turds and wash their carpet otherwise it would all happen again.

Took 4 visits. We got rid of the flies and said we’re out. During that time we had to call someone because kids under 18 were living in that…last thing I heard was that social services got involved.

All this at a house from the sidewalk looks like upstanding citizens in an HOA and s**t.

That’s the ONE story that jumps out at me first. Lol

#10

I once worked as a cleaning lady. I was 21, just lived on my own and still had a lot of maturing to do.

I’m very skinny. People often think I am anorexic.

There was this lady that always seemed to be annoyed with me, always seemed to have a goal to make my hours there as miserable as possible. She picked fights over everything I did, or refused to do because it clearly stated in my work contract that I wasn’t allowed to.

I’m pretty sure one day she let me iron her unwashed clothes, they had stains and I could clearly smell pee, no animals in the house so can’t blame it on a cat, and 2 full baskets of her daughter in law, which, I also wasn’t allowed to do, but I kept my mouth shut and ironed their clean clothes instead of the pee-basket of her.

I asked her if she was sure the laundry was clean, and she said it was. She seemed annoyed.

Another day she asked me to clean the toilet and there was a full loaf of bread in there. Nice try. I left it there for her. I’m not a plumber.

One day I had to clean the kitchen and found a note she wrote to herself about how she always felt like a stupid and fat person. She wasn’t fat at all.

But I guess I found out why she seemed to hate me so much.

Image source: ChaoticMornings

#11

Image source: doobersthetitan, LooseScrew2266/reddit

Mover for 10 years…boy do I have stories.

One that stands out to me.

7 years ago, bad divorce move. Guy wanted 5 things out of this house, we show up. Normal looking brick style house, in a very very nice neighborhood. At that time probably 500k house. Now closer to 1 million. Yard was kept up, grass trimmed.

Then you walk in the door.

1st thing, there was a hole in the floor of living room, not a tripping hazard hole. But 10ft or so across the foyer/ living room, all the way to the basement, where it looked like she threw ALL her yank ( junk mail) mail into the pit.

(* leaving yank in because its funny)

No over head lights, dust and dirt EVERYWHERE newspapers magazines, just piled up. There was a cob Webb from her chandler to a wall sconce…10ft long.

She had an old school wooden TV set, covered in candle wax, carpets ripped up, or rolled up, exposed piping, one area I could see up into her attic.

She showed us the stuff that ALSO needed to go. Went to an office, and no joke there was a 6ft pile of papers, Amazon boxes you name it, could barely see desk.

All this was going on in a very VERY well off neighborhood.

Lady was a nut case too.

#12

Image source: Sudden_Idea9384, Go to urbanexploration r/urbanexploration • 1y ago Freaktography/reddit

I was dating a guy for about two months when he left his phone at my house so I went to drop it off at his apartment. He was a psychiatry professional who was always clean and looked very put together. When he answered the door he said – you might as well see how I live. His whole apartment was filled with trash. The floor was covered in trash a foot deep including food waste and enema supplies. Unexpected.

#13

My mom is an artist and she paints almost exclusively naked female figures (their features are somewhat altered a bit, but still look quite realistic). Every house we’ve lived in was full of paintings of bare t**s, just staring at you from every wall, following you around everywhere you go. As a kid I was so f****n embarrassed when I had my friends coming over… And this was in the late 90s. Whenever I tell anyone that story, they just look at me with a sudden understanding and go „yeah that makes sense now”… Well, how the hell was I supposed to grow up normal?

Image source: raache269

#14

Nothing. I was a medic in ATL and responded to a call to find a house with nothing but one two foot diameter maybe four foot high candle in the center of each front room and NOTHING in the rest of the house save a single bed and one set of utensils in the kitchen. Thick coat of dust on everything except for a well worn path through each room and the hallways. No extra clothes, no appliances, no furniture, no electronics, nothing. I saw a lot of crazy stuff in those years but nothing stuck with me like that place.

Image source: yubathetuba

#15

Hairstylist here. Had a client who was a well known DJ, went to her penthouse in NYC to do her hair. There were bags of c*****e, and piles of cash all over the kitchen counter and just c*ke everywhere, crazy.

Image source: immigrantgirl

#16

Image source: farynhite, I_cant_throwaway/reddit

I wouldnt say they appeared too normal but two friends who cooked at one of the finest restaurants in town and were roomates had a small party at their house (i’d known them up to this point a year or so as a fellow chef from another restaurant).

Their house was the most disgusting place I’d ever seen in my life. This coming from someone who has seen every episode of Hoarders and grew up with a grandmother who hoarded to the extreme. Every literal inch of the place was covered in at least a foot of trash. You had to literally wade through to move. Pure trash, garbage, bottles, feces covered tp in mountains in the bathroom. Awful.

I immediately offered help and went and bought trash bags and just started clearing room. In an hour there were 8 30gallon bags full but by that point one of the dudes lost his buzz or some s**t and refused to let the bags leave the door. It was bizarro.

They were 38, btw.

#17

Image source: The-Great-Ennui, OldMansWar1234/reddit

A squirrel in my friend’s fridge, skinned and ready to eat

Friend’s grandfather’s house—HUGE pornographic posters of n**e women in various poses over his and his wife’s bed. Definitely jarring for a child to see.

Roaches crawling over, under, and around a fridge and couch in my friend’s grandmother’s trailer.

#18

Wanted a yellow canary bird for my Mom as a present. Local pet store owner didn’t have one. So gave me her suppliers number. Scheduled to come visit. Pulled up to a large house. Probably around 5-6000 sqft. She opened the garage and invited me in. Shock and awe followed as the ENTIRE house was full of birds. Like thousands and thousands of them. The majority of which were loose and flying/walking/s******g EVERYWHERE. Like full on Macaw Parrots screaming at the top of their lungs. Love Birds walking arou d everywhere. Cockatoos randomly flying at my head. Y far one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen. Entire place was plastered with bird s**t.

Image source: MisterListerReseller

#19

My ex is a realtor. Was looking at a house alone to get an idea about features and take pics.

There was a noose made of hair in the basement.

Image source: Ohshitz-

#20

Flooring install/sales for 25 years…human feces in all the bedroom closets in this place. Plenty of running water, bathrooms, and toilets working as well. Why are you s******g in the closet!!!! I went to do the measurements, and I let the landlord know that we will replace the carpet after a hazmat crew comes. Didn’t get that job.

Image source: shungs_kungfu

#21

Image source: Crazy_Cauliflower_74, Valeriia Miller/unsplash

A huge framed picture of Sadam Hussain above the fireplace.

#22

Image source: SmooshMagooshe, Getty Images/unsplash

I lived with a totally normal looking dude who works at Costco and he owned about 30 s*x dolls.

#23

The first and only time I stayed over at a new friend’s house. Dad was a pastor. She had 4 brothers and a sister. Ages 4 to 17?  Before bed they all took showers. The dad stood in the doorway of the bathroom watching while each kid showered. I never went near any of them again. .

Image source: DustOne7437

#24

Image source: Sea_Nectarine_8884, Phil Hearing/unsplash

My best friend has been my best friend since we were children. Her grandparents were super sweet, super normal people whose house I spent plenty of time at as a child.

They had the skeleton of a 3yo in the basement. Like, a legitimate one. Her grandfather was an anatomy professor and for some reason had it stored in his basement temporarily.

F****n wild tho.

#25

I had dated a female attorney who lived in my building. Very prim and proper.

She always wanted to go to my place. eventually it got weird and I insisted we go to her place. We get to her bedroom and it’s just a mattress on the floor. No other furniture in the bedroom. Weird.

I was helping her change the sheets the next morning and there was this insane, rambling message praising Satan and death scrawled in what… I hope … was red paint on the mattress.

“WTAF is this?!” My mind was racing and I was now convinced she was a crazy person.

“Oh, I bought that mattress used on Craigslist. I don’t know what it says.”.

Image source: HBKdfw

#26

Image source: tess2020x, Planet Volumes/unsplash

My friends house in the mid eighties. In the basement her dad had all these board games hung up on the walls. After the game would end her dad would glue the remaining pieces to the board game showing how the game ended. Kinda weird.

#27

Image source: potential1, Getty Images/unsplash

Worked with a contractor type guy at one point. Just here and there, our paths crossed at a shared customers house at one point. One day he asked me come by his place and help clean his gutters, replace a well pump, maybe a bonfire after. After the work was done he was like, “oh you gotta come in and check out my sound system.” The classic beginning of Top Gun scene. Before we bounced back outside, almost as an afterthought, he goes, “wait, you like history, you’ll get a kick outta this.” Mother f****r had an entire room decked out in N**i memorabilia or whatever you wanna call it. Uniforms, swords, pistols, flags, medals, you f****n name it. Like a god d**n museum. It was a incredible amount of stuff.

Needless to say I didn’t stay for the bonfire.

#28

Image source: Temporary-Row-2992, noregs_vaapen/reddit

A manikin beside their bed. It was a 2nd WW German paratrooper in full battle dress. Complete with MP 40.

#29

We were probably that house for one of our neighbours when I was a kid.

We lived in a mill museum in a county park, my mum knew the rangers pretty well and one had a friend who did taxidermy. All the animals had died of natural causes.

Well one day our neighbour came over to grab some chips since she was doing her kids dinner and had run out. My mum not thinking just went it’s in the freezer, just grab some. There was an ear splitting scream and my mum was oh bugger the badger. The ranger had left a very well wrapped badger in the freezer until he could deliver it, my mum was just oh badger and moved it out of the way by this point. She grabbed the chips for her friend and gave har a cup of tea and explained.

Mum drew the line at hedgehogs, the hedgehogs themselves were fine, it fleas who were still alive not so much.

Image source: Parvanu

#30

I cleaned my house everyday, friend said hers looked like if mine wasn’t clean for a week. Walked in and the smell was horrendous it was hoarder level disgusting. Plates of food under the couch food wiped on walls every dish dirty. I spent an hour and a half scrubbing the bathroom while she did nothing and gave up. Last time I saw her she had moved and her place was so hoarded you couldn’t walk without stepping on piles. She was normal to me she looked clean she was a mom of two kids. It hit me out of nowhere when I saw her apartment.

Image source: mjh8212

#31

Image source: lovelycosmos, Thomas Park/unsplash

When I was a kid, my friend’s mom spit tobacco on the walls of her bedroom. Even as a little kid I knew that was f*****g disgusting. In retrospect, I should have called my mom right then to pick me up.

Also my other friend’s parents let the dog s**t all over the attic and never cleaned it up. Also should have called my mom right then.

Never went back to either house after those nights.

#32

Image source: medmo, SOHAM BANERJEE/unsplash

Anyone else’s parents hunters? I know I was the weirdo to some of my friends growing up. Opening the garage door to see a dead skinned deer hanging over a bucket of blood was very unnerving to friends whose parents didn’t hunt hahaha.

#33

Hundreds of photos hung on the walls. When I asked about the people in the photos, she didn’t really know who they were. Some she had printed from social media from ‘friends of friends’, others she said she’s ‘picked up’ in different places. Every bit of wall space was taken up with photos of people she didn’t know.

And there was nothing artistic about it – just random photos of someone with their kids or someone’s wedding or a holiday at the beach.

Image source: KommieKoala

#34

Once I went to an open house that looked completely normal but then in the back yard it had a little shed next to the pool which I thought was just for keeping the filtration system. Nope. It covered a set of stairs that led deep into what I can only describe as a concrete cell just big enough for a bed and a small kitchenette. It looked like the perfect place to… forget someone.

Image source: UndeliveredMale

#35

Ran into a former friend while checking out a house. He lived in the neighborhood and I was not prepared for the insane amount of N**i s**t everywhere along with his wife’s very tame midwestern home goods decor. I’m talking life laugh love white power decals in the kitchen. Most shocking was the giant hitler portrait in the master bedroom. This couple went to bed and woke up to a five foot by three foot portrait of Adolf everyday. They split given he was cheating on her while she was pregnant with their second child.

Image source: Top_Drummer6507