When you’re writing a mystery or horror story, you more or less have to follow certain narrative rules and guidelines. For instance, characters have to have motivations, show complex feelings, and have to act more or less logically so that they appear more than cardboard cutouts. In short—things have to make sense to the reader. Real life, however, can be far more chaotic than fiction. And far from everyone behaves like a rational human being ‘ought to.’
Welcome to the world of the utterly bizarre, Pandas! Redditors from all around the globe shared the strangest and weirdest things that they’ve ever seen in someone else’s home in a viral r/AskReddit thread. And their experiences are bound to take you far outside your comfort zone.
What they saw ranged from creepy and terrifying to confusing and inexplicably awesome. Check out their stories below, and upvote the ones that really left their mark on you. What’s the most peculiar thing you’ve seen as a house guest? Be sure to share your own stories in the comment section at the bottom of this post.
We got in touch with Connor, the founder of the massively successful @con_spiracy TikTok account, to get his opinion about how modern entertainment that deals with the strange and the bizarre shapes our expectations. He also shared his thoughts about distinguishing between fact and fiction on the internet. Connor shares stories about true crime, weird facts, morbid events, and conspiracies with his 4.4 million followers. Check out Bored Panda's full interview with the content creator below, Pandas!
#1
I went to my friend Brian's house once for dinner and his mom set 4 places. One for me, one for brian, one for her self and the last one was for a doll with a cut out picture of Brian's dead grandmothers face taped to the dolls face.Very creepy.
Image credits: shortcakie
Fact really can be stranger than fiction. Connor and I definitely agree on that!
"I’ve read countless true stories that Stephen King himself couldn’t have concocted in years of brainstorming. The natures of the world and people are far more complex and unpredictable than we’ll ever be able to depict through media. For this, modern entertainment will never fully prepare us for some of the crazier and bizarre real-life experiences," the founder of the @con_spiracy brand gave Bored Panda his perspective.
"If anything, it will only skew our expectations and jeopardize our abilities to mentally grasp these incalculable situations that occur with no budgets, no time limits, no agendas, no frame of reference," he noted that the entertainment that we consume in our spare time won't necessarily help us deal with strange situations in real-life because the latter is on a different wavelength entirely.
#2
A functioning toilet against the wall in a bedroom.To be clear, there was no sink. Which makes it way more disturbing imo.
Image credits: lilp_stitious
#3
When I was little, I had two friends who had a trapeze in their living room.I loved playing at their houses.
"As someone who has seen my fair share of bizarre and even unexplainable circumstances, they can certainly be life-changing, for better or worse. They can open you to up to ideas that you once thought to be impossible and make you more understanding of people who feel alone in their own unique experiences," Connor said.
"But at the same time, they can make you feel isolated from people who are fixated on the only reality they’ve ever experienced themselves. While you can’t blame these people most of the time, this can be very frustrating and often forces us to bury these bizarre memories that we often wish we didn’t possess."
#4
Hundreds of those automatic febreeze sprays. Like actual hundreds. I couldn't breathe inside the house.
Image credits: PerishSong-
#5
A storage room with hooks on the ceiling and floor.
Image credits: anon
#6
I was invited to record a Podcast at this friend of a friend's house and as soon as I stepped in I knew this was a mistake.I felt like I walked into a voodoo shop in New Orleans. This girl had shrunken heads, jars of REAL human teeth. Strange black and white photos of random families on her wall. I was 90% sure I was going to get sacrificed that night.
We also touched on the topic of separating the truth of what happened from exaggeration. According to the founder of @con_spiracy, "distinguishing between fact and fiction on the unrestricted library of the internet can be very muddy."
"In my opinion, there’s no clear-cut way to discern whether a story is true or not. There are sources that can definitely increase our confidence in the truthfulness of a story (ie. research papers, government sources, Wikipedia), but we can never be fully certain," he pointed out.
"Even the sources I just mentioned above have (rarely) skewed data and manipulated information in the past to achieve a specific desired effect on the reader. At the end of the day, it is the user’s responsibility to use their best judgment in discerning whether to accept a story as fact or fiction. But hell let’s be honest, it’s way more fun to simply accept every crazy story, encounter, and conspiracy theory as absolute truth, am I wrong?" Connor said that these stories (true or not) can be wildly entertaining.
#7
A framed picture of an egg
Image credits: Jd322
#8
I have a couple. I used to install internet, telephone and tv at residential homes. Hoarders are common and never had a bad one I couldn’t walk through.1.Everything in the house was white. EVERYTHING. Walls, carpet, pictures, paintings, statues, plates, furniture, EVERYTHING. It was beyond odd and very weird.
2.Cat and dog poop everywhere. God the smell was so bad. I had to work upstairs in the closet at the smart panel and 2 cats were hiding out up there staring at me. Dried cat puke all over the place. It was so nasty.
3.This one house had a smell I couldn’t even describe. It hit me as I crossed the threshold and I noticed 2 old people in there. Something died or they hadn’t changed the diapers in forever. The smell was HEAVY.
4.One old guy, very nice, but man he smelled like death. I have never seen someone so pale in my life. No blood in his arms, face, anywhere. My sixth sense was going crazy with this one here.
5.Dolls. I’ve never seen so many dolls in one place ever. This lady could have opened a doll store and had stock left over for the back. They went as high as the ceiling, multiple rooms, all over the place. Special shelves were built for them. Come to think of it, it was clean. No idea how she kept the dust off them. Husband was super cool, but the lady had this obsession with dolls.
#9
My friend and his family bred and raised cockatiels. For some reason, when one would die, they would put it in Saran Wrap and store it in their freezer. I found this out by randomly discovering a half dozen of them one day when I was digging for ice cream. He thought it was the most rational thing in the world, and as a person that doesn't raise or breed specific animals, I didn't second guess him. Only in hindsight did I start to truly think it was f*****g weird.
Image credits: BartlettMagic
What Connor told us partly echoes the opinion of award-winning writer and editor Doug Murano, the founder of Bad Hand Books. "My professional expertise is limited to fiction, but I'll say this: I've seen enough real magic and wonder in the world to make me think twice about whether the supernatural is real—and I think that's a healthy thing. It's perhaps less important to believe any given tale than it is to remain open to experiences while leaving room in your head and in your heart for belief,” he told Bored Panda earlier.
"Great horror stories thread a precarious needle: They maintain a sense of the truly inexplicable while creating a world and a narrative that provides enough answers to ground the story. Over-explanation kills most horror, which is why the shark is scariest when you only see the fin; the alien is most terrifying when it's lurking in the shadows; the killer is most monstrous when he's masked," he shared some advice for aspiring horror writers.
“I suspect that most of us—regardless of our spiritual beliefs—have a longing for something beyond this life. Human beings seem to be pre-programmed with this urge. So much of horror and speculative fiction grapples with death and what happens after we die that I can't help but believe much of our interest in such stories is an expression of a longing for experiences and existences beyond our perceptions."
#10
My last boss was a 42 year old white, southern, wealthy business man. He had a framed picture in his living room of Antoine Dodson, the "hide yo kids hide yo wife" dude.
Image credits: umidkmybffjill
#11
Ohhhh boy ok. This happened a couple years ago. Hopefully I can remember all the details.So my mom and I stopped at, what was advertised as, a garage sale in my neighborhood. They had a bunch of kids stuff in the front yard and we were looking for stuff for my son so we decide to check it out, but when we got close it was all in really bad shape. No big deal, we think, let’s go inside. As we’re walking in we’re greeted by a person we assume to be the owner of the house. He’s wearing black pants and a tiny leather vest with no shirt underneath. I see this now for the red flag that it was. He welcomes us and tells us everything in the house is for sale. Everything. Look anywhere you want, he says. Open all the drawers. Look in all the closets. Ok cool. Definitely DOESN’T say anything about there being anything weird in the house.
First things first the house is kind of s****y/trashed, but still looks relatively normal. Only obviously weird thing is that they have a giant tv playing a crazy looking horror movie. Super scary and gory. He says the tv is for sale too so maybe they’re just playing whatever is on to show it works. We look around and don’t find anything good and decide to go upstairs. Once upstairs we proceed into the first bedroom. Looks pretty normal. Kind of small and furnished for a kid. Nothing we want? Ok move on. The next bedroom looks like someone is sleeping in the bed. Oops - sorry! But no, it is a full sized human horror prop of a very realistic zombie woman and oh f**k in the corner is a very realistic prop of half a human crawling across the floor. These things looked so real guys. We’re like, “Jesus, what the f**k. These people are serious about Halloween.” We go to the next room and it is set up like a full-on dungeon with torture equipment and fake humans and piles of Barbie heads for some reason (??).
We are seriously freaked out and decide to leave as quickly and quietly as possible. As we’re walking out of the dungeon room a woman comes out of the other creepy room. We look at each other, wide eyed and silent, and all proceed out the front door to separately process our trauma.
#12
I went to this guys house, they had a pet beaver. Now when I say beaver, I'm talking they had a little pond and rocks and cage thing with a happy little beaver inside in the middle of their living room. The beaver came right up to the edge of the cage and let me pet it and all. It was awesome.As for checking the reliability of information, as we've covered on Bored Panda before, it can be utterly exhausting to double-check every tiny fact. Few people have that kind of spare time to be so thorough. Instead, you should do your best to figure out what sources are (un)reliable, what to read and what to avoid. Just because multiple sources repeat a claim over and over again doesn't automatically make it true.
Try to look for companies and organizations that do quality investigative journalism, cite multiple sources, and are transparent when it comes to conflicts of interest. That won't eradicate all potential errors and biases (some will always slip through). However, it's a far better alternative than thinking that all sources are equally truthful or good.
#13
My girlfriend in college had many odd things on shelves, I think the strangest were 3 bearded dragon fetuses suspended in alcohol in small glass vials.I married her, so I guess I should say our shelf now...
#14
My great-grandma on my dads side has two walls of furbies. I went over there when I was around 7, and started hysterically crying about those creepy f*****s. Never went back.#15
A horse, yes my parents friends kept their horse inside and when they came to our house they brought the horse inside too.Many of us are drawn to strange and inexplicable things, both in real life and in the entertainment we consume. People are fascinated by things that cross social boundaries and explore some of the less-than-savory aspects of the human condition.
Everyone has their quirks, no doubt. There are degrees of weirdness, it’s an entire spectrum. And it’s only by interacting with others that we truly begin to understand just how unorthodox or predictably we (or they) actually behave.
There might be a completely rational reason to have a fridge full of jello… but this little revelation can truly shock someone who’s taking care of your cat.
Meanwhile, it’s natural to miss your loved ones who have passed away. Sticking photos of their faces on dolls and seating them at the dinner table, however, is bound to set off most people’s inner alarms.
#16
A man in a hospital bed without a nose. I was around 9 when we were invited to the backyard - everyone was running through the house and I was trying to keep up. The sight of that poor man stopped me in my tracks.#17
My friend's main bathroom had a mirror with scratched in names and words covering the *entirety* of it. Also in that bathroom was a doorway, separated only by a sliding sheet, that led to a pitch black basement. All you could see from the top of the stairs...was the stairs.I asked if I could use another bathroom.
#18
Just met our new upstairs neighbor and she invited us inside her apartment. It's two units in an old house for reference. She asked us if the last lady that lived in her unit had a daycare or something and I said I didn't think so. She showed me how all the doors/door frames had locks on the outside of the doors... it was freaky.A while back, Bored Panda analyzed this human desire to watch and read disturbing stories. Part of the reason why they fascinate us so much is down to our evolutionary instincts. We used to be extremely aware of any and all potential threats to our safety. We are drawn to information that improves our odds of survival, though we’re far safer in modern times.
What we have now is the ability to take a peek at the dark and uncomfortable aspects of human life from the comfort of our homes. We can explore fear, evil, and morbidity while staying completely safe. Meanwhile, there’s also a deep satisfaction in seeing mysteries being solved. We enjoy closure and having our curiosity satisfied.
#19
I dated a girl whose grandfather once demolished an old medical building. The first time I went to a Sunday dinner at her grandparents' place he just had a f*****g human skull chilling on a shelf in his living room.#20
They had a large moose head with amber glass eyes mounted high above their fireplace mantle.There were electric bulbs behind the amber glass eyes that lit up - making the moose look like it was agitated and about to charge.
#21
I went over to my friends house once and she had a small like pet play area and they don't have a pet so I though she must have like a little sister because there were baby toys in it and I asked she she said it was for Abigail. When I asked who Abigail was her eyes got all glassy and she said "me" and went back to normal like nothing happened. Her name was Katherine.#22
When I was in high school, my Mom came home from a garage sale with a coffin. It was a wooden antique from England. It was from the 19th century. It had screw holes in the top which lifted all the way off. The couple who sold it to her were getting rid of it because they disagreed about what purpose it should serve. The wife wanted to keep using it as a coffee table w/blanket storage and the husband wanted to turn it into a gun rack. My Mom thought it was great as a coffee table so my siblings and I spent the next few years asking our friends, “Would you like a blanket from the coffin?” while we watched TV. So yeah, high school was fun.#23
Wax figures, and A LOT of them. Humans, animals, even a horse carriage. Like a damn wax museum. I noped outta there and basically ran to my car#24
A water powered rotisserie, that was turning a turkey that was being cooked over charcoal. It was incredibly delicious.#25
Went over a friend's house once, his entire house was pretty normal probably even tidier than most peoples house's, kitchen was clean and tidy, living room was clean etcExcept his bathroom where there was literally hundreds of empty/ half drunk McDonald cups, they were everywhere, around the sink, around the bathtub, on the windowsill, on the towel rack, on the shelving, on the toilet cistern, on the floor.
It was weird seeing as besides the cups the rest of the bathroom was perfectly clean the toilet was clean the sink was clean and it smelled fresh.
Still wonder about this to this very day.
#26
Wifes grandmother has a 11x16 framed holographic pic of crucified jesus complete with blood and crown of thorns. Creepiest part, its in the bathroom and the eyes follow you.#27
Hard to pin that one down.- At a friend's birthday party at her friend's house. That friend collects 1800s era medical quackery. Like a huge box with dials and tubes that, when working, deliver mild shocks to probes the patient holds onto.
- A friend that collected "bad taxedermy," which was less bad than tacky. One was a masterpiece in a huge glass jar the size of a beer keg: a sewer rat in a small cowboy costume riding saddle on a rattlesnake like a rodeo. Complete with three mice "kids" on a split rail fence looking up in awe. Sadly, her house burned down, and she lost everything.
- A full sized replica of the throne of Mary, Queen of Scotts. He had it at the head of his dining room table, but said it was uncomfortable to sit in for any length of time.
#28
Slept with a girl a few times, she had a wall of tarantulas and small snakes. Horror memorabilia everywhere including stick on bloody feet making a trail thru her kitchen.Bedroom was wall to wall mirrors...
#29
House sat for a family that had a zebra carpet in the living room. The head was still in tact with the eyes wide open & the rest of the body was flattened out into a carpet. They shot it themselves on a safari in Africa. Strange.#30
When I was a kid there was a lady in the neighborhood that had her entire home religiously decorated. I'm talking crosses and placards in every room, plus religious themed light switch covers, rugs, mats, towels, cutting boards, cups, plates, tablecloths, sheets, pillowcase, clocks, shower curtain, just EVERYTHING.It didn't weird me out too much, but it did a lot of others
#31
A trash hat. Instead of a trash can lid my friends use a sombrero to cover their kitchen trash can.#32
I cleaned houses for a while. One client was an elderly funeral home owner who lived alone in a big place. His master bathroom was carpeted (gross) and had a urinal. Directly above the urinal at eye level was an oil painting portrait of a man staring back at you.#33
my aunt has a framed photo of meryl streep in her computer room. i was very perplexed and asked my cousin if she noticed the rogue meryl and she casually said, “oh yeah, i told mom that her and meryl streep looked alike and then i guess she printed that out!”you go, aunt yvonne.
#34
I cat-sat for my neighbor once.Some Kitty's medication was kept cold. When I opened the fridge to grab it, I noticed tub after tub of jello. Everything in the fridge was jello. Like 40 tubs of it. Nothing else besides the medicine.