Imagine this: you’re 6 years old, visiting your great-aunt’s home for the first time. Everything is going smoothly, milk and cookies, a friendly little dog. But the you see it: at the end of a dark hallway, there’s a creepy painting of a sad clown. It haunts me to this day.
After that traumatic experience, I discovered that she wasn’t the only person who had such a peculiar taste in art. And what about Stephen King's 'IT'? I think the book and the miniseries were responsible for giving an entire generation coulrophobia.
But there's more. TikTok user nostalgictnr sparked a viral conversation after asking what people saw at someone else's house that made them never want to go back. The post got more than 330k likes and 7k comments, so perhaps Hollywood will adapt some of these stories too.
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#1
I was in 6th grade. My mom finally let me stay over at my best friend's house for her birthday. My first sleepover ever. My mom was very reluctant because she was so strict and they didnt have a nice house or anything like us. They were dirt poor. I mean middle of Appalachia, dilapidated singlewide in the sticks, dirt poor. I had the best time. We had a bonfire, rode bikes, hiked in the woods, her mom had made her a cake and everything. Her dad was there and her older sister too. When we were getting ready to go to bed I told her how great it was that her parents stopped screaming and yelling for her birthday because mine never do that. My dad didn't even bother to be at my last birthday, but that was okay cause no one threw anything for once. She looked at me really confused and said, "My parents don't yell at us or each other and the only thing my dad has ever thrown is a baseball." That was the day I realized my parents were not normal parents. I call her parents Mom and Dad to this day and went no contact with mine at 15. I'm 33 now. So, not the assignment but 🤷♀️. Changed my life. I would have given anything to have grown up on that farm without a [darn] $ or toy to my name if it meant they were my parents.
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#2
had a friend from 1st to 9th grade, every time I stayed over at her house we had to smell the orange juice before we poured it into our cups. Like her mom would be at the stove making eggs, one hand on her hip, like “did you girls smell the orange juice?” And we did EVERY TIME. Turns out her dad was an alcoholic and would put vodka in the orange juice.
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History is full of people whose homes have held stuff far worse than sad clown paintings. The things waiting inside a house can be downright unsettling, and in some cases, even illegal.
In 2014, the FBI searched Indiana collector Don Miller’s home and discovered a huge private collection. The house contained around 5,000 artifacts from around the world, including Chinese Stone Age weapons. Thus, a Chinese delegation later traveled to Indiana to reclaim hundreds of Miller’s possessions.
#3
I had a kid I was friends with in kindergarten. Met his parents once and they seemed nice. Fast forward to 6th grade his dad is my shop teacher. “Hey I remember you, my sons having a sleepover for his bday this weekend. Wanna go?” I thought nothing of it and said sure. My parents thought it was odd but remembered the kid and meeting his parents. I go to the teachers house and get told “hey so we don’t allow phones. We’ll need to hold on to it” ok cool so I have no way to contact my parents but rules are rules ig. Go see the kid I was friends with and he doesn’t even remember who I am. How does his dad?? Fast forward to around 11pm, the teacher and his wife come tell us it’s bedtime. I was playing gameboy and said “okay one sec lemme just save” they respond with “NO YOU NEED TO GO TO BED” like darn okay.. they set me up in their daughters playroom. Mind you there’s no bed or mattress in here. It smells like pee, and it’s freezing. No pillow or blanket. I change into my pjs and tuck my arms into my shirt to stay warm for the night. Somehow make it through the night. I wake up to change and my clothes are missing. [why?] how weird. I go tell the teacher and he says he has no clue. Eventually I get my phone back to call my mom to pick me up cuz this whole experience was weird. Fast forward again to school on Monday, teacher comes in with my clothes. “Hey I held on to these for you” dude [why?]..”why did you take my clothes?” I said.. “in case you wanted to come back over”. He ended up getting fired for…doing things to kids
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#4
When I was 9, I went to stay the night with my friend. The parents ordered Chinese take out. They wouldn’t let me have any of it because “we only buy food for our family, her parents should have sent her with money if they expected us to feed her dinner”. I was not only hungry that night, but embarrassed and homesick.
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Miller had spent decades collecting objects during his travels, but his collection went far beyond unusual souvenirs. Investigators found around 2,000 human bones, which experts estimated represented roughly 500 people. Most came from ancient Native American burial sites, making his private museum even more disturbing.
#5
when I was a little girl (5 years old) a girl asked me to stay over, I never really liked her that much because she tried to steel my bestfriend and was always really jealous. We played at her room until her mum came in & told me she had to speak with me. She brought me into her bedroom and closed the door and proceeded to tell me how bad of a child I am, that everybody hates me & my mum also tells everybody how horrible I am. I went home as quickly as I could. Turns out my mum never spoke to her & never said any of those things. The mum wanted my best friend to be the best friend of her daughter, so she simply hated me for my existence.
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#6
I stayed at a friends house, I was probably 8-9th grade. First time. Her parents we divorced so we were at her dads small old trailer. We were sitting at the dinner table he had made hot dogs and like ricearoni. We were almost done eating and she asked her dad why he was just sitting there and not eating. He said there wasn’t any left for me and that’s okay, As long as yall are happy and full. I was mortified that I ate that man’s last meal when I had food at home. We stayed friends but I never went back to her dads because I felt so awful.
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Some of you may remember Pat O’Brien, the guitarist. In December 2018, authorities searched his Florida home after a fire and found an astonishing collection of weapons. The house contained around 80 firearms, along with two flamethrowers, and three human skulls.
O’Brien’s story was famous for a viral meme that paired the findings with a couple of songs. Allegedly, he had written references to his collection, like “My Home is Full of Skulls”. However, this proved to be fake, since the title doesn’t belong to the band’s actual catalog.
#7
Ex gf, I could never comfortably spend the night at her apartment, I always got headaches and had a hard time breathing, and there was always a disturbing smell that she said she never noticed. I assumed it was because she had 4 cats and there was always hair plastered over her bed and furniture and floors. She hated whenever I tried to clean anything at her place, but one day the cat hair that was caked to the floors got so bad she finally lets me help her clean… I pull back the couch and find a MOUNTAIN of cat waste. Stacked probably 8 inches high, across the whole wall. That’s where the smell was coming from. She’s mortified, I try to clean it up for her and she gets really upset and basically kicks me out for the night. 2 weeks later, she wants me to come over again and I ask, “did you clean up behind the couch” and she says “well… I’ve just been so busy I haven’t really had the time…” 🤢 are we fr
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#8
I had a best friend when I was in 2nd grade. she would always ask me to stay at her house, but I had bad separation anxiety from my Mom because my step-dad was very physically a*****e towards her, but I always noticed it happened more frequently after I went to bed or was away. I finally did one time and I got weird vibes from her dad. I told her I couldn't anymore and she told me we couldn't be friends if I didnt stay over. We didn't speak again until we were teenagers, turns out her Dad wouldn't hurt her Mom if I was there. We were just two babies trying to protect our Moms.
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#9
Went to my husband’s aunt and uncle’s house to housesit for them when they went on vacation. I had this constant creepy feeling that someone was watching me. I sat in the living room watching tv and I could hear heavy footsteps pacing back and forth upstairs. Then the footsteps started descending down the stairs. I got up and ran out of that house so fast. When I saw his aunt I told her about it and she said “oh yeah that’s why we sleep on the couch. Something has been following my husband for his whole life” 😭
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When it comes to creepy houses, we must talk about Ed Gein, whose story reached Hollywood and inspired some of its most recognizable villains. He influenced characters such as Norman Bates in Psycho, Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs, and the infamous Leatherface.
#10
Had a friend whose parents were still together and I got to see what having a house hold with both parents who genuinely loved and enjoyed each other looked and felt like. That really sat with me.
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#11
Spent the night at my friends house. It was day when I arrived of course. I woke up at night to go pee. (Roaches come out rapidly at night) I didn’t see anything during the day.. which is wild because when I tell you they were INFESTED!!! There were thousands crawling all over the ceiling, walls, counters…There was a bowl on the floor with wet cat food.. it looked like a zombie apocalypse of roaches(you couldn’t even see the cat food) I laid back down… 🙄 watching them crawl all over the ceiling. I couldn’t go back to sleep!! One fell from the ceiling on my chest(which is why I couldn’t go back to sleep because I was afraid that would happen) wondering how many were crawling on me as I slept before I even woke up…I told my mama the next day. Bagged up my clothes I wore there and threw them away. Showered for so long scrubbing! They were clean people to mind you. Dishes done no trash anywhere… I have a huge fear of them now…my mom was actually friends with the girls mom. She helped her get rid of all the roaches.❤️they were roach free within a week. I still never stayed there by choice. As a child it just traumatized me…I did go play during the day mostly outside. I was thankful my momma helped them so they could live comfortably.❤️
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#12
My friend’s mom had a room nobody was allowed to open. One day I accidentally opened it looking for the bathroom. There were dozens of pictures of us kids sleeping. I never went back.
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One of the creepiest things people collect is also completely normalized: their children’s baby teeth and hair. Plenty of parents save these tiny remnants as keepsakes, even going as far as to turning them into jewelry.
Sweet childhood memory or tiny jar of human parts? Either way, it’s a surprisingly accepted collection.
#13
Not a sleepover but my uncle used to take me on dates with him. He had been seeing this lady for a while and she had a daughter named Courney who was my age that he wanted me to meet. We went out to eat, everything was going great. We went back to their house and they played with us and tickled us. We were all laughing and having a great time. The mom walked back to her daughter's room and there was a small stickynote on the floor or some piece of paper... other than that her room was IMMACULATE. Her mom saw the paper and beat the ever loving s**t out of this girl in front of me. We were like 6yrs old. My uncle grabbed me up so fast and told that lady he would call the cops and to never contact him again. He took me and left. Till this day I still think about you, Courtney. I pray someone removed you from that situation, and you are doing well.
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#14
I rlly hope they don’t see this bc it wasn’t technically their fault but it was my cousins house, when we were kids I’d go stay with them and their mom would MAKE me take a shower even if I was there for just one night, and when it came time to go to sleep everyone (all 4 cousins) had like a couch or inflatable mattress in the living room, me? Nope, I got the floor with no blanket, was up all night then their mom came out and asked what was wrong and I told her I was cold, she told my cousin to go get me a blanket, she comes back with a blanket folded up and when she threw it over me dog 💩 rolled out of it ON me, mind u.. that same blanket I seen way before she brought it to me it was laying flat with dog 💩 on it so she KNEW it was there and still proceeded to fold the blanket and throw the blanket on top of me. Didn’t sleep, and didn’t have a way to call anyone , on top of that they gave me lice that took 3 yrs to get rid of
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#15
I spent the night at my aunts house me and my cousins were up late being goofy. On the phone with boys talking in chat rooms on the internet. Anyway my cousin gets t****** and goes to grab water. She burst back into the room visibly shakin and says a tall man is in the kitchen doing something at the sink. We laughed it off and she begged us to go look she starts hysterically crying cause we didn’t believe her. As the oldest cousin I say I’ll go look. So we all piled up in a group about 5 of us. We walk to the end of the hall and sure enough a man was washing dishes in the kitchen. We run back to the room to figure how we were gonna get to my aunt cause you have to pass the kitchen to get to her bedroom. I said fkk it we have to do something let’s go. So we walk out again he’s sitting in the living room now. We get to the bedroom door which is literally in the living room. Our backs are to the man. We knock cause it was locked. My aunt yells “what!?” It’s late go to bed” I say, auntie G I pretty please need you to open the door. She resist. I say “I think if you don’t open the door something bad may happen……” my uncle opens the door we part like the Red Sea and my uncle sees the man. “Who the h**l are you?” Nothing. “Hey this ain’t your how’s get tf out” nothing. Finally cops were called. They had been looking for him cause he left the mental facility he was in. They did a head count at bed time and he was not accounted for 😳
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Celebrities are not immune to unusual collections either. Johnny Depp keeps insects, animal skeletons and movie props at his house. He even has limited-edition celebrity dolls, with miniatures of Beyoncé, Lindsay Lohan, and the cast of High School Musical.
Nicolas Cage bought a Tyrannosaurus skull at an auction in 2007. He paid $276,000 for the fossil, but later learned that authorities had linked it to an illegal export from Mongolia, so Cage eventually agreed to return the skull.
#16
Went to sleep over at my friends house for the first time about 3rd grade. She was the tiniest thing ever. I literally could never get over it. Just tiny. Well we played and what not and then when it came night time I realized we never ate anything so I asked her if she had snacks or something. She said YEA! I have something so good I eat all the time. Ok cool. Her parents were asleep and she was tell me to be quiet and whisper while we walked to the kitchen. She got out a chicken bouillon cube put it in a bowl of water and put it in the microwave for 30 seconds. She took it out gave it a little stir and gave it to me. I was young and confused and she said to just drink it, it’s good. Mind you they did not feed us dinner. years later I realized she was not properly fed. That’s why she was so tiny. She was malnourished. They were not poor by no means just oddly restrictive. I never went back.
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#17
when i was 12 i had a sleepover at my friends house every thing was fine until in the morning. we ate cereal for breakfast and when i had done i was about to dump my left over milk in the sink before she stopped me and told me to dump my milk back in the container that’s when i found out that her family always dumps used milk back in the container and i had just drunk used milk🤢
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#18
I spent the night at my cousin's when I was about 10. I kept hearing something and I had to use the restroom. I finally got up the nerve to go. I walked past the kitchen and I saw a rat on the stove the size of a cat. I kid you not!!! I was frozen in place. I started crying and called my grandma to come pick me up. She was [angry] because she knew they had those woodrats but I had kept begging to spend the night. I loved my cousins but I never tried to stay again and when I visited I stayed outside. I was TRAUMATIZED!!!
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So, the next time you visit someone else’s house, think twice before looking behind an ordinary door. You never quite know what kind of secret room or bizarre discovery might be waiting for you.
Which of these discoveries would creep you out the most? What would you do if you found something this strange in someone else’s home? Share your thoughts in the comments!
#19
When I was 12 or 13, my friend had a grand piano in her living room and when I stayed the night it started to play at like 2-3am. I walked downstairs and no one was there. The next morning I said something to her and she said she never heard it. During breakfast, I said something to her parents and her mom get up and left the room. I didn’t find out until later that her older brother passed away and that was his concert piano. It gives me chills to this day and I never stayed over again.
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#20
Went to a sleepover at one of my best friends house. Next morning we went into the kitchen to have breakfast and her dad was p****g in the kitchen sink and then starting throwing up in the backyard (later i realized he was hung over from drinking all night). I called my mom to come get me right then. When she showed up 10 minutes later I ran to the car and my mom said as we pulled away she saw him walk out the door behind me and started pe****g in his front yard on a bush. Right in the yard in broad daylight. I never went to her house ever again.
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