“People Who Had To Clean Out Rooms Of Someone Who Had Died, Did You Find Anything You Shouldn’t Have?” (30 Answers)

After my dad passed a couple years ago, I went through a bunch of old pictures from his college days. He (let's call him Todd) and my mom (call her Nancy) met when they were both living in the dorms there. I found a picture of all the guys in my dad's dorm, and they'd all signed it. My dad's roommate had written, "Todd, you were the best roommate ever... since you hardly spent one night here since meeting Nancy..."

At first I felt a little uncomfortable, but in hindsight, it seems kind of sweet. My parents were never overtly romantic in front of my siblings and I, so although I knew they cared about each other, I never really thought of them as being "in love". I guess it's nice to know they were so crazy about each other when they first met.

Finally a post that I can contribute to! (though it may be too late to do so at this point but I will anyway) my mom passed away extremely unexpectedly and as her only child, it was my responsibility to clean out her belongings. We didn't have a great relationship to say the least. It was a lot of fighting among other things for years. However towards the end we did start to patch things up a bit. Regardless, when I was cleaning out her room, I found a collection of all of my achievements throughout school. Dating back from kindergarten to my senior year of high school. I didn't know that she kept things like this. There were things like random spelling tests or awards for the highest grade in English. It was really heartwarming and I honestly had no idea that she cared enough to keep all of those. Further more she ended up getting rid of a lot of her belongings when she moved shortly before passing so the fact that she kept and held onto all of this was amazing to me. I just wish that we had spent more time getting along instead of all of the rough patches.

Helping my mom sort through her cousin's belongings, it quickly became obvious that her cousin had led a lonely, yet eclectic life. In between beautiful pieces of modern art and Louis Vuitton luggage was stacks of letters that were never mailed and odd collections of random items. I came across a small cardboard box taped closed and labeled with "James" written in marker on the outside. I shook the box a bit, noting that felt full and was relatively heavy. I turned to my mom and told her that I thought her cousin meant for this box to go to someone named James, to which my mom said, "Oh no, honey, James is what is IN the box. Well, after he was cremated." Yep, my mother's cousin lived for years with her BFF James's ashes just hanging out in a cardboard box next to her luggage.

I quickly dropped the box of the complete stranger's ASHES and decided I had enough of packing for that day. Sadly, more than 20 years later, my family still thinks it is humorous to label gifts to me in boxes with a "James" written in black marker.

My parents divorced when we were kids and my dad remarried a couple years later. Thirty years later when my dad passed we (grown kids) went through his large office to determine what to keep or sell. In his desk my sister found a draft of a love letter he had written to the woman who would become his second wife while he was still with our mother, confirming our suspicions that he had cheated on her. Although it was generally assumed that this had happened, seeing the evidence was painful.

While cleaning out my mother's house after she passed away, I found numerous empty whisky bottles hidden amongst her belongings. I had no idea she had a drinking problem.

Also found paperwork regarding a recent marriage - and quick divorce - that I knew nothing about. Never even met the guy. Realizing that she hid so much from me made her death much harder to take.

When I cleaned out my grandpa's stuff the thing that caught me off guard the most was his wallet. There was still cash in it and I felt like I was stealing when I took it out. I didn't know what to do with his cash.

Had to clean up after my grandmother passed. Found a note from back when she was with her second husband (who passed in 1995) that she never gave him. She poured her heart out to him and said she couldn't be with him, she knew the timing was hard because he was sick, but she was just done. She must have had a change of heart, but it was hard to read something that carried so much of her pain and know how unhappy she was in his last year.

Like many have suggested, I believe this was a letter she wrote to vent and cope with the stress of caring for a sick and, from what I've heard, somewhat grumpy man. He apparently didn't handle pain in the best way and she never spoke ill of him later on, so this was a drastic shift in his temperament from the usual. She loved him, although it was clear that they were more companionate than passionate (as her true love was very clearly my grandfather, who passed in the late 1970s), but she was always warm and fairly happy when she spoke of him later on. I think this was just something she wrote to avoid blowing off steam at him, and she saved it so she didn't forget where she came from. It was simply surprising because she did always speak well of him and none of my family expected to find this. It didn't tarnish our view of her, it was merely hard to read.

When cleaning out my mom's house last October to move her into memory care assisted living I found a note in a book from my grandma to me. It was written in 1982. It mentioned that my mom was married before marrying my dad. News to me! It hurt that in 35 years my mom never told me. Especially when i had gone through a divorce in my early 20s, 10 years ago. Later I found my mom and dad's marriage license. Her divorce was about 6 months prior to marrying my dad. So many questions! They divorced when I was 4.

When we cleaned out my paternal grandparents' house, I found a few underground newspapers. Unfortunately, they were of the white supremacist variety. :(

This isn't as serious as some others in this thread, but when my mom passsed, my siblings and I were going through her stuff to see if there were any sentimental things we wanted to keep. The usual you know, a necklace for my sister, some knick knack elephants for my brother, I kept a ring and some tshirts.

We then came across this small little baggie full of our baby teeth that she kept after the tooth fairy came to us. Some people might think it's cute or whatever, but we all thought it was pretty weird and creepy to come across. Thanks, mom.