When people have guests over, they want to be welcoming and make them feel comfortable. A typical phrase said at such occasions is “Make yourselves comfortable.” Even if a host says that, a guest comes to someone’s home and tries to be considerate and treat the home better than they would their own.
There are people who may take the phrase too literally and feel like they are the masters of the house and the hosts are their servants. While experiencing such situations is truly unpleasant, reading them is quite amusing as people come up with all sorts of things and are oblivious to doing something wrong.
Redditors shared their stories in a thread when Mr_Yus_uwu asked “What was the worst thing your guest did when they took "Make yourself at home" very literally?” We would like to hear what you think of these stories, so upvote the ones you found most baffling. And please do share your own in the comments.
More info: Reddit
#1

Had an aunt come stay with us for a short amount of time when I was about 8, my parents let her stay in my bedroom. She decided on day two that she wanted to “help me decorate” and basically turned my bedroom into her own room. She took me shopping, and denied every single thing I picked out, but whatever, I could change it when she was gone. A couple days later, I came home from school and all my stuffed animals were gone. I used to empty the claw machine at this one restaurant/bar my parents went to on a regular basis, so there was probably close to a hundred stuffed animals in my collection. When she told me she’d thrown them out, I lost it. I went off on her, telling her to get the f**k out of my house, crying hysterically.
My dad made his only sister go find a hotel for the last bit of her vacation, and 18 years later, I haven’t seen her since.
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428points
#2

My husband’s old friend stayed with us for two weeks while we were living in Japan. He was very smug and irritating; an instant ‘expert’ on Japan after a few days, when we had been living there for two years.
Finally, finally he left on a Friday. My husband and I had separate plans on Saturday. I returned in the afternoon to an unlocked door and the sound of the TV. I thought hubby had returned early.
Nope. It was Old Friend - thinking we had gone for the weekend, he had broken into our apartment for an extra two-night stay.
“You weren’t supposed to be here!” he protested - and he refused to leave until my husband came back home and told Old Pal personally that he had overstayed his welcome.
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387points
#3

My relative stayed with my grandma and proceeded to burn the house to the ground by deciding to have a bon fire 3 feet from the side of the house.
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372points
#4

I had guests turn the pool heater on in February and not turn it off or tell me it was on. I noticed steam coming off the pool a week later and it was 90*F. The bill was just under $1000.
344points
#5

An in-law took about a 28 minute shower after I explained we were in the middle of a drought and that our well was dangerously low. I’m assuming it was going to be a 30 minute shower but we ran out of water.
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336points
#6

Dinner guest asked to stay overnight because of the snow (which wasn’t forecasted until much later that night). Spouse and I agreed as we didn’t have work the next day. But guest did - and at 7:30 in the morning he was freaking out because we hadn’t shoveled the driveway for him yet. “How am I supposed to get to work on time?!”
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318points
#7

My wife 3 days ago.
Tasked with feeding her friends cat while they're away for a week.
They said help yourself to whatever you like.
She came home with their waffle maker.
Pretty sure it meant she could score a couple of their Tim tams not make off with their appliances
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311points
#8

I let my sister stay at my house after her breakup. She told my 5 year old to clean up his "f**king bath toys". They were in HIS bathroom that we let her use as well.
That's not even the half of it I don't speak to her anymore
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288points
#9

My grandma offered to make him a sandwich. A little while later he said, where is that sandwich coming from, South Dakota? Guess he thought it was taking too long. 35 years later i still think about that a**hole sometimes and wonder wtf was he thinking? Just how could you say that to someone's grandmother you just met? He was my cousin's dorky boyfriend's friend. I was about 13 yo and appalled. My grandmother was the sweetest woman and an amazing hostess.
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280points
#10

My ex husband had a less than savory friend. He walked into my home once, helped himself to my fridge without asking and then when he got himself some silverware, had the audacity to insult it and say it looked like something a grandmother would have. Well yes, yes it does, since it's hers and she gave it to me.
Another time he went to my MIL's house when we told him we didn't want to hang out. We weren't even home yet! He came in, say down, ordered a pizza that he refused to share with my MIL or BIL, and just sat there watching TV for two hours until we got back from whatever we were doing.
He was a grade A a**hole. F**king hate you, Craig.
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262points
#11

I had a longtime friend who was just sort of chaotic and oblivious as a teen, super messy bedroom, yadda yadda pretty normal for a teenager. But as we all got older she never seemed to grow out of any of it. So by the time we are in our late 20s, I started to dread getting together with her because just getting together for dinner or drinks on Friday meant essentially committing to her staying the entire weekend. The final straw came one Monday when I had to get up to go to work (I was also a full time student) and she was still hanging out. I told her goodbye and made it clear I wasn't coming back because I had plans after work. When I finally got home that evening, the house was in shambles. She'd managed to tear down the shower curtain, just leaving it hanging. She had apparently worn a pair of my favorite slippers, fluffy pink pigs, and managed to rip the tail off one, which she just left lying there on the floor. Dirty dishes, of course.
This was the same woman who managed to catch my favorite sweater (hand knit by a former BF's mother) ON FIRE at a bonfire. Burning a giant hole (hand sized) and leaving it covered in scorch marks. She actually tried to hide it by I think putting it back folded.
The final straw came at an event for her parents where I was helping out and she literally snapped her fingers at me and told me to "get back to work" when I was having a smoke in the backyard with some other friends. I just never spoke to her again.
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258points
#12

My brother's best friend came to live with us for "a few months" because he wanted to move back to our state. My parents agreed because he was supposed to go to college and they believe college education is important. Well 8 years later and he is still there, all my parent's children have moved out but for some reason my brother's best friend is still living there.
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245points
#13

A friend brought a friend to my house. She and I were preparing food for us to have a meal and he wandered into the kitchen and said "Your computer has a password on it - I can't get on there."
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226points
#14

Came home, sitting in his boxers on my kitchen counter washing his feet and trimming toenails in my sink has got to take the cake.
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225points
#15

My ex-BIL plopped himself and a plate of bbq ribs on my nice, cream-colored sofa, and he proceeded to chow down. He used the sofa as a napkin, spilled the meat on the sofa, and I kid you not, I actually had bbq sauce on the ceiling above where he was sitting. HOW do you get that stuff up there?
Here I am, two decades later, and I still have not figured that one out.
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222points
#16

He got extremely drunk, told us "Stop me when I start making comments about the Jews," and proceeded to fall all the way down the racism tree hitting every major branch on the way.
That's the last time I host a Christmas party with beer, let me tell you.
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221points
#17

Redecorated the house with religious artifacts. Am an atheist.
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210points
#18

Had a friend stay until he found a job and got on his feet. He never applied anywhere, or tried to leave our couch at all. Another friend offered him an interview and he purposely blew it because he didn’t like that job. He was mean to my puppy and sat in our house all day while we worked and never offered to take her out or anything. The worst though is when he started blaring the tv at 5am. I mean literally almost as loud as the tv would go. And he was always f**king watching Scrubs. He left around a month and a half later after he ran out of money from ordering food for every meal and not leaving our house. He then made a post on Facebook about how the city defeated him and it didn’t work out lol
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194points
#19

I got my guest settled on the couch for the night, and I woke up to them right next to me, and sound asleep in my bed.
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194points
#20

Picked up sister and BIL from airport and dropped them off at my house before taking my preschool kid to a doctor’s appointment. Told them to make themselves at home, we’ll be back in 2 hours. They at all the snacks in the entire house, including 10 brand new boxes of Girl Scout cookies. At least 2 months worth of snacks. They laughed and said they “just couldn’t help themselves since they don’t have junk food in at home”.
Worst part? Girl Scout cookie season had ended two days before. All those delicious Thin Mints, gone.
187points


