CuriositiesAUG 30, 2022

30 Of The Creepiest Things People Have Ever Discovered In Homes

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Nothing compares to the thrill of moving into your dream house. The joy you feel when you walk around the place trying to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the beautiful surroundings — it knows no bounds. It’s also quite fun to find the little things left behind by previous homeowners, whether by accident or on purpose... Unless they look anything but ordinary and make you feel like you're living in a scene of an old horror movie.

See, some dwellings seem to be treasure troves of the weird, the creepy, and the bizarre. In a couple of 'Ask Reddit' threads, users have opened up about the creepiest and scariest things they’ve ever found in seemingly ordinary houses, either their own or someone else’s.

From eerie-looking porcelain dolls to spine-chilling photographs and even embalmed animal fetuses, these stories really make you wonder about the darker side of life. We’ve wrapped up a terrifyingly uneasy collection of responses for you to read through right below. So continue scrolling, but proceed with caution! Some of them are bound to make you feel chilly. Keep reading to also find our in-depth interview about our fascination with mysterious things with psychologist Joshua Klapow, Ph.D. Be sure to upvote your favorite entries and share your own similar experiences with us in the comments.

Psst! If you’re keen on witnessing a whole new level of creepy, check out our earlier post about the scariest things that happened in someone else’s home right here.

#1

30 Of The Creepiest Things People Have Ever Discovered In Homes

I'm not sure it's creepy, but definitely startling. We bought a new house and shortly after we moved in we heard a strange noise downstairs. I went to investigate and it was coming from a little old door where a coal stove used to be installed. Nervously, I opened the door and a small bird flew out. After getting him back to the outdoors, I reached back in the hole behind the door and discovered bird and squirrel skeletons. How the previous owners did not smell it, I have no idea. Apparently, the little guys would fall down the chimney and get stuck with no way to return. We installed a chimney cap after this discovery. No more animal deaths on my watch.

Taurusteacups, Sandra Grünewald

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168points

#2

My mom bought her house 12 years ago, but last year, my brother kicked the front door down. The door had a giant metal lock on it (it didn't work, we just used the deadbolt but kept the lock on because the house was built in 1795 and looked cool), [but] the lock broke off and a bunch of little papers and cards fell out of it. Among them were CIA ID badges, business cards that had to do with cryptography, and other things that had to do with the CIA.

A few days later, I thought I would look through the house in search of more CIA stuff and stumbled upon a WWII round under one of the floorboards in the attic.

klydefr0gg

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163points

#3

A headstone in the basement - and it had my name on it. Turns out my grandpa kept the stone of my great grandpa. We share the same name

Cosmic_Surgery

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155points

To better understand why we feel drawn to creepy things and seek out fear, from pictures to stories, we reached out to Joshua Klapow, Ph.D., a psychologist and creator of Mental Drive. He started this well-being initiative to create and curate tips, strategies, and affirmations to help people access the best-in-class psychological and performance tools to live healthier, more fulfilled, and successful lives.

According to Klapow, human beings are 100% drawn to scary, dangerous, and mysterious situations. "Now, we may feel fearful, but it is an 'approach/avoidance' experience. This is a very primal, survival mechanism. By being drawn towards danger and uncertainty, but also feeling scared or anxious or hesitant, we are able to 'see' and learn what might harm us."

"It is the same reason we stop to look at traffic accidents, or feel like we want to peer over a cliff but also feel scared. This is our evolution helping us to learn what not to do in a way that allows us to survive," Klapow told Bored Panda.

#4

When my husband and I were house hunting, we stopped by one house that was actually quite nice. While we were checking out the basement, my husband noticed a narrow hallway. Thinking that some mechanical stuff might be down there we followed the tiny passageway. At the end was a bunker like room, with a single lightbulb on a string and giant Children’s drawings on the wall.

We did not make an offer.

knuchie, Pawel Czerwinski

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148points

#5

This actually happened last night.

I woke up and saw my dog scratching himself on the floor next to my bed. I called his name and told him to get on the bed, but he just sat there scratching. I called out to him again and again, however he just sat there scratching his head furiously. I used a sterner voice, hoping to get his attention. Suddenly my dog walked out from under the bed and sat in front of the Scratching Dog. He was completely oblivious to his doppelganger. I just laid there frozen, staring at my dog and what could only be explained as the creature from The Thing. What felt like minutes pass and then, suddenly, the Scratching Dog just f*****g vanishes.

That's when I remembered all the caffeine I drank in the evening and how it triggers my sleep related hallucinations. I called to my (hopefully) real dog and he hopped up on the bed and laid next to me. I struggled to fall back asleep, thankful I didn't have a full-blown episode of sleep paralysis.

BatSquirrel, Jaclyn Clark

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137points

#6

I bought a very old house. The prior owner was born in and died in the house at age 97. He had been in bad health and rather senile before he died so my house was in bad shape and very dirty. One day I was in the small, strange, poorly lit shelf basement cleaning up. I was in a dark corner looking at some stuff and trying to decide what to do with it when I glanced up and saw a brown curved thing hanging from the joists. It was about 4 feet by 4 feet and a foot thick or more. My first thought was that it was a pod like in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.” I got a flashlight and and took a close look and realized it was much worse. . . . it was the biggest wasp nest I had or have ever seen. I ran out and tried to figure out what to do. After some thought I realized I had not seen wasps in the basement or the house so it was most likely empty. So l cautiously and carefully removed it with as little destruction as possible. The outside was a beautiful, fragile paper like structure with a marbeled patten. I was able to save a piece that was about 12 x 18 x 10. I still have it hanging in my studio.

iggycat, Marco Verch Professional

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111points

It turns out we are hardwired to notice the mysterious side of life. And we also feel a sense of fascination when it comes to frightening stories. We are captivated by the genre and devour these tales because they provide us with a physical and emotional release — we feel the thrill while staying in the comfort of our homes, in a completely safe environment. This way, we get the flood of adrenaline pumping through our veins, but our brains know these threats are not real.

#7

I used to do social service at a hospital here in Mexico as part of my computer science degree requirements. Most of the time we were doing little tasks like cleaning computers or checking the internet, the boring jobs the actual workers didn't want to do. One day the manager wants us to change the cables located at the basement so me and two other students went down the basement with ladders to remove and replace all the old ethernet cable. Now the thing about hospitals in Mexico is that as long as the infrastructure works its the same decade after decade, no renovations and it shows. The basement while well lit and clean was really old. So we were assigned a different hall and started with the job. About 2 hours into it one of the students came running looking mortified and asked me what's wrong. I just looked confused and asked him what he meant and he said he heard a man yelling for help and though I had had an accident. We checked with the other student and she said that she didn't heard anything. We just finished the job and later we told the manager. He just said "Oh you met the basement ghost".

GustavoAlex7789, Andy Li

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105points

#8

My stepbrother had a basement that was full of gigantic spiders. And I mean huge spiders of all kinds. Wolf spiders near the floor, black widows in the corners, and giant spindly ones near the ceiling. It’s terrifying.

FlaxinWaxin, Hans Maeckelberghe

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102points

#9

my wife's parents basement

at the foot of the stairs was a pool table.

my wife (was my girlfriend at the time) and I went down to shoot some pool. as we got to the bottom step we saw 3 pool balls rolling around on the table. no one else was down there.

Wrong_Answer_Willie, June O

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97points

Moreover, we pursue and enjoy these stories because they allow us to realize our own chilling experiences aren’t isolated cases. "Scary stories are a means to convey danger in the safety of conversation. By expressing the danger and then collectively reacting to it, we feel part of a group," Klapow told us.

"There is a mechanism of support by experiencing it with others," the psychologist added. "Danger and fear are much more intense when we are alone. By expressing and receiving the scary content as a group, we feel more connected, thus safer and more willing to express the scary information and more tolerant of receiving it."

#10

When I was about 8, my parents left a bag of potatoes in one of our basement closets (one with the sump pump and water equipment, so it was humid) for several months. Everybody forgot about it until my younger brother randomly opened the door one day and freaked out, thinking it was some kind of alien creature. The potatoes had grown into a tentacle-like mass in the months they were forgotten.

adrianmakedonski, UnconventionalEmma

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95points

#11

When I was younger, we had a family friend who collected ancient Chinese artifacts / antiques. They had a room in their finished basement where they kept all of the items on display. Their prized possession was some sort of gold burial shroud from a king or emperor (supposedly). That room was always colder and creeper than the rest of the basement. You always felt like someone was behind you, a little too close. Watching you from the corners. I always thought I saw shadow figures just at the edge of my peripheral vision.

Empz, David Stanley

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88points

#12

My friends and I broke into an abandoned "haunted house" when we were kids. It was in typical abandoned haunted house condition, some old furnature and other household junk. When we went down to the basement there was no light bulbs, so there was only natural daylight from the small windows - dark, but we could still see around. We didn't search very long because a piano that we couldn't see started playing. We ran out of the house, and though I didn't see it, a couple friends saw someone in the upstairs window as we ran back into the woods.

As I typed this out for the first time ever, I'm wondering if the house wasn't even abandoned and someone living there decided to f**k with us instead of getting mad. Regardless I was spooked for days.

Speechisanexperiment, AJ Wallace

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82points

Scientists have long been interested in why people pursue and enjoy fear. Sociologist and author Dr. Margee Kerr told the Atlantic that certain people like feeling afraid because of the natural high from the fight-or-flight response. Humans evolved this reaction to scary situations because our ancestors would not have survived without it. When they sensed fear, hormones that make people faster and stronger hit their bodies, ensuring they have an opportunity to survive and pass on genes to future generations.

"One of the main hormones released during scary and thrilling activities is dopamine, and it turns out some individuals may get more of a kick from this dopamine response than others do," Dr. Kerr added.

Another reason stems from the fact that when people survive scary situations, they feel a sense of confidence after it’s over. "Think about the last time you made it through a scary movie, or through a haunted house. You might have thought, Yes! I did it! I made it all the way through! So it can be a real self-esteem boost," Dr. Kerr said. "But again, self-scaring isn’t for everyone, and there are lots of psychological and personal reasons someone may not enjoy scary situations."

#13

This doll no one knows who it belongs to. It’s a porcelain doll, with a red dress on it. No one knows where it came from, or where it’s been. It’s just around. And continues to pop around the house and people claim someone is putting the doll places, but nah. No one wants to touch that creepy thing.

OccupyMyTimePls, Aimee Vogelsang

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78points

#14

Go home with this girl and she's showing me around her place. On a shelf she shows off her large collection of jars with embalmed animal fetuses - mainly monkeys

She worked in a staff canteen and had no university degree in an associated field. I still have no idea why she had them or where she got them from. Frankly, I was too scared to ask

anon, pmv chamara

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74points

#15

My parents bought a home that used to be a funeral parlor almost 100 years ago. Dad had never questioned why there was a second bulkhead that went nowhere and when there was a bust pipe they finally had to cut it open

Inside we found a small walled off room that had hundreds of old bottles, odd equipment, chemicals/perfumed salts, stained glass windows from the original building and a few old ledgers + accounting books. Parents had no use for it and a local antique shop owner/town historian happily took it when offered.

We had received some cool old copies of photos of how the house originally looked a few years later

KnittyViki, Wendy Scofield

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72points

Psychologist Klapow pointed out that when we stumble across something "creepy" or scary in our own or someone else’s home, it’s the discovery itself that mainly drives the fear. "Then linking the scary or creepy object to either the person we know (if it is in their home), or to ourselves (if it’s in our home), creates a stronger fear and sense of danger."

"It’s one thing to discover something creepy or dangerous outside of our dwelling or a dwelling of someone we know. But if it’s inside, then the danger and creepiness become much more real," he added.

#16

I got called out on a job to clean out a hoarders house. The basement looked like it was an insane asylum that a serial killer moved into. Animal skins hanging from the ceiling, old style sewing machines, newspapers covering up windows and clippings of certain people, glass jars filled with...something, stacks of wet mattresses, old style bed frames,few rats, mold.

anon, James Qualtrough 🇮🇲

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70points

#17

It's actually quite harmless but: My Grandma shared a place with my Uncle's family (they basically built a house with a small flat integrated on one side of the house, the basement was connected). Me, being like 5 years old, trying to find my cousin's TV room (we always played N64 back then) open the wrong door - it's really dark and all I see is like a pyramid of dolls. My Grandma's puppet collection.

I never noped out of a room that quickly.

Nerex7, Raka Muhammad Iqbal Ismail

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67points

#18

I found my old 3DS I completely forgot I owned, I was excited to go through games and stuff, I noticed I had some photos on it and thought it would be a cool blast from the past.

I've never felt so unsafe when I saw the selfies of this girl I've never met before in my life and me asleep next to her.

jackscockrocks, Stanislav Kondratiev

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66points

As disturbing objects found around the house can change our sense of safety in the environment, Klapow offered several suggestions on how to handle these situations emotionally. According to him, key factors to consider are perspective and reality testing.

"When we find ourselves in a state of fear, or anxiousness or even uncertainty, it’s easy for our thoughts to be driven to a very irrational place. Our emotions can literally influence our ability to think rationally."

"So, if we are feeling scared or creeped out, it’s important to engage in self-talk. To tell ourselves, 'This is scary or creepy, but what is the explanation for it?' or 'This makes me feel uncomfortable or fearful, but what impact will it really have?' Self-talk and reality grounding will help you experience the creepy situation and still stay within rational control," Klapow concluded.

#19

Not a basement, but under a "plantation style" house in Hawaii. Helping someone get ready to sell a home, bunch of old tools were being left under the house, but owners wanted to make sure nothing valuable was being left behind. Two big lumps of dirt, each about the size of a human body, side by side. I informed the owners and they were like,"oh, never mind about those..."

BMLortz

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63points

#20

Years ago when my familly moved home, we had to clean the basement (the access was outside the building and the door was old and a bit broken)

First, the smell was just disgusting. After cleaning for a few hours, we eventually found dead cats, litterally rotten and full of worms. Like they came there to die during winter coz it was a bit warmer than outside, or something ...

Scary is not the word to define the feeling, but that was definitly unexpected.

anon, Cristian

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62points

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