#1
Anon:
I went over to a college friend's house and watched him do that right in the middle of talking with his mother. I was completely shocked and decided right then and there that I wasn't going to sit down or touch anything until we left.
JabberJauw:
In a lot of countries this is normal. When I was in high school I was talking to a teacher after class and there was an exchange student with the teacher and I and he just spit on the ground like it was nothing. The teachers jaw just dropped and said are you gonna clean that up. The exchange student was oblivious to the fact that it wasn't normal in america to spit on the ground inside.
What do you see when you look around your own home? Anything that someone else might find creepy, weird, disgusting or unsettling? Or is your space neat, non-toxic and void of aura-threatening secrets?
Our homes speak volumes about us and can sometimes even reveal the state of our mental health. It pays to personalize your space so that it tells the truth about you...
One of the ways to do this is with color. Not only do colors set the mood inside your home, but they can also reveal to your visitors whether you're a fiery or laid-back kinda guy or girl. Among other things...
According to Fancy Pants Homes, "gold belongs to the luxurious one; red is associated with passion; green is mostly chosen by adventurous people who love nature; yellow shows positivity and optimism; blue is for the chilled one; black belongs to the deep thinker; pink is mostly chosen by joyful and loving people, purple by daring ones."
#2
Thereal_me:
Raccoons have a parasite in their feces, this parasite settles in the human brain.
brassmonkeyyy:
My dog door has a cover that we put on at night so the cat doesn't use it. Well, I was on the computer a week or so ago which is adjacent to the dog door. It was about midnight and I hear a scratching coming from the door. I thought it was someone trying to break in so I grab a knife and go check outside. As I open the door a raccoon sprints away from the dog door and over the fence. Freaked me out, would've been disastrous if we didn't close it at night.
#3
They picked them out of the ears of their dog and thought it was totally normal to display them on the kitchen counter!
SecChf_RocIngersol:
This is actually a very encouraged practice (minus the weird displaying) in my family. If your dog gets sick after a tick bite, it helps the vet if you have the tick preserved for them to look at. Any time we pull a tick off our dog we keep it at least a few days to make sure it didn't get him sick.
Krebs__cycle:
I wasn't sure what my nightmare was going to be about tonight. Thanks for clearing that up for me...
Is your home neat as a pin or does it look like it's just been hit by a tornado? If it's the latter, you might have a "valid excuse" next time someone comments on the chaos.
The folk over at Fancy Pants claim that messy people are more likely to be creative. "It appears that they can come up with better ideas in a messy environment. Obviously people can also assume you’re just lazy…. it depends on who’s judging," reads the property site.
#4
horseface312:
Ugh, the way my chickens s**t all over the yard, I would NOT want them in my house.
#5
She would also randomly search his room for 'secrets'. It wasn't uncommon for him to come home and find all his clothes turned inside out and thrown into the hallway, and all his stuff also searched, examined, and thrown into the hallway. When he got home from school he was expected to have it all put away in an hour. What wasn't put away when the timer went off was thrown away.
Anon:
My mom did somethign similar, only she thought I was stealing her things (which, really, she either never had or had simply misplaced). The last time, it was so bad that most of my furniture was broken and my bed was overturned. I ran away after that, ended up living with dad and grandma for a while until she left the house. When I moved back, it took me about 6 months to clean it all up and make it livable.
Of course, a few months later, she broke her agreement (to let us live in the house until I graduated highschool) and threw a fit, so we moved out and said f**k it, you can have it.
That was about four years ago. She's still stalking me. S**t's crazy.
#6
Anon:
Was your friend playing The Sims?
metallink11:
If I don't put in any walls, I only have to decorate one room.
People obsessed with cleanliness, empty counters and organizing everything around the house are (unsurprisingly) likely to be a Type A personality - outgoing, organized, with a penchant for aesthetic over function..
But what might surprise you is that some research has shown the most orderly people have the messiest sock drawers. "The explanation for this would be that they are more concerned with prioritizing and organizing more important parts of their lives," explains Fancy Pants.
#7
#8
As soon as I get there his toothy mother comes into his room with a pen and a notepad and casually asks us what we will have from the liquor store.
We must have ordered about $50 worth of alcohol between us. That night we just got absolutely trashed on rum & cokes playing Super Nintendo in his basement like it was completely normal. I remember jumping on the trampoline at probably 2 or 3 in the morning while his father BBQ'd sausages for us to eat. His parents otherwise sat in their living room smoking and watching TV all night without a care in the world for the stumbling pre-teens downstairs. At regular intervals his mother would come down with snacks and treats.
skratakh:
Brit here, personally we were generally allowed alcohol in small amounts at family gatherings, BBQ's etc, maybe a few beers or an alcopop or glass of wine, nothing in great quantity. I personally don't drink very often though and the same for the rest of my family. I think once you demystify it you kinda lose the allure. I can't remember friends families being strict with alcohol either to be fair.
#9
We also had neighbors who replaced all their floors (even upstairs) with tile because their dogs peed everywhere and they were tired of replacing the carpeting every other year. Why they couldn't housetrain the dogs or get rid of them, I have no idea.
lordandrosss:
One year my cousins mom left the tree up till new years. And my cousin started to complain. So the mother left it up all year and just changed the ornaments for whatever holiday was next. Hearts for valentines, eggs for easter, etc.
Whether we realize it or not, we decorate or develop our living spaces to reflect our behaviours, values and choices over time. Psychologists call this ‘behavioural residue.’ Through each stage of our life, our homes help us explore and develop our identities. And tell the story of who we are.
"Our homes are an amalgam of our choices and behaviours that accumulate over time," explains psychologist and research scientist, Dr Linda Papadopoulos. "The fact that you have a special area for muddy wellies may attest to your family being an active one, and that old crochet blanket that covers the chair in your bedroom may be there because it reminds you of summers you used to spend at your grandma’s home."
#10
Hessalam:
Smoking inside is okay, my family does it. But holy s**t, a dirty floor like that would cause my feet to shrivel into my legs, my legs into my body, and so on until I cease to exist.
#11
#12
Our homes allow us to showcase our personalities, says Papadopoulos. And we'll showcase different things at different stages of life.
"If you think of a teen’s room for example, their space is often very much a declaration of identity, from the posters and music collections on display to the fact that there are clothes all over the place," the expert writes, adding that the tean's message is clear:
“This is my space, this is who I am and I have (or at least am trying to develop) a healthy sense of entitlement to be me.”
And if that means a jar of giant ticks on the counter, raccoons coming in through the doggie door, or a Thanksgiving turkey chilling in a sink full of dirty dishes, then so be it...
#13
tezoatlipoca:
Yes, f**ked up, but common. My wife kept our son's placenta (a home birth) in the freezer for a while. Also, my sister-in-law gave birth in our home as well (its complicated).... and kept the placenta in the freezer. Something about if they need it for stem cells or to research some future disease or something.
Guaranteed, once a month I'd be rummaging around in the freezer looking for something to put on the BBQ, I'd be unwrapping the plastic bag thinking "hrmm, whats this, its a nice sized steak or maybe a chicken bre-OMFWUGGHAD KAREN DO SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR GODDANMED PLACENTA!!"
#14
At one house, a microwave on top of a toilet. You couldn't enter the kitchen due to the amount of hoarding, so if they were hungry they would plug the microwave in, place it on the toilet and microwave some food.
At another house - lots and lots of empty boxes. Stacked in every corner of the house, in case they ever had to return items. I can somewhat understand that mentality but when you've used that item for years, return policies don't apply anymore.
#15
#16
Anon:
I do that. Not for two weeks, but a few days.
#17
Anon:
Native American style: let no part of the animal go to waste.
#18
Growing up with a mum and two sisters, we all got through shark week as discreetly and invisibly as possible. I had never considered that other women didn't worry as much about hiding bloody pads/ tampons from visitors.
cankerouswench:
The worst I've seen was when I was stopping by a friend's house and she had unwrapped used tampons and pads by the side of the toilet on the floor... The f**king floor where the trashcan usually was. I was astonished.
But honestly, sometimes she would go through phases of not giving a f**k about her apartment at all for about a week or so.
#19
rhozberry:
Doing that with pizza would be normal to me now, at least more normal than my boyfriend's roommate's habits. Last week I was at my boyfriend's new place and his roommate cooked a bunch of fish and left it out in the pot on the counter for at least three days. It was just sitting in the water it was boiled in (I think?), and admittedly, it did have a lid on it. BUT THREE DAYS? FISH? Even cooked, that freaked me the fuck out. Then she comes in and says, "Oh, I'm going to make something for all of you with that!"
When she left, I made my boyfriend promise me he wouldn't eat it. The next morning, the fish was gone, and a (sealed, but... still!) packet of raw chicken was on the counter in its place. I can't handle his house.
#20
