People Who Work In Someone Else's Home Share The Most Revealing Things They've Noticed

Going into strangers' homes isn't the most fun thing to do.

I always get nervous.

Who knows what is lurking on the other side of those front doors?

Do they mop their floors properly?

Do they overuse patchuli?

You never know how many cats there are, and there are always cats.

My allergies are always flaring.

But we bite the bullet.

Sometimes you have no other choice but to enter people's homes for work.

Redditor cossie101 wanted everyone to share about the things they've seen when going in and out of people's homes while working, so they asked:

"Professionals who enter people's homes (plumbers, electricians, cleaners): What is something the condition of a house tells you about the owner that they don't realize they are revealing?"

Don't Judge

"Former cable technician. It told me that I do not know what someone is going through at the moment. Right now, my in-laws are living with me while their new home is being built, and keeping a house clean with SEVEN children is the most uphill battle."

- Brilliant-Clothes637

Playing Happy Children GIF by MOODMAN Giphy

Don't get flued!

"Maybe not what you’re looking for, but I once worked in a house in winter that had the fireplace going with the flue shut. The house was blanketed in smoke, and they disconnected all the smoke alarms. When I showed them how to open the flue, they both lost their minds. Apparently, they’d been living like that for years."

"I would love to be that oblivious. It seems easier."

- Striking_Yard_295

Cleanliness is next to Godliness

"I used to paint home interiors. 40 years of being in other people's homes."

"One customer was the retired municipal court judge. His house was neat as a pin. Almost minimalist, and tasteful."

"He wanted to have his basement floor epoxied. I told him it would take 2 days, I'd move everything to one side of the basement and paint half, then the next day I'd move everything to the other side and paint the cleared side."

"He gave me kindof a funny look and said let's go down to the basement, and you can measure. Cool."

"We go down there, and besides the furnace, the only other thing down there was a fold-up ping pong table. The place was immaculate. You could eat off the concrete floor."

"I have never seen anything like it. That's almost 40 years ago, and it still amazes me. My basement is full of stuff. Old furniture, Christmas decorations, tools, you name it, it's down there."

"We folded up the ping pong table and slid it into its niche, and everything was good to go. Nothing even to sweep."

"The judge ended up being a great client and a very sweet guy. He was very good to me over the years."

"The most organized man I ever knew."

"It turns out he went to Annapolis and was a naval officer in WWII. I wonder if that's where he got it, or if it just came naturally. Probably a little bit of both."

- jonthepain

Be Quiet!

"I went into one house, a pretty nice house from the outside, and there were boxes and boxes of stuff everywhere. My helper said to the homeowner, 'Are you guys just moving in?' After a moment of silence, the homeowner said, embarrassed, 'We've been here 10 years.' I told my helper later not to ask people questions like that."

- MadAdam88

QUIRKS

"Lots of people here are talking about how gross people are. Some people are just quirky."

"Went into someone’s house (mover) and everything was pink. Floor, walls, ceiling, furniture, their clothing, etc."

"Except their bedroom, that was lime green."

- Garybird1989

"This is the kind of comment I came here for. We all know that lots of people are gross, lots of people are hoarders - we don’t need a Reddit thread to tell us that."

"I wanna hear about the interesting and unexpected stuff people have found!"

- Careless_Studio_1293

COZY

"I often had the opposite experience, stepping over junkies to get to an apartment in 'the projects' only to have the door open and reveal a little oasis: an immaculate and cozy space."

- Dense-Layer-2078

May The Fourth Be With You Star Wars GIF Giphy

On the Inside

"I used to deliver furniture and appliances, and one of the store’s selling points was that we took the old items for free."

"Houses where people smoked were the worst. We replaced a sofa with a custom one, and when we pulled the old sofa away from the wall, there was an almost cartoonish outline of it. Except it was outlined by years of cigarette smoke. The walls were white, but stained yellow as you would expect. Beyond disgusting and sad to think about what it does to a person on the inside."

- swartz77

In Filth

"My dad did home renovations and repairs during the wintertime. He has his top three awful homes… the worst being the piss house. He was called out for a bid on all new flooring. When he pulled up, the smell hit him outside. He broke off two cigarette butt filters and shoved them up his nose, put an N95 mask on, and stepped in. First thing that happened was the squishy carpets… every surface of the carpet was soaked down to the subfloor in animal urine."

"It ate all the way down through the subflooring. The original hardwood floors were covered in black splotches of urine-soaked areas. The house was lined with walkways shuffled and made through piles of pee-filled boxes and trash. There were so many cats and dogs running around with s**t-covered paws. The cockroaches were so bad that they were visible in broad daylight. Needless to say, he called animal control and turned down the job."

- Heem_butt08

Jessica...

"Used to sell floors and had to do in-home appointments. I have seen some of the worst of the worst when it comes to messiness. The one that did it for me was when I went to an appointment for 'Jessica.' I knock, and an 8-year-old boy opens with 2 malnourished dogs coming to sniff my shoes. I look around, and there is trash and feces everywhere, and the smell is unbearable. I ask the boy where his mom Jessica, is."

"He says, 'My mom is in the mental hospital?' I said okay, where is dad? He says, 'I don’t know, he hasn’t been here in days.' Then the 8-year-old boy goes to show me this gigantic hole in the floor. It was, in fact, the little kid who booked the appointment in his mom’s name. I told him, 'Let me call my team to make sure I pick the right floor for this.' I stepped out, called my manager, and told them about the situation, and I immediately called the police for a welfare check. That was my last week as an in-home flooring salesperson. I hope he is in a better position now."

- jstanotherdaytrader

Suddenly

"I clean because I do not want to trip on things. My brother tripped, hit his head, and died instantly, at age 46, so that's a lesson learned. Dying tripping is true."

"We are all eventually gonna die, but of course we want to delay the inevitable. He died of what he could have avoided. So, let’s just all take it as a lesson in life. Cleanliness really pays off."

- tamyzster

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Lived In

"I'm a cleaner, but most of the houses I clean are already fairly clean. I can definitely infer things about how 'lived-in' the house is. I can tell the people who's fanily life is very important and have a lot of fun with their kids because their houses have messes in places, crayon drawings, projects, photos up a lot, and travel books or summer camp brochures. Other people might not have kids but have lots of pets, or cooking messes, or artwork on all the walls. I can tell these people are home bodies sometimes, but they try to live life to the fullest."

"Some people, the vibe is... colder. less clutter or mess, everything in its place. Less cooking oil and spices spilled on the stove, the furniture in the living room is less indented and disturbed. Cleaned a house once where it looked like the husband and wife lived on opposite sides of the upstairs and hardly interacted."

- Beautiful_Mind9015

I kid you not...

"My husband is a pest controller, and the things he sees would literally make your hair curl. Babies covered in bed bug bites, with parents who cannot be bothered to do the prep work needed, such as washing the baby’s bedding before the treatment- I kid you not. Beds are alive with bed bugs and living like it for YEARS. People living with rats as part of their normal life."

- Admirable_Holiday653

Apologies

"The ones with the cleanest homes always apologise about the ‘mess’, while those with the filthiest, smelliest, cluttered to the max homes never even hint at being embarrassed by their state of living."

- CapableMaterial735

"This is not just a coincidence. A lot of people who are messy simply don't see it as an issue. People who take the time to clean do it because they see being messy as a problem. In between are the people who are messy all the time except when they're expecting guests, and then they straighten up."

"It's all a matter of perspective."

- miraculum_one

Keep your shoes on!

"I had a job that required me to enter homes to measure windows. Many were messy, cluttered, and/or dirty. One in particular was all three and had more dogs and cats than I could count. Ironically, the owner asked if I minded taking off my shoes, which I usually did, but this time I did so with a great deal of reluctance. Sure enough, my very first step was into a puddle of urine. Not sure if it was dog car or child, but definitely urine. Started taking those little shoe covers with me everywhere after that!"

- TopJimmy237

Always bring your own!

"As someone who has been associated with both homes and automobiles, I can tell you that I will never eat at a potluck again."

- muhhuh

"This comment made me smile, then think, then shudder a little bit. Ick."

- salacious_pickle

"Couldn't agree more. Watched a guy mix up the food he brought with his hands. No washing them first or anything. Can't even tell you how many times I'd be washing my hands in the bathroom and I'd watch this guy walk out of the stall and straight out the door."

- wearelegion1134

Nhh GIF by New Harmony High School Giphy

Never trust a potluck.

The stories people's kitchens could tell.

That is definitely a danger zone!

No joke, death by tripping is one of my odd fears.

Fear confirmed!