Or, alternatively, if you were to unexpectedly die, what would people find in your home that you didn’t really want anyone to ever find?
This isn’t necessarily sexual, so don’t call me a “masterson-head” or anything, okay?
I knew a woman whose father found his adoption papers when going through his mother’s effects. Until that moment, he had not been aware that he was adopted.
I found $200 US under the small carpet in my mother’s living room, we live in Canada. I was surprised! Thank MOM.
“Patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings.” Bob Dylan
Nothing weird, but I did find a Fathers Day card I had made for my dad when I was about 7 or 8. He had kept it all these years, and also some old Penthouse, from way way back… tsk tsk
We are, each of us angels with only one wing,and we can only fly by embracing one another
Nothing “weird”, but I came across an old picture of a young man, tucked away in my mother’s things. I showed it to my dad to see if he knew who it was. He studied the picture for a long time, then informed me that it was an old beau of my mother’s from before my parents were wed. He said he didn’t know she had kept the picture. I felt really bad, because it seemed to sadden my dad at a time when he was already very depressed at the loss of his wife.
WRT my great-grandfather, it was more what we DIDN’T find in his house. My gg-mother had passed away several years before ggf went into a nursing home, so no one was in his house for the last couple months of his life.
He was a man who had been really frugal and didn’t keep much in the bank, so my grandmother and parents expected he had some money hidden in the house, but no one really went to go through his things until after he died. It wouldn’t have been a surprise if he had tens of thousands stashed somewhere.
There was no money. But we did find out that many (more than 10) people from his church had been in his house, supposedly “helping out and checking up” on him. Hmmmmm, I wonder what happened?
When my grandfather died about 20 years ago, his children found documents indicating that he was long-standing dues-paying member of the KKK. In spite of the fact that I had heard him make numerous racial epithets about the neighbors down the street, it really freaked me out when I found out that he was actually an institutional racist.
After my grandfather died my grandmother’s habit of saving everything she ever came across got worse. By the time she died her house was literally full of stuff, most of which was old newspapers. There was a path between walls of stuff, tilting precariously every which way, that lead from a chair in front of the TV, to the sink, stove and table in the kitchen and to the bed and bathroom. Every other corner of every other room was jammed to the ceiling with stuff.
We had helped her dispose of stuff over the years, but it got to where it really bothered her to disturb things and since the house hadn’t burned down yet, we assumed it wasn’t going to and let her have her way.
When she died, my sister shouldered the burden of disposing of all this stuff. She would occasionally find something useful (scissors, a pair of pliers) in the middle of a pile, as if it had been laid down on the top of a pile and then covered with the next batch.
The most exciting thing she found was a cigar box with $20,000 in it. Apparently her habit of saving extended to more than just paper and string.
“Cheddar?”
“We don’t get much call for that around here, Sir.”
The only thing strange that my mom and her siblings found when my grandmother passed away was drawers full of nice, fancy underwear. Apparently, she was saving all those pairs for special occasions, and wore the old, exhausted elastic stuff on an every day basis.
When we cleaned out my grandfather’s house it was unbelievable that amount of stuff that had to be hauled to the dump - several tons (including 200lbs of old doorknobs ??), not including his rickety old trailer that we just left there after the last trip.
I had a great aunt who died when I was quite young. Apparently she was quite a miser. She would use 40 watt bulbs and live in the dim, rather than pay an extra 4 cents a month for the electricity to power a nice bright bulb. Anyhow, money was found tucked away everywhere. There’s probably still a few hundred dollars waiting to be discovered by whoever leaves there now.
It’s not how you pick your nose, it’s where you put the boogers
When my Great-Grandma died, we found a LOT of old stuff (she was SUCH a pack-rat). Now, she died when I was fifteen. In my whole life, the woman never had teeth. My mother barely remembered her having teeth. She always just ate really soft foods. So, imagine our surprise when we opened a box to find…(have you guessed yet?)…her dentures!!!
Now, this didn’t happen to me, but to a co-worker’s brother-in-law (and, no, it’s not a UL). She (my co-worker) was helping them clean out the b-i-l’s grandma’s house. So, they find this old, beautifully decorated, wooden box. They expected some kind of fabulous treasure. What they found was…a sex toy. Go Grandma!
Well, there’s a house that’s been in the family since 1880’s. Only in the 1980’s, however, did a relative live there who wasn’t a pack rat. One hundred years of stuff - I couldn’t begin to describe it. However, my nomination for weirdest objects found were the 4 wedding rings - we think we know the owners of two of them but the other two are a mystery.
First, I’m going to send this thread to my son at college, the little pack rat!! He can’t save a clipping, ‘I have to have the whole paper,uncut’ I can just imagine his house one day!!
This isn’t exactly weird, but when my husband’s gramps died, we went to clean up the house and get it ready to sell. We found the original clippings from the car accident that my husband’s birth mother (Gramps’ daughter) had been killed in when my husband was five years old. A picture of HIM was in the newspaper, ‘motherless orphan’ while he was in the hospital. He had been told that the accident was with a drunk, and it wasn’t. HIS father had been at fault, and had forbidden everyone who knew to ever talk about it, and my husband had to find out the truth up in an attic years later.
When my grandfather died we found about 20 fuel filters 14 oil filters more spark plugs then he could ever had used and a whole bunch more of auto stuff. He would stock up on them when they went on sale thinking he was saving money. Which he was there where 100 Susan B Anthony coins, 100 1976 quarters and envelopes of every kind of bill he could think of including the 2 dollar bill.
On the other hand who am I to talk when I die (hopefully not anytime soon) they will find about 30 AOL disks (and counting) and wonder about that.
Keep smiling it makes 'em wonder what you’ve been up to.
Well, this didn’t happen when cleaning out a house, but it’s the same sort of deal.
My Grandpa died in '89, and my Grandma followed him ten years later. My Grandpa was a marine. At Grandma’s funeral visitation, a man came up to my parents. They didn’t have a clue who this guy was. He said he was sorry to hear about my grandma and had read that my grandpa had passed away ten years back in the obituary. He had a marine belt with him and he told my dad he had found it cleaning out his parents house. My grandpa had given it to his father in the marines and told the guys dad it gave him good luck and he wanted him to have it. Well, the guy’s dad died, and he didn’t know what to do with the belt until he read the obit. He gave the belt to my dad and said, “My dad wanted Bruce’s (my grandpa’s) son to have this,” I just think that is really awesome.
As to the second part of the op, if I die, will one of y’all come over and throw out the pornos, booze and illegal fireworks?
Cecil said it. I believe it. That settles it.
Do we have to throw it out, or can we keep it, and divide it amongst ourselves? 
Amazingrace, THAT was an amazing story! Whatta guy to have come over to give that to ya’ll!
“It’s hard to avoid reading because ever wheres we go, reading is there.”