Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

What have you found clearing out the house of a relative?

114 replies

Gingerrogered · 30/10/2018 16:21

I'm clearing out my Grandma's house. Very interesting. You can see it's a house belonging to somebody from the 'greatest generation'. Everything is neatly saved from threads to buttons.

I knew my Gran loved travelling, but I didn't know how much until I went through her stuff. Franco's Spain and postwar Paris. I even found a medal for someone who fought in WWI but I have no idea who that was awarded to.

Still sorting through the stuff. But I just wondered if anybody else had found something remarkable when they were doing the same.

OP posts:
DailyMailFuckRightOff · 30/10/2018 19:04

A rubber bullet.
In another relative’s house we found several portions of fish and chips, nearly wrapped in paper, and frozen.

iknowimcoming · 30/10/2018 19:17

A brown envelope with £1000 cash in it stuffed down the side of a bookcase at my dad's house - it was sooooo my dad and properly made us laugh on what was otherwise a really sad day

Pigeonpresent · 30/10/2018 19:35

My great aunt used to feed all the cats in the area carrying raw liver with her in her pocket at all times, as she became more immobile she had the liver delivered and just threw it out the window immediately. She probably found the stairs quite tricky so during the day stored the poos under the stairs- she very considerately cut brown paper with scissors and then sellotaped each package. We also found our family bible which no one else had ever been allowed to see- a beautiful, huge leather bound, gold leafed tome- turns out it’s not our family bible. Also 3 toilet seats and a cliff Richard calendar from every year since 1976.

steppemum · 30/10/2018 19:36

oh pigeon, that is sad.

VladmirsPoutine · 30/10/2018 19:40

Letters to a lover i.e the realisation of a secret affair and a subsequent family elsewhere.

user1494055864 · 30/10/2018 19:44

A very tiny pocket diary of my grandmas, dating back to the 70's and 80's, with only a handful of small entries, writing about my mum (her daughter in law) being such a bitch! And I also discovered from it that my dad spent the night before my 5th birthday in a police cell for drink driving!
(We were a very disfunctional family!)

Toddlerteaplease · 30/10/2018 19:59

Hundreds of Edwardian postcards in albums. For some reason my mum and sister took them out of their albums.

VenusClapTrap · 30/10/2018 20:47

When we bought our last house we found a leather rod, the sort they used to beat children with, right at the back of a high built in cupboard. Grim.

Idontmeanto · 30/10/2018 20:51

The letter my dad wrote to my mum while she was “confined” having my eldest brother. He vowed to sit on the maternity hospital steps until he was allowed to visit and she was to spare a thought for him sat getting piles while she got to cuddle his gorgeous baby.

I think it was intended to be sweet and amusing, I’m sure she took it to be so, but I would have been livid.

Tigerpaws57 · 30/10/2018 21:33

Empty vodka bottles. Hundreds of them in every drawer, cupboard, bookcase, handbag, coat pocket. No one had a clue.

DisgraceToTheYChromosome · 30/10/2018 21:38

MIL found £11,000 in out of date £5 notes under DW's uncle's bed. Which was fine as far as these things go, but when she rinsed it through our bank account...

PanamaPattie · 30/10/2018 21:43

Evidence of two wins on the Pools. Kept it very quiet. No one in the family knew.

HeronLanyon · 30/10/2018 21:43

A colt 45 in a beautiful hand tooled engraved holster which ended up having a lot of history to do with the old ‘Wild West’ and buffalo bill. a photo my dad had saved of my childhood guinea pigs. Had never seen a photo of them. Burst into tears. It has pride of place on fridge back in the uk now.

cablewable · 30/10/2018 21:56

I'm very fortunate to not have been through this yet. It must be so hard, I can't even imagine.

GooseberryJam · 30/10/2018 22:04

Photo album of my mum on the holidays she had taken with her previous long term boyfriend before she married my dad.

Ezzie29 · 31/10/2018 11:00

We opened one of the drawers of my dad’s chest of drawers and there was loads of change, which we went to grab, pulled out a handful and discovered it wasn’t just his change drawer, it was his toenail clippings drawer. Honestly wouldn’t be surprised if he had done it on purpose as a final prank! Very gross but very funny.

queenofelves · 31/10/2018 11:22

£30,000 in an old leather suitcase in the attic of my great grandmas house and further money hidden in just about every place you could imagine, every pocket, socks, books etc.. haha. She wouldn't get a bank account and kept all her money in the house!

Will be sorting out my grans house over the next week so might find some interesting things there as she was a bit of a hoarder 

Dowser · 31/10/2018 11:26

Gingerrogered..if it’s a mutt or Jeff..their names will be around the outer edge
I have both grandads wwll medals

c190 · 31/10/2018 11:26

When we cleared my Grandparents house we found a diary that my great great uncle kept while he was fighting in WW1, along with a load of medals. He was an artist and had drawn pencil sketches from the trenches, and written very vivid accounts of the horrors he witnessed.

It was fascinating to read and we always thought it should go to a museum of some kind. I think my aunt probably still has it at the moment.

ThatLibraryMiss · 31/10/2018 11:30

Hidden in the eaves of the attic of my late aunt's house, a tobacco tin containing letters from and photos of my late uncle's mistress.

No wonder his did his own photo developing!

NotCitrus · 31/10/2018 12:26

The bottle of sherry my dad had given his parents for Christmas over 40 years earlier, unopened. My mum said "It wasn't even good sherry then!"

Was helping a cousin and his mum (married into family) clear out the mum's sister's house, as they'd offered me some furniture if I wanted. The mum told me to take any books I wanted so I got a few paperbacks and saw a battered hardback of a 1920s classic. Then I saw it was a first edition and signed by the author with a dedication to 'Helga'. I read it out and the mum exclaimed "That's my grandmother!"
So made sure she kept that one!

Kezzie200 · 31/10/2018 12:29

A free gift game that came with purchased medication. It was extremely racist but of its time, historically. We gave it to the local museum to either use as an exhibit or destroy whichever was most appropriate.

yolofish · 31/10/2018 12:41

I am clearing DM's house at the moment as she cannot live there any more. Masses of paperwork, some of it fascinating - eg a 5 page memo my father kept about 'how to deal with the problem of homosexuals in the Royal Navy' c 1969, and letters from DB and I while at boarding school (mostly we miss you, we are bored, please send money and stamps).

My parents were clearly obsessed with torches - I have found about 26 so far, dotted around and inside various rooms/cupboards etc. NO ONE needs 26 torches!!

ICouldBeSomebodyYouKnow · 31/10/2018 19:51

A tiny bottle of mercury, when cleaning Dad's garden shed. DB and I contacted lots of organisations, none of whom had any useful advice, so it went in the ordinary bin in the end. Wrong I know, but we were out of ideas.

Dad's last, winning, lottery ticket. Only £10, but it made us smile.

A photo of a former boyfriend of my Mum's, killed in WW2 (according to my aunt). I don't suppose Dad knew it was in her handbag, and we didn't mention it.

Some fascinating finds out there!

maddiemookins16mum · 31/10/2018 20:46

22 bars of Imperial Leather soap. Clearing my mum’s house, there was a bar of soap in with stored towels, linen, in coat pockets hanging in wardrobes, in drawers, in handbags etc. She always said it kept things fresh. I’ve 3 left. She died 5 years ago. I love the smell.