What's the strangest thing you've seen in someone's house that they thought was 'normal'?

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I'll go first.

When I was 7, I went to a friend's house, and had bright red mashed potatoes for dinner.her dad always put food colouring in food. She thought this was normal, a d everyone had coloured mash.

@longwayoff

A friend from the Caribbean is an interior designer and was asked to quote for a couple of rooms in a swish London house. A house in which, in a glass case in the entrance hall, the family had on display some mementos of their past. Manacles and chains from their sugar-growing, people-owning past. She didn't get past the hall.

It wasn't in Eaton Square by any chance?

@ComtesseDeSpair

This is my parents’ kitchen. They think this is totally normal.

That is glorious

What are they ostensibly for? Decoration? Company? Scaring unwanted visitors off?

@ComtesseDeSpair

This is my parents’ kitchen. They think this is totally normal.

Hahaha !

That reminds me. My brother has this guy kicking around the house.

@Cosmos123

At a friend's house and it was dessert night. The whole family were excited about their family dessert.

It was rice pudding with a dollop of jam in the middle.

That's a really nice pudding. Very common where I live

I would love this I'm very into coffins and skulls

This a big thing here in Leicestershire for the over 80s I think. cucumber, onion and vinegar. Most people reminisce about their grandparents 😂😂 I love the stuff!

@Cosmos123

At a friend's house and it was dessert night. The whole family were excited about their family dessert.

It was rice pudding with a dollop of jam in the middle.

What’s not normal about that? That’s a class pudding!! You must be a snob

Not so much strange but gross - perfectly nice girl in my class at juniors, went around hers to play after school and the whole of the house was littered with dog shit. I can still remember the smell. She was happy, clean, normal little girl, happy family. Just dog poo everywhere on the carpets like that was normal!

Went to a school friends house and they had a bureau in the lounge with a load of teeth stuck to the front. Whenever anyone lost a tooth they'd add them to the collection. There was the odd adult one in there.

Poster answer this about 10 pages ago , not that it isn't nice just that the family were so excited to be having it. It's not particularly unusual or expensive or hard to make or massively exciting.

My own home as a kid, we'd wash our faces and brush our teeth at the kitchen sink instead of bathroom sink, I guess my mum just thought it was more convenient after we'd eaten breakfast?

Also for some reason my mum kept a plastic waterproof sheet on my bed up until my teenage years. One day I had a friend over and we were sat on my bed and she heard the loud crinkling noises underneath us and wanted to know why it was there (obviously thinking that I must piss myself in my sleep). I was mortified! Eventually mum removed it. She also has a set of dining chairs that are still covered in the plastic protective covers about 20 years after they were purchased (so they don't get dirty).

When I was about 9, so this was in the 80s, at a school friends house, they had a stack of porn (naked ladies) next to the toilet, by the window. I’m talking a pile of 20 mags.

I once went to the flat of a complete odd ball? I was buying a market stall from this person and I must say I was fascinated by her lifestyle, husband played in The Stones band etc.

Anyway my weekly instalment took me to her flat in north London and she was cleaning some silver. ‘Oh pass me that candelabra’ she said. I hand brushed something furry on top of the cupboard, ‘oooh what’s that’ I said. ‘Oh that’s Isobel, the baby I miscarried and preserved in Johnson’s baby powder’!!!!!!!

@longwayoff

A friend from the Caribbean is an interior designer and was asked to quote for a couple of rooms in a swish London house. A house in which, in a glass case in the entrance hall, the family had on display some mementos of their past. Manacles and chains from their sugar-growing, people-owning past. She didn't get past the hall.

That's horrific!

My MIL keeps make up, socks and pants in the kitchen drawers! Might be what some folk do but I always find it bizarre!

This was very shocking at the time.
I bumped into an ex colleague from my first job whom I hadn't see for some years, She had moved back in with her parents as she'd left her husband due to his behaviour.
On the day we met she was going to her marital home (where her ex still lived) to collect the rest of her stuff and asked if I wanted to give her a hand.
We went in and started packing the remaining items and I noticed some thing odd in the hallway on the floor. It looked like weird coloured watery stuff on the tiles but friend said her ex did stupid stuff and to take no notice. We carried on and when we'd finished she rang him to say that she'd taken everything that they'd agreed and left the keys in a certain place.
When she dialed his number, a mobile Rang in another part of the 3 storey house. We looked at each other then she started up the stairs. He was hanging from the bannister along the top landing, been there for a couple of days so the coroner said.

Oh dear. I'm a teacher, and a few years ago l had a job as a teacher of gifted children. For some reason l had to visit a very gifted child, she was off the wall bright. Her parents taught her at home. As l walked through the house l noticed statues everywhere, totally naked statues not a fig leaf in sight. As she was an only child and l did begin to worry about this girl and her parents.

Or an episode of that comedy A league of gentlemen

@LeanneBrownsLonelyBraincell

All meals eaten off paper plates as her mum couldn't be bothered with washing up.

Being given spaghetti hoops and chips for tea in the same house, so carbs and carbs. Eight year old me didn't know what a carb was, but she did know that tinned spaghetti and chips was just not right....

Spaghetti hoops count as one of your 5 a day because of the amount of tomato in the sauce!

@Bimblybomeyelash
2Rice pudding with jam is a proper British pudding!12

Aye, British via China &/or India... :-)

@DoubleShotEspresso

A glass display case the height and width of the living room, containing Hitler memorabilia. Was chilling to be offered a cup of tea when I walked in and then taken into the living room to be greeted with such a horrific sight as if this was normal decor. Disturbing

W T actual......???? Just how fast did you run to get away from that one? !!!

This was in an old place of employment about 20 years ago. The office had 4 floors and I was doing something on a different floor to my usual this day.

I went to the loo and just as I was sitting down on the toilet I noticed that the whole wall on one side of the cubicle had been covered in snot / mucus. Someone must have been coming in every day, picking their nose and rubbing it onto the loo wall. Needless to say I never entered it again urgh 😑 😤

Friend’s grandparents’ very grand bungalow, adjacent to an exclusive golf club: an entire large room filled with tables, cabinets, what-nots etc. with every surface covered in Royal Doulton figurines. There was just room to move around the tables, but I was terrified of knocking something over. I was informed by the grandmother (think Hyacinth Bucket) that it was all worth “thousands” and “I bet you haven’t seen anything like this before!” It was weird & excruciatingly awful showing off.

@Peregrina

My dad always served up cucumbers sliced and in vinegar. He was from Preston if that is relevant.

Ah maybe it is a Preston thing! We always had random pickles with our Sunday roast when I was a kid (not just the cucumbers but beetroot and mixed pickle as well). No one else I know did this but my mums side of the family were from Preston (we lived elsewhere)