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.

There was a TV prop horse in their front garden. Painted black and white. Like a cow.

A black & white 🐴 is known as a piebald, a brown & white 🐴 is a skewbald. In modern usage in British English, skewbald and piebald horses are collectively referred to as coloured. 🙂

Gosh. Thank you!! I know nothing about horses. Except that they don't have brakes. I apologise for my ignorance. I do, however, admire the beauty. The sheer grace. The majesty. Is that gopping? I don't mean it to be. Thank you.

Don't have anything to add. Just here for the pics of the duck!

Arriving at the house share at Uni.Met the other 4, drinks in the lounge, then went to put stuff in the kitchen.Opened the fridge door, only one thing in there - an enormous pigs head, tongue lolling out.
Screamed so loudly they put me on Screaming Duty, for if/when we were ever broken into.
The girl had bought the pigs head at the market at the end of the day - 25p, pot to boil it in, 3.00, free veg picked off the market floor - That girl certainly made her student grant go round.
From that time, tho, we always asked her what 'bargains' she'd bought at the market, so I was always prepared for being stared at by fish eyes, etc. Happy times.

@Bimblybomeyelash

Rice pudding with jam is a proper British pudding!

I don't understand what is strange about rice pudding with a dollop of jam either...

A family I was friendly with used to eat rice pudding with a dollop of marmite. They said it was a Cornish thing but I've never heard of it. Maybe some someone Cornish could enlighten me!

@MyMummyHasGotABigBottom

On the cucumber and vinegar thing… my Nan (nearly 90) and my mum have a thing about salmon sandwiches. It’s red salmon (not pink, but red) from a tin. You tip it out into a dish and have to remove all the bones. Then the salmon is seasoned with malt vinegar and ground white pepper. And put in sandwich with thinly sliced cucumber.

Now. The sandwich itself I can manage as it tastes nice. But the salmon being from a tin and the bones… 🤢🤢

Used to be a thing when I was a kid. But you'd mash the salmon to crush the bones. We couldn't afford fresh fish like that. Also a thing was pilchards/sardines on toast (tinned obviously). You'd toast the bread, squish the fish with some salt and pepper, put it on the toast and put it back under the grill for a few moments.

Rddd

When I was a teenager in the 80s I'd spend a lot of time at my BFF's house. I was intrigued by the neat squares of newspaper threaded onto a string that would be used when the loo roll ran out.

A family member of mine lives in a very immaculate cream beige house and has a rather obsessive love of paintings by a particular artist - as in more than one in every room. They are a kind of whimsical illustration type and all similar and very distinctive. Nice enough but there are just so many of them. And she and her partner buy them for each other for birthdays and Christmas and all sorts of occasions. Like a painting of a man proposing to a woman to celebrate their engagement. Such literal, non metaphorical art work. And so many of them!! Think outside the box guys. Art and beauty come in so many different forms. I can barely keep a straight face when a new one appears. And their house is so immaculate that they really stand out on the walls. It’s like a shrine to the artist.

My brother has lived in Cornwall for nearly 40 years and he has never mentioned it.

My late husband used to have sugar on his tomatoes, pepper on his strawberries and have sliced banana on his curry... (He served in the forces in Malaya and got the idea there!)

I always serve cucumbers in rice vinegar with a pinch of salt when making Japanese/Korean food. DD practically inhales them. I never thought about doing similar with a roast but will in future.

Somebody's house FULL of angels everywhere you looked. They'd suffered a miscarriage at 7 weeks and was their way of grieving.

I'm not judging, not at all. I've lost twins at 19 weeks, VTS at 7 weeks and lost a son neonatally. I do believe people have the right to grieve any way they see fit. The reason for sharing here is the bit about people "thinking it's normal". Whilst not abnormal (arguably), it struck me as very unusual.

First time I met my partners mum. I walked into her house with my boyfriend noticing an unpleasant smell, I closed the front door behind me noticing the door handle was sticky, I then followed my partner to the living room, my shoes sticking to the laminate flooring. Once in the living room she gestures us to sit on a dark fabric couch covered with random clutter, I perch on the edge of the couch worrying about what I’m sat on whilst seeing what appears to be fossilised cat poops on the floor. I felt really uncomfortable the whole time I was there, my OCD was in overdrive. My partner and his mum just act like this environment is a completely normal space to relax in😮 … I awkwardly declined a cup of tea … I try to avoid going round her house now…

Dozens and dozens of dusty, sticky tins of food and bottles of drinks just sitting on the kitchen floor. There were piles of them stacked up all around the edges of the room, some of them had been there for years apparently. It was the house of the parents of a university friend. There was no room in the cupboards or the shelves/sides as they were all rammed full of more out of date tins and other assorted crap. There was crockery piled high on every surface and the entire cutlery drawer was sitting on top of the hob with greasy roasting tins piled on it. Everything was greasy and dusty. The rest of the house that I saw was piled high with stuff too and looked like it hadn't been dusted or hoovered in years. Friend didn't bat an eye at it but I and the other friend who was there were like this 😳; thankfully we'd only called in briefly en route to somewhere else. I hate clutter at the best of times and that was next level.

This is horrific

Not quite house, but the time my MIL buried her dead cat in a flowerpot, during a heatwave, was pretty special. Every time for weeks after that we went round, we could smell decaying cat all over her back yard. Ugh.

Also strange: the loo rolls that are kept under the coffee table. There's no dining table so there can be room for FIL's huge computer desk, under which live more packs of loo rolls (he's a horder). So when you have a meal you balance it on your lap, and because there are cats (and used to be a dog) jumping around, you expect to get things spilt and the loo roll is there for routine mopping-up of your meal. Double ugh.

@SarahAndQuack
the loo roll is there for routine mopping-up of your meal

Things could be worse, my mind was boggling!!!!!!!!!! 🤣

Well TBF, the first time I went, so was mine! You go in the door and there are just piles and stacks of loo rolls everywhere, so I wondered what on earth was going on.

Also had to listen to FIL explaining, very seriously, during the lockdown panic-buying of loo roll, how upset he was at selfish people hoarding.

Pile and piles of boxes in every room. So much so that the windows were obscured. It was a very nice big house too so it was a significant amount of things.