Do you open the medicine cabinet or cupboards or peek into rooms when you're a guest in someone's home?
According to surveys, around 40% of house guests admit to snooping around their host's home to some degree. The most common areas?
The bathroom and medicine cabinet. After all, it's the one place you can go as a guest and lock the door behind you.
While not everyone does snoop, almost half of guests were willing to admit to snooping. It's likely a fairly prevalent behavior among guests.
So there's clearly an impulse to explore.
But it's important to remember: what's been seen, cannot be unseen.
Reddit user ForTheLoveOfPhotos asked:
"What have you found in a friend/relative's home that you probably weren't supposed to see?"
Reading Material
"When I was 12 or so (early 90’s), I spent the night at my friends house and he got in trouble for not mowing the grass, so he and his dad went out and mowed the grass for about 2 hours or so."
"Idle hands and such, I went snooping around because I was bored of playing with Nintendo and GI Joes. I went into his dad’s room—he was divorced and it was just he and my friend in the house."
"As I ventured through the room I found this wood panel behind his TV/chest of drawers. I tried lifting it to move it and it fell off the wall."
"Behind it was an absolute treasure trove of Playboy magazines…HUNDREDS of them stacked in little organizing holders by year. It was like finding an unlimited supply of 'reading' material. It was glorious."
"I put the board back, never said anything to anyone and took one random mag for myself. I still remember it, it had a woman crouching wearing roller blades in neon panties, a ball cap and roller blades on the cover."
"A few weeks later I spent the night again, and I wanted to check out the collection again, but this time my friend caught me snooping and said, 'so you found my dad’s girlie mags, huh? I won’t say anything if you won’t'."
"And we had a laugh and I visited that stash a hundred times during those years we were friends."
~ MonkeyManJohannon
A Different Kind Of Candy Dish
"My husband and I were at one of my coworkers homes in the nineties and they had a long ashtray. I pulled it toward me to ash my cigarette and the top shifted and underneath it was a massive bag of drugs"
"We just looked at each other, then I put the top back and we didn’t talk about it again until we got home."
"The coworker was in the bathroom when that happened so they never knew we saw it."
~ pineapple3712
Prized Possessions
"Over at my neighbor's house and my friend shows me his dad's stash of girlie mags. Young me steals one without my friend knowing."
"Dad finds out and tells friend it better be back when he gets home later that night. Friend never got ahold of me, so it wasn’t back."
"The next morning there’s a knock on my door. The dad and my friend are there, and the dad literally tells my parents I stole a girlie magazine, and he wants it back."
"I go get it and give it back, and they go back to their house. My parents just laughed."
"To this day, I can’t understand who in their right mind would go through that kind of a self-shame to get that mag back. Must’ve had some good times with that thing I guess."
"This was 30 years ago and I still make fun of the dad when the story comes up from time to time with my friend."
~ jim182182
Toys Aren't Just For Kids
"I remember when I was about 9, a friend of mine wanted to show me something he found in his mum's room."
"We sneak upstairs & he reveals a huge black sex toy. At the time we didn't have a clue what it was, just that we definitely shouldn't have found it."
"He denies it to this day, but I know what we saw!"
~ Cheesecake_Jealous
Like Austin Powers
"My 3-year-old found a penis pump at my father-in-law's house."
"We didn't know where he found it, so we hid it behind the TV."
~ Ethen44
"Oh god. Your father-in-law found it behind the TV and realized someone took it out of its hiding place."
"He’s probably traumatized. At least your kid won’t remember."
~ vainbuthonest
To Do
"Family Christmas last year, my husband's brother and his girlfriend hosted."
"They had a 'To Do' list on the fridge. #1 and #2 were normal things. #3 was explicitly sexual."
"I told him I liked his list. It took a second for him to figure out what I meant."
"He quickly went over and erased it. It was on a whiteboard, so it was very quickly removed."
~ RuledByCats
Whips And Chains
"They had a sex dungeon, but it was really badly put together in the skeeviest part of the house."
~ ChrisMossTime
"Generally, the sex dungeon is the skeeviest part of the home by default."
"Mostly on account of there being a sex dungeon there."
~ Broken_castor
Not What It Looks Like
"Early in my relationship with my (now) husband, we were staying at his parent's place. I was looking for towels under the bathroom sink and found a red plastic container with the word 'Viagra' across the top."
"I abandoned my search and didn’t mention it to my husband."
"Months later, I was back at their place, and my father-in-law was complaining about water-logged ears after a swim. He went into the bathroom and came out with the Viagra container."
"I just looked at it. He opened it up, and it had earbuds [cotton swabs] in it. I still didn’t say a word."
"My sister-in-law saw my face, burst out laughing, and said, 'It’s just for earbuds. Mum got it from work'."
"Their mum is a nurse, and she tends to collect, keep, and use stuff that other people would otherwise throw out or donate."
~ Aristaeus16
Getting To Know You
"I was housesitting/pet sitting for a couple. I was allowed to use their PC."
"I wouldn't normally look through photos in the photos files, but there was a random JPG file on their desktop, so I clicked it."
"The thumbnail on the desktop was not the image."
"It was a peen pic."
~ spidergirl79
Personal Massager
"When I was around 5, I found my mom's pink vibrator and came out to where the whole family was gathered asking what it was."
"But the worst part was, I apparently found a way to turn it on and was putting it on my neck like a neck massager."
"I don't really remember doing it, but my parents like to bring it up from time to time to remind me."
~ sk1thr1x
It's Always The Quiet Ones
"I house and dog sat for a buddy—mind you they’re very square seeming. He asked me to grab some paperwork off his nightstand and drop it off at our work."
"Well, I went to his bedroom and saw two nightstands, but I didn’t see any paperwork. So I opened the drawer. I swear I wasn’t snooping."
"To my surprise, there were about 5 or 6 different-sized toys, lube, and vibrators. I’m assuming it’s his wife’s."
"I promptly closed the drawer and just texted him that I didn’t see any paperwork on the nightstand."
"Apparently, there’s a nightstand in the spare room/office. He probably should have led off with the location, I guess."
~ RestaurantPatient649
Side Hustle
"My Dad was painting my Mom’s grandfather’s house and found a secret space with a very nice 25-gallon copper [whiskey making] still!"
"This was back in the early 1950’s and gramps had worked for Al Capone in Chicago managing a speakeasy during prohibition.
"He must have had a side business when they moved back to Muskegon, Michigan."
Tragedy Barely Avoided
"Friends dad kept a revolver in his sock drawer. We used to play with it when nobody was home. It was NEVER loaded."
"One day, like usual, we play with the gun. We’d always dry fire and goof around. Well, I put the gun against a kid's head. Usually I’d pull the trigger."
"I didn’t for some reason. Well, as I was putting it down, someone noticed that it was loaded."
"Parents, I know you do all you can to keep your kids safe, but you should also teach them what to do if they are around a gun. I know you’d never let it happen, but it happens."
"Teach the four basic rules of gun safety. I made my kids memorize them before they could even have a Nerf gun."
"1. Treat all guns as if they are loaded."
"2. Never aim a gun at anything that you are not willing to destroy."
"3. Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target and you have made the decision to shoot."
"4. Be sure of your target and what is behind it."
"My daughter is now training to hunt squirrel. I trust both my kids around firearms."
~ wearytravelr
Have you ever found something you wish you hadn't while visiting friends or family?
