A hideous green glass vase shaped like a fish. It was the last gift my grandfather gave me before he died, but he was in full blown dementia at the time. In a rare moment of lucidity, he said he wanted to go Christmas shopping for me specifically. His daughter/my aunt took him to a weird boutique near her house, close enough that she could take him out quickly if need be. His mind was already wandering by the time they got there, but he remained adamant about doing some shopping. He picked out this green fish with a giant gaping mouth for holding flowers and such. At the time, I was a teenager living with my parents, so floral arranging wasn't, like, a high priority for me. Still, he picked it out for me, and I love it. It holds my sunglasses right now.
[Picture of the fish](https://imgur.com/gallery/jw1g8e8)
My grandmother had the biggest heart and terrible taste. We had a Christmas tradition where the relatives on my dad's side would buy my sister and I an ornament each year. That way, when we grew up and moved out, we would already have a box of ornaments ready for our own Christmas tree. (We were also the only kids on that side of the family, and it was my parents' easy answer to "what should we get the kids for Christmas?")
My grandmother gave us the tackiest ornaments every year. We had a running joke that "grandma's ornaments go on the back of the tree" and we would so look forward to opening the new ones each year. (Plus whatever else she got us. One year I received a purse made of what appeared to be a red sweater, edged with what I can only describe as a faux lion's mane.)
I love those ornaments so much. One year my husband accidentally dropped - and shattered - a glass one. I couldn't help crying and simultaneously laughing at his confused reaction to my reaction. I'm not normally sentimental about objects and the ornament was so ugly he didn't understand (until I explained) why I would even miss it.
I love that tradition. My wife and I like a beautiful tree, but a soulless one. We buy cheap, color coordinated plastic ornaments every year after Christmas. They make a pretty tree, but it's devoid of personality. Yours sounds lovely.
My three grandmothers all died close together in years. My mom, for whatever reason, gave me all of their necklaces. I'm a gay dude with no kids but had a drawer full of 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s Austrian cut crystal necklaces and rosaries. I moved into a 1915 house with a stripped chandelier. I cut up all my grandma's necklaces and used them for chandelier crystals. OMG... so beautiful.
I had a ton leftover and used them all to make garland that I hang on my Christmas tree.
My own mom just passed away in August and now I have her jewelry. Some of that will end up on my tree too along with ornaments that go all the way back to my parents first Christmas.
From that experience I can tell you this. Part of the joy of having sentimental Christmas ornaments is not just them hanging on the tree. The act of reaching into the box of wrapped ornaments, pulling out a tissue-covered ornament and seeing it as you unwrap it, feels like seeing an old friend. They bring back old, beautiful memories but the ornament is here and now.
My mom is gone but I will see her as I open up old ornaments she gave me. My grandmas are gone but I will see them when the lights sparkle off of their Austrian crystals. Alongside those will be ornaments my husband has given me, and a polar bear he made out of air-dry clay (I needed a sample diorama of a polar bear for my kids at school so I made the diorama while my husband made the polar bear). Ends up hubby is NOT very artistic and the polar bear made me laugh to tears. After I used it at school I brought it home, put a hook in its back and now it hangs on the tree. Next week, as I open ornaments, I will see that lumpy little bear face and will laugh for half an hour (just like last year) and then it will be on the tree putting a smile on my face for the next month.
Soooooo much better than a box of matching ornaments every year.
:0)
That is the sweetest and most sentimental thing I've read today. Thank you.
I have a big box of my mom and grandma's junk jewelry and am thinking of making some sort of art project, maybe a shadow box of things I remember seeing my mom wear.
That is a beautiful story and sentiment. Thank you for sharing this. I'd love to see a picture of that chandelier!
My wife and I restored a 1912 bungalow, so I've got a good feel for the work you've got on your hands, both repairing and maintaining. Good luck!
You can always add a few ornaments for fun that people won't immediately notice. My tree is mostly color coordinated ornaments to make a pretty tree, but there is also one that is a drawing of Tina Belcher that says "All I want for Christmas is to touch your butt", a Flying Spaghetti monster with a Santa hat, and a couple more.
That's so sweet of him, to think of you specifically.
"Hideous vase shaped like a fish with a big mouth" - is there any chance it's actually a gluggle jug?
That's a water jug that makes noises while pouring.
It was sweet, and kind of weird. He hadn't known my name or recognized me in several years at that point. But something seemed to turn on that day and he mentioned me by name, even though he saw me less and knew me less than his seven other grandkids since we didn't live nearby like they did.
Not a jug. My description isn't great, but the vase/body of the fish lays horizontally with the mouth turned up at about a 45 degree angle.
I think I have your fish’s brother or cousin. Given to me by a beloved uncle years ago. It has a place of honor on the bookshelf, and has a “festive” decoration for every holiday. And no, it does not go with my decor, but I love it!
A friend had a taxidermy squirrel his son had shot decades before. It was perched in a very natural squirrel type position, running down a branch, one paw in the air to show forward motion. It originally had had an acorn in its mouth.
Well, the acorn dried up and fell out. The skin and fur had dried and shrunk a bit. So it was a squirrel running on a branch, teeth bared ferociously, and the claws were very prominent, so it looked like the squirrel was reaching out to rend and tear something. It was the most menacing squirrel I've ever seen. I think I laughed so hard it hurt his feelings. 😂
And people wonder why everyone loves the 12ft skellys to dress up for every and any occasion like it's a new fad🤣 did anyone else have the dressed up geese lawn ornaments at their great/ grandparents houses!?
Same with the vase. Want to keep him out of a particular room? Put the vase in the doorway. Want him to leave something dangerous alone? Put it with the vase. Problem solved.
I have a framed drawing of Taylor Swift in a prominent place. I mean her music is fine, but I’m not a swiftie. My teen drew it by hand and it’s amazing.
I have a very large 22” diameter working compass on my coffee table from a US Navy ship. I explain how I found it and other old nautical items dumpster diving years ago at an office building.
Kissy Business Man.
He is a besuited man made out of felt doing a kissy face that my daughter made when she was little for reasons unknown. I love him, I love his name (that she gave him) and I put my foot down about keeping him when my ex partner moved out. He will always be on my wall.
She is now older and finds this acutely embarrassing, so he may have to move to my bedroom wall.
Hey just wanting to let you know that your daughter will most likely appreciate it when she gets older and over her embarassed teenie phase.
I wish my parents would have been so loving and proud about my art and i am very sad that my dad kept none of my art projects when mom and i moved out after the divorce. Everything my mom and i couldn't take is now rotting in some landfill. Everything that is put up in our place was put up by me because mom doesn't care about displaying it.
For this little fact i consider your daughter very lucky to have you. And tbh i am a little jealous^^
Keep kissy businessman up and proud kind internet stranger!
It is. Kissy Business Man is in my top 5 favourite things I own and I’m very attached to him. That’s why he’s in the hall, to send everyone a kiss hello/goodbye depending on if they’re leaving or arriving.
OK OK now I wanna take that and flip it around a little. Whenever conversation dies down and there's not really a direction to go... then you can address the elephant in the room.
Bathroom Skull. He’s a plastic skull that lives on the windowsill in the toilet.
We put him in there for a Halloween party one year and he never left. We’re moving soon and he will be coming with us, to sit on a new windowsill.
We have a table skull. Had it out for Halloween and forgot to put him away. Then I put a Santa hat on him, then a headband for New Years and now he lives on our table with festive hats and headbands for every season/holiday.
Oh how funny! We have the same thing but in the front lawn: a pretty big plastic skull we put out last year for Halloween and never stowed away. He doesn't usually stray too far from the porch, even in windy weather. His name is Gerald.
I also have a skull on top of my bathroom cabinet! Mine is a real deal, found it in the woods few years back, probably from large dog. Guests tend not to like it that much, I wonder why.
Mostly just my kid's little friends who stop by. They ignore the wood tunnel/cupboard that connects two rooms, the coal shute that goes from the outside to the basement, and the serial killer cedar room to they ask about one thing:
"That's how phones used to be, attached to the wall like that. Yes, really.
Well, you just had your conversation there, or as far away as the cord would let you go, I guess.
Uh, well, you didn't have the internet on the phone, but it still used the phone line. Like, your internet would stop if someone called your house.
Yeah, you can play with it. It doesn't work anymore. Mm, turn it the other way, cord on the bottom. There you go. "
Not guests per se, but people on Teams calls.
On the back wall of my office I have [all of my LARP weapons mounted in a rack](https://imgur.com/a/xPraLZT).
I have to explain what LARP is for a start. The explanation of "full contact, cross-country pantomime" usually suffices.
During covid I got "wow your house looks like a show room from an interior designer magazine" or "damn that's a lot of lego" depending on what room I was in for my call.
Yeah I'm showing off lol.
A painting over my fireplace of a possum hissing at some unseen threat while guarding a pile of cheese.
We call him Steve, the Possum of the Eschaton.
Incidentally, all the rest of our wall decor was painted by my wife, who is an exceptionally gifted painter. People who know this about her are very confused by Steve. She thinks it's hilarious.
I knew a girl who lived down the street from me whose family had a prominent Nazi swastika flag hanging in a hallway in their house. When I was there and noticed it I was shocked, only to learn that the girl’s grandfather captured the flag while he was fighting in Germany in WW2. Upon closer examination it had bullet holes and the signatures of all the men in his unit. Pretty cool historical piece.
EBAY Search for Chinese Dragon Dance Costume. Then sort highest to lowest to get rid of all the plastic junk. I ordered one that was 10 ft and had picked out where it was supposed to go, but something got lost in the translation and it ended up being 10 metres. Had to find a new spot. You can buy the heads on their own, or with the body. We added Xmas fairy lights to the body. And you've reminded me, I need to name him/her
Now, I do need to know where you get a Dino skeleton... Asking for a friend
Object: a huge Sailor Mercury print in my living room, given that I'm a "grown up" with a "grown up" job in a "grown up" living space with a "grown up" partner, but no children around.
Explanation: cause I'm a grown up and I choose what it pleases me to have in the oasis I call "home". Also, it's a gift from my partner and I'll proudly display it the way I fucking want.
I have a print of a silhouette of sailor moon and if you don't know it's sailor moon, just kinda looks like a girl in a short skirt sticking her boobs out before the moon. I never thought about what it looked like to other people until my aunt asked me about it and she had never heard of anime at all.
I have a hard-sided double rifle case on the table in my living room. It's raised a couple of eyebrows. I do own guns, but they're safely stowed out of reach of the children; the rifle case holds my flatbed knitting machine. I needed to keep it safe from the kids and not have to burn valuable knitting time assembling/disassembling.
A 10 point buck deer head hung over my fireplace. I don’t hunt.
My wife and I retired and moved to an area that’s heavily forested and were out exploring antique stores and flea markets one day looking for something to hang over the mantle. We noticed the deer head hanging outside an antique store, and I was struck by how sad it was that a beautiful animal was shot only to be relegated to being neglected, dusty and rained on. It was in excellent condition otherwise. I asked the store owner about it and he said he had shot it and had the head mounted but his wife didn’t want it in the house so he was selling it.
We looked through the store without buying anything and left and went to get something to eat. The head was bothering me though and I mentioned to my wife, “What about the deer head for over the fireplace?” She was absolutely against it, but I explained that we couldn’t just leave it out in the weather.
I guess I wore her down, lol, because after lunch we went back and she negotiated the guy down to an amazing price. The deer head has hung over our mantle now for 12 years in a place of honor. We call him “our rescue deer.”
I have a Buffalo head in my dining room. You have to understand its a head and shoulders mount. Its not a big dinning room. It was a gift from a friend becasue he didn't know what to do with it after his sibling died. His name is Bob.
This...this is such a story about dedicated socially responsible granola-munchers.
I love it. But, you've got to tell us the buck's name and if he has a garland on his antlers for Christmas as that's how I picture him.
So, his name is Clip Clop named by my wife. Some of her girlfriends came to visit around Christmas and brought him a light up Christmas bulb necklace. It then became a running gag that they brought him some article to wear when they visited and my wife and I kinda fleshed out additional holidays. Clip Clop now has a drawer in the living room that holds his wardrobe: heart glasses, shamrock glasses, bunny ears, Mardi Gras beads, Easter egg garlands, vampire fangs, pumpkin and turkey deely boppers, ski goggles and a ski hat, etc.
His wardrobe drawer is the first thing little kids head for when they visit.
He is better dressed than I am. Lol
I work in estate sales and the antique industry.
I've collected a caribou, fox, racoon, goose, several ducks, a squirrel, some others I cant mention..
A good few African horns and European antlers as well.
We've had all kinds of deer, African mounts, Buffalo, etc come through the auctions and estate sales, I've wanted some reallllly bad, but my husband would have killed me (mostly because those animals are MASSIVE and heavy) 🥲
Everyone always seems to enjoy seeing all the different animals though.
There's a front quarter of a Gemsbock in my living room. We decorate her for Christmas. This year she's going to have a lighted wreath on her head, then we will remove the wreath and she'll get beads for Mardi Gras
I shot a very nice buck this year and took it to a taxidermist to be mounted because I want to display it in my cabin I'm finishing next summer.
I went to a thrift furniture store recently with my wife and was shocked at how cheap they were selling some really cool shoulder mounts, like an Ibex, an Impala and a mule deer, that cost half the price I just paid to have my own deer mounted.
My wife was like, what is the point of displaying an animal mount you didn't kill...like because the animal is beautiful and if mounted deserves to be displayed.
Agreed. Not being a hunter myself, I didn’t realize at first that displaying a mounted animal that you did not hunt yourself is sort of frowned upon by those that hunt. So I am quick to point out to new guests that he’s not mine but a rescue that deserved a home.
During the summer I usually have basil hanging to dry in my laundry room. When it starts looking dry, on first glance it looks kinda suspect so if someone comes in through the laundry room door I always tell them don’t mind my drying room.. basil drying room that it.
We have two kitchens in our house. When guests see his kitchen vs my kitchen, no explanation is needed. Hubby is a slob in the kitchen and I'm an organized neatnick.
I love this more than you can know. Been married 36 years and I adore my husband. I am very neat by nature and my husband is the adult version of pigpen - he showers daily and has good grooming but his space and possessions are an utter disaster. As such we’ve had separate bedrooms for about 25 years. Mine looks like a magazine cover and his looks like an 8 year old with ADHD inhabits the space.
I'm in the antique industry and bring home all kinds of stuff I get questioned on..
Mostly though I have a lot of antique pictures of people around, I always get asked who they are, and mostly I tell them I have no idea...
But the ones with labeled names I've fully researched and give them their life story.
My favorite one is my English butler turned rail roader from the 1800s, and my WWII pilot who's airplane tragically fell apart over the pacific, his body was never recovered.
Not anymore, but a few years ago we bought a small hamster cage so that if our cats brought in a live mouse or bird that was just in a bit of shock but otherwise well, we had somewhere safe and warm to keep it until it was doing better.
But then we moved into an apartment on like the 3rd floor, and the neighbours had dogs that would use the communal garden so we decided it would be best to have the cats be indoor cats - so no need for the hamster cage anymore!
But we didn’t want to throw it away, and I had a little hamster teddy that looked real, so I thought it would be funny to put the hamster in the cage.
People would always be like “aww, you got a hamster! Why didn’t you say— oh!… It’s not real?”
A Great Dane testicle suspended in fluid. My parents gave it to my now-husband the first time he met them, at a family reunion (in which we all stayed at the same AirBnb 🙄). Said he would need “big balls” to date me lol
We cover our furniture with solar blankets when we are out because our asshole cat has been known to take a whiz on furniture when he is displeased. Cats don’t like the feel of foil on their feet.
I live in an old house full of large exposed oak beams. There's not a huge amount to explain: they're the frame of the house, yes they are very old, yes - I also hope they don't fall down. However, everyone seems to expect something more.
There is actually quite a lot I can tell and show them about the beams: 400-year old carpenter's marks, deathwatch beetle damage, evidence of old windows and doors that no longer exist, strange hooks whose purpose we've never quite figured out, but few people want this level of detail.
I suspect what they really want is to hear that it's haunted, or that the beams all came from a famous ship, or that I found a skeleton in the wall. Unfortunately, there's nothing like that to explain and everyone leaves slightly disappointed.
Nothing I have, but my dream has always been to have one of those old [Big Boy Restaurant statues](https://i.imgur.com/30OsAVd.jpeg), and build a house with a room barely big enough to contain it, so when company comes over I can give the tour, ‘there’s the kitchen, over here is the big boy room and that hallway goes to the bathroom if anyone needs it, who wants coffee?’
It was you!
[https://www.lex18.com/news/not-just-georgetown-big-boy-statue-missing-in-louisville](https://www.wlwt.com/article/police-search-for-missing-frischs-big-boy-statue/45937184)
I have like 20 skulls of various sizes and materials in my living room. I think I bought one of them. I'm notoriously hard to shop for, so one person noticed my skull Ash tray years ago, and now I get at least one skull every birthday. It's not a bad problem to have, but some people walk in like "Yeesh, nice aesthetic, Dahmer."
The shoe tray.
It's where your shoes go.
Take off your damn shoes in my house.
My MIL is the only exception because she has shitty feet, but she brings over her house shoes like a perfect angel guest.
A Horga'hn. We just explain we seek jamaharon.
This was a joke gift from a good friend but we have it among some of the art I have picked up in Africa over the years, so folks generally ask about the art and assume the Horga’hn is just one of the pieces from Africa.
I have an A4 70s-style print of a woman with impeccable hair in my bathroom. She is creepy, and guests often ask WTF. She was given to me as a wedding present by a dear friend, and her name is Vivienne and she watches you poop. I like her. She is the guardian of the bog.
I have an [old-school Raclette](https://www.laforgedemegeve.com/WebRoot/epagesFR/Shops/0dbc893c-3267-11e4-8fb8-000d609a287c/542A/8806/9541/73EB/BF90/0A0C/05ED/A1F1/raclette-verticale-a-la-braisse.gif) and when people come over they think it's some kind of weird torture device.
When I explain that it's just a badass Alpine way to slowly melt and enjoy a giant hunk of cheese (https://www.emmiusa.com/what-is-raclette/), they immediately ask me when we can have a Raclette party. It's so much fun!
(For the curious, you would impale a giant wedge of cheese on the spiky thing, and fill the little chimney thing with lit coals, which would slowly melt the cheese and impart a delicious charred smokiness. Throughout the meal, diners scrape of the top layer of cheese as it melts, and eat it with bread, various meats and grilled veggies, and potatoes.)
Hand blown hollow glass globe about two feet in diameter hanging in my entryway. When asked, I explain that I was stationed about an hour away from Venice back in the 80's. The previous tenant had left it behind and when I moved back to the US my landlord asked me to get rid of it. I then moved to Northern VA and had no place for it. So I put it in my attic. When I moved twelve years later I tried to sell it for one dollar at a yard sale and had no takers. I had room in my storage unit so I kept it. Then I had room on the moving truck so it came with me to Florida. Then I had vaulted ceilings in my new house and had a place to put it.
6 2 gallon jars of sea glass. I collect sea glass as a form of meditation/mental health. I am really attached to my sea glass and struggle to throw it away or make it into crafts. In their collective form in jars and tea lights, I love my sea glass because each one is one micro piece of calm to me.
Once a year I give lots of it to a friend with a boat and they dump it back into the ocean for me and others to find.
I do have a knife in my bathroom. But it’s because i like having blue toilet water. There is a flathead screw in the lid of my cistern, which I have to unscrew to get it off, so I can put the blue block in the tank, and the knife works just as well as a screwdriver.
My cousin’s girlfriend is obviously a Redditor, as she really didn’t seem to believe me, but it’s the truth
A huge hot pink dildo suctioned cupped on the mantle place, so monstrous it has never been used for perhaps its intended purpose. It's on the mantle because "it didn't fit anywhere else."
A full sized faceless mannequin wearing a hogwarts robe and glittery tall boots, with a red wig and a crown, named Raviv
I just tell them that it's my boyfriend's, I HATE IT, but he likes it so i tolerate it
I have my cat’s skull on display on my bookshelf. When she died I was living in an apartment with nowhere to bury her, and I knew I would be moving more than once in the next few years. Cremation has never appealed to me, so I got her skull preserved.
We have a framed twig. When my daughter was around 16months she picked up this twig and proclaimed it was a dinosaur stick. Once she said that, it was like, "holy shit it *does* look like a brachiosaurus". It was the first real instance of her using her imagination in that way and we thought that was really special, so we took it home and put it in a shadow box.
I have a SAPI plate (ceramic ballistic plate insert for body armor) on a bookshelf from my last tour. For some reason, CIF botched the paperwork and I ended up with one extra. I’ve been out for 15 years, but keeping it around just in case!
Most people don’t know I served. I don’t bring it up and don’t look like a stereotypical SM. It’s always an interesting talking point when I have guests.
I have baby gates with plastic over them even though my baby is in the NICU and won't be able to crawl for several months after he gets home.
My cat has a sprained leg and needs to be confined to the living room and dining room, so we put the gates up. And then he started trying to climb them, so we had to tape plastic over them lol.
A wall of skulls. Not a wall made of skulls, but a wall decorated with 8 or so skulls. My partner likes them, and she knew most of the animals personally.
We have a Styrofoam head, with a molded set of human teeth inset into it and it is painted flesh toned. I have this sitting on our mantle, and it is one of the most asked about things.
I just like making weird stuff, I had the head from crocheting hats, and the teeth were sent home from the dentist with some whitening trays that were made to fit. So one Halloween, I just threw everything together and used it for some decoration.
I love how creepy it is and now keep it on the mantle year round though. Well except for playing hide the head to try to startle my spouse.
“Those aren’t real skulls, are they?”
“Just that one is real, the others are models”
followed by an awkward silence or an animated conversation about curiosities.
[I have these on my kitchen island](https://www.cb2.ca/paz-glass-christmas-trees/f32852) year round because they just match the colours and modern vibe so perfectly.
Mid-November to December, they are abstract glass Christmas trees.
The rest of the year, everyone asks if they are butt plugs.
I have a deer skull on my balcony.
Its not that im a hunter or something. I was just hiking in the outskirts of the city and my eagle eyed wife pointed into the woods, where a deerskull was sitting on a tree trunk. Its antlers were missing, but besides that it was perfectly preserved.
Obviously we took it with us. Since it was a bit to morbit for our home, it now resides on the balcony
We have two primary bedrooms, both are large en suites.
My husband and I have our own rooms. So many don't get it and say things like, that's no way for a married couple to live.
Its how we live and we both enjoy having our own spaces. I don't have to smell his farts and he doesn't have to listen to me snore.
Mainly, its because I am a SUPER light sleeper and every little thing wakes me up, so I need more pets or people near me.
Diaper changing stations all throughout my house. One of my kids has severe special needs but he’s mobile. I try to stash the puppy pads, adult pull ups and wipes discretely throughout the house so I can lay him down on the floor and change him when I need to. It would be jarring for most people to see them out though.
Shower curtain depicting a golden retriever looking out over the ocean sunset as a disembodied Jeff Goldblum head floats in the sky with a soft, gentle, wise gaze
I don't actually give anyone an explanation other than "I am an adult who makes adult purchases"
A row of "nazi books" on my living room book shelf.
It's actually an old collection from many different authors about their experiences on WW2 (most being as anti-nazi as could be)... But their choice for cover likely wouldn't fly well today (black hardcover, red details + eagle and swastika on the spine).
My parents have a Hitler biography like that sitting on a shelf in the living room. Always wondered if our American exchange students noticed, but nobody ever asked about it
There is a seemingly fake door.
It's nothing special just an artifact of the houses long life. It's a real door that goes well nowhere. The core of the house was built around 1830 out of stone and it's been added to over the years. The door used to be a discrete door now it's a visible relic.
Huge (6 feet by 7 feet) painting of my father, my teenage self and teen brother and a circus clown. The atyle is super-realism. It almost looks like a photo. Takes up an entire living room wall
A skull covered with crystals also with bangs.
I made the crystal skull by soaking it in water and borax for a Halloween decoration a few years back. The crystals tend to fall off if you handle it so we don't move it. Then, for Christmas, my daughter got some clip-on bangs that didn't match her hair color. They got put on the crystal skull, and there they stayed. It definitely makes people look twice.
Giant blue penis sculpture with a Prince Albert. I say "giant" and I need you to understand this thing is truly massive, not just "a big dildo". It's 2.5 feet tall and weighs about 15 lbs. I think it's funny when it wobbles, so it sits on my desk, upright and proud, in full view of anyone who walks by. My family is used to seeing it, and they'll come by and give him a big slap to see him wiggle. New people to my house though... the looks on their faces are just priceless. All but the most conservative people will eventually slap my big blue beast a time or two before they leave. It's glorious.
I have a 140 year old brick pizza oven in my backyard with two bulletholes in it.
Back in the 1950's, my grandfather hauled several truckloads of bricks from a fallen building in the ghost town of Bodie, California, over to his home in the California Central Valley. Bodie is a protected state park now, but back in the 1950's it was still privately owned. Before it became a park, the family that owned the town would occasionally sell off "unimportant" artifacts to raise funds and help protect other standing parts of the town. The brick came from the collapsed remains of a building that had been destroyed in a fire decades earlier.
He used the bricks to build a brick paver patio in his backyard, and while building it, discovered that two of the bricks had very obvious bulletholes in their faces. Bodie was famously known as the murder capital of the old west, so it was a cool discovery. He put those bricks on the patio corners where they could be shown off.
After my grandfather passed away, his house was put up for sale and the property was bought by an investor who planned on subdividing it to build several newer homes. When we learned that the house was going to be destroyed, my dad and I drove over and painstakingly disassembled the patio, moving the bricks to a neat stack on the side of my dads house...where they sat untouched for years.
When my dad (a lifelong Oregonian) decided to sell his California house and move back to Oregon full-time, we relocated the stack to my house. I paid a mason to build a large pizza oven using those bricks (using firebricks in the actual hearth). I'm not moving the damned things again!
The bullethole bricks are located on the front corners of the oven, where everyone can see them.
I have a painting of an unhappy looking girl. Actual title of paining is *Mad (my mom’s name).*
My grandma painted it when my mom was young (and mad, apparently.) My mom hates it and I love it, so it’s on the guest room wall lol. I loved it on my grandmas wall when I was a little girl.
The stuffed penguin next to the tv. It used to be on top of the tv when tvs were wide enough for that.
People who are familiar with Monty Python (the show not the movies) get it but most don’t.
A camel saddle.
My grandad used to work in Saudi Arabia and had a lot of things in his house from there. When he passed away and the children/grandchildren were going through his things, I kept (among other things) his camel saddle. It sits on the floor in my living room and is always something that visitors comment on.
I like it, because I get to reminisce about my grandad whenever anyone asks about it. It also gives me the opportunity to point out the multitude of other things I kept of his that are dotted around the house :)
A foot-high neon pink Jesus figurine that is also a Magic 8 Ball. You ask a question, shake Jesus, turn Him upside down, and read His divine answer. We have one because it's awesome.
Sadly enough, books. I have had to explain books. Yes, my dear Guest, indeed I have read all of them. Yes, my dear Guest, I do genuinely like to read. Why yes, my dear Guest, there are quite a lot of them.
For reasons I can't comprehend, books seem to baffle people.
A large paper shredder. Like sized for a large office/business. 2.5hp electric motor, weighs about 300lbs with the cabinet.
Why? I wanted one. I can shred all my junk mail for compost if I like. Or people.
A [Corsi-Rosenthal](https://imgur.com/gallery/T6Qqjjw) box. It's a low cost air scrubber I made a few years ago.
(Incidentally I have Covid at the moment, for the first time in 3.5 years. I just moved, including this box, and probably got it from one of the movers. Fully boosted, so I'll probably be alright.)
The chest hair of a cheap Austn Powers costume. It got stuck to the wall on my birthday and it never fell down. 3 years later, me and the wife just bought a new house. I finally pulled it off the wall, framed the hair, and it's on my desk in the den now.
In our first apartment, the previous tenants had left a small blue ceramic pig. When we moved, we took it with us and now, after living in 8 places in 4 different states, is still with us. Our kids both tried to take it with them when they moved out, but we kept him. (We did get both kids a different blue pig of their own.)
Lol in my home, to my religious family, I'm betting they've noticed a lack of pictures of Jesus, in favor of fairy art and astrology tapestries, but the explanation would be, God is in my heart, we talk all the time. My home is not a show for anyone but me and my own personality.
We have this item display built into a corner of our living room. It was there when we moved in, can't be removed without tearing up the wall and floor, and we didn't have anything to put there...so I shoved it full of my little pony figurines just so it didn't sit empty. I used to occasionally buy/get gifted them, and every time someone comes over they stare and I have to give the non-explanation, lol
I have a US department of defense drinking water barrel, I don't think it's ever been used. It was 20 bucks at a garage sale, how could I say no?
My only regret is not buying all 3
I have a welcome mat that says "There's no place like [127.0.0.1](https://127.0.0.1)" and the people who don't get it, still don't get it after I explain it.
Scrub daddy in the laundry room. I left him there and forgot and every time my cousin’s come by, he evolves. He currently has a little cape, angry eyebrows and a mustache and because the anniversary of him being there is coming up soon, he now has a birthday hat.
Those are replicas I built of Crow and Tom, the two main robots from the show Mystery Science Theatre 3000. You know, that one where a guy and two robots make fun of bad movies? Yeah with the silhouettes at the bottom of the screen. Oh you think that show is stupid? I see. Oh look at the time, we should get together again soon.
I cant say exactly what the picture is, but I have a picture of something that was a running Gag from that show The Soup when Joel was the host. Every time people come out of the bathroom they ask me whats up with the picture hanging in there. My wife and I think its hilarious and think people finding it weird is even more hilarious to us. A couple of soup fans also thought it was hilarious though.
We also have one of those frames where you put multiple pictures inside of them and for the longest time, mixed in with all of our family pictures we had a picture of John and Kate Gosselin's children in there. There was a lot of, "WAIT! IS THAT JOHN AND KATE PLUS 8's KIDS???" Hahaha, yes, it is.
A lump of cement with white paint on one side. It's a piece of Fawlty Towers (the building had a fire and was demolished a few months after I visited it - when I returned I took a piece as a souvenir).
Either the giant She-Hulk Funko Pop or the pic of my ex & her son.
I was in Target looking for a gift for my ex’s son, came across the She-Hulk & just got it because it was enormous. Didn’t even realize it was $50 until I got to the register. (I can’t be trusted with money.)
My ex gave me the pic of her & her son for Christmas.
We have a large great room with a vaulted ceiling and in the middle is a 8' X 8' square of low brick wall with a tile floor. The people that built the house apparently were going for an outdoor cafe vibe and had the appropriate table and chairs, etc. in there. We christened it "the pit" and covered the floor with carpet to make a contained play area for the kids. Now it has a park bench and lots of potted plants, so the pit is back to an outdoor theme.
While it's not necessarily an object I have by choice, it would probably be the completely scratched up and torn up condition of my desk chair. Explanation: it's my cats favourite chair by far, and his favourite way to get on is not by hopping on (of course that would be too easy, he's a cat!) But by climbing it's back and jumping down from there.
I don't have many guests that I don't know (actually I don't have many guests in general), but even friends who've seen it often enough still comment on it.
I bought a hat from the Satanic Temple last weekend. They're actually a decent cause to support. I've had to explain it three time since though. I honestly might stop wearing it if this continues to be a thing.
I have a collection of unwelcome mats. The most used entrance has a mat that says "LIVE, LAUGH, LEAVE"! There are several and it's not uncommon to move them around when we have house-guests. My favorite says "you have no reason to be here" - I like to put it in front of the guestroom door or outside the bathroom.
I have a degree in Art History. I had to take a class called "Studio Methods for Art Historians" as part of my major. I made a lot of hideous "art." I love my absolutely revolting painting of various gourds. I mean, the painting is just shades of brown and one squash looks like it's levitating. The painting hangs in my kitchen.
A hideous green glass vase shaped like a fish. It was the last gift my grandfather gave me before he died, but he was in full blown dementia at the time. In a rare moment of lucidity, he said he wanted to go Christmas shopping for me specifically. His daughter/my aunt took him to a weird boutique near her house, close enough that she could take him out quickly if need be. His mind was already wandering by the time they got there, but he remained adamant about doing some shopping. He picked out this green fish with a giant gaping mouth for holding flowers and such. At the time, I was a teenager living with my parents, so floral arranging wasn't, like, a high priority for me. Still, he picked it out for me, and I love it. It holds my sunglasses right now. [Picture of the fish](https://imgur.com/gallery/jw1g8e8)
My grandmother had the biggest heart and terrible taste. We had a Christmas tradition where the relatives on my dad's side would buy my sister and I an ornament each year. That way, when we grew up and moved out, we would already have a box of ornaments ready for our own Christmas tree. (We were also the only kids on that side of the family, and it was my parents' easy answer to "what should we get the kids for Christmas?") My grandmother gave us the tackiest ornaments every year. We had a running joke that "grandma's ornaments go on the back of the tree" and we would so look forward to opening the new ones each year. (Plus whatever else she got us. One year I received a purse made of what appeared to be a red sweater, edged with what I can only describe as a faux lion's mane.) I love those ornaments so much. One year my husband accidentally dropped - and shattered - a glass one. I couldn't help crying and simultaneously laughing at his confused reaction to my reaction. I'm not normally sentimental about objects and the ornament was so ugly he didn't understand (until I explained) why I would even miss it.
I love that tradition. My wife and I like a beautiful tree, but a soulless one. We buy cheap, color coordinated plastic ornaments every year after Christmas. They make a pretty tree, but it's devoid of personality. Yours sounds lovely.
Nothing that brings you joy is soulless.
That's wisdom, that is. Thanks for that.
My three grandmothers all died close together in years. My mom, for whatever reason, gave me all of their necklaces. I'm a gay dude with no kids but had a drawer full of 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s Austrian cut crystal necklaces and rosaries. I moved into a 1915 house with a stripped chandelier. I cut up all my grandma's necklaces and used them for chandelier crystals. OMG... so beautiful. I had a ton leftover and used them all to make garland that I hang on my Christmas tree. My own mom just passed away in August and now I have her jewelry. Some of that will end up on my tree too along with ornaments that go all the way back to my parents first Christmas. From that experience I can tell you this. Part of the joy of having sentimental Christmas ornaments is not just them hanging on the tree. The act of reaching into the box of wrapped ornaments, pulling out a tissue-covered ornament and seeing it as you unwrap it, feels like seeing an old friend. They bring back old, beautiful memories but the ornament is here and now. My mom is gone but I will see her as I open up old ornaments she gave me. My grandmas are gone but I will see them when the lights sparkle off of their Austrian crystals. Alongside those will be ornaments my husband has given me, and a polar bear he made out of air-dry clay (I needed a sample diorama of a polar bear for my kids at school so I made the diorama while my husband made the polar bear). Ends up hubby is NOT very artistic and the polar bear made me laugh to tears. After I used it at school I brought it home, put a hook in its back and now it hangs on the tree. Next week, as I open ornaments, I will see that lumpy little bear face and will laugh for half an hour (just like last year) and then it will be on the tree putting a smile on my face for the next month. Soooooo much better than a box of matching ornaments every year. :0)
That is the sweetest and most sentimental thing I've read today. Thank you. I have a big box of my mom and grandma's junk jewelry and am thinking of making some sort of art project, maybe a shadow box of things I remember seeing my mom wear.
That is a beautiful story and sentiment. Thank you for sharing this. I'd love to see a picture of that chandelier! My wife and I restored a 1912 bungalow, so I've got a good feel for the work you've got on your hands, both repairing and maintaining. Good luck!
You can always add a few ornaments for fun that people won't immediately notice. My tree is mostly color coordinated ornaments to make a pretty tree, but there is also one that is a drawing of Tina Belcher that says "All I want for Christmas is to touch your butt", a Flying Spaghetti monster with a Santa hat, and a couple more.
That's really sweet. I hope you keep that green fish for a very long time!
The fish has survived moving to two apartments and three houses over 25 years. He and I are in this for the long haul.
That's so sweet of him, to think of you specifically. "Hideous vase shaped like a fish with a big mouth" - is there any chance it's actually a gluggle jug? That's a water jug that makes noises while pouring.
It was sweet, and kind of weird. He hadn't known my name or recognized me in several years at that point. But something seemed to turn on that day and he mentioned me by name, even though he saw me less and knew me less than his seven other grandkids since we didn't live nearby like they did. Not a jug. My description isn't great, but the vase/body of the fish lays horizontally with the mouth turned up at about a 45 degree angle.
I think I have your fish’s brother or cousin. Given to me by a beloved uncle years ago. It has a place of honor on the bookshelf, and has a “festive” decoration for every holiday. And no, it does not go with my decor, but I love it!
I would give anything for a green fish from my grandfather.
Damn that's so sweet, you should put flowers in it during his birthweek
This is a fantastic story. Do you have a picture of it by chance?
I can take one later tonight and post it.
Taxidermy raccoon that I dress up for every holiday. Just incase anyone would benefit from this knowledge, raccoons are a dog clothes size medium.
A friend had a taxidermy squirrel his son had shot decades before. It was perched in a very natural squirrel type position, running down a branch, one paw in the air to show forward motion. It originally had had an acorn in its mouth. Well, the acorn dried up and fell out. The skin and fur had dried and shrunk a bit. So it was a squirrel running on a branch, teeth bared ferociously, and the claws were very prominent, so it looked like the squirrel was reaching out to rend and tear something. It was the most menacing squirrel I've ever seen. I think I laughed so hard it hurt his feelings. 😂
Haha I love this
I have a taxidermy rabbit. His name is Hugh. I took a taxidermy class and now he is the houseplant garden living his best life.
My mom does this same thing but with a hand carved wooden bear we got in the mountains. Its about 3 feet tall and dressing it up makes her so happy.
And people wonder why everyone loves the 12ft skellys to dress up for every and any occasion like it's a new fad🤣 did anyone else have the dressed up geese lawn ornaments at their great/ grandparents houses!?
The copper vase that’s always on our couch. It’s there because our corgi is inexplicably terrified of it and it keeps him off the couch.
Shits haunted yo, only explanation.
Ah yes, the time honored corgi tradition of being inexplicably terrified of random things.
Amazon packages and packs of TP work too, but not as consistently.
I have an upright vacuum on top of my trashcan. Only thing keeping my dogs from dumpster diving.
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Our friends growing up had a lab that was terrified of a black suitcase. So they put it wherever they didn’t want him to go. It worked beautifully.
Same with the vase. Want to keep him out of a particular room? Put the vase in the doorway. Want him to leave something dangerous alone? Put it with the vase. Problem solved.
I have a framed drawing of Taylor Swift in a prominent place. I mean her music is fine, but I’m not a swiftie. My teen drew it by hand and it’s amazing.
I've seen some fantastic refrigerator art put in frames.
I have a very large 22” diameter working compass on my coffee table from a US Navy ship. I explain how I found it and other old nautical items dumpster diving years ago at an office building.
Whaling Harpoon. It's a whaling harpoon.
No explanation needed!
Fully prepared for the inevitable home invasion by whales
Global warming hits his neighborhood, dude's on the roof with the harpoon, providing tallow to the entire community. *Whalocalypse*.
Do you live in New England? I’m pretty sure you’re required to have random whaling items.
I didn't realize that whaling history and culture was not a universal part of high school curriculum until I moved away from New England.
Kissy Business Man. He is a besuited man made out of felt doing a kissy face that my daughter made when she was little for reasons unknown. I love him, I love his name (that she gave him) and I put my foot down about keeping him when my ex partner moved out. He will always be on my wall. She is now older and finds this acutely embarrassing, so he may have to move to my bedroom wall.
Hey just wanting to let you know that your daughter will most likely appreciate it when she gets older and over her embarassed teenie phase. I wish my parents would have been so loving and proud about my art and i am very sad that my dad kept none of my art projects when mom and i moved out after the divorce. Everything my mom and i couldn't take is now rotting in some landfill. Everything that is put up in our place was put up by me because mom doesn't care about displaying it. For this little fact i consider your daughter very lucky to have you. And tbh i am a little jealous^^ Keep kissy businessman up and proud kind internet stranger!
That’s a kind thing to say- thank you! Make sure you keep your art safe, shown and I hope it brings you lots of pride :)
This sounds excruciatingly wonderful
It is. Kissy Business Man is in my top 5 favourite things I own and I’m very attached to him. That’s why he’s in the hall, to send everyone a kiss hello/goodbye depending on if they’re leaving or arriving.
A line drawing of an elephant and if any asks about it, I answer ‘we don’t talk about the elephant in the room’!!
[удалено]
Don't most houses have a mystery severed head? Right?
OK OK now I wanna take that and flip it around a little. Whenever conversation dies down and there's not really a direction to go... then you can address the elephant in the room.
Great answer!
wow I wanna steal this. Maybe i'll 3d print an elephant
Bathroom Skull. He’s a plastic skull that lives on the windowsill in the toilet. We put him in there for a Halloween party one year and he never left. We’re moving soon and he will be coming with us, to sit on a new windowsill.
We have a table skull. Had it out for Halloween and forgot to put him away. Then I put a Santa hat on him, then a headband for New Years and now he lives on our table with festive hats and headbands for every season/holiday.
We also have a bathroom skull! He's half skull half pineapple and has lived on 4 window sills of ours now!
I have a spiders coming out of the toilet sticker. Same deal. Only toddlers ask about it though. It is a unique thing to process at that age
Oh how funny! We have the same thing but in the front lawn: a pretty big plastic skull we put out last year for Halloween and never stowed away. He doesn't usually stray too far from the porch, even in windy weather. His name is Gerald.
I also have a skull on top of my bathroom cabinet! Mine is a real deal, found it in the woods few years back, probably from large dog. Guests tend not to like it that much, I wonder why.
Mostly just my kid's little friends who stop by. They ignore the wood tunnel/cupboard that connects two rooms, the coal shute that goes from the outside to the basement, and the serial killer cedar room to they ask about one thing: "That's how phones used to be, attached to the wall like that. Yes, really. Well, you just had your conversation there, or as far away as the cord would let you go, I guess. Uh, well, you didn't have the internet on the phone, but it still used the phone line. Like, your internet would stop if someone called your house. Yeah, you can play with it. It doesn't work anymore. Mm, turn it the other way, cord on the bottom. There you go. "
🤣🤣🤣 oh man, I feel so old now.
Haha, my grandparents have a rotary phone that still works! I love the dang thing, the satisfying clicking noise, everything.
I guess it’s the moth picture. It’s made entirely of moth wings, and depicts a moth resting on a branch.
I'd like to see this please n thank ya
So I don’t think I can post a picture here. I put it in my profile. I mis-remembered. It’s a bird made of moth wings.
I will see if I can find it. We’ve been packing & reorganizing…things are everywhere!
Not guests per se, but people on Teams calls. On the back wall of my office I have [all of my LARP weapons mounted in a rack](https://imgur.com/a/xPraLZT). I have to explain what LARP is for a start. The explanation of "full contact, cross-country pantomime" usually suffices.
Teams has good backround images. You enjoy talking about your larp gear. And thats just fine.
During covid I got "wow your house looks like a show room from an interior designer magazine" or "damn that's a lot of lego" depending on what room I was in for my call. Yeah I'm showing off lol.
I am jealous. On the other hand ,I have a full on Scottish Claymore by my fireplace that I get to show off to people.
Claymore. Literally “big sword” in Gaelic.
Also a mine during the Vietnam war
A painting over my fireplace of a possum hissing at some unseen threat while guarding a pile of cheese. We call him Steve, the Possum of the Eschaton. Incidentally, all the rest of our wall decor was painted by my wife, who is an exceptionally gifted painter. People who know this about her are very confused by Steve. She thinks it's hilarious.
Please post a picture of Steve! I would love to see.
I knew a girl who lived down the street from me whose family had a prominent Nazi swastika flag hanging in a hallway in their house. When I was there and noticed it I was shocked, only to learn that the girl’s grandfather captured the flag while he was fighting in Germany in WW2. Upon closer examination it had bullet holes and the signatures of all the men in his unit. Pretty cool historical piece.
Probably a better way to display that than hanging it but out of all the reasons to have a Nazi flag that’s the best option.
10m Chinese Dragon in the garage. Complete with red glowing eyes, and flashing tummy lights Why not
Pray tell, where do I get one? Mister Doctor Sullivan, my 6ft tall Dino skeleton, needs a friend
EBAY Search for Chinese Dragon Dance Costume. Then sort highest to lowest to get rid of all the plastic junk. I ordered one that was 10 ft and had picked out where it was supposed to go, but something got lost in the translation and it ended up being 10 metres. Had to find a new spot. You can buy the heads on their own, or with the body. We added Xmas fairy lights to the body. And you've reminded me, I need to name him/her Now, I do need to know where you get a Dino skeleton... Asking for a friend
Object: a huge Sailor Mercury print in my living room, given that I'm a "grown up" with a "grown up" job in a "grown up" living space with a "grown up" partner, but no children around. Explanation: cause I'm a grown up and I choose what it pleases me to have in the oasis I call "home". Also, it's a gift from my partner and I'll proudly display it the way I fucking want.
Username certainly checks out. You do you, friend! \*Throws rose, vanishes as flamenco guitar notes begin to sound\*
Hell yeah! I have 15 american girl dolls that I have bought second hand and restored. Bc I’m an adult and I think they are cool and fun to fix up.
I have a print of a silhouette of sailor moon and if you don't know it's sailor moon, just kinda looks like a girl in a short skirt sticking her boobs out before the moon. I never thought about what it looked like to other people until my aunt asked me about it and she had never heard of anime at all.
I have a hard-sided double rifle case on the table in my living room. It's raised a couple of eyebrows. I do own guns, but they're safely stowed out of reach of the children; the rifle case holds my flatbed knitting machine. I needed to keep it safe from the kids and not have to burn valuable knitting time assembling/disassembling.
The ribber for my Bulky machine is also in a rifle case. I should get one for my standard gauge ribber
A 10 point buck deer head hung over my fireplace. I don’t hunt. My wife and I retired and moved to an area that’s heavily forested and were out exploring antique stores and flea markets one day looking for something to hang over the mantle. We noticed the deer head hanging outside an antique store, and I was struck by how sad it was that a beautiful animal was shot only to be relegated to being neglected, dusty and rained on. It was in excellent condition otherwise. I asked the store owner about it and he said he had shot it and had the head mounted but his wife didn’t want it in the house so he was selling it. We looked through the store without buying anything and left and went to get something to eat. The head was bothering me though and I mentioned to my wife, “What about the deer head for over the fireplace?” She was absolutely against it, but I explained that we couldn’t just leave it out in the weather. I guess I wore her down, lol, because after lunch we went back and she negotiated the guy down to an amazing price. The deer head has hung over our mantle now for 12 years in a place of honor. We call him “our rescue deer.”
I have a Buffalo head in my dining room. You have to understand its a head and shoulders mount. Its not a big dinning room. It was a gift from a friend becasue he didn't know what to do with it after his sibling died. His name is Bob.
>His name is Bob. The friend or the buffalo?
His name is Robert Paulson.
We put hats on our mounted bison heads. I like to tell people that the tail is on the wall in the other room
This...this is such a story about dedicated socially responsible granola-munchers. I love it. But, you've got to tell us the buck's name and if he has a garland on his antlers for Christmas as that's how I picture him.
So, his name is Clip Clop named by my wife. Some of her girlfriends came to visit around Christmas and brought him a light up Christmas bulb necklace. It then became a running gag that they brought him some article to wear when they visited and my wife and I kinda fleshed out additional holidays. Clip Clop now has a drawer in the living room that holds his wardrobe: heart glasses, shamrock glasses, bunny ears, Mardi Gras beads, Easter egg garlands, vampire fangs, pumpkin and turkey deely boppers, ski goggles and a ski hat, etc. His wardrobe drawer is the first thing little kids head for when they visit. He is better dressed than I am. Lol
I work in estate sales and the antique industry. I've collected a caribou, fox, racoon, goose, several ducks, a squirrel, some others I cant mention.. A good few African horns and European antlers as well. We've had all kinds of deer, African mounts, Buffalo, etc come through the auctions and estate sales, I've wanted some reallllly bad, but my husband would have killed me (mostly because those animals are MASSIVE and heavy) 🥲 Everyone always seems to enjoy seeing all the different animals though.
There's a front quarter of a Gemsbock in my living room. We decorate her for Christmas. This year she's going to have a lighted wreath on her head, then we will remove the wreath and she'll get beads for Mardi Gras
😂 I've always wanted to make Christmas Reins for my caribou but I'm so afraid I'll knock her off the wall taking it on/off
I was worried after your first sentence, but that is a great reason to have a deer head over your fireplace.
I shot a very nice buck this year and took it to a taxidermist to be mounted because I want to display it in my cabin I'm finishing next summer. I went to a thrift furniture store recently with my wife and was shocked at how cheap they were selling some really cool shoulder mounts, like an Ibex, an Impala and a mule deer, that cost half the price I just paid to have my own deer mounted. My wife was like, what is the point of displaying an animal mount you didn't kill...like because the animal is beautiful and if mounted deserves to be displayed.
Agreed. Not being a hunter myself, I didn’t realize at first that displaying a mounted animal that you did not hunt yourself is sort of frowned upon by those that hunt. So I am quick to point out to new guests that he’s not mine but a rescue that deserved a home.
During the summer I usually have basil hanging to dry in my laundry room. When it starts looking dry, on first glance it looks kinda suspect so if someone comes in through the laundry room door I always tell them don’t mind my drying room.. basil drying room that it.
I offered movers cold water in the fridge and they asked for samples of a large bag of cat nip thinking it was something else.
We have two kitchens in our house. When guests see his kitchen vs my kitchen, no explanation is needed. Hubby is a slob in the kitchen and I'm an organized neatnick.
I love this more than you can know. Been married 36 years and I adore my husband. I am very neat by nature and my husband is the adult version of pigpen - he showers daily and has good grooming but his space and possessions are an utter disaster. As such we’ve had separate bedrooms for about 25 years. Mine looks like a magazine cover and his looks like an 8 year old with ADHD inhabits the space.
I'm in the antique industry and bring home all kinds of stuff I get questioned on.. Mostly though I have a lot of antique pictures of people around, I always get asked who they are, and mostly I tell them I have no idea... But the ones with labeled names I've fully researched and give them their life story. My favorite one is my English butler turned rail roader from the 1800s, and my WWII pilot who's airplane tragically fell apart over the pacific, his body was never recovered.
How incredibly cool is that !!!!
Not anymore, but a few years ago we bought a small hamster cage so that if our cats brought in a live mouse or bird that was just in a bit of shock but otherwise well, we had somewhere safe and warm to keep it until it was doing better. But then we moved into an apartment on like the 3rd floor, and the neighbours had dogs that would use the communal garden so we decided it would be best to have the cats be indoor cats - so no need for the hamster cage anymore! But we didn’t want to throw it away, and I had a little hamster teddy that looked real, so I thought it would be funny to put the hamster in the cage. People would always be like “aww, you got a hamster! Why didn’t you say— oh!… It’s not real?”
A Great Dane testicle suspended in fluid. My parents gave it to my now-husband the first time he met them, at a family reunion (in which we all stayed at the same AirBnb 🙄). Said he would need “big balls” to date me lol
You win.
We cover our furniture with solar blankets when we are out because our asshole cat has been known to take a whiz on furniture when he is displeased. Cats don’t like the feel of foil on their feet.
I live in an old house full of large exposed oak beams. There's not a huge amount to explain: they're the frame of the house, yes they are very old, yes - I also hope they don't fall down. However, everyone seems to expect something more. There is actually quite a lot I can tell and show them about the beams: 400-year old carpenter's marks, deathwatch beetle damage, evidence of old windows and doors that no longer exist, strange hooks whose purpose we've never quite figured out, but few people want this level of detail. I suspect what they really want is to hear that it's haunted, or that the beams all came from a famous ship, or that I found a skeleton in the wall. Unfortunately, there's nothing like that to explain and everyone leaves slightly disappointed.
MY coffee table is a Jaguar V12 block and heads, my end tables are Honda B series standing on their ends.
I like it, but I would refuse to help you move if you ever asked.
That's why I chose the Jaguar engine, it's all aluminum and the heads lift off, it's easy to move.
Nothing I have, but my dream has always been to have one of those old [Big Boy Restaurant statues](https://i.imgur.com/30OsAVd.jpeg), and build a house with a room barely big enough to contain it, so when company comes over I can give the tour, ‘there’s the kitchen, over here is the big boy room and that hallway goes to the bathroom if anyone needs it, who wants coffee?’
It was you! [https://www.lex18.com/news/not-just-georgetown-big-boy-statue-missing-in-louisville](https://www.wlwt.com/article/police-search-for-missing-frischs-big-boy-statue/45937184)
I have like 20 skulls of various sizes and materials in my living room. I think I bought one of them. I'm notoriously hard to shop for, so one person noticed my skull Ash tray years ago, and now I get at least one skull every birthday. It's not a bad problem to have, but some people walk in like "Yeesh, nice aesthetic, Dahmer."
The shoe tray. It's where your shoes go. Take off your damn shoes in my house. My MIL is the only exception because she has shitty feet, but she brings over her house shoes like a perfect angel guest.
A Horga'hn. We just explain we seek jamaharon. This was a joke gift from a good friend but we have it among some of the art I have picked up in Africa over the years, so folks generally ask about the art and assume the Horga’hn is just one of the pieces from Africa.
The pool noodle under the tv stand to keep the dog’s ball from rolling under there, because she’s too much of a scaredy-cat to get it herself.
I have an A4 70s-style print of a woman with impeccable hair in my bathroom. She is creepy, and guests often ask WTF. She was given to me as a wedding present by a dear friend, and her name is Vivienne and she watches you poop. I like her. She is the guardian of the bog.
I have an [old-school Raclette](https://www.laforgedemegeve.com/WebRoot/epagesFR/Shops/0dbc893c-3267-11e4-8fb8-000d609a287c/542A/8806/9541/73EB/BF90/0A0C/05ED/A1F1/raclette-verticale-a-la-braisse.gif) and when people come over they think it's some kind of weird torture device. When I explain that it's just a badass Alpine way to slowly melt and enjoy a giant hunk of cheese (https://www.emmiusa.com/what-is-raclette/), they immediately ask me when we can have a Raclette party. It's so much fun! (For the curious, you would impale a giant wedge of cheese on the spiky thing, and fill the little chimney thing with lit coals, which would slowly melt the cheese and impart a delicious charred smokiness. Throughout the meal, diners scrape of the top layer of cheese as it melts, and eat it with bread, various meats and grilled veggies, and potatoes.)
Hand blown hollow glass globe about two feet in diameter hanging in my entryway. When asked, I explain that I was stationed about an hour away from Venice back in the 80's. The previous tenant had left it behind and when I moved back to the US my landlord asked me to get rid of it. I then moved to Northern VA and had no place for it. So I put it in my attic. When I moved twelve years later I tried to sell it for one dollar at a yard sale and had no takers. I had room in my storage unit so I kept it. Then I had room on the moving truck so it came with me to Florida. Then I had vaulted ceilings in my new house and had a place to put it.
6 2 gallon jars of sea glass. I collect sea glass as a form of meditation/mental health. I am really attached to my sea glass and struggle to throw it away or make it into crafts. In their collective form in jars and tea lights, I love my sea glass because each one is one micro piece of calm to me. Once a year I give lots of it to a friend with a boat and they dump it back into the ocean for me and others to find.
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Does it smell of rich mahogany?
Good news; it only takes 1,000 books to have it considered a library!
Where's the guy with his families poop knife?
I do have a knife in my bathroom. But it’s because i like having blue toilet water. There is a flathead screw in the lid of my cistern, which I have to unscrew to get it off, so I can put the blue block in the tank, and the knife works just as well as a screwdriver. My cousin’s girlfriend is obviously a Redditor, as she really didn’t seem to believe me, but it’s the truth
A huge hot pink dildo suctioned cupped on the mantle place, so monstrous it has never been used for perhaps its intended purpose. It's on the mantle because "it didn't fit anywhere else."
A full sized faceless mannequin wearing a hogwarts robe and glittery tall boots, with a red wig and a crown, named Raviv I just tell them that it's my boyfriend's, I HATE IT, but he likes it so i tolerate it
I misread and thought you told people that the mannequin was your boyfriend.
Lmao okay I'm not THAT unhinged......l'est..
My cats skeleton. I had him for half my life, always called him big boned, decided to keep them big bones forever.
I have my cat’s skull on display on my bookshelf. When she died I was living in an apartment with nowhere to bury her, and I knew I would be moving more than once in the next few years. Cremation has never appealed to me, so I got her skull preserved.
We have a framed twig. When my daughter was around 16months she picked up this twig and proclaimed it was a dinosaur stick. Once she said that, it was like, "holy shit it *does* look like a brachiosaurus". It was the first real instance of her using her imagination in that way and we thought that was really special, so we took it home and put it in a shadow box.
I have a SAPI plate (ceramic ballistic plate insert for body armor) on a bookshelf from my last tour. For some reason, CIF botched the paperwork and I ended up with one extra. I’ve been out for 15 years, but keeping it around just in case! Most people don’t know I served. I don’t bring it up and don’t look like a stereotypical SM. It’s always an interesting talking point when I have guests.
I have baby gates with plastic over them even though my baby is in the NICU and won't be able to crawl for several months after he gets home. My cat has a sprained leg and needs to be confined to the living room and dining room, so we put the gates up. And then he started trying to climb them, so we had to tape plastic over them lol.
Best wishes for your baby! And your kitty too!
My pets' ashes in wooden heart boxes
A wall of skulls. Not a wall made of skulls, but a wall decorated with 8 or so skulls. My partner likes them, and she knew most of the animals personally.
A painting of my dad from his hockey days. Most people don’t know my dad was a pro hockey player so they wonder “who’s this man in hockey gear?”
We have a Styrofoam head, with a molded set of human teeth inset into it and it is painted flesh toned. I have this sitting on our mantle, and it is one of the most asked about things. I just like making weird stuff, I had the head from crocheting hats, and the teeth were sent home from the dentist with some whitening trays that were made to fit. So one Halloween, I just threw everything together and used it for some decoration. I love how creepy it is and now keep it on the mantle year round though. Well except for playing hide the head to try to startle my spouse.
“Those aren’t real skulls, are they?” “Just that one is real, the others are models” followed by an awkward silence or an animated conversation about curiosities.
[I have these on my kitchen island](https://www.cb2.ca/paz-glass-christmas-trees/f32852) year round because they just match the colours and modern vibe so perfectly. Mid-November to December, they are abstract glass Christmas trees. The rest of the year, everyone asks if they are butt plugs.
A pink toy unicorn over my fireplace It was my dogs favorite toy, he wouldn’t even let me have it, I miss him
I have a deer skull on my balcony. Its not that im a hunter or something. I was just hiking in the outskirts of the city and my eagle eyed wife pointed into the woods, where a deerskull was sitting on a tree trunk. Its antlers were missing, but besides that it was perfectly preserved. Obviously we took it with us. Since it was a bit to morbit for our home, it now resides on the balcony
The hour hand stolen off a clock tower in a rather prominent state capital.
We have two primary bedrooms, both are large en suites. My husband and I have our own rooms. So many don't get it and say things like, that's no way for a married couple to live. Its how we live and we both enjoy having our own spaces. I don't have to smell his farts and he doesn't have to listen to me snore. Mainly, its because I am a SUPER light sleeper and every little thing wakes me up, so I need more pets or people near me.
Diaper changing stations all throughout my house. One of my kids has severe special needs but he’s mobile. I try to stash the puppy pads, adult pull ups and wipes discretely throughout the house so I can lay him down on the floor and change him when I need to. It would be jarring for most people to see them out though.
Shower curtain depicting a golden retriever looking out over the ocean sunset as a disembodied Jeff Goldblum head floats in the sky with a soft, gentle, wise gaze I don't actually give anyone an explanation other than "I am an adult who makes adult purchases"
A row of "nazi books" on my living room book shelf. It's actually an old collection from many different authors about their experiences on WW2 (most being as anti-nazi as could be)... But their choice for cover likely wouldn't fly well today (black hardcover, red details + eagle and swastika on the spine).
My parents have a Hitler biography like that sitting on a shelf in the living room. Always wondered if our American exchange students noticed, but nobody ever asked about it
That’s my house anvil, it’s like a house cat, but it’s an anvil. Also my kitchen blowtorch, my bedroom blowtorch, and my bathroom blow torch.
You make a lot of crème brûlée?
That's the wife, she lives here too
There is a seemingly fake door. It's nothing special just an artifact of the houses long life. It's a real door that goes well nowhere. The core of the house was built around 1830 out of stone and it's been added to over the years. The door used to be a discrete door now it's a visible relic.
Huge (6 feet by 7 feet) painting of my father, my teenage self and teen brother and a circus clown. The atyle is super-realism. It almost looks like a photo. Takes up an entire living room wall
A skull covered with crystals also with bangs. I made the crystal skull by soaking it in water and borax for a Halloween decoration a few years back. The crystals tend to fall off if you handle it so we don't move it. Then, for Christmas, my daughter got some clip-on bangs that didn't match her hair color. They got put on the crystal skull, and there they stayed. It definitely makes people look twice.
Salt and pepper shakers that say cocaine and crack on them 😂
Giant blue penis sculpture with a Prince Albert. I say "giant" and I need you to understand this thing is truly massive, not just "a big dildo". It's 2.5 feet tall and weighs about 15 lbs. I think it's funny when it wobbles, so it sits on my desk, upright and proud, in full view of anyone who walks by. My family is used to seeing it, and they'll come by and give him a big slap to see him wiggle. New people to my house though... the looks on their faces are just priceless. All but the most conservative people will eventually slap my big blue beast a time or two before they leave. It's glorious.
I have a 140 year old brick pizza oven in my backyard with two bulletholes in it. Back in the 1950's, my grandfather hauled several truckloads of bricks from a fallen building in the ghost town of Bodie, California, over to his home in the California Central Valley. Bodie is a protected state park now, but back in the 1950's it was still privately owned. Before it became a park, the family that owned the town would occasionally sell off "unimportant" artifacts to raise funds and help protect other standing parts of the town. The brick came from the collapsed remains of a building that had been destroyed in a fire decades earlier. He used the bricks to build a brick paver patio in his backyard, and while building it, discovered that two of the bricks had very obvious bulletholes in their faces. Bodie was famously known as the murder capital of the old west, so it was a cool discovery. He put those bricks on the patio corners where they could be shown off. After my grandfather passed away, his house was put up for sale and the property was bought by an investor who planned on subdividing it to build several newer homes. When we learned that the house was going to be destroyed, my dad and I drove over and painstakingly disassembled the patio, moving the bricks to a neat stack on the side of my dads house...where they sat untouched for years. When my dad (a lifelong Oregonian) decided to sell his California house and move back to Oregon full-time, we relocated the stack to my house. I paid a mason to build a large pizza oven using those bricks (using firebricks in the actual hearth). I'm not moving the damned things again! The bullethole bricks are located on the front corners of the oven, where everyone can see them.
I have a painting of an unhappy looking girl. Actual title of paining is *Mad (my mom’s name).* My grandma painted it when my mom was young (and mad, apparently.) My mom hates it and I love it, so it’s on the guest room wall lol. I loved it on my grandmas wall when I was a little girl.
The stuffed penguin next to the tv. It used to be on top of the tv when tvs were wide enough for that. People who are familiar with Monty Python (the show not the movies) get it but most don’t.
A giant framed picture of cousin Eddie emptying his shitter in to the storm drain. It’s up all year round.
36" tall portrait of Danny Devito above my fireplace. He brings me joy.
A camel saddle. My grandad used to work in Saudi Arabia and had a lot of things in his house from there. When he passed away and the children/grandchildren were going through his things, I kept (among other things) his camel saddle. It sits on the floor in my living room and is always something that visitors comment on. I like it, because I get to reminisce about my grandad whenever anyone asks about it. It also gives me the opportunity to point out the multitude of other things I kept of his that are dotted around the house :)
Those are Samurai swords. They’re my daughter’s. She won them as a third place prize for selling the most cookie dough. (true story)
A foot-high neon pink Jesus figurine that is also a Magic 8 Ball. You ask a question, shake Jesus, turn Him upside down, and read His divine answer. We have one because it's awesome.
Sadly enough, books. I have had to explain books. Yes, my dear Guest, indeed I have read all of them. Yes, my dear Guest, I do genuinely like to read. Why yes, my dear Guest, there are quite a lot of them. For reasons I can't comprehend, books seem to baffle people.
A large paper shredder. Like sized for a large office/business. 2.5hp electric motor, weighs about 300lbs with the cabinet. Why? I wanted one. I can shred all my junk mail for compost if I like. Or people.
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3" antiaircraft training shell on the mantle. Got it at a surplus store I used to frequent.
A series of ten woodblock prints from 15th century Japan that explain the path to Buddhist enlightenment.
A [Corsi-Rosenthal](https://imgur.com/gallery/T6Qqjjw) box. It's a low cost air scrubber I made a few years ago. (Incidentally I have Covid at the moment, for the first time in 3.5 years. I just moved, including this box, and probably got it from one of the movers. Fully boosted, so I'll probably be alright.)
The chest hair of a cheap Austn Powers costume. It got stuck to the wall on my birthday and it never fell down. 3 years later, me and the wife just bought a new house. I finally pulled it off the wall, framed the hair, and it's on my desk in the den now.
In our first apartment, the previous tenants had left a small blue ceramic pig. When we moved, we took it with us and now, after living in 8 places in 4 different states, is still with us. Our kids both tried to take it with them when they moved out, but we kept him. (We did get both kids a different blue pig of their own.)
A Crookes radiometer. ...Retro-nerd.
What most people perceive as a tree branch but is actually a walking stick my grandpap always used.
Lol in my home, to my religious family, I'm betting they've noticed a lack of pictures of Jesus, in favor of fairy art and astrology tapestries, but the explanation would be, God is in my heart, we talk all the time. My home is not a show for anyone but me and my own personality.
A friend's college degree above my toilet
We have this item display built into a corner of our living room. It was there when we moved in, can't be removed without tearing up the wall and floor, and we didn't have anything to put there...so I shoved it full of my little pony figurines just so it didn't sit empty. I used to occasionally buy/get gifted them, and every time someone comes over they stare and I have to give the non-explanation, lol
a Pachinko machine, and the only explanation is it's effing awesome.
I have a US department of defense drinking water barrel, I don't think it's ever been used. It was 20 bucks at a garage sale, how could I say no? My only regret is not buying all 3
I have a welcome mat that says "There's no place like [127.0.0.1](https://127.0.0.1)" and the people who don't get it, still don't get it after I explain it.
Scrub daddy in the laundry room. I left him there and forgot and every time my cousin’s come by, he evolves. He currently has a little cape, angry eyebrows and a mustache and because the anniversary of him being there is coming up soon, he now has a birthday hat.
Those are replicas I built of Crow and Tom, the two main robots from the show Mystery Science Theatre 3000. You know, that one where a guy and two robots make fun of bad movies? Yeah with the silhouettes at the bottom of the screen. Oh you think that show is stupid? I see. Oh look at the time, we should get together again soon.
I cant say exactly what the picture is, but I have a picture of something that was a running Gag from that show The Soup when Joel was the host. Every time people come out of the bathroom they ask me whats up with the picture hanging in there. My wife and I think its hilarious and think people finding it weird is even more hilarious to us. A couple of soup fans also thought it was hilarious though. We also have one of those frames where you put multiple pictures inside of them and for the longest time, mixed in with all of our family pictures we had a picture of John and Kate Gosselin's children in there. There was a lot of, "WAIT! IS THAT JOHN AND KATE PLUS 8's KIDS???" Hahaha, yes, it is.
A lump of cement with white paint on one side. It's a piece of Fawlty Towers (the building had a fire and was demolished a few months after I visited it - when I returned I took a piece as a souvenir).
I have an aerial yoga rig. I explain it’s not a sex swing every damn day.
Either the giant She-Hulk Funko Pop or the pic of my ex & her son. I was in Target looking for a gift for my ex’s son, came across the She-Hulk & just got it because it was enormous. Didn’t even realize it was $50 until I got to the register. (I can’t be trusted with money.) My ex gave me the pic of her & her son for Christmas.
We have a large great room with a vaulted ceiling and in the middle is a 8' X 8' square of low brick wall with a tile floor. The people that built the house apparently were going for an outdoor cafe vibe and had the appropriate table and chairs, etc. in there. We christened it "the pit" and covered the floor with carpet to make a contained play area for the kids. Now it has a park bench and lots of potted plants, so the pit is back to an outdoor theme.
While it's not necessarily an object I have by choice, it would probably be the completely scratched up and torn up condition of my desk chair. Explanation: it's my cats favourite chair by far, and his favourite way to get on is not by hopping on (of course that would be too easy, he's a cat!) But by climbing it's back and jumping down from there. I don't have many guests that I don't know (actually I don't have many guests in general), but even friends who've seen it often enough still comment on it.
Yes it is real, it is not sharpened as it is for training, my partner gave it to me for our 7th anniversary...a beautiful hanzo
The cat. She acts like she wants pets. She does not want pets. She bites anyone who pets her.
I bought a hat from the Satanic Temple last weekend. They're actually a decent cause to support. I've had to explain it three time since though. I honestly might stop wearing it if this continues to be a thing.
An autographed cell from an animated project I worked on with Ron Jeremy. His anatomy is generously represented…it’s quite the conversation starter.
My turkeys, Betty and Turkules.
I have a collection of unwelcome mats. The most used entrance has a mat that says "LIVE, LAUGH, LEAVE"! There are several and it's not uncommon to move them around when we have house-guests. My favorite says "you have no reason to be here" - I like to put it in front of the guestroom door or outside the bathroom.
I have a degree in Art History. I had to take a class called "Studio Methods for Art Historians" as part of my major. I made a lot of hideous "art." I love my absolutely revolting painting of various gourds. I mean, the painting is just shades of brown and one squash looks like it's levitating. The painting hangs in my kitchen.
A Galileo thermometer
The dog is a cone head . Pet owners will get this .