The Weirdest Artifacts Previous Tenants Left for New Owners to Find

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JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
Dec 10, 2023 4:00 PM EST

One of my favorite reality programs is Storage Wars. If you're unfamiliar, it follows a crack team of bidders who buy storage units sight unseen in the hopes that they'll find some interesting and valuable abandoned items. It's a thrill to find out what they've come into. It's the closest thing we have to pirate's booty in the 21st century. There's something so fascinating about other people's stuff. You can learn so much about their lives and their history through all the odd junk they kept around. My descendants are going to have to figure out what to do with all those Silly Bandz I'm still holding onto. 

But even if you're not a Storage Warrior and just an average old homeowner, there's a chance you'll fall into some unknown treasure. Redditors recently came together for a show and tell of the strangest things they've found in their new abodes. 

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  • 01
    r/AskReddit u/Oblivious_Dude14 • 3d People who bought a house. What is the weirdest thing you have found left by the previous owner?
    via u/Oblivious_Dude14
  • 02
    Individual-Common-89. 3d First time I took a hot shower in our new home. The steam covered the mirror, only to reveal the phrase "HELLO, I SEE YOU" in large finger drawn writing. It freaked me out for a second, but made me laugh soon after that. It was such an inconspicuous yet obvious thing to leave for the new homeowner (me).
    via u/Individual-Common-89
  • 03
    Used-Stress • 3d ● Not my house, but the school my friend worked at. A pipe had leaked and ruined a wall in the building, one of the oldest schools in the city. It was a beautiful property. Anyways the pipe leaked so they pulled down the ruined wall and behind the wall found a door. A fully furnished apartment was there. Had a coal burning stove to heat it. Early 1900s appliances and decor. It was for the caretaker of the school.
    via u/Used-Stress
  • 04
    LateralThinkerer • 3d Before I met her, my wife got a call from someone she worked with saying they'd just bought an old house and in the city, and in it was a steamer trunk with her family name (not a common one) carved into the woodwork on one end. As it turns out, it was the trunk that her great grandfather used when he came over from Germany, and it made the trip to my wife's hometown when he met her great grandmother on a visit, and subsequently moved to her city to marry her. We now have i
    via u/LateralThinkerer
  • 05
    Gljokinaround • 3d My first house purchase in 2005 - bought an old farmhouse that was built in 1923. The basement was FILLED with - we told them they needed to clean it all out before closing, but they didn't do it. The realtor asked if we wanted to postpone closing, and we decided no - some of the stuff looked interesting enough. Maybe it will be worthwhile to go through. Most of it was just junk. Then, about half way through (we were working our way from one end of the basement to the other, b
    via u/Gljokinaround
  • 06
    Very strange - had no idea what it was, but thought it was interesting. So I put it aside and we kept going. At the very back of the basement once we cleared everything else out, was a rickety gray cabinet, built into the house. Inside, were numerous strange small tools, vials of mercury, vials of a strange powder, and thousands - literally thousands - of dice blanks. Some actual dice, but mostly blanks without the dots. they were all in little boxes labeled "dice blanks". Also very strange... N
    via u/Gljokinaround
  • 07
    catsaway9 3d It's not really weird but I think it's kind of a nice story One of the kids' rooms has a shelf going all around the top edge, and when my kid was putting stuff up there they found a letter from the previous kid. The letter welcomed them to the room etc and asked them to take special care of a rose bush in the front yard that was their special rose bush. My kid thought it was really cool to have that connection with the previous kid.
    via u/catsaway9
  • 08
    Corgis HaveNoKnees • 3d Not weird but sort of touching. The house was about 100 years old. After moving in I went up to the attic which was a bit difficult to access. I wasn't sure what I would find. All that was there was a shoebox. An old brand; anyone else here remember Red Goose shoes? In it was "stuff," a couple of old Army patches, a scout knife, some rock n roll buttons and a couple of letters. From the letter I got a name and looked him up. He lived a town over. I called him and told him
    via u/CorgisHaveNoKnees
  • 09
    DislsDaeWae • 3d A basement room that was fully decked out as a "dungeon." Faux stone walls, a stocks (like where you lock your head and hands in ala ye olde England), candle scones on the walls, a metal-barred cage in the corner from floor to ceiling. Oh and the closet had a load of toys, some normal, some....not so typical.
    via u/DislsDaeWae
  • 10
    whymetoo • 3d $1200 in cash above the door on the inside the closet. I found it while painting.
    via u/whymetoo
  • 11
    khendron 3d ● A glass bowl. It was kind of pretty, with horizontal blue stripes. We kept fruit in it. We thought about dropping it off at the local charity shop, but never got around to it. Then one day I was at an antique fair and I saw for sale glass bowls that looked almost identical to ours. I went home to get my bowl and brought it to be assessed. Turns out it was a vintage Orrefors crystal bowl. The assessor valued it at around $800. We no longer keep fruit in it.
    via u/khendron
  • 12
    Factsaretheonlytruth • 3d A diary of an American soldier in WW-II, South Pacific Theater. Found it above a door when remodeling 20+ years ago. My wife and I tried everything we could think of to find a descendant, but to no avail. UPDATE: I just posted photos of it with the person's ID info on r/WorldWar2. Last Update: Thanks to all the help from this community, and those at r/World War2, this diary is now in the hands of its writer's son who came to my office this morning to retrieve it. I am s
    via u/Factsaretheonlytruth
  • 13
    disqeau • 3d These I bought a house from stuck a little skeleton figurine dressed up in a little monk's robe behind the exhaust vent in the furnace closet. Just about myself when I opened up that door and there was this tiny skeletal hand poking out, I thought it was a dead baby.
    via u/disqeau
  • 14
    fillsy84 • 3d My ex wife found ( behind a drawer in a built in cupboard) a lovely lock box contains several nice pocket watches and family heirlooms- the great part was that with a little sleuthing, we found the son of the man who originally built that house and re- United these items to the family - it was a wonderful experience from start to finish
    via u/fillsy84
  • 15
    fiftythousand years • 3d Didn't buy the house.. rented. Built in 1904. There was a walk in closet food pantry in the kitchen with built in cabinets. The cabinets on one wall, after living there for a year, I noticed had a gap between the wall and the cabinet. Drunk, I put my hand back there and something move. I scooted it out and it was a small box. Turned out to be a violet ray from the late 1800s. Designed by Nicolas Tesla. It still works, too. But the last time I plugged it in it electrocute
    via u/fiftythousandyears
  • 16
    Careless_Leek_5803 • 3d Not mine, and it was a rental, but when some of my high school friends went off to college in the early 90s they rented a house, and whoever lived there before hid weed all over the place. Probably about an ounce(?) in total but it was everywhere. Pull up the corner of the carpet? Weed. On top of the refrigerator? Weed. Back of the shelves in the hall closet? Weed. Either they were the most forgetful stoners ever or they did it as a surprise for the new residents.
    via u/Careless_Leek_5803
  • 17
    DadsRGR8• 3d My wife and I bought a house shortly after we were married in the early 80s. Cleaning before we moved in we found a WW2 inflatable life raft with a water desalination drinking kit; rolls of green grave grass (the stuff they put around open graves in cemeteries so your feet don't get muddy); bins of beads to make rosaries; amateur paintings of Jesus that were nailed to the wall in the attic (nailed not hung); a Nazi knife; a grenade casually forgotten behind tools on a shelf in the b
    via u/DadsRGR8
  • 18
    Gotskilla 3d ● We had our air ducts cleaned before we moved in. They also inspected them with a camera. Someone wrote You" deep inside one of the ducts. We thought it was hilarious.
    via u/Gotskilla

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found storage lost and found homeowner strange interesting askreddit artifacts home improvement storage wars reddit thread oddities mildly interesting Reddit antique weird
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