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Most of us own at least one thing we prefer to hide from strangers' eyes. You know, those little secrets we keep tucked away deep in the closet under lock and key. We might plan to take them to our graves, but if there’s one thing we know about truth — it comes to the surface one way or another.

Sorting through a deceased person’s belongings is a tough experience, one that brings out a myriad of emotions. But while going through their stuff might be painful, it can also lead to some unexpected discoveries. Redditor ChairForces wanted to find out what these items are, so they asked: "People who cleaned out their loved one's home after they died, what is the strangest thing you found?"

Surprisingly, quite a lot of users decided to come forward and share the objects they uncovered. From hidden letters and bayonets to rodents' skeletons, we selected some of the most interesting things this thread had to offer. So continue scrolling and make sure to share your own stories with us in the comments!

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#1

Last month i had the sad task of clearing out my dad's home, He lived alone as he separated from my mum when I was 5 (I'm almost 32).

I found that he kept every single card i had ever sent him, every little note I ever left him when I lived with him in my teens and more recently cards and doodles from my little boy.

Nothing unsavory, he was just a lonely man who really loved his daughter and grandson.

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Natalie Phipps
Natalie Phipps
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When my mum passed away in 2009, my sister and I were clearing out her clothes and in one of her drawers, I found a tiny t-shirt of mine from when I was about 4 years old. It was my absolute favourite (it was a white tee with the Pink Panther on it and silver glitter around the edges of him) and I had no idea she'd kept it. My heart broke a bit more at that moment - realising she'd kept hold of it for all those years. I was 31 when she died.

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#2

30 Unexpected, Bizarre, And Disturbing Things People Found In Their Loved One's Homes After They Passed Away Cleaning out my grandpa's apartment we found different pieces of a handgun scattered around. He struggled on and off with depression, and apparently he did it so that if he was thinking about suicide, he would have to go find all the parts and give himself time to talk himself out of it.

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Nor
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

How's that for fighting depression? God bless your grandpa

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To learn more about grief and how sharing experiences with others can help cope with the pain, we reached out to Nathalie Himmelrich, a holistic counselor and coach, and founder of the Grieving Parents Support Network. Usually, experiencing grief is extremely difficult and can make it hard for people to speak up about it.

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"The grievers sometimes tend to avoid talking about their pain because they have experienced their surroundings not be able to cope with it or use well-meant statements such as 'You can have other children' or 'Your grandmother was old and had a good life, it was better that she could go'. These sentences might be cognitively true but are emotionally barren," Himmelrich told Bored Panda.
#3

30 Unexpected, Bizarre, And Disturbing Things People Found In Their Loved One's Homes After They Passed Away We found out that my grandma had another child. Bringing the total to 8. That she gave up for adoption and never told anyone about. Not even my grandpa.

We tracked him down and he was the coolest, most normal one out of the bunch!

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Mad Dragon
Mad Dragon
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My great-grandmother had a child out of wedlock when she was 18. She was forced to go into a home for unwed mothers and the baby was given up for adoption. Her daughter managed to get the adoption records when she was in her 70s. She figured at most she would be able to find her birth-mother’s grave and perhaps a sibling or two. She was overjoyed to find my nana was alive and she was able to get to know her at last.

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#4

30 Unexpected, Bizarre, And Disturbing Things People Found In Their Loved One's Homes After They Passed Away My grandmother hoarded silver dollars over the years and hid them throughout her house. When we cleaned it up after she died we found the coins everywhere - every spot where you could imagine hiding a coin had one or two. The whole hoard ended up being worth about $7000.

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#5

30 Unexpected, Bizarre, And Disturbing Things People Found In Their Loved One's Homes After They Passed Away Cousin after a motorcycle accident, cleaned out his apartment along with his brother. Nothing strange in particular, then went over to his computer to erase his history (as a bro should) turns on, linux OS , encrypted asked for password then a loud bang just goes off the computer just dies.

Turns out he booby trapped the PC. i had failed to press some secondary button unknown to me. and there was a shot gun shell filled with birdshot aimed at the harddrive rigged to go off if the button wasnt pressed. obliterated the harddrive

to this day i wonder what he had on there to go to such lengths to keep hidden.

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Rick
Rick
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think we all know what he had on there to go to such lengths to keep hidden. Sorry.

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People surrounding someone experiencing grief might also avoid talking about it "because they think they might cause the griever pain or remind them [of it]. The truth is that the griever experiences the pain anyway," she noted.

"Have courage, speak about the hard and intense emotional truth of grief," Himmelrich said and added that sooner or later, we all have to deal with it. So "the more openly we speak about it, the more this experience is normalized, and the taboo will be broken."

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When asked about whether finding unexpected things in a deceased loved one’s home can make the pain even harder to deal with, the coach shared a story about her mother who had passed away. "I went through her belongings to clear the house," she said. "I was hoping that I would find something personal from her, maybe a letter or some personal notes. Having been living abroad for 15 years before she died, it was a way to get to know her and her life’s work from all the years I missed."
#6

30 Unexpected, Bizarre, And Disturbing Things People Found In Their Loved One's Homes After They Passed Away We cleaned out my grandparents’ home and we found a letter from my sister to grandpa. ‘I HATE the new baby. All she does is cry cry cry. She is a crying WITCH!’

that baby was me, thanks sis

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Robert T
Robert T
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm not sure which is worse - the letter itself, or the fact that they kept it!

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#7

30 Unexpected, Bizarre, And Disturbing Things People Found In Their Loved One's Homes After They Passed Away When we cleaned out my ex's grandmother's house, I stumbled upon her stash of how-to sex books, along with hand-written budgets from the 1940's. This dear woman was one of the most proper and gentle kind of people you would ever meet, and if you had known her, you would have been very surprised. My eyes kind of bugged out for a second, then I chuckled and showed my ex. He just nodded his head and quietly said, "Well, I am glad to know gramps was gettin' some". His aunt looked at one of the books and said, "Let's see if we're doin' it right."

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Caro Caro
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The Aunts reaction ... Hahaha. I might have said the same thing :D

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#8

30 Unexpected, Bizarre, And Disturbing Things People Found In Their Loved One's Homes After They Passed Away Cleaning out my grandparent's house after they passed away...

We found a booklet on sexual anatomy, a p**is eraser, a p**is that my grandma had crocheted and there were walnuts in the "nut sack", and a drawing my grandpa did of my grandma wearing nothing but a feather boa.

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The holistic counselor explained that the situation of finding strange things "can shift the image that we have held on from someone. It does however also correct some of the assumptions we have held. The truth is that everyone has 'strange' things in their lives they might not be sharing with anyone else."

When you lose a loved one, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Especially if you’re responsible for arranging the services or handling their belongings. Himmelrich mentioned that the most important thing is self-care: "Taking time to pause when managing a deceased person’s affairs or asking for help."

"When clearing my mother’s belongings, there were so many beautiful clothes, artwork, and jewelry, besides all the furniture, etc., that I knew I needed help. My father wasn’t able to deal with it given the circumstances, but he helped organize an event for friends, sending them invitations and organizing some catering for the event," she said.

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#9

Smoke detector started beeping. It's a very old one, like from the 1980s. I open it up. No battery, and a bundle of wires leading through the wall into the garage. Go into garage, trace the wires. They lead to a modern smoke detector in the garage, and a 12-volt battery. He had slaved the old smoke detector's beeper to the new one so he could hear it inside if there was a fire in the garage. My grandfather was a retired electrical engineer. When I saw that, I just shook my head and said, "That crazy old engineer." Genius move, but the work of a man with too much time on his hands.

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#10

The night my mom passed, we found an envelope from an insurance company. She’d hidden the fact that she had maintained a life insurance policy, naming my Dad the beneficiary. (They’d been through a bankruptcy. He thought all policies were cancelled.) It ended up being worth $100,000. Good one, Mom.

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#11

A bit late to the party, but ... my grandmother passed away a couple years ago; Before she died, my dad helped her with her numerous medications and tried to keep her on a relatively strict diet. When we went through Gammy's house we found almost a dozen (some unopened, some half-empty) boxes of Nutter Butter peanut butter cookies stashed all over the house (under pillows, under bathroom sink, behind her dresser, etc.) And one half-eaten loaf of bread in the closet. As a woman who was so "good" for her whole life (no drinking ever, bills on time, raised two boys and always had dinner on the table by 5:30, etc.) I like to think of the cookies as her own little act of rebellion

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So if you’re having a hard time, remember that sharing experiences in real life or online help deal with your emotions. "My clients come to see me just because of that: being able to talk to someone about all the emotions, the overwhelm, the misunderstandings from family and friends. What is needed is validation and normalizing, which we sadly don’t get from society at large."

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"Talk to someone. Talk to a therapist and discuss the feelings that came up in that situation," Himmelrich advised. But if you don’t have the means for it, you may also join her peer support group called May We All Heal on Facebook, where you can share openly with other people who get it.
#12

30 Unexpected, Bizarre, And Disturbing Things People Found In Their Loved One's Homes After They Passed Away My grandpa had four grenades he brought back from WWII in his garage. Still live. We had to call in the bomb squad.

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Scagsy
Scagsy
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2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yeah, I better keep these, you never know when you're gonna need four grenades in civvy street. Always come in handy.

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#13

30 Unexpected, Bizarre, And Disturbing Things People Found In Their Loved One's Homes After They Passed Away When my dad passed, my older sister (from his first marriage) came to help go thru stuff.

All our lives my dad had his army locker. None of us knew what was inside. He always kept it locked. So we had to know. The mystery of our entire lives were now ready to be cracked open.

Busted the lock off. Opened it. Some old army patches and souvenirs from his army days, stuff of his dad's and grandpas army days. Pics from his time overseas. Letter from government agency interested in him. Legal papers. Cool stuff.

And then the envelope.

The mystery of our entire lives... What was so important that he kept locked... Naked photos of my mom. Naked photos of my sisters' mom. (No, not together. 20+ years apart. Think Polaroids vs Kodak)

We never should have opened that locker.

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kim morris
kim morris
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I think it's great! He loved your mom. He loved his other wife. It wasn't some rando woman, this is a good thing.

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#14

30 Unexpected, Bizarre, And Disturbing Things People Found In Their Loved One's Homes After They Passed Away My mom found over three grand in cash stuffed between the cushions of my estranged father's sofa. It was just enough to pay the mortgage and bills whatnot until my sister's social security payments started kicking in. (She was a minor and my mom was still receiving child support for her.) Thanks, dad.

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Flash Henry
Flash Henry
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We had clients on an estate case where the family discovered that their recently deceased grandpa had hidden money in his books. He had a MASSIVE collection of books. Took the family something like 6 weeks to go through all of them one page at a time, but they ended finding almost $10,000.

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#15

Not strange in a "wtf" sense but in a we didn't expect some things to survive that long. I had an uncle who died when he was a kid in a car accident. My grandma kept everything ever possibly related to him in her storage room. It wasn't particularly dusty either so i assume she still looked at the things regularly. Everything from graded papers, doodles, all his old toys, and pictures. Taken care of and in great condition even though it all must've been 50years old at that point.

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AZ Panda
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

One of the saddest I've read so far... hopefully it helped in her grief... didn't add to it.

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#16

This is late. But here ya go.

I hadn't talked to my dad in about 3 years. I went with my brother and mom to clean out his place. My dad was a great artist, he would doodle alot. I found a stack of white bristol board. On the top board, was a note to me. A moose (I love moose, but he didn't know that because I became fond of them after we stopped talking.) and a self portrait of him and a beer can (alcohol took him). It was weird to me. It was a massive sign of an apology. It was the closure I sort of needed but did not realize that when I found it.

We reckon it was his last doodle. I still have it close to me today. His death brought my family closer and we don't deal with stupid drama anymore.

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#17

Nine thousand bucks in old-fashioned '50s [money] and somebody's beef jerky-looking finger with [a] ring stuck on it.

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#18

My grandfather's house. I was there at the time. My Dad and my uncle was there too. We were catalouging all of my granddad's stuff so we could work out what would go to who, and what we could get rid of. However, there was a cupboard we couldn't open. It was hidden in the top of an old grandfather clock, and it was tightly locked.

Nearly 2 months later, my uncle Matt had taught himself how to pick locks, and we all went back to my grandfather's house, and Matt picked the lock and opened the cabinet. And guess what we found?

A revolver with a single bullet loaded, and 10,000 pounds.

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Scagsy
Scagsy
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The way that '10,000 pounds' is written, would suggest that this is from the UK. With some exceptions, handguns are outlawed and ammo is scarce so the fact that gramps had this gun opens up a whole raft of questions. What did he have it for? Had he used it? Where did he get it? Was he a criminal?

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#19

My grandmother was a hoarder but also an antiques collector. There would be a stack of 7 boxes, 6 of them would have useless junk and the 7th would have $5000 worth of jewelry so we had to go through everything.

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jamie1707
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I jokingly tell friends/family to go very carefully through my things, like taking every LP out of the sleeves, opening all jewel boxes, books etc. The kids in the family think I'm making treasure hunt.

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#20

My nan recently died, after finding her birth certificate we discovered that she'd been spelling her name wrong her entire life.

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#21

30 Unexpected, Bizarre, And Disturbing Things People Found In Their Loved One's Homes After They Passed Away My great uncle's house had a rodent's skeleton that said "F*** you, Marty."

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#22

30 Unexpected, Bizarre, And Disturbing Things People Found In Their Loved One's Homes After They Passed Away Helped clean out my hoarding grandmother’s house. We found my father’s ashes.

The ashes she affirmed that she scattered at the family farm.

We also found my uncle. They were both in the original container and sealed.

WHAT DID SHE SCATTER?

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#23

When I went through my wife's things, I found her father's suicide note. I didn't even know he had left a note. Not a good day.

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#24

I helped clean out a girlfriend’s grandparents’ house. Along with finding some racially insensitive salt and pepper shakers, there was also a desk with a hidden compartment that her mom found. Her mom pulled out about 5 photos of grandma and grandpa having sex.

And they were recent photos.

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#25

30 Unexpected, Bizarre, And Disturbing Things People Found In Their Loved One's Homes After They Passed Away Was clearing out my fraternal grandfather's place with my dad and I discovered some bayonets, a whole collection of them, dating back to the Crimean war. They were wrapped in a bundle, with some letters, diaries and medals.

I went to show my dad and he was unimpressed. He then pulls out a large roll of what looks like blankets and unrolls it to reveal a full size ceremonial cavalry sabre.

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#26

30 Unexpected, Bizarre, And Disturbing Things People Found In Their Loved One's Homes After They Passed Away Back when I was an Avon lady, I helped our regional director clean out a house when one of the little old Avon ladies in the district passed away. We found out that she'd been a hoarder, and her teeny little house was packed nearly from floor to ceiling, with these little canyon-like trails through it. In addition to an entire ROOM full of extra and unused Avon products (the more you sold, the more you get for free - either for your own use or to sell and get some extra cash), there were places where, behind the piles of Stuff, dust had accumulated to more than an inch and a half thick. It was like doing an excavation - and each layer was a different decade.

It was so strange and sad.

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Kimi Tomminello
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2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My mom is like this. I had been out of contact with her for a while and then a scare happened that my daughter and I had to go to her house to try to find her. Boxes and cans of food, clothing, construction supplies, animal waste all floor to ceiling with tiny little paths. Idk if I'm going to help her clean this hoard up when the town starts fining her for excessive waste/ unsafe environment again.

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#27

30 Unexpected, Bizarre, And Disturbing Things People Found In Their Loved One's Homes After They Passed Away My family and I had to clean out my grampas apartment and we found 3 sets of binoculars. Now, that alone wouldn't be particularly weird, but we still had no idea why he had them. At least, not until we looked out his bedroom window, and realized we had the perfect view of a neighborhood swimming pool, complete with two bikini-clad ladies. We all kinda just laughed about it.

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#28

That my mom actually cleaned the room she fell in and that she cut a bush that was partly covering her window. The same window the EMT used to get her out of the house. All of that 3 days before. Like she knew a aneurysm would pop in her head days before.

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#29

A couple of years before my dad died, he dated a younger woman who claimed she loved him and wanted to marry. They later went their separate ways but my Dad never told me the full story. After his death I was going through his belongings and found a 4 inch stack of Western Union money transfers from him to the woman's family (~15,000 USD). Later found out she is nothing but a scam artist and preys on single older men. She convinces them she is in love and wants to marry, and gets them to spend money lavishly on fake wedding materials, reservations, etc.

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Katie Lutesinger
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2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I hope that piece of excrement got caught and went straight to jail where she belongs.

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#30

After grandmas death we found grandpa. Well his ashes. In an unopened FedEx box with a note from the crematorium saying essentially “you never picked this up.” The thing is he has an urn and a spot at the cemetery. Apparently the cemetery just has the stone but no grandpa.

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