With some jobs, it is unavoidable for a person to enter the customer's home. Be it carpenters, in-home nurses, plumbers, or other niche careers. Redditor u/cossie101 was curious about what the people in these types of jobs discovered about the homeowners.
They asked the people of Reddit, "Professionals who enter people's homes (plumbers, electricians, cleaners): What is something the condition of a house tells you about the owner that they don't realize they are revealing?"
Redditors shared a wide range of examples from their experiences going into people's homes for their work. There was everything from health and safety hazards, such as urine-soaked carpets, to being able to tell the owner's personality from what type of cleanliness the house was in. Animals, drugs, and children were common refrains. Others shared fascinating insights into quirky customers and patients, like a homeowner whose house was entirely pink except for the bedroom.
Check out 18 of the most revealing facts about people's homes according to professionals on Reddit below...
1. Books
"A social worker I knew told me she was always relieved to see either of two things on her welfare checks: healthy pets or lots of books. The former indicated a loving household, the latter at least a bare level of intellectual curiosity, both of which obviously are beneficial for children." —u/citizenh1962
2. Ashtrays and lawn ornaments
"I do first calls multiple times a night for work. Which is removal of human remains from a residence. I can tell it’s going to be a sh*t show if the cops leave when I show up. One huge sign is an overflowing ashtray on the front porch, any lawn ornaments with that sh*tty led lighting, or any religious or political signage." —u/ProwlerInTheYard92
3. Pink everything
"Lots of people here are talking about how gross people are. Some people are just quirky. Went into someone’s house (mover) and everything was pink. Floor, walls, ceiling, furniture, their clothing, etc. Except their bedroom, that was lime green." —u/Garybird1989
4. Clock theme
"I was a visiting nurse and went to a patient's house that was FILLED with clocks. I'm talking clocks everywhere. Clocks on the wall, clocks on the mantel, grandfather clocks, cuckoo clocks, nautical clocks, desktop clocks, even little pocket watches on his side table... every type of ticking clock you could imagine, this guy had. He was in his 80's and spent his days winding up and tinkering with all his clocks. Some of them were really quite beautiful actually. But yeah, clocks! I've never seen anything like it, and I've seen a lot lol." —u/outdoorlaura
5. Smoke-filled homes
"I used to deliver furniture and appliances, and one of the store’s selling points was that we took the old items for free. Houses people smoked in were the worst. We replaced a sofa for a customer and when we pulled the old sofa away from the wall, there was an almost cartoonish outline of it. Except it was outlined by years of cigarette smoke. The walls were white, but stained yellow as you would expect. Beyond disgusting and sad to think about what it does to a person on the inside." —u/swartz77
6. Projects-to-perfection
"I often had the opposite experience, stepping over junkies to get to an apartment in 'the projects' only to have the door open and reveal a little oasis: an immaculate and cozy space." —u/Dense-Layer-2078
7. Cat accessories
"Worst for me was a litter box on the kitchen counter" —u/ReplacementLevel2574
8. Lawns
"The number of inoperable cars/lawnmowers in the front yard can be a signifier of how disorderly the inside is. I have been proven wrong, but ordinarily this was a big sign." —u/Turhamkey
9. Children in the mix
"Used to sell floors and had to do in home appointments. I have seen some of the worst of the worst when it comes to messy. The one that did it for me was i went to an appointment for 'Jessica'. I knock and an 8 year old boy opens with 2 malnourished dogs coming to sniff my shoes. I look around and there is trash and feces everywhere and the smell was unbearable. I ask the boy where is his mom Jessica. He says 'my mom is in the mental hospital?' I said okay where is dad he says 'i don’t know, he hasn’t been here in days' then the 8 year old boy goes to show me this gigantic hole in the floor. It was in fact the little kid who booked the appointment in his mom’s name. I told him 'let me call my team to make sure i pick the right floor for this' stepped out, called my manager and told them about the situation and i immediately called the police for a welfare check. That was my last week as a in home flooring salesperson. I hope he is in better position now." —u/jstanotherdaytrader
10. Dead animals
"I retired as a paramedic with the fire department after 22 years. This type of story is way, way more common than people think. The amount of people living with dead animals in their home is astonishing. Also for some reason people love to use the bathtub as their toilet." —u/xts2500
11. Cold homes
"I'm a cleaner, but most of the houses I clean are already fairly clean. I can definitely infer things about how 'lived-in' the house is. I can tell the people who's fanily life is very important and have a lot of fun with their kids because their houses have messes in places, crayon drawings, projects, photos up a lot, and travel books or summer camp brochures. Other people might not have kids but have lots of pets, or cooking messes, artwork on all the walls. I can tell these people are home bodies sometimes but they try and live life to fullest.
Some people the vibe is....colder. less clutter or mess everything in its place. Less cooking oil and spices spilled on the stove, the furniture in the living room is less indented disturbed. Cleaned a house once where it looked like the husband and wife lived on opposite sides of the upstairs and hardly interacted." —u/Beautiful_Mind9015
12. Pests
"My husband is a pest controller and the things he sees would literally make your hair curl. Babies covered in bed bug bites, with parents who cannot be bothered to do the prep work needed such as washing the baby’s bedding before the treatment- I kid you not. Beds alive with bed bugs and living like it for YEARS. People living with rats as part of their normal life." —u/Admirable_Holiday653
13. Messy inner worlds
"Plumber here - Everything. If you just listen they tell you everything. You just look at a mess, and they will tell you exactly who what where when and how of it. 50% is lies because they can't face themselves, but their posture give that away. I used to judge. Now I just want to hug most people. Life is tough and they are doing what they can to survive. Yes sometimes that means they become drug addicts, what we consider waste cases. So many hoarders.
There is a collective grief that is seems everyone is holding right now. A longing for being allowed to put the fakeness down and just been accepted for who they are, mess and all. To be real.
Everyone puts this world up on social media and wont allow anyone to come over for fear of breaking that image. I've seen cold as ice spotless homes where working for days and you never hear the husband and wife talk to each other. Other times they try to drop all their worlds problems on you. Its not so much looking for conditions of their house to pick up clues. You just need to stop talking and listen and most people never stop revealing. Its like they were holding a breath just waiting." —u/The_guide_to_42 via Reddit
14. Cleanest homes are the most embarrassed
"The ones with the cleanest homes always apologise about the 'mess', while those with the filthiest, smelliest, cluttered to the max homes never even hint at being embarrassed by their state of living." —u/CapableMaterial735
15. Fireplaces
"I once worked in a house in winter who had the fire place going with the flue shut. The house was blanketed in smoke and they disconnected all the smoke alarms. When I showed them how to open the flue, they both lost their minds. Apparently they’d been living like that for years. I would love to be that oblivious. It seems easier." —u/Striking_Yard_295
16. Party palace
"I'm a carpenter and mostly specialize in remodeling people's homes.
Years ago, I was in a home, doing some work on a new master bed and bath setup on the second floor. While coming down the hallway, full of natural light, a picture on the wall caught my eye. I was viewing it from the side angle, so I couldn't see the picture directly as the light glanced off it, like I was viewing it from an a very flat angle, but I could see it was very geometric, lot's of straight intersecting lines. "Oh cool I wonder if it's an aerial view of the city or something". As I got in front of it and viewed it straight on, no... It was their wedding photo. I stepped to the side again and glanced across the flat plane of the glass again. Lots of lines.
That's when I realized they were using their wedding photo to cut up lines of [drugs], and what I was seeing was the residue from that." —u/12RopesOf--m
17. You never know what someone is going through
"Former cable technician. It told me that I do not know what someone is going through at the moment. Right now my in-laws are living with me while their new home is being built and keeping a house clean with SEVEN children is the most uphill battle." —u/Brilliant-Clothes637
18. Don't ask questions
"I went into one house, a pretty nice house from outside, and there were boxes and boxes of stuff everywhere. My helper said to the homeowner, 'Are you guys just moving in?' After a moment of silence the homeowner said, embarrassed, 'We've been here 10 years.' I told my helper later not to ask people questions like that." —u/MadAdam88
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