Just the idea of renovating or reorganizing our entire home is enough to make us feel tired. Few things in life are more boring and time-consuming than tidying up all the rooms in a house. But it’s when we decide to really go for it that we allow ourselves to stumble upon real treasures from the past. From gold coins from the 1900s to secret messages from previous tenants, here are some of the most interesting things people have accidentally found in their houses.
“Found a hot tub behind a wall in my basement during a demo.”
We have so many questions. Why would anyone go through the trouble of building a perfectly usable steam room (including a hot tub) only to hide it behind a wall? Did they regret their decision? Guess we’ll never know…
“Our 1887 stone house had a kitchen added in 1918. Found a self-portrait of the builder.”
How adorable is this?! While renovating their kitchen, this person found a stick-figure self-portrait carved by the builder into the stone wall. We hope they carved their own little memento on the wall before finishing the renovation. We know we would.
“My dad and I found this old kerosene refrigerator full of bees.”
We can’t even imagine what we would do if we had just moved into a new house and found something like this in the garage. We know moving into an older house might result in unexpected findings but… this is more than just an interesting surprise. We hope they got a specialist to carefully deal with these bees.
“Wedding dress I found in our attic.”
Although most will agree that weddings are some of the happiest events in anyone’s lifetime, there is something so creepy about finding someone else’s old wedding dress in your attic. We wonder if this belonged to the previous owners of the house or if someone left it there as a weird prank…
“Found a can of human plasma in my friend’s shed.”
Of all the weird things people have ever found in their houses, this might be the weirdest. This person found an unopened can of dried human plasma in their friend’s shed!
“Found over $6000 in our 108-year-old house during the reno.”
When this family bought their house, they were not expecting to make money. As they were renovating, though, they found 6,650 Canadian dollars in 1975 bills. The cash had been nailed into a valance above a window, where it sat for about 30 years until it was rediscovered.
“We found a fully-equipped Cold War shelter in our new home.”
When Chris and Colleen Otcasek bought their new house in Woodland Hills, California, they did not know they were also getting a fallout shelter filled with all kinds of items needed to survive a nuclear attack. Built during the Cold War, the shelter had water, canned food, books, clothing and even medicine for a family of four.
“Pulled up the carpet at the house, and Found out my floor is a life-sized monopoly board!”
Whoever made this Monopoly-board floor was very serious about their board games. But to be honest, that is very creative and we are a little jealous. Can you imagine how cool it would be to play a life-sized Monopoly with your friends? We are hoping whoever found this floor kept it like this.
“Found 62 empty cans from all over the world in my garage attic.”
As cool as it must be to find this incredible collection of cans from all over the world, we can’t help but wonder if the old owner of this house meant to leave this box behind… Apparently, some of these cans have never even been opened… We hope this person contacted the person they bought the house from to let them know they found their impressive collection!
“There is a 12-ft tunnel in our basement.”
According to the person who shared this picture, their house was built in 1844 and is on their county’s Underground Railroad map thanks to this tunnel. Apparently, the original owners of the place held meetings in the basement and built this tunnel in case they needed to escape.
“My friend decided to replace her old carpet and found a cellar door.”
These pictures are making us want to pull up our carpets to look for a cellar door. We don’t know if we are more excited about the fact that this person found an awesome time capsule in their own home or the fact that they got so much extra room in their house for storage!
“My wall broke and revealed several years of layers of different paints.”
Painting walls is a great way of changing up a room without putting too much effort, so it makes sense that the previous tenants at this place have done it many times. But we’ll bet you would have never imagined the number of paint layers that could be found inside a wall.
“I Found a Hornet’s nest in the wall during a remodel.”
We don’t know about you, but if we found a huge hornet’s nest like this inside our walls… We would probably run for the hills and never come back. So we truly hope whoever was remodeling this house is a braver person than we’ll ever be and managed to finish this project calmly.
“Possibly found the names to the builders of my 1969 house during a remodel.”
The people who built this house were probably so proud of their masterpiece they wanted to autograph it. And judging by where they did it, these builders must have never imagined that anyone would ever find their signatures.
“Found a key inside my wall. I wonder what it unlocks…”
So many people find random objects inside their walls while remodeling. It almost makes us wonder if people purposefully hide objects while building a house just so the next person can find them. It sounds like a fun treasure hunt, in our opinion.
“I found a child’s time capsule while digging in my yard.”
Most kids have buried some of their belongings in a time capsule at some point. The plan is to dig up these boxes a few years later and have a nice nostalgic moment remembering your past. But as time passes, people get busy with other things and forget about their childhood plans, which means there are probably numerous time capsules buried everywhere just waiting to be found.
“MY Granny found an antique 2 1/2 dollar coin.”
Such a cool find! These 2 1/2 dollar coins are actually made of gold and were in circulation between 1908 and 1929. Nowadays, they are sold as antiques for around $275. And judging by the necklace and locket, this person’s granny also knew it was as valuable as jewelry.
“Found a 1929 library card while remodeling our house.”
This old library card was found by a couple that had just moved into a house and was remodeling their office. They said the card was stuck on their wall trim. If you are wondering, this card belonged to Hazel Postlewait, who we hope has already settled her $0.04 debt at the Public Library in Denver.
“Found these boxes in my basement.”
What a lucky person! Imagine moving into a new house and finding two mysterious boxes full of cash while remodeling. We wonder what they did with all this money. And most importantly: how long had it been hidden in the basement before they found it?
“Found this calculator from the 70s I Used When I was a kid.”
This is such a cool discovery! We had never seen a magic calculator before. In fact, we wonder if the person who left it behind ever learned how to use a regular one. Apparently, to use this device, you put a stylus into the numbered hole and slide it down to add and up to subtract. Sounds like a lot more work than the calculators we’ve seen.
“wHILE CLEANING OUT MY GRANDPA’S HOUSE I CAME ACROSS THIS newspaper reporting the end of world war I.”
This person said they were cleaning their grandfather’s house when they came across this newspaper reporting the end of World War I. It was printed on November 11, 1918, which marked the first Armistice Day, the date that would later become Veteran’s Day. We think this belongs in a museum.
“mY mOM found A ticket from a Beatles concert sHE WENT TO IN 1964.”
How impressive is this? Not only is this ticket completely preserved, but it also cost $4.90! Even in today’s inflation, this would be equivalent to $41.57. It’s so crazy to think that back then people had the opportunity to see so many iconic musicians for such a reasonable price.
“70-year-old dental floss found in the wall of 1948 house remodel.”
Here’s the answer to a question you never had: this is what floss looked like in the 1940s. But… Of all things, why would anyone choose floss to hide inside a wall? Honestly, the only thing we can think is how glad we are that this product is new, and not some used dental floss from 1948.
“My grandma found some old cups my dad had as a kid.”
These cups must have been really important for this person’s dad. Imagine keeping your child’s cups for so long they even change color! This grandma is either a hoarder or a very sentimental person…
“I Found This wedding certificate from 1892 while renovating cabins that got damaged from floods.”
This might be the fanciest marriage certificate we have ever seen. Not only does it have nice illustrations all around the document, but also pictures of the bride and groom. But something else looks interesting here… Why is there a picture of the minister too?
“Found in the basement, a set of stackable Wendy’s cheeseburger coasters.”
Whether Wendy’s is or isn’t your favorite fast-food joint, you have to admit this is a really cool freebie. Imagine inviting your friends for a fancy dinner and using these awesome coasters to set the table. You will instantly become the coolest friend in the group.
“My friend found this hidden safe while replacing his kitchen floor.”
This raises so many questions. Who lived in this place previously? What were they hiding? Did they take all of their belongings when they left or is there anything inside the safe? We hope whoever found this safe was able to unlock it and find out all these secrets.
“This old seven-up bottlers flavor I found at grandma’s house.”
This is cool but also really weird. Why did this person’s grandma have a bottle of 7-UP concentrate at her house? If you are wondering what’s in this bottle, we’ll explain: This is a syrup that needs to be mixed with sugar at the factory before it’s delivered to places that have soda machines.
“Found this McDonald’s coupon from 1963 while remodeling my house.”
This is making us wonder if the person who found this coupon tried to use it at their neighborhood McDonald’s. And most importantly, if the restaurant accepted it. After all, it does not have an expiration date…
“Cracked open a nice 18-year-old tube of sealant that I found in my house.”
Whenever we buy a product for our home, we like to believe it will stand the test of time. But the truth is we never really know if it will last until a few years after we buy it. But judging by the fact that this sealant is 18-years-old, this picture proves this is a very high-quality product.
“The hidden treasures I found in my new house. Great comics from April 23, 1941.”
Imagine you are removing your old flooring and stumble upon some old newspaper pages. Doesn’t sound that interesting, right? But this person got so lucky the pages they found had cartoons on them! That moment would be the perfect time for a quick coffee and newspaper break.
“I found absolute hipster gold in my parent’s attic: My old Nickelodeon phone and radio.”
If you’re a 90’s kid, you are probably very jealous right now. These Nickelodeon devices were everyone’s dream back in the day, and this person had two! Not only did they have the BlastBox N8000 Boom Box but they also had the Talk Blaster Land Line Telephone.
“Found some AOL sunscreen at grandma’s house.”
Oh, AOL… Who remembers the good old days of AIM? We would come home from school, turn on our computers, and spend hours chatting with our friends on AOL Instant Messenger every day. That was the good life. But… Why does this person’s grandma have an AOL sunscreen? What did we miss here?
“Found this old mechanical Calculator from the 1950s.”
While this device may look like some weird product advertised in a suspicious infomercial, it is just a calculator. This mechanical calculator used to be sold in the 1950s by the brand Odhner. It’s so crazy to think that this huge machine now fits in our back pocket, inside our phones.
“Found my old set of SimCity!”
Floppy disks were so completely replaced by CDs that they even look prehistorical to some of us. But before our computer games were installed using CDs, we had to use many floppy disks. We wonder if soon CDs could have the same effect on us…
“I Found a pen that tells the date and time at grandma’s.”
These pens were probably the epitome of technology back in the day. Before smartphones were invented, people had to check their physical calendars to know the date and their wristwatches to know the time. So having a pen that tells both things and could also be used as a regular pen must have been mind-blowing.
“I found an old, well-preserved soda can inside of a wall of a 60-year-old building we were remodeling.”
This person went to work thinking it would be just another day. But working as a builder, there are always surprises in your daily routine. Apparently, this Coca-Cola can had been left in this building’s wall by the craftsman who helped build it when it was new construction.
“There is a Safe/time capsule built under my kitchen floor.”
While finding old objects in your house can be a fun experience, finding a locked safe can be a little unsettling. This person was cleaning their floor when they lifted up their mat and found another doormat under it. Then, there was a piece of flooring underneath that. And only then they found a safe.
“This Milky Way wrapper from 1961 I found in my wall.”
Apparently, builders enjoyed keeping small treasures inside walls back in the day. Maybe it was simply because they did not want to toss things in the trash or maybe it was their way of messing with people in the future who destroyed their work. Either way, somehow, this Milky Way wrapper looks almost intact.
“Found these 100-year-old Crayolas in the back of a family secretary desk. The pack still has the crayons.”
These crayons have been so well-stored that they barely look as old as they are. We wonder if whoever stored the box inside the secretary desk just forgot about it or if the plan was to keep it hidden until someone could find it a whole century later.
“My great-grandmother’s sketches from 1924.”
This person’s great-grandma was very talented! These sketches accurately represent the characters from Charles Dickens’s The Pickwick Papers, which she probably had to read for Literature class. We wonder if her great-grandchildren got her artist gene…
“Found An old Pepsi can in A wall left behind by a construction worker from over 30 years ago.”
If we had to imagine a soda can from 30 years ago left inside a wall, we would not imagine it would look this intact. But somehow, it looks almost brand new. Except for the design, which looks exactly like what we would imagine a vintage Pepsi can to look like.
“Found this pickle powder in a wall of a 1904 Indiana house.”
Remodeling can really make us find things we never imagined existed. Apparently, in the 1900s Heinz used to sell pickle powder in a bottle. While we truly hope whoever found it didn’t try it, we would love to know what this spice tasted like back in the day.
“I was helping my Dad move into his new office when we found a trapdoor…”
Imagine renting a space and not being told by your landlord that there’s a secret compartment in your office. This person only realized there was a secret door on their floor after they started moving there, and this is what they found: A messy room full of 50’s-60’s era blueprints and technical drawings.
“Found a 20-year-old McDonald’s glass cup at home.”
How cool is this cup? Back in the day, these Mickey Mouse cups cost $1.99 on top of the price of a Happy Meal. Now we kind of wish we could go back in time to get the entire collection because these would look so great with our other vintage pieces.
“After tearing down a wall while remodeling a building we found these old newspapers on the inside.”
We can only imagine this person’s surprise when finding this wall. They were probably very focused on the remodel but must have noticed the pictures and stopped everything to take a closer look. And they were probably wondering the same things as us; for example, why were these pictures placed there?
“Found This bottle of Elvis Presley ‘Love Me Tender’ Conditioning Shampoo from 1985 in my attic.”
Everyone can agree that Elvis was a legendary musician. Even after his passing, fans all over the world still wanted to keep his memory alive. So products with the Elvis brand, like this conditioning shampoo, were still being produced even in the 1980s.
“Found this Forest Gump ticket stub from 1994 in my closet.”
The only thing we can see in this picture is this ticket’s price. Movie tickets used to cost only $3.25. Even in today’s inflation, this is only half as much as they cost nowadays… It’s crazy how things change and we don’t even notice them as it happens.
“We found a Hippie mural under a flooded house.”
While having a flood in your house does not sound fun, we have to admit we are really enjoying this floor art. We truly hope these people decided to keep the original colorful art as their floor instead of covering it with a different material. So groovy!
“Cleaning out my great-grandmother’s mobile home and just found this. In disbelief.”
We want to know what happened here. Was this a present that was meant to be given to her great-grandchildren but forgotten about? Or was this person’s great-grandma an antique videogame collector? Either way, we hope the person who found it got to finally play with it.
“Found a little milk door under the cabinet.”
Back in the day, milk doors were a common part of people’s houses. The milkman would open the tiny door on the side of the house and leave the milk inside the wall. Then, the homeowners would open the door on their side and get their fresh bottle of milk before breakfast.
“Found this weird toy in my grandma’s basement.”
We can only imagine the confusion this person felt when finding this toy. While it looks like many toys we might have seen before, this one is special. It’s called Pachinko and it’s basically a Japanese version of a vertical pinball machine.
“There’s a hidden compartment in my shower.”
While having secret compartments sounds like a great way to keep your belongings safe, we don’t understand why anyone would pick a bathroom wall for that purpose. Wouldn’t the steam from years and years of warm showers make everything moldy?
“Found a mural when tearing down a wall for renovation.”
The person tearing down this wall must have been very surprised when they noticed the drawing. It might be just us, but the fact that someone actually took the time to draw this tree and flowers would probably make us reconsider destroying this wall.
“There’s a random chain embedded in the wall of my 1930s-era home.”
We have so many questions. Why is there a chain inside the wall? Who put this chain there? And most importantly, how did this homeowner know exactly where to break the wall in order to find this weird object? This is too weird, we definitely need some answers.
“I’ve been living in my house for a month and I just noticed my back door handle is a spoon.”
This is some creative problem-solving. Before this person, whoever lived in this house probably broke their door handle and didn’t want to spend lots of money on a new one. They must have looked around the house to find something that could be used as a door handle and saw a spoon. Practical, cheap, brilliant.
“Found this 20-year-old promise hidden under the wallpaper in our new house.”
This one is a little hard to read since it was written in 1997, but it says: “If the Spice Girls are still popular next time this room’s decorated, I’ll eat my overalls”. We hope the new homeowners contacted this dad and told him that it’s time to eat his overalls.
“My medicine cabinet has a razor compartment.”
Apparently, houses built before the 1970s commonly had built-in razor disposals. Back then, men used blades called “safety razors” which were too sharp to be thrown in the trash with the rest of the garbage, so they needed a solution. This is when slots were added to medicine cabinets where the blades could safely fall into a cavity in the wall.
“Found a message while removing our cork floor tiles.”
This is such a great discovery of a very wholesome memory. This family probably never really expected anyone to find their note, but someone did. We can only imagine where the Barker family is now and if they even remember the Sunday in March 1988 when they laid cork tiles together.
“Found a Hidden compartment in My new apartment.”
This looks like the beginning of a horror movie. Imagine moving into a nice apartment and one day realizing there’s a door on your floor. We don’t know about you, but considering what this hidden compartment looks like, we would move out the very next day.
“My son found this old metal detector at my parent’s property.”
This dad explained how his son found this metal detector: “My 11-year old son asked for & received a metal detector for Christmas. He took it out on my parent’s property, and this was one of the first things he found. It is not anyone in the family’s.”
“Found an old safe behind a panel in the basement of my work. “
So much mystery. Imagine working somewhere for years and never knowing there was a safe hiding many treasures in the wall. We wonder if they were able to open it. And, obviously, what could have been hiding right under their noses this whole time.
“Found this in the dryer while clearing out the basement of my dead uncle.”
This person must be asking themselves so many questions. How did their uncle get this much money? Did he leave it there for people to find it? But our main question is simple: Of all places that people consider to hide money, why did their uncle choose the dryer?
“I found this historical Newspaper in the basement.”
This person just found one of the most important newspaper editions in history. Imagine going through your old things in the basement and coming across a publication announcing the beginning of World War 2. IN our opinion, this should be sent to a museum.
“found a package of letters from the 1920s hidden in the basement floorboards.”
According to the new homeowner, these letters seem to be love letters. They tell the story of a couple who could not be together, so they wrote to each other in secret. And what’s even more fascinating is that they say the letters should be destroyed, but they were kept hidden in the floor joist of the house.
“Found this old radio in my basement.”
This is a very cool discovery. This radio model is called Hallicrafters S-120 and it was first produced back in the 1960s. While it was made for AM radio listening, some people used them as receivers. Even though we have no idea how this works, it sure is an important piece of history.
“One day we came home to a sinkhole in our living room.”
Following a nearby construction project, a 10-ft deep sinkhole opened in these people’s living room. This is the kind of thing we never think could actually happen, but apparently, they do. Thankfully, the building’s occupants were evacuated and no one was injured.
“An old door behind a wall that has been knocked down for remodeling.”
This person shared a picture taken by their friend’s aunt. She was remodeling her house when she found an old door hidden behind a wall and thought it could be hiding something interesting. It turns out that there were only some bricks behind it.
“Found an old movie projector in our basement.”
How lucky is this person? They found a Zeiss movie projector just hiding in their basement. In case you were not familiar, this brand has been around since the 1840s and is well-known for its high-quality lenses and high-precision instruments. It’s so cool that this person found this at their house.
“I found a hot tub under my home office.”
Can you imagine being this lucky? This person bought a house and found a working hot tub while renovating! It was just waiting to be found under the carpet in their home office. Now we want to tear up all of our carpets and try to find a hot tub hidden in one of the rooms too.
“I Found this vintage wine dispenser in my parents’ basement.”
Even though we understand what this is and what it does, we are still wondering why this was ever a necessity. Didn’t people have bottles back in the day? Why would they pour wine from the bottle into the dispenser and then from the dispenser into a glass? So intriguing.
“This is what $20 million under a mattress looks like.”
We’ve definitely heard people say that they’d rather keep their money under their mattress than in the bank, but we’ve never seen it happen in real life. Not only have we never seen money hidden under a mattress, but we’ve also never seen 20 million dollars in cash.
“My house is built on an Indian burial site. I am replacing the furnace and I found this under the old one.”
This person shared that they found a “cool artifact” directly under their old furnace when they started renovating their house. Even though they don’t really know what it is, they claim their house was built on an ancient Indian burial ground – so this could be a very important item for their neighbors…
“Found this gem in the basement.”
This person truly found a gem here. Any teenager in the 2000s would have given all their allowance money in exchange for this VHS. In fact, having Britney Spears and NSYNC music videos in the same tape probably made it even more valuable back then.
“This is how we found the bathroom after Johnny Quinn got locked inside.”
When Olympic bobsledder Johnny Quinn got locked inside a bathroom, he quickly figured out a way to get out of that situation. He simply pounded on the door until it cracked – then widened the crack until it became a hole that was big enough for him to climb out.
“The wallpaper hidden behind my kitchen cabinet found during a remodel.”
How cool is this wallpaper? While we don’t know how long it had been hiding under the cabinet, we are still impressed by how intact it looks after being found. Besides, how perfectly themed is this for a kitchen? All the pastries, cakes and sweets are making us very hungry.
“There’s an 1800s cemetery preserved in the basement of a church.”
This preserved 1800s cemetery can be found in New Haven, CT, under the Center Church of the Green. It turns out that this area used to be the center of town and some gravestones go as far back as 1687 – almost a century before the United States was even founded.
“I found this old revolver digging in my backyard.”
How crazy is that? This man found an old revolver while digging in his backyard. That thing looks like it’s at least 100 years old. We can’t help but wonder how it ended up buried in someone’s backyard, but we are pretty sure there must be a sketchy story behind this…