“No Sheets On Their Bed”: 30 Warning Red Flags Of An Unstable Home

We have a lot of respect for other people’s homes when we are lucky enough to be invited over. After all, it is their safe space and is an intimate peek into someone’s life. But as they say, there is a lot that goes on behind closed doors that the public is not always privy to and being exposed to it firsthand can lead to a lot of new insight. Recently, Redditors responded to a question asking, What is a red flag to see in someone’s home?” Scroll to read about some of the worst things people did not expect to find in other homes shared in the gallery below.

#1 If they have children, but you see no sign of a child in the home outside of their bedroom.

Edit: I do not mean the home is trashed. I mean you see no photos, no coats, shoes, toys anything indicating a child lives there too. For example I tidy up every night, but you’ll still see my toddlers shoes by the door and his little paw patrol table in the living room. & photos around the house of him of course

Another edit: I am not going back and fourth with you sad beige parents that live for aesthetics. If you don’t get it I’m not explaining it.

#2 No hand soap in the bathroom.

#3 Dirty litter boxes if they have cats, and I mean filthy.

#4 House made of sweets and gingerbread. Boiling cauldron over chimney fire.

#5 I did some real estate photography on a home.

It was a Mass State Trooper. It was disturbing: A nice neighborhood, a nice home, clean and well maintained. Kids and wife photos decorating the walls and end tables. But I started noticing holes punched into walls (some of them plastered and repaired, some of them “fresh”. Doors that had been splintered at the bottom from being kicked in. A couple doors that had padlocks on them that had been ripped out. There were just signs of rage everywhere I looked. It was disturbing and I felt bad for the family.

#6 I change the bathroom towels in our guest bathroom every Friday. One Friday I told my son to go wipe up the urine he left on the seat & floor and then watched this imposter of my DNA, wipe the urine with a hand towel and hang it back up, in front of me. I’ve never wanted to disown a relative more in my life.

#7 Large political flags on the wall. I don’t care what your political affiliations are, if you are that obsessed with it that you feel the need to hang a huge flag in your living room to announce them, that’s a no from me.

#8 When their pets water bowls are empty. Monsters.

#9 Crosses / jesus s**t everywhere.

#10 This extreme beigeness. Especially if there are kids. I saw videos of parents painting colorful toys beige. It’s just sad.

#11 I don’t know if I’d go as far as “red flag”, but people who have zero books in their home give me pause.

#12 No sheets on their bed but clearly they sleep on it.

#13 Dish rack was in the sink and had black mold on it, they put clean dishes on it to dry i was horrified they also just put water in the baby bottles and let them soak and used them. Never actually washing the bottles HORRIFIED.

#14 One major red flag is if their home feels too sterile or empty—like they don’t actually live there. Also, lots of signs of anger, like holes in the walls, can be concerning!

#15 Really gnarly aquarium. If you’re gonna trap fish in a box for your personal pleasure, keep that s**t pristine.

#16 When they let their pets poop and pee in the house. Bonus if they let their kid sleep in a room that is essentially a massive litter box.

#17 A collection of young women’s ID cards.

#18 They had only one kitchen cloth. Just that ONE. Used for wiping hands, wiping the counter, wiping the dishes, and wiping the microwave/stove after cooking.

#19 My bicycle that I reported stolen 2 weeks ago. Big Red Flag.

#20 When they don’t do basic preparation for a preplanned guest coming over. For example, there’s no toilet paper, they don’t offer you anything to drink, house is really messy.

#21 When they use the sofa as a changing table with no blanket or anything on it. I went to someone’s house and the kid had a blow out. The mom just put the baby with poopy diaper on the sofa to change her and looked at me when my jaw hit the floor and said “What’s the big deal? It’s just poop!” I never went there again. It also explains why they purchased a brown sofa. ?.

#22 Roaches and people who smoke cigarettes inside. Heretics.

#23 I was looking at an apartment to rent in a very liberal part of the USA. Place was great! I’d have a huge windowed area and lots of nice amenities like a fireplace. I went to the other part of the place where the landlord lived. Above his fireplace was a portrait. A portrait of Nathan Bedford Forrest. Founder of the KKK. I noped right the f**k out of there.

#24 Growing up my mom always told me if I saw a gun in someone’s home to politely leave and call her and that she’d pick me up. How to tell in one quick story that someone was raised outside of the United States. I still get a jolt when I see a rifle in someone’s house, I understand that there is responsible gun owners but I am not fond of being near weapons even when properly stored.

#25 We were looking at a litter of German Shepherd puppies. Very large house, lots of land. Looked rather posh.

The mum and pups were in the kitchen. Dog poo, puddles of urine everywhere.

I managed to step in ?

Owner said ‘oh sorry! Give me your boot and I’ll clean it’.

I assumed she had an outside tap? Oh no…she took it to the kitchen sink and washed it there.

We declined a cup of tea.

#26 A thousand bottles of baby oil.

#27 Trashy neighbor’s dog died in a kennel, probably from starvation.

They ignored the body until well after rigor set in, and then they couldn’t get it out of the cage because the limbs wouldn’t bend. So they just left it in there, in the house, surrounded by piles of garbage

Their 10-year-old eventually asked other neighborhood adults for help because the parents wouldn’t do anything about it.

So… dead dog rotting in a cage is my red flag.

#28 Live laugh love.

#29 Books on Dianetics

My phone kept changing that to diabetics.

#30 There was a guy who posted on r/malelivingspace who has 3 ‘obey’ prints above his bed.

Shanilou Perera

Shanilou has always loved reading and learning about the world we live in. While she enjoys fictional books and stories just as much, since childhood she was especially fascinated by encyclopaedias and strangely enough, self-help books. As a kid, she spent most of her time consuming as much knowledge as she could get her hands on and could always be found at the library. Now, she still enjoys finding out about all the amazing things that surround us in our day-to-day lives and is blessed to be able to write about them to share with the whole world as a profession.