People Discuss Houseguests Who Overstayed Their Welcome, And I'm Shocked At The Audacity
Have you ever done something nice for someone, only to have them take advantage of your kindness to the point where you wondered why you bothered to help them in the first place?
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Recently, Reddit user u/Mr_Yus_uwu asked, "What was the worst thing your guest did when they took 'make yourself at home' very literally?"
Here are a few of the worst:
1."My husband’s old friend stayed with us for two weeks while we were living in Japan. He was very smug and irritating. An instant 'expert' on Japan after a few days, when we had been living there for two years. Finally, he left on a Friday, and my husband and I had separate plans on Saturday. I returned in the afternoon to an unlocked door and the sound of the TV. I thought my husband had returned early. Nope, it was the old friend. Thinking we had gone for the weekend, he had broken into our apartment for an extra two-night stay. 'You weren’t supposed to be here!' he protested, and he refused to leave until my husband came back home and told old pal personally that he had overstayed his welcome."
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2."My brother's best friend came to live with us for 'a few months' because he wanted to move back to our state. My parents agreed because he was supposed to go to college and they believed that a college education is important. Well, eight years later, he is still there. All of my parent's children have moved out but for some reason, my brother's best friend is still living there."
3."I caught a friend of a friend masturbating into my kitchen sink at 2 a.m."
4."My father-in-law was staying with us for a month. The spare room was an office with a sofa bed so it could double up for guests. He bought a double bed and got rid of the sofa bed. I lost my office."
5."My relative stayed with my grandma and proceeded to burn the house to the ground by deciding to have a bonfire three feet from the side of the house."
6."I let a guy stay in my house for a month while he was in summer school and I was going to be gone for half the summer, and he left behind a $900 phone sex bill. It was the early '90s and the bill came on paper and was about 100 pages. He would call while blackout drunk. Other than this, he was an excellent houseguest. He even told me that there were going to be these phone bills coming and that he would pay for them, but we had no idea that it was going to be almost $1,000. If I didn't pay that bill somehow, they were never going to let me have a telephone again. I was able to call some of the customer service departments and get some of the bills canceled or reduced. My houseguest coughed up $500 and gave me a CD player, a PlayStation, and a TV."
7."I left a guy that I'd gone on two dates with alone in my apartment for a few hours, and he rearranged my kitchen. That bitch."
8."He started a kitchen fire by cooking spaghetti in cake pans without water. When I heard the fire alarm ring, I ran to the kitchen to find him looking over the stove trying to blow out the fire, with his mouth. Like, 'Phuuu, phuuu.' Basically stoking the flames. I slid the flaming cake pan into the sink and doused it in water to put it out. When I yelled at him and asked what he was doing, his only defense was, 'It would have worked!'"
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9."Three days ago, my wife was tasked with feeding her friend's cat while they're away for a week. They said, 'Help yourself to whatever you like.' She came home with their waffle maker."
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10."We had a dinner guest ask to stay overnight because of the snow (which wasn’t forecasted until much later that night). My spouse and I agreed as we didn’t have work the next day. The guest did and at 7:30 in the morning, he was freaking out because we hadn’t shoveled the driveway for him yet. 'How am I supposed to get to work on time?!'"
11."I had guests turn the pool heater on in February and not turn it off or tell me that it was on. I noticed steam coming off of the pool a week later and it was 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The bill was just under $1,000."
12."He literally took his freaking socks off and put them on the dining table. Dude, what?"
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13."When I was renting an apartment, my roommate had a girlfriend stay over every day for two months. She would take a two-hour bath and would always not flush as she was 'saving' water. She would also cook and then not clean up after, and her food was always terrible. Another roommate's nice girlfriend visited for a few hours, gave us food, and was a good guest. The leech complained how she'd better not stay any longer because 'we' don't like freeloaders. Her hypocrisy was amazing. She also refused to wear feminine hygiene products, so my roommate's bed was bloody and gross. He had to get a new mattress. When they finally broke up, she asked us to let her live there because her parents had kicked her out for trying to sell their house."
14."She literally tried to move in. I had an old friend who was in town and I offered to let her stay here for a week instead of getting a hotel. A week turned into two, which became a month. When I confronted her and asked when her new place would be ready, she said that she thought she could just stay. Since she had all of her stuff and was here for over two weeks, even the cops wouldn't take her away. I had to formally evict her."
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15."I let a friend and her dog stay at my house over the weekend while I was away. She left my kitchen a disaster and the back door unlocked. Best of all, she left behind FLEAS. I had asked her directly if her dog was on flea prevention and she assured me it was. After I was swarmed with fleas in my living room, I questioned her again and she admitted that the 'flea prevention' she was giving the dog was yeast and garlic tablets. She made no offer to help me treat the house or reimburse me. She was not invited back and we are no longer friends. Shocker."
16."My mother's friend and her children went on a vacation with us. We were sitting in the common area of the place we were staying at and started chatting to some strangers there. The friend's kid got up, walked to the coffee table, and just opened the stranger's bag of chips and started eating. The kid never asked first. Now, kids are stupid. He was 14, but still a kid. The issue was that his mother did absolutely nothing. She watched him get up, watched him open it, and watched him start eating. One of the strangers just paused for a second and said, 'Uh, sure... Feel free to eat some."
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17."A friend of my significant other showed up after 11 p.m on a weeknight with some other random friend. This was a regular occurrence, as they had been coming home after 11 p.m. every night of their stay, knowing we had to work in the morning. They weren’t quiet either; they were home and ready to party, trying to get us to drink. They spilled things and didn’t wipe up, left glassware everywhere, used the fancy dishes, and never picked up after themselves. They never asked me anything about myself, insulted my restaurant recommendations, cheered against my team for no reason when I had the game on, and made a comment about how there must be a lot of 'gay stuff' going on in my brother’s rehab stay."
18."My dad's best friend and his family stayed with us for two weeks during the summer. I was 9 and my sister was a newborn. (She was literally 2 weeks old when they arrived.) Already off to a bad start, the wife kept putting my sister onto her stomach while she slept, when no one was looking. When my mom finally caught the wife doing so and told her to stop because of the risk of cot death, she replied, 'I did it with all of my kids and they turned out fine,' and continued doing so. My dad's friend would tell us what activity we were allowed to do. He'd say things like, 'You must play in the backyard right now,' 'Don't come inside unless you need the toilet,' and 'You must watch TV right now. I don't care if you're not interested in the movie. Just shut up and watch.'"
"His wife would only cook sausages and mashed potatoes for dinner, and get angry at my mom when she cooked something different. She also heavily restricted anyone in the kitchen. I had to ask permission to get a cup of water or eat a biscuit from the pantry."
19."They were house-sitting for two or three weeks, but when we got home, they'd rearranged almost all of the furniture. Most of it was just moving things back but they had pushed an old teacher's desk we had down into the basement. It was one of those huge metal monstrosities that weigh a ton, and there was literally no way to get it back up those stairs without some kind of machine that I couldn't afford. So that thing stayed in the basement and was sold with the home. They also damaged a recliner so that it didn't recline anymore and claimed they didn't."
20."I make all of my sandwiches for the week on Sunday night and put them in the refrigerator. An acquaintance was over with a group of friends and he went into the kitchen for a minute. He came back with one of my premade sandwiches. It’s not necessarily about the food per se. He could have easily made his own sandwich if he wanted to. But what would possess someone to take a premade sandwich from their host's refrigerator without asking? This became my own personal Seinfeld episode."
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21."My wife's mother forbade us from having sex. In our own home. I told her that when she's paying the bills or buying groceries, she could have a say. Otherwise, there are two doors to this house. Pick one and don't come back."
22."He didn't leave for six months, ate all of our cheese, and wasted all of our dishwasher tablets on 'rerunning the dishwasher because it did a bad job.' He would run the same load like 10 times. He was sleeping with my flatmate and she undermined all of our attempts at getting him to leave once we realized that he was only with her for free housing."
23."I let my sister stay at my house after her breakup. She told my 5-year-old to clean up his 'fucking bath toys.' They were in his bathroom that we let her use as well. That's not even the half of it. I don't speak to her anymore."
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24."We were helping out my nephew, and he sold the car that we let him use, got on a plane, and left town. We didn't even know that he had left until we received a Facebook message from some random guy saying my nephew told him to contact us for the pink slip. He left his bedroom filled with cigarette butts, empty beer cans, and old vapes. I guess the worst part was taking off without saying goodbye. My children were pretty hurt."
25."I took in a niece because she was kicked out by her landlord and her roommates had nothing good to say about her. I only gave her a month and she left the guest bedroom a total mess like someone was murdered there. I had to have professional cleaners come in. The carpet was gone as she threw all her trash on the floor. She left her tampons and dirty clothes everywhere. She even had bowls of food that had grown their own ecosystems. I took pictures of it all and when relatives chewed me out for kicking her out, I just sent them the photos."
26."My parents asked a neighbor to house-sit for them while they were away for the week. She lived across the street from them and they had house-sat and watched her dog for her a few times over the course of the year for free because they’re friends and didn’t expect to be paid. She agreed to do this for them in exchange for them returning the favor. They told her, 'Make yourself at home and feel free to hang out there if you would like.' They get back and she had literally been living there all week. Their bed was left unmade with dirty sheets, there were dirty towels in the bathroom, dirty dishes in the sink and in the dishwasher that she didn’t clean. She ate all the snacks, which was fine, but she was also clearly using a bunch of other stuff in their pantry to make meals with."
"To be clear, they told her that she was welcome to hang out there if she wanted to. They left some snack food for her and a few drinks in the fridge, that sort of thing. All she had to do was take in their mail, feed their two cats twice a day, and clean the kitty litter twice while they were gone. Instead of cleaning out the kitty litter (which she knew how to do), she just dumped a giant bag of kitty litter over top of the old, shit-filled litter, to the point that it had overflowed and she just didn’t clean it up.
My parents didn’t say anything, just said thank you to her, and said they’d see her later. She came over a couple of days later and asked where her hundred dollars were that they owed her for house-sitting? My parents were like, 'What?' and reminded her of the discussion they had. She demanded they give her that money because that’s what was 'owed' to her for all that she did. My mom gave her 50 dollars and told her that she wasn’t giving her another cent and that she won’t be house-sitting or dog-sitting for her anymore. They still talk here and there, but that kind of put a damper on their friendship."
27."I have one friend who always, without fail, suggests baking a really complicated cake that uses all of the utensils, bowls, etc., then doesn’t help to wash up. In fact, they provide zero kitchen help in an entire weekend, whereas I always wash up at theirs as a thank-you. They also take one look at my immaculately tidy living space and make it their mission to throw their stuff everywhere. They’re also a big fan of literally saying, 'Thanks for doing so much driving again. You know, I’m not gonna contribute a penny toward the petrol costs or return the favor hahaha.'"
28."We have a 9-year-old little girl from down the street who's friends with my daughter. She comes to our house at least every other day and mostly just shows up. She has an opinion about EVERYTHING we do. My wife and I cannot make a move without feeling judged or receiving some advice I would never expect from a 9-year-old. It ranges from how messy our house is to how we spend our money. She talks back as much as my own kids. It mostly makes us laugh. Mostly..."
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29."My fiancé invited her friend over for the weekend once and she ended up bringing her boyfriend with her. They stayed for two weeks. During the first few days, they’d go to the bathroom and 'shower.' Except, their showers lasted about an hour. They were quite obviously having sex but left the shower running the whole time trying and failing to cover the sound of it. The second time they did this, we told them we know they’re having sex and they can continue to do so only if they’re willing to pay the extra amount they’re putting on the water bill with their 'showers.' However, this caused them to just start randomly having sex whenever we left the room."
"Toward the end of the second week, I went to pick up my fiancé from work and we came back to see them both butt naked fucking on our sofa. They saw us come in and didn’t stop, just carried on. It was at that point we asked them to leave. The boyfriend pulled out, came on the carpet, and then they got dressed and left. Needless to say, my fiancé was not friends with them after that."
30."This was my parents' house but I let my buddy in high school stay a night because he was 'kicked out' of his house and didn't want to stay in the park. I guess he was afraid to go upstairs when my parents woke up so he pissed in the trash barrel. It was so fucking gross having to dump that out."
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31."We picked up my sister and brother-in-law from the airport and dropped them off at my house before taking my preschool kid to a doctor’s appointment. We told them to make themselves at home. We’d be back in two hours. They ate all of the snacks in the entire house, including 10 brand-new boxes of Girl Scout Cookies. This was at least two months' worth of snacks. They laughed and said they 'just couldn’t help themselves since they don’t have junk food at home.' The worst part? Girl Scout Cookie season had ended two days before. All of those delicious Thin Mints. Gone."
32."We had an aunt come stay with us for a short amount of time when I was about 8 and my parents let her stay in my bedroom. She decided on day two that she wanted to 'help me decorate' and basically turned my bedroom into her own room. She took me shopping and denied every single thing I picked out. But whatever, I could change it when she was gone. A couple of days later, I came home from school and all of my stuffed animals were gone. I used to empty the claw machine at this one restaurant my parents went to on a regular basis so there were probably close to a hundred stuffed animals in my collection. When she told me that she’d thrown them out, I lost it. I went off on her, telling her to get out of my house and crying hysterically. My dad made his only sister go find a hotel for the last bit of her vacation and 18 years later, I haven’t seen her since."
33."I had someone my mom knew from work stay with us for a while when he was having a divorce. They were all around kind of scummy, but the thing that really set us off was that we caught him and his new girlfriend feeding random crap to our dog. When I caught them, they were tossing him chicken bones from KFC, which can be really dangerous for dogs."
34."We had some good friends stay at our house while we were out of town for holidays. We came home to a clean house, maybe cleaner than we left it. Two nights later, our toddler woke up and couldn't stop throwing up. We took her to the emergency room and she stabilized after five hours or so. A few days after, I started feeling like I had a kidney stone or something. I had flank pain first, then fever and chills started up. I ended up going to ER as well. I had a bunch of tests done, multiple IV bags of fluid, etc. They still haven't figured it out, but then my wife calls and she's starting to feel shitty too so we now know that it's all connected. We all get better after a week or so and go on with our lives. A month later, we're recounting our illness events to a shared friend. He says, 'Oh, wasn't that right around the time X was in town? We never got to see them because they all had norovirus that week.'"
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"That sure helped to explain the number of sheets changed at the house and a couple of not-quite-dry spots on the bedroom carpet. Damn, a heads-up before we got home would've been appreciated."
35."A friend brought a friend to my house. She and I were preparing food for us to have a meal and he wandered into the kitchen and said, 'Your computer has a password on it. I can't get on there.'"
36."My mother had a work Christmas party years ago. She told her friends to help themselves to anything, as there were platters and dishes around with snacks and such. In the fridge, we had some lobsters that were going to be our family Christmas Eve dinner the next day. After the party, the lobster was gone. Turns out a guest they called 'Big Mike' had gone in the fridge and decided to take it all home."
37."Twenty years ago, I had my first apartment and my friend's older sister lived in the apartment below. The sister and her boyfriend were always fighting. You could hear them through the floor. During one particularly bad fight, he broke their landline phone. She came to my door and asked if she could come in and use my phone. I told her, 'Of course. Make yourself at home.' While I was distracted with something, she unplugged my phone and took it to her apartment. She didn't give it back for a day and a half. I could hear her inside talking on it when I knocked on her door. She just wouldn't answer me. That's not what 'Can I use your phone?' means."
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38."My sister stayed with our brother and dad a few years ago while bumming around. While there, without anyone's permission and at no one's request, she completely dismantled and reorganized their walk-in pantry and threw away all of their food because it was 'too processed' and 'not healthy enough.' It was basic stuff too, like pasta, sauces, potatoes, canned goods, etc. After her trip to the grocery store, she had the audacity to try and charge them for the food she bought. It wasn't even groceries that they particularly liked, which cracked me up. They laughed in her face and she sulked for, like, a week."
39."When I was 11, my uncle (mother's older brother) and his family lived in our house for years. During those times, they stole money and jewelry from my parents and sisters. It wasn't enough that they were living here for free. Even their food was taken. My sister had a ceramic piggy bank, and they broke that too and took all the money. I never voluntarily talked to them after that and I only refer to my uncle by his first name."
40."Both a male and female friend started walking around without pants on, separately, while staying with me. It’s like people want to rub their ass on everything I own."
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41."I had a date that went pretty badly. He wasn't necessarily rude or anything. We just didn't click. He still had to sleep over at my place due to a very heavy storm, because he lived three hours away and wasn't comfortable driving back in the weather. I told him to take my room and I'll sleep in the living room. At around 8 a.m. on Sunday morning, I woke up to loud banging in the kitchen. When I got up to go look, there he is, making himself breakfast. But this wasn't a normal breakfast, no. He had managed to use pretty much every single thing in my fridge."
"There was a whole breakfast buffet, waffles, eggs, toast, bacon, sausages, beans, pancakes, fruit salad, etc. At first, I thought it was kinda nice that he was making breakfast for us. But also, what the hell, those were most of my groceries for the week. He probably saw that I was a bit pissed off so he said, 'I know it's a lot of food! But I like to have variety. I'll just pack the leftovers so nothing gets thrown out!' I honestly didn't know what to say, so we ate breakfast and he actually packed all the leftovers into ziplock bags and took them with him. A whole week's worth of groceries."
