What do the things we leave behind say about us? Well, these abandoned properties and the surprising secrets they’re hiding will certainly make you wonder about their previous owners, and why they left in such a hurry.

Click or scroll to discover the strange things that have been discovered in these abandoned homes, from the curious to the bizarre…

Tucked away in rural Ontario, this dilapidated house has certainly seen better days. The property has been abandoned for nearly 40 years and remains a perfect time capsule, frozen in 1985.

Packed with memorabilia, photographs and family heirlooms, the home tells an interesting story of the family of Polish immigrants who were its first inhabitants back in the early 20th century and was also hiding one massive surprise…

The home is in a complete state of disarray, with pots and pans discarded in the kitchen sink, rotting furniture strewn across the floor and long out-of-date appliances – such as an old clothes wringer and an antique sewing machine – discarded in corners.

Holes in the roof mean that the property’s interiors have been exposed to the elements, further exacerbating the decay of its contents.

From the piles of belongings and family photos scattered around the property, it's clear that the owners left in a rush, leaving behind precious mementoes like these. 

Other surviving documents, such as a collection of school and college books, were once the property of younger members of the family. 

However, the most shocking surprise this home was hiding was the whopping $6,800 (£5.3k) in cash that was stashed inside a plastic bag tucked behind an upturned mattress.

The cash, which consisted of a combination of American and Canadian dollars, was bound up in rubber bands and marked in pencil, which seemed more than a little suspicious when it was first discovered by photographer Dave of Freaktography. We still don’t know just what the stash was used for! 

Discovered by photographer Bryan Sansivero, this elegant Jacobean Revival-style home buried in the Catskill mountains of New York dates to 1925 and has stood abandoned for many years.

While it remains unclear why its final residents took off in such a rush, what they left behind certainly provides some interesting insight into the lives they might have lived, while raising even more questions as to who they might have been…

Upon entering the home, you will find yourself immediately greeted with fluorescent yellow walls, which, though peeling and mouldering away, are still a shocking find in such an elegant upstate New York residence, particularly when contrasted with the very traditional arched doorframes and dramatic sweeping staircase.

If you travel up that staircase, you’ll discover that things get even stranger with this circus-themed room. With bold primary colours and playful harlequin patterns, walking into this room is like stepping into the Big Top.

Whether this was once a highly themed nursery, or simply a stylistic whim of the previous owners is unclear, but having sat abandoned for so long, this derelict circus room is more than a little intriguing.

The home’s second staircase is a good bit more intriguing than its main entrance version. Croquet balls sit forgotten on the stairs, creating an obvious tripping hazard for anyone attempting the upwards climb, and creating the spooky impression that they were left this way on purpose.

Meanwhile, the once-colourful rope handrail adds to the overall circus-esque atmosphere of the home, but leaves us asking: why?

This Colonial Revival in Jacksonville's historic Springfield neighbourhood dates to 1908 and has been captured by Leland Kent of Abandoned Southeast.

The Florida home once belonged to David Swearingen, a locksmith for the Southern Bell telephone company, who sadly passed away from Covid in 2020. And, while David and his family are no longer in residence, there are more than a few relics inside this three-bed home that are reminiscent of his line of work.

To begin with, the home’s magnificent antique staircase is inexplicably lined with 13 payphones, all testaments to David’s business. He became an industry-leading master keying specialist and designed complex systems for the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, Jacksonville Sheriff's Office and other major institutions. Later, David went on to found the Florida Public Telephone Company.

Clearly, not only were payphones his professional life, they seem to have somewhat taken over his private life as well.

Another slightly stranger find in this abandoned property is this collection of haunted mansions, including one based on the famous attraction at Disneyland California.

These collectables were likely completely innocent in origin, probably bought for David’s son, William, but they’re still an unusual thing to find in an abandoned house.

However, we certainly haven’t seen the last of the payphones. Out in the garage, boxes upon dusty boxes house the tools of David’s trade, including various payphone handsets, locks and keys.

David appears to have epitomised the phrase ‘bringing your work home with you,’ and in addition to the tools, a few more payphones can be found tucked in among deserted boxes of belongings. We can’t help but wonder if the phone company is still looking for them!

While not exactly an ‘abandoned’ home discovery, this couple’s experience is the stuff horror stories are made of.

Having purchased their new home and excitedly settling in, Courtney and Matt (otherwise known as @living_in_history) received a letter addressed simply to ‘the purchaser’ from the ‘last surviving member’ of the 130-year-old estate’s previous owners – the Madisons.

The letter contained a set of instructions for discovering an assortment of hidden rooms, chambers and compartments throughout the house.

The couple documented their discoveries in a viral series of TikToks, the first of which shows them uncovering a dusty selection of beverages hidden behind a sliding panel behind a mirror in their front parlour. 

Meanwhile, the couple’s bathroom hid another collection of secrets. Behind a wall of wood panelling, Courtney and Matt found a mysterious crawl space, while opposite the toilet, a strange small door led into an enormous trunk room of which the couple had been unaware when they bought the house.

However, the discoveries didn’t stop there. Documented in their videos, Courtney and Matt have gone on to find antique furniture, curious decorations and even a music box, which plays the wedding march.

They have yet to identify their mysterious informant, but their house is certainly a treasure trove of historical secrets.

With 15-foot ceilings, floor-to-ceiling windows and pine floors, this ramshackle home in Louisville, Georgia was once a true southern belle. But since its last occupants left many decades ago, it has devolved into a mouldering wreck of its former glory.

Now, the home appears frozen in time somewhere in the 1980s and it also hides some unexpected relics – as photographed by Leland Kent of Abandoned Southeast.

The last owner of the property is thought to have been Ms Eve Griffin, a regular fixture on the lounge music circuit in the 1960s and 70s. Eve is believed to have bought the property in 1987 for $29,500 – that's the equivalent of around $80,600 (£63k) today – as a place to retire from her successful singing career.

The house was soon nicknamed the ‘hoarder house’ by Eve’s neighbours, who observed the property slowly being packed with old toys, clothes and pieces of furniture.

Abandoned in its congested state, the home is still a shrine to Eve’s eclectic taste.

The once-elegant living room still boasts a green brocade sofa and sumptuous window drapes, but is now littered with fallen plaster and home to an unusual collection of stuffed animals and dolls, which looks rather out of place against the backdrop of decaying grandeur.

The home’s other rooms are even more cluttered. Some, like this first-floor bedroom, are so packed with boxes, old clothes and broken furniture that it’s difficult to find the floor under all the debris. Who knows what other vintage treasures might be lurking in all this chaos?

This derelict Victorian farmhouse in the heart of Maryland appears forgotten by time, so overgrown with vines and shrubs that it’s barely discernible from the landscape.

With crumbling chimneys, peeling clapboard, and a rotting screened porch, this property may only have a few years left before it’s completely reclaimed by nature. Let’s take a peek inside…

The farmhouse itself dates to 1890, and most of its furnishings appear to be of approximately the same vintage, save a few mid-century modern chairs and two wooden consoled TV sets circa the 1980s.

The home is clearly losing the battle with the elements and peeling paint and plaster litter every available surface, giving the entire space a forlorn, mouldering appearance.

However, things go from forlorn to downright freaky in the farmhouse’s upstairs bedrooms, each of which contains some abandoned dolls. This old pram contains a baby doll, which one day may have been a treasured toy.

This abandoned toy, combined with the continuation of Victorian furnishings, definitely gives the room an intriguing vibe.

Next door, things get even weirder in the master bedroom with this bizarre doll’s house. This strange treasure certainly puts a new spin on the classic toy. Talk about unusual finds!

Once the home of an enigmatic clockmaker and collector of curios, this 19th-century New Jersey cottage now sits abandoned, frozen in time like the stopped clocks it contains.

The home dates to the 1820s and is one of the few surviving examples of Jersey Dutch cottage architecture. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in the 1980s, which means, unlike most abandoned properties, the local authority looks after the garden and takes care of the exterior.

The interior, however, is a very different story. Over the past two centuries, the home has passed through many hands, but its final inhabitant abandoned it suddenly, leaving most of his possessions behind.

Consequently, the home is packed with antique furniture, pictures and ephemera, most dating to the 1800s, which give the property an air of romance.

A particular highlight of the clockmaker’s collection is this antique piano, one of two in the living room. The other is a handsome square piano, meticulously crafted in fine flame mahogany sometime around 1830 by prestigious New York City maker William Geib and boasting exquisite gold marquetry, ornate drawer handles, fluted legs and an ebony and ivory keyboard.

Above this smaller model is a 20th century carriage clock, one of many throughout the home.

Other highlights of the collection include the contents of this dusty desk – a vintage radio complete with a horn loudspeaker, an Art Deco General Electric Vortalex desk fan from the 1930s, an old marking machine and several storage boxes.

On a different desk in the same room can be found the tools of the horologist’s trade, not to mention a truly impressive collection of antique timepieces.

Complete with boarded-up windows and overgrown vines, this abandoned home shared by escapade_z via TikTok is truly packed with history.

The stately pebbledash home was likely once a sophisticated residence, but having been left empty for quite some time, the property is now frozen in the past and packed with dusty relics discarded by previous occupants.

Once inside the home, the eye is immediately drawn by a pastel-coloured antique wood-burning stove and adjoining oven, complete with a bread-warming drawer and a coal scuttle.

Along the top of the oven are an impressive collection of Royal Doulton ornaments, which are likely worth a good bit of money, and an ornamental carriage clock.

The home’s main living area also boasts an interesting assortment of antiques, including an upright piano, and, on the piano bench, a fox fur wearing, inexplicably, a top hat.

Apart from this whimsical tableau, the living room is packed with more old china, framed pictures, and antique furniture and appliances, including a sewing machine, radio and grandfather clock.

Upstairs are still more antique furnishings, including a beautiful Victorian vanity overflowing with family photos, which seem to date to the turn of the last century.

Other bedrooms boast an impressive collection of early 20th-century toys, dolls and children’s books, plus a couple of marionettes. Whatever children once lived here, they were a lucky bunch!

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