Staying at someone else’s place is always a gamble. You’re hoping for free snacks and maybe a comfy couch — instead, you’re suddenly living under a regime where you’re not allowed to flush after 9 PM and the TV remote requires government-level clearance.
Recently, Reddit weighed in on this exact phenomenon when u/Similar_Race_3031 asked:
“What’s the most ridiculous ‘house rule’ you’ve ever had to follow when staying at someone else’s place?”
The thread quickly turned into a showcase of the most unnecessarily strict, wildly creative, and downright absurd house rule systems humanity has ever devised. Here are the best of the weirdest for your entertainment. May you never visit any of these deranged individuals.
1.
You could not poop at their house. If you had to then you had to go home, but if you had to pee then it was fine… His dad screamed at one of our friends when we were in fourth grade for having to go unexpectedly and his house was like a 10 minute drive away…
itsfish20
2.
When I was a kid, I visited a friend whose mother banned us from having a favourite or a least favourite colour pencil. She thought that strong preferences and opinions would ruin her kid’s vibe. Naturally, her child was the most opinionated six-year-old in my first grade class.
squiddishly
3.
‘You have to eat everything on your plate and you have to sit there until you do’. I was not hungry, I very politely said I didn’t want any food, I didn’t like anything they were serving… Got punished for not eating cold Kraft macaroni and tuna.
errant_night
4.
I wasn’t allowed to go to the bathroom after I went to bed. The bathroom was attached to the parent’s room and they didn’t want me to wake them up, I guess. I ended up peeing in the plant in the living room.
SheiB123
5.
‘You can’t use the fridge after 10pm, it wakes the cat.’ I’m not even joking.
Calm-Strain-6528
6.
I had a friend whose father kept the Super Nintendo controllers in sandwich bags attached by twist-ties around the cord. All the remotes were in large Ziploc bags. You could press the buttons through the bag, but it was just weird. So anything handheld and electronic was basically in a makeshift condom.
theguineapigssong
7.
Friends dad was a nuclear engineer, so they were not broke. They mandated one single four ounce glass of orange juice for breakfast, no other drinks, no refills.
Curleysound
8.
No drinks with dinner. You could have a glass of water after… but not during the meal. Never did figure out the reason for that one.
Eisgboek
9.
The kitchen was purely decorative and couldn’t be used. No noise was to be made after six pm. Everyone brought their own individual toilet paper to the bathroom – the roll on the wall was the homeowners’ and was not to be used. Oh, and pay no attention to the male homeowner wandering around naked. He does that. My friend was renting a room there. I visited for a couple nights and boy, I’ve never been happier to get on a flight home. If I’d known what I was getting into I would have shelled out for a hotel, even with the city prices in my early 20s.
hiddenkobolds
10.
My spouse used to go to game nights as a friend’s place and the wife made them all pee outside. He would always make sure to use the bathroom before he left because he never felt comfortable peeing in their backyard. Everyone also made sure to poop before going over there. If they had to poo, they had to leave early or go home momentarily or maybe bury it? I have no idea really.
jesjorge82
