When people have guests over, they want to be welcoming and make them feel comfortable. A typical phrase said at such occasions is “Make yourselves comfortable.” Even if a host says that, a guest comes to someone’s home and tries to be considerate and treat the home better than they would their own.

There are people who may take the phrase too literally and feel like they are the masters of the house and the hosts are their servants. While experiencing such situations is truly unpleasant, reading them is quite amusing as people come up with all sorts of things and are oblivious to doing something wrong.

Redditors shared their stories in a thread when Mr_Yus_uwu asked “What was the worst thing your guest did when they took "Make yourself at home" very literally?” We would like to hear what you think of these stories, so upvote the ones you found most baffling. And please do share your own in the comments.

More info: Reddit

#1

My relative stayed with my grandma and proceeded to burn the house to the ground by deciding to have a bon fire 3 feet from the side of the house.

Image credits: lolppjoke

#2

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, finally he left on a Friday. 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 hubby had returned early.

Nope. It was 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.

Image credits: Charismaticjelly

#3

I had guests turn the pool heater on in February and not turn it off or tell me it was on. I noticed steam coming off the pool a week later and it was 90*F. The bill was just under $1000.

Image credits: Fickle-Willingness80

#4

Had an aunt come stay with us for a short amount of time when I was about 8, 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 days later, I came home from school and all my stuffed animals were gone. I used to empty the claw machine at this one restaurant/bar my parents went to on a regular basis, so there was probably close to a hundred stuffed animals in my collection. When she told me she’d thrown them out, I lost it. I went off on her, telling her to get the f**k out of my house, 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.

Image credits: trafalgarD420 ·

#5

Dinner guest asked to stay overnight because of the snow (which wasn’t forecasted until much later that night). Spouse and I agreed as we didn’t have work the next day. But 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?!”

Image credits: user256049

#6

An in-law took about a 28 minute shower after I explained we were in the middle of a drought and that our well was dangerously low. I’m assuming it was going to be a 30 minute shower but we ran out of water.

Image credits: bandi53

#7

My wife 3 days ago.

Tasked with feeding her friends cat while they're away for a week.

They said help yourself to whatever you like.

She came home with their waffle maker.

Pretty sure it meant she could score a couple of their Tim tams not make off with their appliances

Image credits: Mashy6012

#8

My grandma offered to make him a sandwich. A little while later he said, where is that sandwich coming from, South Dakota? Guess he thought it was taking too long. 35 years later i still think about that a**hole sometimes and wonder wtf was he thinking? Just how could you say that to someone's grandmother you just met? He was my cousin's dorky boyfriend's friend. I was about 13 yo and appalled. My grandmother was the sweetest woman and an amazing hostess.

Image credits: DiligentAdvantage475

#9

My ex husband had a less than savory friend. He walked into my home once, helped himself to my fridge without asking and then when he got himself some silverware, had the audacity to insult it and say it looked like something a grandmother would have. Well yes, yes it does, since it's hers and she gave it to me.

Another time he went to my MIL's house when we told him we didn't want to hang out. We weren't even home yet! He came in, say down, ordered a pizza that he refused to share with my MIL or BIL, and just sat there watching TV for two hours until we got back from whatever we were doing.

He was a grade A a**hole. F**king hate you, Craig.

Image credits: pinner

#10

I let my sister stay at my house after her breakup. She told my 5 year old to clean up his "f**king 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

Image credits: MynameisMarsh

#11

I had a longtime friend who was just sort of chaotic and oblivious as a teen, super messy bedroom, yadda yadda pretty normal for a teenager. But as we all got older she never seemed to grow out of any of it. So by the time we are in our late 20s, I started to dread getting together with her because just getting together for dinner or drinks on Friday meant essentially committing to her staying the entire weekend. The final straw came one Monday when I had to get up to go to work (I was also a full time student) and she was still hanging out. I told her goodbye and made it clear I wasn't coming back because I had plans after work. When I finally got home that evening, the house was in shambles. She'd managed to tear down the shower curtain, just leaving it hanging. She had apparently worn a pair of my favorite slippers, fluffy pink pigs, and managed to rip the tail off one, which she just left lying there on the floor. Dirty dishes, of course.

This was the same woman who managed to catch my favorite sweater (hand knit by a former BF's mother) ON FIRE at a bonfire. Burning a giant hole (hand sized) and leaving it covered in scorch marks. She actually tried to hide it by I think putting it back folded.

The final straw came at an event for her parents where I was helping out and she literally snapped her fingers at me and told me to "get back to work" when I was having a smoke in the backyard with some other friends. I just never spoke to her again.

Image credits: Anthrodiva

#12

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 believe college education is important. Well 8 years later and he is still there, all my parent's children have moved out but for some reason my brother's best friend is still living there.

Image credits: xyz388

#13

Redecorated the house with religious artifacts. Am an atheist.

Image credits: Mean_Map

#14

He got extremely drunk, told us "Stop me when I start making comments about the Jews," and proceeded to fall all the way down the racism tree hitting every major branch on the way.

That's the last time I host a Christmas party with beer, let me tell you.

Image credits: faux_glove

#15

Came home, sitting in his boxers on my kitchen counter washing his feet and trimming toenails in my sink has got to take the cake.

Image credits: Spamh8r

#16

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."

Image credits: fietsvrouw

#17

My ex-BIL plopped himself and a plate of bbq ribs on my nice, cream-colored sofa, and he proceeded to chow down. He used the sofa as a napkin, spilled the meat on the sofa, and I kid you not, I actually had bbq sauce on the ceiling above where he was sitting. HOW do you get that stuff up there?

Here I am, two decades later, and I still have not figured that one out.

Image credits: thornyrosary

#18

Had a friend stay until he found a job and got on his feet. He never applied anywhere, or tried to leave our couch at all. Another friend offered him an interview and he purposely blew it because he didn’t like that job. He was mean to my puppy and sat in our house all day while we worked and never offered to take her out or anything. The worst though is when he started blaring the tv at 5am. I mean literally almost as loud as the tv would go. And he was always f**king watching Scrubs. He left around a month and a half later after he ran out of money from ordering food for every meal and not leaving our house. He then made a post on Facebook about how the city defeated him and it didn’t work out lol

Image credits: titsmcgee422

#19

I got my guest settled on the couch for the night, and I woke up to them right next to me, and sound asleep in my bed.

Image credits: heysixela

#20

The $900 phone sex bill. It was the early 90's and the bill came on paper and was about 100 pages.

I let a guy stay in my house for a month while he was in summer school and I was going to be gone half the summer. He would call while black out drunk. Other than this, he was an excellent houseguest. He even told me that they were going to be these phone bills coming and that he would pay for it but we had no idea that it was going to be almost $1,000

The reason the bill was 100 pages was because each of the 1-900 numbers operated as individual little telephone companies that generated a separate bill for their services, so that $900 bill was about 50 separate bills printed individually that were bundled together by my local provider.

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 cancelled or reduced. My house guest coughed up $500 and gave me a CD player and a PlayStation and a TV

Image credits: MakesCakesEatsMud

#21

Picked up sister and BIL from airport and dropped them off at my house before taking my preschool kid to a doctor’s appointment. Told them to make themselves at home, we’ll be back in 2 hours. They at all the snacks in the entire house, including 10 brand new boxes of Girl Scout cookies. At least 2 months worth of snacks. They laughed and said they “just couldn’t help themselves since they don’t have junk food in at home”.

Worst part? Girl Scout cookie season had ended two days before. All those delicious Thin Mints, gone.

Image credits: anothertimesometime

#22

My father in law was staying with us for a month, he lived in Oman. The spare room was an office with a sofa bed in so it could double up for guests. He bought a double bed and got rid of the sofa bed. I lost my office.

Image credits: Equivalent_Parking_8

#23

Closed my bedroom door with me inside it as if to say "you'll go to bed now". I don't know why, but this triggered me.

Image credits: WeirdAlternative1199

#24

Rearranged my kitchen. That b***h.

it wasn't my mom. It was a guy I'd gone on two dates with that I left alone in my apartment for a few hours. My mistake I guess.

Image credits: makin_the_frogs_gay

#25

I’ve had relatives eat all the food in our fridge, use our house to play host to people they know in our city. They also broke our screen door and had no remorse whatsoever. It was presented as “oh your screen door is broken!”

Image credits: Deliciously_Frothy

#26

Had a buddy stay with me and my then GF now wife, lived on the top floor of a poorly insulated apartment. We never set the air below 75 in the summer (kept it at 70 when we first moved in and got a $300 bill) we came back from being out of town for a few days he has some chick naked on the couch (my wife hated this girl and he knew it) and the air was set to 65. He didn't live there much longer.

Image credits: mschach88

#27

My sister stayed with our brother and dad a few years ago while bumming around (her husband passed away and she doesn't have to work, so she travels pretty much year round). While there, without anyone's permission and at no one's request, she completely dismantled and reorganized their walk in pantry, threw all of their food because it was "too processed" and "not healthy enough" (it was basic stuff too... pasta, sauces, frozen pierogies, potatoes, canned goods, snacks, etc.) and bought new. 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 stuff they particularly liked, which cracked me up. They laughed in her face and she sulked for like a week.

Then she invited her teenage son to stay with them because he got kicked out of camp? school? something like that for vaping, and she was "too mortified" to let him back home so early. At the time, my brother lived 2 states away, lol. After that, she overstayed her welcome by about 3 weeks. Needless to say, she's a hot f**king mess.

Image credits: sci3nc3r00lz

#28

I came home from work that day and my homie was there. With his girl and 4 kids for weeks in my 1000 sw foot house. Ate all my food and wouldn't leave me alone until I drove them 10 hours away to some family's house

Image credits: Fearless-Aids

#29

Sister's friend carved her name into our wall and porch

Image credits: LorddFarsquaad

#30

He literally took his freaking socks off and put them on the dining table. Dude... what?

Image credits: soleildelalune_

#31

Had someone my Mom knew from work stay with us for a while when they were having a divorce. They were all around kinda 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.

Image credits: Arcinbiblo12

#32

Deleted all of my passwords off my computer after asking to check her email.

Image credits: iroze

#33

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 or I can not make a move without feeling judged, or receiving some advice I would never expect from a 9-year-old, ranging from how messy our house is, to how we spend our money. And she talks back as much as my own kids.

It mostly makes us laugh. Mostly.

Image credits: myfriendrichard

#34

Laid a lit cigarette on a ornamental wood box that I gave my SO on his birthday. The next morning after he left my SO found the box with the burnt cig and melted filter still laying on the box.

Image credits: Cyberzombi