Internet Baffled by 'Bizarre' Discovery Homeowner Makes in Wall Cavity

A homeowner has made a peculiar discovery that has sparked intrigue online when they stumbled on a huge collection of used razor blades.

Shared on the subreddit r/mildlyinteresting, the discovery gained more than 38,000 upvotes and 2,000 comments.

The unusual find is an example of a bygone disposal practice that was common in mid-20th century households. During this time, it was common for people to discard used double-edged razor blades through a slot created in bathroom medicine cabinets.

This was done because the sharp blades could not be safely discarded with regular trash. Instead, the slots provided a space to store the used blades out of reach of children.

Slots were designed as a space to put the used blades, leaving them nestled in the wall cavity between the studs.

In the post, Redditor KOALA-BEAR710 said: "Found a used razor stash in the wall."

The picture included dozens of used blades in the wall cavity, leaving plenty of Redditors perplexed.

"It was too dangerous to dispose of these, so they just chucked them inside walls. This was done from the early 1900s to the late 1950s," explained kolyo01. While Banaanisade said: "I love these, I don't know why. It's just such a cool deposit of history."

"So bizarre," said trwwy321.

Others had their own experience of the razor blade disposal technique: "I live in an apartment built in the 60s and my bathroom still has the original medicine cabinet with the razor slot," wrote clymsyc.

While others thought that the system was indicative of a past attitude to waste disposal. PopeHonkersXII said: "A previous tenant from years gone by thought 'this will be someone else's problem someday' and congratulations, you're that someone!"

But Redditor VikingJesus1337 commented: "I find this interesting because it's the mindset of the older generations (it's the next generations problem to deal with)."

This is far from the first time something unusual has been discovered in the walls of an old home. In 2023, a Delaware-based demolition worker stumbled on a beer bottle that appeared to date back to 1955.

"I have never found anything like it after 17 years and over 3,000 demolition inspections of every type of building or facility you can think of," he told Newsweek at the time.

In another example, a Wisconsin homeowner stumbled on a really unexpected discovery in the wall—a child's shoe. The strange discovery left people pleading with the homeowner to return the shoe or risk some sort of curse: "Just gonna advise to put it back ASAP," said one comment.

Newsweek reached out to poster KOALA-BEAR710 via Reddit for comment.