UNTHA UK recently commissioned a survey of over 2,000 UK people, with the help of YouGov, to learn what people have previously got rid of when packing up their belongings and heading to a new home. And some of the findings were so obscure, we’ve published a list of ‘The 10 weirdest things people have thrown out when moving house’. With responses including possessions such as a stuffed badger’s head, totem pole and a yak jacket, it was actually quite difficult selecting the 10 most obscure belongings. But here are our personal favourites, in reverse order…

An African carving of a grotesque head

Carved ebony and wood heads are actually popular collectables, but the ‘grotesque’ description got our imaginations whirring…

A spider skin

Some colleagues shuddered when reading this whilst others looked perplexed – so, for anyone else feeling confused, yes, spiders DO shed their skin! They have a hard, protective exoskeleton that will flake off a number of times as they grow. So, if it was a big spider, this will have looked particularly creepy.

A full finger nail

We can only presume this came from some form of household accident! Ouch!

A decapitated teddy bear

We don’t know what sealed the fate of this furry friend, but we don’t imagine it was something its owner wanted to cuddle any more!

A 10 year old shrivelled Halloween lantern made from carved swede

So many questions stemmed from reading this one – How badly had it decomposed? What on earth did it smell like? And why didn’t they carve their lantern from a pumpkin?!

A part-built steam engine

We’re assuming this isn’t a late 1600s prototype, so what a shame that someone went to the effort to build their own steam engine and didn’t finish the job!

A 3 foot mermaid

With no context surrounding this response we don’t know if this was a piece of garden architecture or a giant Disney favourite!

A 6 foot tall Kiss cut-out

They were one of the most popular rock bands of the 1970s so we can only presume this home owner liked them, a lot!

A wearable dolphin tail

The question is, was this for a slightly unusual fancy-dress costume, or because someone wanted to up their swimming game? Further research shows the latter is genuinely possible thanks to an innovation by an aerospace engineer named Ron Smith.

Human skull bones

We have no further information to accompany this seemingly sinister finding, so we don’t know whether or not this was a surprise discovery! Yikes! We know this isn’t the type of content you usually find on our blog, but we hope you’ve enjoyed our list! All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc.  Total sample size was 2155 adults. Fieldwork was undertaken between 14th – 15th March 2019.  The survey was carried out online. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK adults (aged 18+).