Woman cleaning 1950s house she just bought finds the most unexpected treasure inside the crawl space

Old houses often carry the echoes of past lives, and sometimes, they hold unexpected treasures. This was the case for Reddit user u/DiscoverBikeTouring, who moved into a 1950s house and discovered cartons full of books hidden in the crawlspace. Thrilled by the find, she eagerly took to Reddit to share her discovery with the online community.

"Discovered 30 boxes of old books in the crawlspace of our 1950s house," the caption to the post read. She attached a picture of the space with multiple cartons full of books to go with it. There were various books like "The Fountainhead" and "Crises in Modern Thought" in the boxes. In an interview with Newsweek, the woman, a resident of the United States, said the discovery was made by her and her boyfriend after they bought the house. There were also books like "Poor Richard's Almanac" by Benjamin Franklin and "The Hobbit" by J. R. R. Tolkien. "We saved some money on our mortgage by cleaning out the remaining furniture and belongings ourselves and we were surprised to find around 30 boxes of books in the crawlspace underneath the house," she shared.

"The boxes were extremely dusty and some even had mice droppings on top of them! We were intrigued by what types of books could be in the boxes and how old they might be," the woman continued. "I started going through the boxes and I was surprised to find a 1966 set of 'Lord of the Rings,' as well as a 1966 edition of 'The Hobbit.'" The woman admitted that there were some vintage magazines and newspapers in the boxes as well. "There were even newspaper clippings organized into labeled paper bags, which focused on different topics like aging and health," she shared. Most of the contents in the box were from the 1960s or before. The couple plans on donating most of the books to a local bookstore and would like to keep some for themselves.

The discovery left Reddit users in awe, with many sharing their own experiences with vintage finds. u/MySophie777 wrote, "Plastic bins like that came into use in the 1960s. The person says the house was built in the 50s, not that the boxes were from the 50s. The Dunphy's box looks like it has July 1994 written on it. It's surprising how well boxes and other things keep over the years. My siblings and I cleared out our mom's attic crawlspace a few years ago in her Arizona home. She had boxes from the 1970s up there. Despite having gone through 46+ summers, a box of my clothes from high school in the mid-70s was in great shape. My son took a few of my tops for his girlfriend, who loves retro clothes. They were in perfect shape."

u/sportbetting13b commented, "Wow, this had to be a treasure of a collection here. The memories the books hold and if they could talk of the numerous hands that have held them over the decades. Nice." u/sourbelle remarked, "Oh… I see a Manson book! Cool. I'm a true crime junkie. And honestly, some of the boxes are kinda cool as well."