Refridgerated products people leave

[Nina204]

I have been Airbbing my property for about 3 months now.  Some people leave refridgerated and frozen items.  The things that have been opened I usually discard other than dressing, ketchup etc.  What is everyone's opinion on keeping things for the next guest?  If someone had ice cream that they used should I leave it or would you find that gross?  I personally wouldn't eat it but know others that would appreciate it.   This is a whole house so the guests have the house to themselves which I think may make a difference.  Thanks for any opinions

[Marzena4]

I discourage my guests from leaving anything behind, @Nina204. I usually kindly ask whether they have taken everything. If it is about food, if open, in most cases it has to go to the bin. It is also a way of respecting the next guests. Only toiletries and long-lasting stuff stay.

[Mark26]

You personally wouldn't eat it....  Why would you leave it for another guest?

Guests leave all sorts of tempting items in the refrigerater or freezer all the time, but unless it is unopened, I'm not going to touch it... and if I'm not willing to eat it, I'm not going to leave it for another guest.

[Ace5]

the most frequent complaint i get is when something is not clean, especially the refrigerator.  I only leave a few condiments ike mustard that come in squeeze bottles.  a box of baking soda is a nice touch also.

[Cynthia-and-Chris1]

@Nina204 Like others have said, I wouldn’t leave opened food, except condiments, behind for future guests. Just looks yucky. 

[Simon237]

With my Abb, any food left behind (regardless if it is opened or not) goes in the bin. I have no idea how it has been stored prior to finding it, so bin is the easiest option.

[Allison116]

For sanitary reasons, toss everything opened or not.

[S--J-0]

I agree with the others on tossing opened items except condiments.

However for the never opened or used items I simply check the expiration date. If the grocery store would allow a return within their return period of an unwanted unopened unexpired item and stick it back on the shelf then I don't see the harm in keeping it.

For the opened items (which although gross is still technically perfectly good food in most cases ) i am lucky because I have a longer-term tenant who started as an Airbnb guest that I am now helping while he is in school.  He came from a country where a lot of people are very poor and therefor he was raised not to waste anything. So he gladly takes any and all of the still edible food (checking if it's still good first of course) they happen to leave behind. 

I wonder how hard it would  be to ontact the local homeless shelter or see if there is any programs with your local government or church would possibly take unspoiled items off you hands and hand them out. Or you could always had it out to them personally . 

Lastly I want to share a tip I found works for saving money on condiments:  so after telling the guest they can use any and all condiments (so they don't have to buy them all themselves only to have to abandon it if they can't take them with them for space reasons), I ask the guests to just replace that single item with the same thing or an item of the same approximate value. This also helps because most guests will forget to tell you what items you ran out of during their plus you dont have to task them with it either. 

Hope this helps !  Cheers - SJ

[Susie5]

@Nina204, yesterday I found some ice cream in the freezer which had been left by the previous guests (they left that morning) and the incoming guests (3 young people) seemed quite happy to see it ("oh, that's my favorite flavor!" (peanut butter + chocolate)).  I'll be interested to see whether it's gone when they leave - I'm guessing it's already gone! I also put out English muffins which some people don't eat and found that there were two packs of them in the freezer. 

I also leave milk and half and half, if it's still in date and smells fine.  Butter is left in its wrapper and if it has been unwrapped, I take it down to my kitchen and replace it with a new half stick (from Trader Joes, the only ones who sell those half sticks as far as I can see). 

No one has ever objected to finding the odd beer in the fridge....

[Natalie198]

I do agree with the hosts who toss away all the food items due to sanitary reasons. For us, hosts in Florida, it is also important to discard the food to keep the bugs away. 

[Lyndsey2]

I think anything open seems gross (even when it's not). That includes condiments. One of my house rules is that guests dispose of or take any food with them. I do leave olive oil and salt and pepper shakers, but that's it.

[Allison2]

Wow, I'm feeling positively disgusting compared to some of you! I'll polish off most leftovers.

I only leave un-opened things (other than condiments or ice) for the next guests. The cleaning lady and I have come to terms: leftover beer is hers, wine is mine (one time a really nice Chateauneuf du Pape!). 

Restaurant leftovers usually get tossed. Just this week it was a half-eaten sandwich and potato chips. Who wants to eat day old refrigerated chips? Anything with bite marks is too much for me. I guess that's where my standards are.

A couple ladies stayed and hit up all my favorite fancy restaurants over the course of the weekend. They mentioned at checkout how bad they felt about not being able to use the leftovers and hoped I'd be able to. Hell yes!! Filet mignon, lasagna from the place with the James Beard chef, chocolate pastries...I'm glad I could keep them from going to waste! 😉

[Steve2743]

I leave condiments, unopened bottles of pop, or whatever. Some things I'll take meself, if it's something I'll use. Otherwise, it goes in the garbage. 

Something like ice cream, I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving, unless it was individually wrapped ice cream bars, of something. 

[Mae-and-Mike0]

we trash everything opened. we keep anything unopened that doesn't need refrigeration. otherwise we get rid of it too. but an ALREADY opened ice cream is really disgusting. And like what someone already said. If you yourself would not eat it, don't offer it to the other guests.

[Kathie21]

I remove everything.  Some things I'll use myself - anything unopened, condiments, things like butter where I can see the bit they've scraped with a knife they may have licked and cut it off.  It's never arisen, but if I could see that ice cream was in a good state (had never melted) I'd probably scrape off the top layer and eat it.  I guess I'm like @Allison2  - just nothing with bite marks.  But then, I'm from Yorkshire (we are notoriously stingy - or frugal, as I prefer to put it ) and my parents were poor and had lived through rationing - wasting food came somewhere only slightly below murder on their scale of criminal acts.