This is a totally acceptable method. It’s really up to you, although yo can always ask the sitter if there’s something specific they’ll want their first day. Owners are not expected or required to provide food for sitters but most of us do offer at least basics, like spices, oils, condiments. We no longer stock perishables because experience has shown us they often don’t get used due to a sitters’ personal eating habits, and we don’t want to make the sitter responsible for cleaning out manky veggie drawers. We do usually leave locally made wine, cheese, chocolate, crackers. If our garden or ducks are producing sitters are welcome to help themselves. We also offer our full pantry to use as needed. Most important is to make sure the fridge and freezer are clean and have space for the sitter’s items. Do be clear if there are things you’d prefer sitters don’t use, or tuck them away while you’re gone, just to avoid misunderstandings. There are lots of posts on this topic, you can read and see everyone is different and it’s totally up to you and each sitter to decide what works.
If you’re feeling generous, better to offer a gift card for groceries or say a meal. That’s because everyone’s eating habits and preferences are different. But there’s no obligation to offer food, so whatever you provide is up to your sense of hospitality. Some hosts don’t offer anything at all.
And sitters have all sorts of varying preferences. Personally, I appreciate generosity, but I’m also fine if hosts leave me nothing but a clean and tidy home and everything is as described with their pets.
To me, it doesn’t matter at all if someone leaves no food at all vs. is generous – I will treat their home and pets exactly the same.
There are a ton of threads about this. Sitters aren’t a monolith, so it is best to ask for preferences regarding leaving perishables prior to the sit, or any prepared foods for the sitter.
Good luck!
Love how clear you are—wish every host was this specific: “Eat this, replace that”
“If something’s about to expire, feel free to eat it” leaves me wondering: I probably won’t eat it… can I toss it? When instructions are fuzzy, I snap a photo of the fridge and pantry on arrival and put everything back exactly the same, expired or not (learned my lesson after binning six-month-old carrots and the HO flipped. She apparently loved old carrots?).
Unless instructed otherwise in crystal-clear language, I treat the fridge like a museum—I look at the contents, but don’t touch or curate them.
Don’t expect anything but some oil and spices, and that would mostly be what I’m offered. Coffee/ tea is also common to offer.
My sits have been in places where it is easy to go grocery-shopping. (If shops are hard to get to at arrival, I’d appreciate some starter items ).
Thanks so much for your reply! It’s very helpful to hear what other people do, we will look for other posts on the topic. Thanks again!
Thanks for your reply Maggie! Super helpful to hear from others on the forum. 
Biggest pet peeve is opening a completely empty fridge, nothing to put on food even. A good guide might be to leave what you would leave anyone else in your life that would be staying at your house…babysitters, cousins, friends & neighbors, would you leave them absolutely nothing? Do you want nothing there on your return? This is not an adversarial event taking place, you want the sitters to feel welcome, right, some basics that have been mentioned above would be fine. It would be like leaving your car for them but there is no gas, oil or other fluids left in it.
As mentioned in some other threads, THS advises homeowners to leave space in the fridge. Some over-interpret that. I like your point of “A good guide might be to leave what you would leave anyone else in your life that would be staying at your house…babysitters, cousins, friends & neighbors….” But what even is that?
I want whole milk, but my cousin wants half and half, my brother wants skim, my neighbor only drinks almond milk and his daughter only has oat milk but his wife wants heavy cream. I adore bacon but the vegan in my life would likely pass out from the idea of meat (gasp!). A friend of mine will eat bacon but only if it is turkey bacon and her friend will eat turkey bacon if it is uncured. I’m team “olive oil” but my best friend is team “coconut oil”.
And so on. People have become completely insane about food. I don’t blame HOs for giving up on trying to have “basics” - one person’s basic is another person’s supposed poison.
If an HO asks me I will say it would be nice to have enough regular coffee and some milk for my first morning. And I always ask what they want on their return. If they say “nothing” I accept that. But I never, ever try to guess - lots of food waste happens that way. I never expect anything and thus am never disappointed.
I think the LENGTH of the sit makes a big difference. What an owner might provide for a ONE WEEK sit is different from a ONE MONTH sit. Longer sit = sitter provides more of their own items.
Also, how close is the grocery store? That can affect the situation.
Your current approach sounds reasonable. I would simply add, for a shorter sit (1 week?), that you would also allow use of small amounts (1/2 - 1 cup) of things like sugar, flour, oats, bread crumbs, and rice; and small amounts (1 tsp - 2 T) of things like baking soda and baking powder and cornstarch.
If you don’t want sitter to touch certain items, like new packages of cereal and crackers, or things like peanut butter—simply put them away elsewhere during the sit.
For normal, everyday pantry items, how much could a sitter possibly use in a week? $20 worth of small amounts of various items?
I try to avoid owners who are that stingy.
We keep it fairly simple: if a kitchen item is open and not in the freezer, sitters are welcome to help themselves. So spices, condiments, oils, vinegars, sauces and staples are open season. Liquor and freezer items are off limits.
We do ask sitters if we can pick up anything for them to cover their first few days. Coffee, tea, morning pastries, bread, cheese, … About half the sitters take us up on that which leads to a followup request for specifics. If they ask for fruit, what kind of fruit? Cheese? Sharp cheddar, squishy Brie, something that smells like wet socks? We’ve stocked fruits or cheese or … only to return home and find things untouched because they were the wrong fruits or cheese or …
We usually pickup sitters at the airport if they’re not arriving in their own vehicle. Depending on time of arrival and how long they’ve been traveling, we offer to deal with an arrival meal. It may be a stop at In and Out burger coming out of the airport or leaving a crockpot on at home. We let the sitter determine which offer works best for them.
Hey there, thanks so much for sharing how you handle this. We were Airbnb hosts for a few years and always went out of our way to help people feel welcome and at home. The Airbnb model is different in that if you are staying in someone’s home (as opposed to a unit used only for Airbnb), it is typical that you use basic items but don’t forage through their pantry, freezer, liquor, etc.
I really like your guidelines, they are very clear! And that in and of itself is the most important piece I think, to avoid problems/miscommunication later. We prefer not to make our pantry fair game because our house is remote so we stock way up on stuff and if it was eaten up when we got back that would be a drag to have to replace everything. Our sits tend to be on the longer side (4-6 weeks).
Having said that, we do stock up on essentials to get sitters through the first few days. We used to offer a basic grocery list to our Airbnb guests but it got too complicated over time because of some of the issues you pointed out. However we definitely ask about tea/coffee, milk choices, and have bread, butter, etc available on arrival.
Asking sitters to replace items they use beyond the scope of what we offer seems like a reasonable ask.
I haven’t read the entire thread so apologies if this has been mentioned already.
If there are a lot of perishables in the fridge that go off during the sit obviously they have to be thrown out. However, do other sitters feel obliged to replace them? I have had to throw away a great deal of rotting food over the years, vegetables, fruit, and milk/yoghurt etc. I usually leave milk for the owner’s return and ask if there is anything I can get in for their return but I often wonder if they are expecting sitters to replace all the ‘used’ items. I’m not talking about stuff in jars, I ignore those.
I see no such obligation and I’ve never done that as a sitter. No host has ever complained about such. And all my 26 reviews from them have been great.
Ever since I was scolded for tossing out six-month-old carrots (the date was right on the bag!), I’ve been extra cautious about food. Now I only discard things that are visibly moldy or slimy. When I arrive, I take a quick photo of the fridge and make sure to return everything exactly where it was.
If I do need to throw something out — say, moldy bread — I’ll let the hosts know and ask if they’d like me to replace it before they get back. Most say not to bother, but a few have appreciated a small replacement like creamer for their coffee. On longer sits, I’ll sometimes pop open items like bread or partial milk containers into the freezer when I arrive and put them back in the fridge before I leave, just to keep them from going off. Then it’s up to the owner whether to discard when they come back. I
I’ve also noticed that many hosts I sit for live in areas where grocery delivery is easy, and most of them arrange a delivery for right after they return home. Once in a while they’ll ask if they can have the delivery come the day before their arrival at a time when I can put the perishables away, which is fine with me.
@Maggie8K no neither do I but if I have had to throw something away, but that I haven’t actually used, I sort of feel like leaving a note to say I didn’t eat it.
If the food is freezable, I’ll put it in the freezer and let them know. But otherwise, I don’t leave a note or such. No problems. But I’m careful to pick hosts I consider hospitable, reasonable and friendly.
If they seemed like the kind of people who’d mind if I tossed out food that would spoil before they returned, I’d avoid their sits in the first place. And most of my hosts tell me to help myself anyway, though I prefer to choose and buy my own food.
@Maggie8K I put bread and tortillas in the freezer on my last sit and let them know where they were, I hate to see good food wasted.
@KittySitter yes, I saw you mention this before. I never go by dates, I can tell whether or not something needs to be binned but I do think it’s a bit much that the home owner scolded you.
This is the problem, we never know what may trigger someone and it does make me a little nervous. Having said that I am very thankful for anything that is left for me that is useable.
If there’s room in the freezer, I’ll put their fruit, cheese, bread or whatever else can be frozen. I figure the hosts can toss anything they don’t want on return. Lots of stuff can be frozen and be turned into soups, sauces or smoothies for instance.