Or the wire support from a bra…
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Having an appliance damaged on multiple sits seems odd, even though appliances can malfunction, break down or such.
Is there any commonality among your sitters that might point to why appliances keep getting damaged if they’re not all old? Like if you pick younger folks or people from abroad over and over, maybe you could offer to show them how to use X?
Many manufacturers post directions online now. Maybe you could include links in your welcome guide and let your sitters know, or leave the printed manuals out. There often are troubleshooting parts in manuals, which some folks might not realize.
Whatever the reason for something malfunctioning, it seems odd or irresponsible to not mention it to a host. It’s not even something anyone could logically hide, since the host will notice when they use it.
They shouldn’t have borrowed the jacket without permission. And if they damaged such, to me they should’ve automatically replaced it.
Personally, using the jacket seems creepy to me, because I’d never wear any stranger’s clothes to begin with. A host did offer her jackets in Scotland during a winter sit, but I had checked the weather beforehand and had packed as needed.
Personally, I treat all sit homes like my own, carefully. Like when I’ve sold my previous homes, real estate agents have always commented about what good shape they’re in. When young and renting, I never failed to get my deposit back when moving out. That makes sitting easy for me when it comes to cleaning and otherwise leaving homes as I found them, which hosts always mention in their reviews of my sits. You might consider looking for such references when screening sitters.
Funny thing: We’ve been having our house remodeled and my husband was about to get the manual for a new dishwasher, but I told him no need, because I’ve used so many during sits and they all work similarly, so I showed him.
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this x infinity. I don’t understand why people don’t just say, hey this happened, I’m so sorry, is there anything I can do? I mean, I think I do know why people don’t do it, but it’s a sign of responsibility to communicate about mistakes.
OTOH, as an HO I don’t sweat the small stuff. I am annoyed about the mystery tear in my paper floor lamp that was never communicated, but things happen. I tell myself every sit to expect a broken dish or two and just hope it’s not a favorite (hasn’t happened yet - touch wood).
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Seems to have been an old jacket.
Maybe they needed to let the dog out in a snowstorm.
For hosts, if you have favorites with dishware or such, maybe set them aside so sitters don’t use them. Some things we’re attached to can be hard or impossible to replace. Better for a sitter to not risk damaging or breaking them at all.
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Like many other sitters here, I’m more careful with the HOs property and wouldn’t dream of borrowing a jacket…. although I admit to borrowing wellies on one particularly soggy day of a sit, simply in order to get my own out of my car.
I take my own favourite mug and coffee maker and sometimes (if I remember) plate and bowl, to avoid the risk of breaking anything precious.
I have been known to replace items (or leave cash for those I couldn’t replace) that are broken, where I’m not sure if I broke them or if they were already broken (it caused puzzlement to one HO!). I’ve also been known to mend items which already needed fixing, but the HO didn’t comment so possibly didn’t notice.
I do wonder if some (thankfully rare) sitters are oblivious to what they have done.
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If taking a dog sit when there’s possibility of rain or snow, I’d say pack accordingly. But let’s say there’s a freak snowstorm and the host is out of pocket, I would still mention that I used the jacket, especially if you damaged it. It’s not at all cool to damage someone’s things and not mention it.
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I almost put this in my post: my home is small. Anything super crucial/fragile is put away, but every storage space is bursting at the seams, especially as I clear out space for sitters to use. The every day items are definitely in more convenient locations, though.
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Before the sit, I send the sitter a photo of our coffee maker and ask them if they are comfortable using this type. If they seem hesitant (it’s one of those metal Italian ones), I ask them what type(s) they prefer to use. Then If it’s not a machine (or capsule type thing), I get a used one from somewhere. (Well, this is all hypothetical because so far everyone has been fine with ours. 
But I’m perfectly prepared to get something for the next sitters if they don’t want to puzzle over it and potentially wreck it.)
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I dislike the statement that “one is definitely more careful with one’s own stuff.” It makes me somewhat chagrined at the writer’s value system. This is effectively saying that the author might not be as careful about another’s stuff.
For “pet parents” I would recommend that they take a look at their prospective sitter’s history on Airbnb. Sitters are most often travelers and how they have taken care of a rented lodging should give a pretty good idea how they will take care of a pet sitting lodging.
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How do you know it was the sitters fault. In my long experience of washing machines (1st one in 1971) they just suddenly develop a fault. I wouldn’t know HOW to break a washing machine. Some last years and years, and some start breaking down after 3 months (as we’ve just experienced. )Dishwa|shers are the same.
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Talking of cars. We were offered a car on our present sit but we have one. Today.were minding our own business in tesco Car Park just debating if we should eat or shop first when…CRUNCH! A car reversed into us. Imagine if that had been the HO car. ? Our engine was off…it wasn’t our fault, but I’d have run away, i think.
When we go sitting we take our own crockery.cutlery, bedding,towels,loo paper washing tabs and dishwasher tabs.( Its like mobilising the 8th army. )
We have a little box for oil salt pepper herbs. Stock.pots and oxos. Also our robot vacum cleaner. Run it around daily and keep it clean. And yet still,I’ll step into a lovely smart shower and VOILA…
the knob falls off.
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Oh yes ! Or just a build up of gunge in the pipes. I run mine on empty at 90 deg once a month to keep everything clean pipe wise. Low temp washing doesn’t clean them as they should be says my washing machine guy who called out once to sort mine.
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With any “fancy” appliances how about leaving the owners manual -or a link to it online- for the sitter. My last sit made a point of saying where all the manuals for her appliances were, which was very helpful for operating the washer.
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Oh no!! Yes, Murphys law strikes again!
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In my experience it’s also the law that things break in threes! Certainly in my house, if the washing machine goes, I just wait for the next two things to go within a week or so, heave a sigh of relief that this is number three then move on for another few years until the cycle starts again… 
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This also seems to happen on the other side of things…sitter arrives and things don’t work. I hate pestering hosts but when there is no hot water, the AC isn’t working and the the main light in the main room won’t turn on for more than 20 seconds…all in one sit, it gets awkward. 
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Only two days since OP started topic, and today the floor in the laundry room was flooded… My own washing machine, so that was kind of great… 
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That is true too!
The first time we had a sitter come over, our gas line turned off. It was an earthquake safety thing and we bumped into it, triggering the shut off.
Took us a while to figure out what happened, yes definitely a bit awkward.
The gas turned on again and we ended up friends with the sitters, so at least it was a happy ending.
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