I travel with my own tin opener now!
I’ve thankfully never had this happen, but I am wondering if it is because garbage pickup day had passed and they didn’t want to store the trash outside due to wildlife/local bylaws. I live in bear country and we are not allowed to put garbage out until the morning it is to be picked up. Not ideal but we also have a transfer station we can take garbage to, so we are lucky and have never had to leave stinky trash for sitters 
For me, being handed a single YALE KEY with no keyring at all really irritates me, so easy to lose when you pull a poo bag out of your pocket and it comes too.
A recent hotel stay had the small key attached to a luggage label, brilliant, I realised this is what I need. Also, if I did drop it, someone can call me with my number on it, to say they have found it.
Of course it had to be Dachshunds for me!
I am all set for my next sit. my 51st sit as it happens. 49th on here.
I always travel with a carabiner key ring that has one end that’s a closed loop. That’s so I can add keys for sits, rental cars and such. Plus, I use it to hook my cell phone to a bag or pants, so I can go hands free, especially at airports and abroad and in cities. That way, easy to access without fumbling when using Apple Pay or maps. Like I was just in Venice, where some areas are crowded and you want to beware of pickpockets.
I have an Apple AirTag on my carabiner as well, so I can track in case I lose it.
About keys and keychains: I just bought this for my dog — you can input contact info in case your pet is found. It also lets you include allergies. Plus, it can spread word and photos to your neighbors in the Ring network if you want help looking for your pet.
I’m thinking I might use it (or some similar version) on my keys and in my suitcases as well. That’s because you can easily update the contact info, which might be useful when traveling. Like you could input hotel info or updated contacts when on the go. If my suitcase is lost, I might want it delivered to my hotel, not to my home, for instance.
It’s a great idea! Thanks
We have a complicated built in audio system for music/radio with built in celing speakers. You need an app and your phome to operate it. A repeat sitter asked for a small transistor radio for the kitchen, which I had no problem getting for them. I use the radio all the time now and the audio system is never used. 
I use my phone to listen to radio, music or news. The choices are much greater — you can listen to stations from abroad and have preset channels if you like. I like to listen to stations from Hong Kong, for instance.
And there’s a local news app that you can use to follow what’s happening back in your hometown, even when you’re traveling or living abroad. Like I’ll use it for my hometown when I’m abroad and sometimes listen to what’s going on in places where I’ve lived before.
Some of the houses we’ve owned have been wired for audio throughout, but we tend to use that only for parties, when we have background music on.
Haha! I know exactly what you are talking about. Many homes have those Sonos systems, and although I class myself as tech-savvy, I can never get them to work without loads of faff, so I just don’t bother.
At one housesit I messaged the host to ask if they happened to have a bluetooth speaker, they replied that they didn’t, but would order one. 12 hours later I was unwrapping a freshly-delivered speaker, and then sitting in the garden listening to music from my phone! So kind of them.
I did a second sit for a cat and regret I didn’t ask if anything had changed. I got a text from the owner “if you have any magic tricks . . .needs her furball treatment”. I replied that I didn’t have any magic tricks and asked her how she did it. She replied that she wrapped the kitty in a towel and put it on her paws to lick it off and kept her in the bathroom for a half hour. When I did that, it did not go well and I only managed to get it kitty to lick a small drop. When I texted the owner she replied “wow, that’s amazing” . I was left not knowing if I were more skilled if I could have administered the hairball treatment.
When the brush for the long hair kitty is inadequate design.
I’ve run up against another, over my latest three sits. As a result of which, I have some sage counsel for sitters:
If you want to get to know your HO’s kitchen REALLY well….. Decide you fancy a soft-boiled egg. Because trust me, by the time you’ve finished looking for an egg-cup, you’ll be so well acquainted with every last drawer, cupboard, storage slot, shelf, machine and priest-hole in the HO’s kitchen that you could sketch them a plan - in your sleep.
Tip for sitters in the UK: Give up. Head down to your nearest charity shop, which will almost certainly have a few, for about £1 each.
We are experienced sitters who travel by car to all sits so I try to be prepared with extra items just in case.
Pet peeves:
No space in the fridge or freezer for food we need for our stay.
Personal items all over the bathroom with limited to no space for us.
Broken appliances not disclosed to us before hand.
Pets that are ill and on meds not disclosed to us before sit and the need to take them to vet during our stay.
Pets that are made to sound like angels in listing and on chat calls who are anything but.
Housetrained pets that are NOT.
Current sit is comprised of many of the above.
ditto on many of the same listed.
Haha, I’d just had it in mind today to post the irritation of “looking for things” 
For me though, the trouble with going through all the cupboards as you describe is that by the time I’ve finished I can’t remember what was in the previous ones and have to do it all again 
For the first time ever, I’ve just stuck little labels on all the kitchen cupboards with stuff I might need to use. “Pots” “frying pans” “tape” “glasses” … by the time I finished that, I DID remember what was in some of them.
Granted, I was very tired when I arrived. 
Sometimes just different people’s different lifestyles can be irritating. How do you not have paper towels in your bathroom to wipe up? How do you not have a kettle? How do you manage to cook with, like, only three pots? Why are all the cleaning products miles away from where you need to use them?
I’m a creature of habit so it is hard adjusting to new spaces. I guess it makes sense to the ones that live there but not to me.
Yet you travel and stay in numerous unfamiliar homes in the course of a year. I give you a lot of credit for operating out of your comfort zone but can’t help but think it’s sort of like a claustrophobic individual pursuing a career in elevator repair.
Oh yes. Oh very yes!
Not sure about paper towels in the bathroom, but I’m currently on a sit where there are none in the kitchen. Now, this is a moral trial for me, because I hate paper towels on principle: Why not use washable cloths, tea-towels or rags? But there are times when the reviled paper towel is the simple route back to gloop-free sanity.. And for the first time ever, I find myself sitting at a schloss where paper towels must have done something very, very bad way back in the Jacobean period - and had themselves banished from this side of the River Thames.
Haha, well, they are at least compostable in some regions. I do have a couple of rags but I don’t use them for messy stuff – just like water wipeup mostly. Otherwise paper towel. There is a lot of stuff you just wouldn’t want to wipe with cloth rags! Or, I wouldn’t.
And I’d have to add, cloths for washing dishes to my personal “irritations list”. Yeah, I know plastic bad, but, I have plastic scrubbies that can go in the dishwasher and then sit on the edge of the sink and really dry. The number of places I’ve been, sits and otherwise, where there’s a scummy damp dish-washing rag hanging over the faucet or the edge of the sink… What a repository for bacteria! You KNOW those aren’t going through the laundry with any frequency! Several people where I live make & sell tons of these and I’m just like YUK, NO!!
I think the title of this thread could be “Everyone else’s lifestyle is irritating!!”
Who doesn’t have paper towels in the bathroom to wipe up?
Uh, me. Wipe up what?