I’ve been here for a couple of years. Have had four sitters and will have one more in the summer. I’m wondering what I should expect as far as a sitter cleaning before they leave. Before I leave, I vacuum and make sure the bathroom (including tub and sink) are scrubbed clean and dust free. Same as the kitchen sink. My first sitter left the place clean just as I left it before I went on my trip. But I have had a sitter who left the tub, sink and floors dirty when I was gone for almost three weeks. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to or is it impolite to leave something that states for the sitter to at least clean the guest tub and sink. Also, I have carpeted floors which collect fur and litter, should I ask sitter to vacuum certain areas? The same sitter left dirty carpets (they must have their shoes inside my home) since my feet was dirty the day I returned, and that never happens).
What’s the “right” thing to do without offending my next sitter?
Short answer: it’s completely reasonable to expect your home to be returned in the same clean condition you left it—allowing for normal use—but it’s best handled through clear, friendly expectations rather than hoping sitters will “just know.”
There’s a bit of an unspoken baseline on THS: sitters aren’t a paid cleaning service, but they are expected to be respectful houseguests. In practical terms, that usually means:
Kitchen and bathroom left clean (sink, surfaces, no grime build-up)
Floors in a reasonable state (vacuumed/swept if needed, especially with pets)
Bins emptied, fridge cleared of their food
Bed linens either washed or left as agreed
Where things go off track is that “clean” can mean very different things to different people. What feels obvious to you (like vacuuming fur regularly or keeping the tub spotless) might not register the same way for someone else unless it’s spelled out.
The sweet spot is to make expectations explicit, but low-key and practical. Something like:
“I’ll leave the home clean and would really appreciate it being returned in a similar condition, including a quick vacuum of the main areas and a wipe-down of kitchen and bathroom surfaces.”
That’s not offensive—it’s actually helpful. Good sitters generally want to meet expectations, not guess them.
For your specific points:
Yes, it’s fine to mention vacuuming, especially with fur/litter
Yes, it’s fine to call out the bathroom (tub/sink)
Framing it as “maintaining the home during the sit” rather than a big end-of-stay clean tends to land better
Also worth noting: if someone left the place genuinely dirty after three weeks, that’s outside normal THS standards. A fair review helps set expectations for the community as well.
Bottom line: clarity beats politeness-by-omission every time. Most experienced sitters will see clear guidelines as a sign of a well-run sit, not a red flag.
An excellent response @WeRPAWsome - more or less what I was going to say.
I would only add that you leave adequate cleaning supplies and your vacuum cleaner is in good order. Perhaps provide a box or caddy containing all the necessary cleaning products and cloths.
I have done too many sits where the vacuum bag was full to bursting (and no spares to be found) along with clogged filters.
I have spent hours searching for spare bin liners and cleaning products.
Also a please and thank you in the profile and guide go a long way rather than a list of instructions.
@Ecco From 23 Feb, this year, hosts are being sent a pre-sit checklist to prepare for their sitters.
About a week ago, a similar departure checklist has been released for sitters, to be sent 2 days before the sit finishes. Funnily enough, my current sit finishes tomorrow and no checklist has been received!
This isn’t the first time checklists have been emailed but it was hit-and-miss who received them; looks like it hasn’t changed.
Of course, it’s up to hosts and sitters to actually read these checklists! Some will end up in spam or not be received because notifications are turned off.
You’ve been given good advice from @WeRPAWsome to follow. Remember we’re there primarily for your pets and are not professional cleaners who you would pay.
We’re forensic about cleaning up on a daily basis…. whether this is due to watching too many Police Dramas or being a bit OCD or something else I don’t know, but I do travel with an old toothbrush to clean shower trims with
Just to add to all the great points you’ve been given by @Twitcher and @WeRPAWsome .
You can make it clear that you have a no-shoes policy in your home—that’s a reasonable expectation to set upfront.
When choosing a sitter, it’s also worth really paying attention to the wording in past reviews. Look for consistent mentions of cleanliness, not just generic five-star feedback.
If multiple hosts repeatedly highlight things like the home being spotless, well cared for, or left in immaculate condition, that’s a strong indicator the sitter shares your standards. Consistent comments about a home being “spick and span” or maintained to a high level can give you much more confidence than ratings alone.
I adopt the hiker’s motto on sits, leave it as you found it. I like clean. I hope to find a clean house on arrival. I deep clean before I leave. If they left a toaster oven full of crumbs I don’t clean it for them. Again, leave it as you found it. Not cleaning their toaster oven that they left dirty is my passive aggressive way of letting them know that was rude of them.
General rule of thumb: Please leave the place as clean as you found it. It should look like you were never there.
While there are no “exit” instructions on the official welcome guide, and I have had negative reactions from some sitters when I’ve mentioned this here, I “grew up” hosteling, and think “Exit instructions” are fine. Mine includes reminders about double-checking for “left” stuff, dumping leftover food in fridge or labeling it if they mean for me to have it, stripping the bed, and leaving everything on a pile in front of it, and not leaving the bathroom gross. Maybe gross is subjective, but I this seems to work.
Everyone is an individual here and different people have a sense of what clean is, so I look for sitters with several THS reviews mentioning that they left the house clean, although because some of this is subjective and some hosts might be nitpicky if there is an odd 4 star for cleanliness, it’s not an automatic rule out.
I also sit, and while cleaning the bathroom I used including the tub seems like common sense, I wish all homeowners left specific instructions about what they’d like done with sheets as the answer is NOT always the same, nor is it for other things like what to do with the keys or which door to exit from etc
Adding to OP: I would also make house rules regarding shoes very clear. My default is to take my shoes off immedately upon entering a home unless instructed to do otherwise. And I tell others no streetshoes in my home BUT many people wear shoes inside.
Best to look for repeated written reviews with mentions of cleanliness if that matters to you as a host or sitter. I learned that after my first mismatch early on. And please review accurately, for the sake of mutual helpfulness.
Personally, as a sitter or any other kind of guest, I automatically ask whether to remove my shoes on entering, if it’s not already indicated. I always pack a pair of indoor-only flip flops or winter house shoes, depending on seasons. And I automatically strive to return a home as I found it. Even when there’s a regular cleaner, I don’t leave a mess for anyone else. But I also don’t clean what neither the pets nor I dirtied.
One thing I would say, is that we travel with a set of microfibre cloths, because hosts very rarely leave enough cloths to clean all of the areas we need to before we leave. At least 3 cloths are always going to be needed without popping the washing/dryer on again, glass/taps, kitchen, loo etc. It’s very very rare does an owner leave more than 1 or 2 cloths. It’s such a simple thing, but we’ve stopped relying on HO’s leaving them and just take our own instead.
It depends a bit on how long the sit is. I clean before so a one week sit, meh - I just tell them to clean after themselves (such as wiping up spills and crumbs). I would clean the guest bath anyway when we got home.
For longer sits I just tell sitters to do maintenance cleaning. Never had any major issues. Sometimes there is something forgotten, eg forgot to take out trash or left some mugs in the sink. No biggie.
I just went through this. In my description I had written “keep it as clean as you would your own home.” BIG mistake. It honestly never occurred to me that someone would not be as clean as we are! Now it reads “leave it as clean as you find it”. I’ve also mentioned in the listing and a sitters guidebook I made for the house, to vacuum daily to keep the pet hairs down.
We left our home immaculate and came home to a pigpen mess!
Be very specific in your listing and the sitter’s guide. Don’t worry about offending a sitter. If you’re clear in your instructions, then hopefully only those sitters who can live up to those instructions will apply. When you do your video calls beforehand include a question for the sitter about what is their idea of leaving a clean home.
As them to strip the bed and wash the towels and bedding on the day they leave. Your home is not a hotel. And..you can be they will wash their clothes in your machine before they leave, so they can also wash the bedding and towels.
Be clear about food too. I read that if a sitter helps themselves to your food (without permission) they are to replace it.
I also saw on one post that the host buys a supermarket gift card for the sitter to help them out initially.
You can also comb through the Sitters on the site and reach out to any that seem to meet your needs (based on reviews), interview them and then make a decision from there.
Common courtesy and sense say you shouldn’t need to explicitly tell ANY guest in your home to pick up and clean up after themselves. For guests staying an extended time in someone else’s home alone, it’s reasonable for the host to expect vacuuming, mopping floors and dusting as needed to return the home in at least the condition it was received. Leaving any host with a mess to clean up after a trip is extremely rude in my view.
Unfortunately, some people don’t know, haven’t learned or don’t care about common courtesy. If you host a sitter who turns out to be rude, your best (probably only) recourse is to clearly express your disappointment in your review of the sitter. That accomplishes 2 things. First, the sitter learns their behavior wasn’t appreciated and maybe grows a bit as a result. Second, you’re bright-lining your boundaries using examples useful for future applicants who can extrapolate quite a bit from those examples.
The alternative would be to list all of your expectations and boundaries in your profile. I don’t see how that’s practical or very constructive. How do you encompass people’s behavior that you’d perceive as rude without coming across as overbearing to future applicants? I don’t think you can. That’s probably why none of us hand out a do’s and dont’s printout to arriving guests of any stripe. We hope and expect they’re nice and civilized and then we roll with the occasional disappointments.
@Ecco We’ve had nearly 20 sitters over the past few years. We have found that there is no one definition of clean.
I do much cleaning prior to a sitter’s arrival. Their reviews state how clean our place is. But some of the same sitters who praised the cleanliness of our home have left it dirty for us to come home to.
So in our Welcome Guide, which sitters receive within 2-3 days of confirming, we are now very explicit about what we ask.
