Guests left food in the fridge. Keep it, bin it or leave it?

Every turnover has it: a few eggs, an opened bottle of olive oil, half a loaf, some condiments, maybe a bottle of wine. Your cleaner has to decide what to do with it, and without a rule, each cleaner decides differently. The next guest either opens a fridge full of someone else's leftovers or finds the shelves bare when they'd been told there'd be basics.

The simple rule

Most hosts settle on something like this:

• Opened or perishable: goes. Milk, bread, meat, cheese, fruit, opened jars, anything in the fridge that wasn't there when the guest arrived.
• Sealed and long-life: can stay. Unopened pasta, tins, sealed condiments, tea and coffee still in their packaging.
• Your own basics: stay as normal. Salt, oil, tea, coffee or anything else you stock deliberately.

The reasoning is simple. The next guest can't know when an opened jar was opened or how it was stored. Sealed items are safe and often welcome.

Give leftovers a home

If you let sealed items stay, put them somewhere obvious: a basket or shelf labelled "left by previous guests, help yourself". That way new guests know it's free to use, it doesn't get mixed up with your own supplies, and your cleaner can clear it out easily when it gets full or things go past their date.

Without a labelled spot, leftovers drift into your cupboards, and you lose track of what's yours, what's old and what's out of date.

Tell guests at checkout

You'll get far fewer fridges full of food if guests know what to do with it. A line in your checkout instructions is enough:

Please take any opened food with you or put it in the bin. Sealed items can go in the basket in the kitchen for the next guests.

Our checkout instructions template has a spot for this. Keep it as one line; checkout lists that run to a page don't get read.

Put it in the checklist

The most important step is writing the rule down for your cleaner. "Empty the fridge" isn't enough, because it doesn't say what to do with a sealed jar. Add the specific rule to your cleaning checklist:

• Remove all opened and perishable food from the fridge, freezer and cupboards.
• Move sealed, in-date items to the shared basket.
• Check dates in the basket and remove anything expired.
• Wipe fridge shelves.

If you have more than one cleaner, this is what keeps them consistent. Our post on writing a cleaning checklist a new cleaner can follow covers why this kind of specific line saves you messages.

Allergies are a reason to be strict

A guest with a nut allergy shouldn't have to wonder whether the open jar in the cupboard is safe. Keeping only sealed, labelled items means anyone can read the packaging and decide for themselves. It's also a good reason not to leave homemade food or anything decanted into unlabelled containers, even if it looks fine.

Check the freezer

Freezers are where forgotten food piles up. Guests put things in to keep and then forget them. A quick check on every turnover stops it filling with old ice lolly wrappers and half-used bags of frozen peas. Every few months, empty and defrost it as part of a deeper clean.

Mind the bins

Food left behind usually ends up in your bins, and a full kitchen bin in summer gets unpleasant fast. Make sure your cleaner takes food waste out on every turnover, not just the general rubbish. If your area has separate food waste collection, say so in your trash day instructions so guests and cleaners both use the right bin.