To ask why people do this when staying in holiday cottages

[TellerTuesday]

I look after and clean a holiday cottage for a family friend.

I'm having to take an early lunch at the minute while I wait for a friend to come and help me because - for reasons known only to themselves - the guests that have left this morning decided that the massive set of double drawers would be better on the next floor up.

You honestly would not believe how often something like this happens! It's ridiculous!

Once, I walked in to find the dining table and 4 chairs missing from the kitchen, they'd been moved up a tight set of stairs (with a turn) and plonked in the middle of the living room.

Please, please, please if you're staying in a holiday cottage, leave the furniture where you find it.

And if you really can't bear the current arrangement and insist on moving things around..... put them back before you leave!

Ex - well done! 👍

I usually do this too, as we always do loads of cooking with lots of ingredients and there's never enough space for that but plenty of half empty cupboards. I forget where things went too!

We have put the breakfast stuff and if we ate in the accommodation the evening before in the dishwasher and let it run before we vacate it.

We put a note that there is a load in the dishwasher so the owner/cleaner knows to empty it.

What I don't get are places that have a washing machine and not a dishwasher as most people are only staying for a few days. They pack enough clothes to last the stay. Whereas a dishwasher is used daily.

I doubt the washing machine is used by the owners to wash the bedding as washing machines they have in holiday accommodation are not big enough to put 2-3 beds worth of bedding in a single wash.

Potentially they could be attached or fixed to the wall? Or a mirrored wardrobe?
I'm pretty short so often I don't even get to see more than my forehead in the bathroom mirror 😔 and no indication of full length appearance at all!

Is it so vain or unreasonable to want a suitable mirror?

I would think the washing machines are there because they predate the place becoming a holiday rental/give flexibility if it is rented for longer. However, they are a selling point for visitors with babies and young children.

@spanieleyes any chance you could send your dad to stay with us?!

I would imagine it’s sometimes to appease children in some way or keep them safer and perhaps in the rush of packing up and getting children into the car, they just forget to move it back. It isn’t ideal but these things happen, I wouldn’t say it’s the end of the world, they haven’t trashed the place.

Have a child, have never felt the need to move furniture. View online beforehand, so don’t book anything unsuitable to begin with.

Full length mirrors are still dangerous to young children even if attached to walls or furniture. Mirror glass is sharp and a young child might bash it with something. It is different in a hotel room as you will almost certainly be in the room with your child. Acrylic mirrors are fine but I suspect harder to source and more expensive. By law any glass windows at a lower level must be made of strengthened glass for safety reasons. We have full length mirrors at home in the bedrooms and as we have the grandchildren to stay, I have put an industrial strength safety film on to the back of the mirrors which will hold the glass in place if it breaks. However, if a child picked a bit of this glass out, it could still do damage. We don’t leave our young grandchildren alone except when they are sleeping but some people do leave their children alone.

We lent our holiday home to a colleague and she rearranged the large and heavy sitting room sofas for Feng Shui reasons didn't let her use it again after that.

We often move furniture. Usually beds and bed side tables. But we always but things back when we leave. I would never leave things in a new place.