Kitchen Consumables: The Complete Holiday Let Checklist

The kitchen is the room where the absence of a consumable is noticed instantly, because you discover it at the exact moment you need it: no bin bag when the bin is overflowing, no tablet when the dishwasher is full, no sponge to wash a pan. Each costs just a few pence, but each can spoil a stay. This guide gives you the full list, the right quantities, and what separates a useful consumable from a decorative one.

The list, with quantities

The four non-negotiable consumables

If you need to prioritise your budget, these four come before anything else, because their absence stops guests using something:

Coffee: the most checked breakfast item

Coffee is the most cost-effective touch in a holiday let kitchen, and here, quantity matters more than quality.

• Filter coffee maker: at least ten paper filters, and ground coffee in pods or a sealed container. An open, crumpled packet from the previous stay is not acceptable.
• Pod machine: allow two pods per person per night. This seems generous, but it isn’t. A family of four for three nights needs twenty-four pods. Present them in an open container, not in their box.
• Bean-to-cup machine: a sealed container filled with beans, and above all, rinse the water tank at every clean.

Sugar, tea bags and herbal teas complete the set for next to nothing. Provide sugar cubes and individual sachets rather than an open pot, which is more hygienic and better received.

Cleaning products left for guests

A week-long stay means guests will need to clean a little. Leaving the basics stops them improvising with whatever they find.

The bare minimum, in a clearly marked cupboard:

Be careful with safety: these products must be out of reach of children in family lets, in their original packaging, never decanted into food bottles. This is a basic safety point, as highlighted by ANSES regarding domestic cleaning products.

Products for your cleaner are a separate stock, covered in Dosing Consumables: The Method That Prevents Running Out.

What’s pointless

Three things often appear on lists but add nothing:

• Loose spices in open jars. No one uses them, they go stale and look neglected. Salt and pepper are enough.
• Opened oils and condiments, which raise real questions about date and hygiene.
• Leftover food from previous guests, even if sealed. It always goes.

The golden rule: anything consumable that can’t be dated shouldn’t be passed on.

Storage: as important as the consumable itself

A consumable guests can’t find doesn’t exist. Three rules:

• Always in the same place, in all your properties, so your cleaners don’t have to remember anything.
• Visible without rummaging, in an open basket or clearly marked cupboard.
• Mentioned in the welcome guide in one line: “bin bags at the bottom of the bin, cleaning products under the sink”.