S/O - Leftovers - when renting a vacation property?

We just came back from our time share at Yellowstone. We left mayo mustard and ketchup in the fridge. Also a styrofoam cooler on the counter. The most painful to leave was the bear spray because you can't fly home with it. We left it all and hope the next group can use it.

I would have left the coffee and sugar. I'm iffy on the butter.

We often leave stuff like that. If the housekeeper doesn't want it she can add it to the rubbish easily - it's not as if she has to transport it home and dispose of it herself so I don't see that as a burden on her. It's wasteful to through good food away so I'd hope she or the next guests could use it.

At the beach house we frequent, the owners have a fully stocked fridge. They ask that we replace anything we use. They have lots of spices for us to use and we add to their supply if we buy something they don't have.

Butter, I'd use it if it was there and if I used the last of it, I would replace it.

A vacation property that I rented through someone I didn't first hand know? I wouldn't use anything that was already opened, including laundry or dish soap

I would have tossed the sugar, butter, and coffee.

But it's no big deal. I'm sure the housekeeper or next person to deal with it didn't throw a fit.

I follow the instructions that the owner has left for checkout day. Last year our rental instructions were NOT to leave anything behind. Because I'm a control freak, I typically bring my must-haves (realizing this was Paris, in that case I'd learn to be flexible, LOL) anyway, like my travel Keurig and pods, trash bags and paper towels, laundry detergent and dish soap and dish scrubber. I would never buy something like butter because we wouldn't use it enough to justify the purchase and it would be a PIA to bring back. We then make a concerted effort to consume everything we buy, or buy stuff that is easily transported home. I can see why they usually want things cleared out of the frig--it makes it easier for the cleaners to clean and no one has to speculate about expiration dates. I don't see why a rental agent would be upset with renters leaving things like salt and pepper but I just do what they tell me to do.

We rent a house every summer, and we know the leasing agent so we ask her. In general, looking at what is there when you get there is a good guide, if you can't ask a human--I usually find spices and unopened pantry items, but the fridge is clear. We rent on the water, and open pantry items get sodden even while we are in the house.

I always do leave the booze rather than dumping it (I'm not taking it back on the plane), on the theory that I am pretty dang sure someone is going to consume it .

We just bought a cabin on a lake, and the previous owners had food in the cupboard that they had left there. I threw all of it away, including the stuff that was still sealed. It might have been a little over-the-top, but I knew it had been there since last fall, so it had probably frozen during the winter, and I didn't know how they took care of it last summer in the heat.

We have friends with several weeks of time shares and we have traveled with them many times. If those kinds of things are left behind, housekeeping will throw it all out anyway (other than maybe salt and pepper), so I wouldn't leave it. I'd either take it with me or throw it away. They want the place empty and clean looking for the next people coming in.

I wouldn't eat anything found in a cabinet in a rental because who knows how long it was sitting there and whether it had gotten frozen or got really hot? Nope. When we cleaned out MIL's condo after she died, we threw out all of the opened food in the cabinets because it all smelled like cigarette smoke. Even the round paper carton of salt stunk!   We threw out half of the canned stuff too because it was expired.

Usually the places we've stayed at with our friends have just enough dish/dishwasher soap for the length of our stay and we have to provide your own laundry soap (which I would do anyway because DD gets eczema from scented detergents). There are hand soaps in the bathrooms also but that's about it.

I would leave it for the next person.

We just got back from rental in Alaska and there was yogurt, coffee etc which we used.