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Supplies For Your Vacation Rental

artnbarb

1000+ Posts
Do we have a thread about this somewhere? This summer, for the first time in many years, we're renting an apartment for 3 months in Umbria. Normally we stay with a friend, who has American'style stuff, like vanilla extract, celery seed, plastic storage containers, measuring cups/spoons, and who-know-what-else. I probably won't do any baking (other than making a pie/quiche crust or two), but I really am wondering what I should take for our stay.

For other short term rentals I always take an apron, a sharp utility knife, a flexible cutting board, rubber gloves, a few dish scrubbers/sponges, a silicone ice cube tray, zip lock bags of assorted sizes, 2 freezer packs, one or two soft-sided coolers, and, if I have room, some cheap plastic storage containers that I can leave behind if need be. I also bring a few shopping bags, an insulated bag and a wine-carry bag for trips to the market/grocery.

If we do have this information somewhere and I couldn't find it, please direct me. If not, maybe we can assemble a basic list here.
 
After renting gites in France since 2006, I have learnt to never expect a guarantee on what is supplied. I do not bring a lot from home- an apron, a small serrated knife and a small chopping board for days when we travel from gite to gite, a couple of kitchen tea towels to spread on tables when we stop for lunch, a lightweight cooler bag that we use every day to take our picnic food, and a couple of light bags for shopping.

Some gites come well equipped with things such as alfoil, clingwrap, but I usually end up buying alfoil. We reuse containers such as the ones olives come in from the deli. I would not bring spices, sponges, plastic containers, freezer bags etc.

I cook every day, so the kitchen is important. On the whole, they are not too bad. Knives are a common issue, but I can understand owners not wanting to put expensive sets in gites. There are dishonest people out there. We have had a couple of gites which have only had serrated steak knives which are difficult to spread butter and jam.

What I cook during our week or two week stay is sometimes influenced by what dishes there are. For example, I have several vegetable bakes I like to do eg tartiflette, fennel tian, potato and fennel boulangere , and sometimes there is not a suitable sized dish.

One thing that does irritate me is the lack of saucepan lids in gites in France. At home, each of my pots has its own lid. In gites there is often just one ' universal lid ' to be used on various sized pots. They can be quite big and a problem if I want to use two pots. But we cope and not a huge issue. I have had some really well equipped kitchens over the years, and some fairly basic ones, so then we keep it simple.

We often end up buying a couple of coffee mugs when the ones provided are awful- no handles or handles so small you cannot hold them. If the ones provided are a lovely matching set (that would be difficult to replace from the Intermarche!!! ), we buy a couple to use. I once dropped ' Moi ' out of the ' Moi ' and ' Vous ' set. In 56 weeks of staying in gites, only one had no wine glasses!! Can you believe that? In France. A few times there has been no electric jug. Not everyone drinks coffee all the time.

We usually end up buying hand wash as it is often not provided. Often washing powder is not provided, and we have run out of dish washing liquid and toilet paper, especially in a two week stay. The last gite we stay in gets the leftovers!!

I will add that we do not stay in expensive gites, so I am not expecting luxury. If we were paying more, then I would. But for us, it is all positive. We are pretty easy going and love this way of travel.
 
Many of the pack-list in the OP can be easily found in local supermarkets.
I pack like Phirhon and Chachalaca. And like Phirhon we cook a lot. The kitchen is important to me. It is best to arrive at the rental and take stock, then buy whatever is lacking, instead of bringing a heavy suitcase. It's my prejudice: I despise overpacking.
 
And if there are very basic things missing in a rental, don't hesitate to ask the landlord, things like a vegetable-peeler, ice tray, corkscrew.
 
Decent knife, decent kitchen scissors, favourite non-stick frying pan in which I can cook pretty much anything. Nothing I can buy easily and cheaply at the local supermarket (rubber gloves, scouring pads etc)
 
Decent knife, decent kitchen scissors, favourite non-stick frying pan in which I can cook pretty much anything. Nothing I can buy easily and cheaply at the local supermarket (rubber gloves, scouring pads etc)
Shopping at Costco has given me more kitchen sponges than I can ever use in a lifetime - but at least they weigh nothing and will fit in any tiny space!
 
Agreed that it's generally easy to just pick some things up locally.

However I have taken toilet paper before, as some might have just a single roll, so having a spare roll or two has helped avoid having to buy some on the same day we arrive.

We do also now have a little 'kitchen bag' of washing up liquid, dishwasher tab, etc. that again is there to avoid having to go out to gather stuff on arrival day

We've also taken clothes washing sachets when knowing we'll be washing clothes mid trip. Saves buying a bigger box/bottle
 
When we started this madness of international travel, we thought we HAD to have a bunch of stuff including a steam iron! All it took was trying to lug 4 suitcases (one of which was a 36" behemoth on board an Italian train with two dozen folks lined up behind us to convince us (and my back) there had to be a better way. Now we just use carry-ons and tend to shop on arrival day after taking inventory of the rental. We always seem to find what we need at the Coop or Tesco. A few of the items, such as a small olive wood cutting board or our travel corkscrew, make it home with us at the end of the trip. Otherwise, we don't want to hassle with packing stuff we may or may not need.
 
I have a small packing cube where I pack a good knife, a bread knife, a vegetable peeler, a small knife, small container of sea salt, small containers of a few spices, small scissors, knives wrapped in a kitchen towel. I also bring a small good pot with a tight fitting lid to cook rice because we eat brown and white rice regularly and many places do not have a pot good enough. For this trip I brought a few food things so I would not have to spend time searching for them - brown rice, white rice, a quick cook bean soup mix for emergencies.

My packing problem is our hiking gear which requires a third suitcase. Backpacks, water bottles, hiking poles, hiking boots/shoes, hats, hiking clothes.
 
The only thing we bring to a rental is one of these chairs, especially to pile up all those darned pillows from the other thread :


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpiTewMAZ-Y

;) ;)

And seriously : from our perspective, anything we bring with us is room and weight wasted in the luggage for all the good and special stuff that we buy and bring back : 44 kgs. (our baggage limit between us, without the carry-ons) is not enough! So nothing is brought for use at a rental, we make do with what we find...
 
I always bring rubber gloves for washing dishes!
I bring 4 or 5 laundry pods so I don't have to buy a bottle of detergent in Italy.
It's usually very highly perfumed there anyway, and I'm not keen on that.
I've had to buy a corkscrew for more than a few rental apartments….what's with that?!
Perhaps people break them.
Best- stocked apartment I ever rented was in London 11 years ago, where the dishes were a set of English Coalport china enough for 20 people.
There were serving dishes and soup tureens and salt and peppers and tea and coffee pots and cake pedestals too; all in the same pattern.
I'm famous for breaking things...…..but I didn't!
 
Some of the essentials I bring. Our rentals are usually for three months.

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Sponge - I wash any dish/glass/flatware/utensil before any use. I have seen too many dirty dishes put away in the cupboards by prior tenants, maybe rinsed but not cleaned. I was glad I brought one to our sidetrip to Paris last week. The one in the apartment looked disgusting and the dishes/flatware were plentiful but didn't look clean.

Sharp knives, a pair of scissors, peeler.

Baking supplies - I make oatmeal cookies, brownies, and granola even while in Europe. I also cook most of our meals.
 
“and am I the only one who travels with a stash of ziplock bags?”
I do also! Various sizes of freezer and regular...quart and gallon and even medium garbage bags. I roll them up and secure with a rubber band. They come in so handy...I always pack the olive oils and other liquids I buy in one before I place in my suitcase. Recently we have found zip lock bags more often in our rental apartments.
 
We've stayed at vacation rentals just a few times before and the only thing I've taken is a coffee scoop--I hate estimating. But for our upcoming December trip we'll be staying in apartments only so I am planning to bring a few things. We fly with carry-on only so sharp knives etc. are out. So far lightweight plastic storage containers and ziplock bags are on my list.
 
Many of the pack-list in the OP can be easily found in local supermarkets.
I pack like Phirhon and Chachalaca. And like Phirhon we cook a lot. The kitchen is important to me. It is best to arrive at the rental and take stock, then buy whatever is lacking, instead of bringing a heavy suitcase. It's my prejudice: I despise overpacking.
Yep! We've been doing 2-3 month rentals in Spain for ten years. In most cases we've been able to visit the place first, in which case we check what's there in terms of pots and pans etc. and make our packing list accordingly. We always drive and we have an estate car, but even so we try not to lug everything but the kitchen sink along. About the only thing on that extensive list I would bring is a couple of sharp knives, assuming the kitchen is reasonably equipped. I take along at least one Le Creuset cast-iron casserole too, but that's because it's part of my bread-baking habit. And rentals often don't have tart tins for some reason, so I take a couple because we have room to do so. Microplane grater for the same reason as the knives. Left-handed potato peeler for the obvious reason. Pauline's idea of packing a few basic spices is a good one because it's a nuisance having to go out and buy a whole lot that will inevitably not be used up.

Everything else? Just buy what you need when you get there. It's going to be your home for three months after all. I can't see the point of packing such easily available and consumable items as dish sponges, baking foil, ziplock bags, shopping bags (unless used for packing), and plastic food storage boxes. It helps that nearly all these items are cheaper in Spain than they are in France (and in the case of foil and clingfilm better quality too).
 

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