So…you want to Airbnb your home. If you are anything like me you look around and you don’t even know where to begin. I know the feeling of looking around and seeing stuff, stuff, and more stuff! Take a deep breath, I got you.
I am going to walk you through this holding your hand (figuratively, not literally, that is creepy).
This is not going to be a sprint, it is a marathon. It is going to take time and effort to get there, but we have only one rule to follow; keep it practical and simple. There are steps you can take that build on each other, so stop running around your house without direction, it is not going to serve you well. Shall we begin?
#1 Less is More
Your first task is to start looking at all your stuff and decide what is a need, what is a want, and what you can live without. This hard…like really hard. I had 6 flower vases, I don’t need 6 vases, I am not a florist. I decided I need two, one for large arrangements and one for small arrangements. In reality, I could come up with a reason for all 6, but that was not helpful for my goal of getting my house ready.
Take one room at a time and declutter it. Less is definitely more when it comes to making your home Airbnb ready. It is insanely overwhelming to come to a home where every wall is covered in knick-knacks, pictures, furniture, or whatever else is occupying the space. It doesn’t feel good. You want to think about each item in the room as something that is either practical or simple decor, and your goal is to not overdo either. So if you have a bedroom with two desks, either reallocate one desk to a different room that doesn’t have a desk or get rid of it. If you have shelves with tons of things on them, take the stuff off and put a few things on the shelf or can you remove the shelves all together. Remember practical and simple.
This takes time, it can be hard, and you can do it. We attach so much sentiment to “things”, but remember what your long-term goal is. My partner Jodi struggles to get rid of stuff. She sees the “potential” use of everything, even if she hasn’t used it in years, she keeps it just in case. I get it, she isn’t wrong, but you can’t store all of the “potentially useful things”.
When we were getting our home ready the first time my kids struggled with this. We did not force them to get rid of anything and we allowed them to keep what they just couldn’t part with at the moment. When we got back home after being away for 3 months they came back to their stuff and got rid of a lot more. Distance and time away from the stuff can help. So be kind to yourself, if you can’t part with it now that it is ok, come back to it later. I bet you with distance and time you will be able to let it go.
#2 Reduce, Reuse, Recycle…but please stop throwing shit away.
Stop throwing stuff away if you can avoid it. There are options to help you reduce your stuff all while allowing it to be reused or recycled. We used 3 methods when we were in the process of reducing the stuff.
1. We sold it! My kids loved this option and my daughter made over $200 dollars on toys she knew she had outgrown or she really didn’t play with. My son made less…that is because we quickly learned most of the stuff in his room was rocks, sticks, things he made out of mulch, or scraps of paper. I am not joking, we just reallocated that crap back to the backyard.
2. We gave it away. We use craigslist, Facebook marketplace, or free exchange and found a home for all the items. This is different than goodwill because we are matching the items to the people who want the item. There are sometimes things that I am shocked that people want. My favorite example is my friend who had headless Barbies (no I didn’t ask what happened to the heads). She posted them on Facebook and no joke someone came and got them. The women who took them makes homemade Barbie clothes for her grandchildren and has to remove the heads to make the clothes!! One person's “trash” is another person's treasure.
3. We took it to Goodwill. This is our last and worst option, why? Because goodwill throws away more than 13 million pounds of “stuff” each year. That is because people donate items that either don’t work, are stained, or broken. Goodwill does try to recycle what they can, but that 13 million pounds are after they try to recycle it. We try to mend it or recycle it ourselves, that is not what Goodwill is for. If you have items that are functioning and still in good shape try to find a new home yourself first and then do Goodwill, but the trash-can is the last place. Check out this piece from NPR: Goodwill Doesn’t Want Your Broken Toaster
I once dumpster-dived for a fully functioning jogging stroller! Someone in our neighborhood was moving and they literally had a giant dumpster in front of their house and were throwing away things that other people really needed. That made me really angry, so Jodi and I pulled out all kinds of stuff and then found it new homes. Yes, this is far more effort than just dumping it all at Goodwill or worse the dumpster, but it is the sustainable thing to do.
#3 Safety First
We have two children who are 10 and 8 and it is easy to forget what it is like having little humans again, but you must try. As you are preparing your home think about the craziest 3-year-old you have ever known. Now try to imagine what they will try to climb, drink, or eat in your house. Anchor dressers to the wall, put harmful chemicals up high or locked away, and make sure nothing that is quarter-sized or smaller is out where they can reach it. We have an above-ground pool at our house. Even though the walls of the pool are almost 5 feet high we put a fence around it too. If that crazy 3-year-old has the will they will find a way and you need to try and anticipate it.
#4 Make it Impersonal
You have to take down your family pictures. You want people to feel like this is their space not creepers who are snooping around your space. Remove it all! That not only includes pictures of the family but also anything with names or personal. My kid's rooms had their names on the wall, so we took them down. One thing we did with our pictures and their names was put them in the RV with us. We hung up our pictures and the kids' names are above their beds in the RV, we made that our personal space. Another thing we do is store them and then put them back up when we get home. We have paintings we put up when it is an Airbnb and then put our family picture back up when we get home.
#5 Practical Amenities
What sort of things are your guests going to need. Go into each space and think about what you would need if you just showed up here with your own clothes and toiletries but that is it? This is pretty easy for the most part, dishes, sheets, towels, toilet paper…you get the point. What is a little harder to know is in the details. Make sure you think about these things so you can be prepared. We keep extra supplies like dish soap and other household items in the house. One of our properties is a little secluded in the mountains and it is a 30-minute drive to get to any store, so we make sure we have extra toothbrushes or contact solutions just in case they forgot something.
Bedrooms
Outfit your beds with mattress protectors and have a few extras too. For every bed have an extra pair of sheets. This is helpful for a couple of reasons. If they have a kiddo who had an accident they need to be able to put new sheets on without washing them right away. The other reason this is helpful is when you are cleaning it between guests. You can have one set washing and make the bed with the other set. We also like to use duvets for this reason. Covering your comforter with duvets makes keeping them clean very easy because you can take them off and wash them.
Also think about what they might need in the bedroom, for example a place to put their clothes. Make sure you have a place for folded clothes and clothes they want to hang (don’t forget the details…supply hangers). You can then decide if you want something like a desk in the space, but again don’t overcrowd. If a desk is crowding it take it out.
Bathrooms
Determine how many guests can stay at your house and make sure you have at least two towels for each of them. You don’t need as many hand towels, but you will need that many washcloths. Supply the basics; hand soap, shampoo, conditioner, body wash (or brand new bars of soap), toilet paper. I like to keep backups to whatever is in the bathroom as well.
Kitchen
This is an area where again it is important to think about not overcrowding too much stuff in the cabinets. Remember people like the feel of less, not more. So you need to either store or get rid of the shaved ice maker, popcorn maker, or any other random “maker” you have. Things that are helpful are beaters, food processors, or instapots, but if you are limited on space and these things are making it look overcrowded they have to go! The other thing people have far too many of are coffee mugs. Store the personal “My Mom is the Greatest” mug and keep out a FEW impersonal ones, and of course, put heavy thought into if you need 20 coffee mugs.
The other piece to the kitchen is all the details. We once stayed at an Airbnb that had no dish towels, sponges, or dish soap in the kitchen. We had to go to the store and buy these things so we could do our dishes. They had all the obvious things like dishes to eat on, but it was clear no one lived here normally so they forgot about the little things.
Kids and Babies
Here is one rule we have when we are preparing for kids and babies that might be staying at your house…keep it simple. Provide some simple toys but don’t overdo it. Legos, magnatiles, matchbox cars, dress-up clothes, provide simple, not noise-making toys, and don’t do too many. Parents hate the things that make noise, so just don’t do it. Kids play with stuff less if there are too many options, a can of playdoh can go a long way.
Make sure you have one pack-n-play and one booster seat. People are possibly flying in and don’t have the room to bring a pack-n-play with them and everyone knows it is nicer to eat with a toddler when you can lock them up.
#6 Your Things vs Their Things
It is a little hard to share your home with others so one thing we do is have items that are for our use alone. For example, we have our own towels, sheets, duvet cover, mattress cover, special toys, we even have our own snuggle blankets for the living room. When we are gone we store it. There are a couple of storage options in our house. In our bedroom, we put a lock on one of the closets. In here we keep all our clothes, shoes, personal items that we did not bring with us. Downstairs we have a locked storage room where we put other things that we don’t want to share or are our personal photos and things. Find a space in your house that you can use as storage just for you and lock it off.
#7 Decorating
Remember our rule for all things Airbnb…practical and simple. We don’t want just blank white walls everywhere but we also don’t want knick-knack mania either. Clutter feels overwhelming to people, especially when it isn’t their clutter. If you can’t decorate, bring in a friend who can help. Error on the side of less stuff.
#8 Make a Good First Impression
When someone is going to walk into your home for the first time you want to make a good first impression. You want them to feel at ease the moment they walk in. Think about what that feels like for yourself when you first walk into a hotel or Airbnb. The space is clean, uncluttered, smells nice, and does not belong to someone else.
When I say clean…I mean like clean-clean. No dust, no human hair, and no mystery stains. Make sure it smells nice, but not overwhelming. People's homes have a smell sometimes that is very unique to their home. Get some deodorizers and put them around, but avoid the more intense smelling things that could give someone a headache. Again we want simple, not overbearing.
When you are ready find a friend who will give you an honest opinion and have them check out your house. Pick a friend who is usually a little bit abrasive (actually maybe that might be your family member) so that you can have real opinions and not fluffy stuff. Pretend you don’t live here and walk through your front door and try to see it through their eyes. I have stayed at some of the cutest, cleanest, nicest Airbnbs, and I have stayed at some that smell like feet and looked like feet. Gross! Don’t be the feet Airbnb.
Sharing your Home
We have two homes that we Airbnb and we really do love it. It is fun getting people’s reviews and setting up your house. This has moved us to live with fewer things and appreciate our homes even more. You always hear the horror stories of someone's home getting ruined, but honestly, these incidents are rare. We have never had our homes harmed by our guests and everyone has been so respectful of the space we are providing to them. The best feedback you can get is from the guests themselves. We have had several families come back again and again. We always reach out to them and ask what things they wish they had and what we could improve. They are super helpful. Just remember to keep it practical and simple.
Also if you want to know more how we use our home to help fund our travel check how How to Use Your Home to Fund Travel
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