You asked, I delivered: Below is an unorganized list of things that I’ve learned after living in 3 different airbnbs for 3 months. Because this list is 20 items long, there won’t be a long story that goes with everything. This post would be pages and pages if I did that! Additionally, this post isn’t sponsored by Airbnb in any way shape or form. Just my reflections on my lived experience of using the platform as my main living arrangement. So with that out of the way, here we go:

• Bring your own spices – seriously. While I’m grateful every place we stayed at provided olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper, I can’t stand a meal that is only “seasoned” with salt and pepper. Not in my kitchen. I brought as many plastic baggies of spices as I could fit into my suitcase so I wouldn’t have to buy many until we were actually settled somewhere. 
• Plan on having to supply your own mixing bowls. I accidentally scratched our first host’s ceramic bowl because I was trying to make cookies in a kitchen without a mixing bowl. Not doing that again!
• Be ready to do some deep cleaning. With the exception of our first place, the other two airbnbs hadn’t been touched since the last guest left… and that had clearly been a while.
• Get ready to be creative with cooking. When you have one pan and one pot, it gets interesting.
• Comfy clothes are essential. Comfy clothes are LIFE. There’s nothing else to say.
• Showers are a gift. Okay this one needs some explanation. Our second stay didn’t have a shower, only a glorious clawfoot tub with an attached hose. It was the most luxurious bathtub I have ever used in my life. By the end of our stay I developed a new appreciation for the art of the bath. HOWEVER. When all you want to do is take a quick shower and you can’t stand up to do so, taking shower baths gets really old. I never figured out how to get my hair as clean as I wanted when I had to hold the shower head with one hand and scrub with the other.
• Baths are also a gift. Like I said, I now have a new appreciation for the relaxation that can come from a long soak. Keep yourselves clean, folks.
• Take the time to make it feel homey. I talked about this before here and here, but it made such a difference to have personal elements around.
• Be ready to lose a lot of time and focus the first week after moving. I wasn’t expecting this one, but it happened every time we moved. The first week in each new place was spent organizing, grocery shopping, and unpacking so there went a lot of mental and physical energy.
• Delivered food is your friend. The delivery service of choice in the UK is Deliveroo. When you don’t know where any restaurants are (besides the local fish and chip spot) getting dinner delivered was a lifesaver when we were in moving weeks.
• Delivered groceries are also your friend. After moving to Bermondsey/Rotherhithe, we discovered Weezy, which is a grocery delivery service. *I’m not sponsored by Deliveroo or Weezy! I’ve just used them a lot since moving here!
• There might not be a blow dryer (only a problem if you have hair you blow dry). Don’t assume a host who writes a lot about their space will include a hair dryer. Check the airbnb listings, folks!
• If there is a blow dryer, you won’t be able to use it in the bathroom in UK apartments. I was not prepared for this and I didn’t train properly. The first place we stayed in only had a mirror in the bedroom (so far so good) but the only way to use the blow dryer while looking at yourself in the mirror was to kneel or sit on the floor so the cord could reach. The second spot was better – the mirror and the outlet were quite close. The third spot didn’t have a mirror in the bedroom at all and the one mirror outside of the bathroom was nowhere near an outlet. So I did it all by feel and was grateful I wasn’t filming videos all day long.
• You might never meet your host. Out of three stays we only met one host in person.
• You might be living in a portion of your host’s house. We met that one host because we were living in her house! She was fantastic and gave us the best start we could to the UK. (Though our presence at her house meant that several of her friends wouldn’t stop by because the covid-ridden Americans were there. Gave us all a good laugh!)
• Every button or knob you see will do something different than what you thought. Microwaves over here are not the same. And who knew there were so many different ways to get hot water out of a tap?!
• The internet may or may not be the speed you need it to be. Especially for the two of you at home all the time because of a pandemic!
• Learning neighborhoods is both exciting and exhausting. There will be special places in my heart for each of the neighborhoods we stayed in. Loughton/Milton Keynes, Shepherd’s Bush, and Bermondsey/Rotherhithe all taught me a lot. I know the spots that we liked the best and have a much greater appreciation for the incredible range of lifestyles you can have in the city of London. It was overwhelming to learn a new place every month but I learned that I can move through overwhelming situations and find a settled feeling. Even if you’re not moving around as often, I highly encourage trying to treat your hometown like it’s an airbnb stay! You never know what interesting things are around corners or down alleys that other people have found that are waiting for you to discover!
• You probably need less than you think to survive. Would I have liked to have a few more kitchen items and bathroom supplies in each airbnb? Most definitely. But my biggest takeaway is that I need far less than I thought to do what I want to do. And that cutting down on buying stuff meant more for the exploring and food out budget.
• Finally settling into a new house will be stranger than the last time. Now that we’ve signed a long term lease it’s time to reestablish our decor, kitchen needs, etc. Last time I settled into a long term apartment I still had a lot of my stuff from the last one. And the time before that we got really lucky and were given a lot of furniture so we didn’t need to fully outfit a new home. Our apartment here in London came furnished with beds, a couch and coffee tables, dining table and chairs, and some kitchen supplies. That means that everything else is what we supply and it’s been strange to think through what it is that we really need and what we want our space to feel like while we’re here. It’s been fun to play interior decorator but I’m looking forward to feeling like this is finally “home.”

Have you ever stayed in airbnbs long term? What were some things that you learned?