For many travelers, one of the best parts of a hotel stay is not having to worry too much about cleaning. The housekeeping staff works hard to make every room feel fresh and tidy, but a few guest habits can make their jobs more difficult. We don’t mean deliberately trashing a room or being discourteous; instead, these are little things guests do without realizing the extra work they create for the person who has to clean up after them. Here are five things hotel cleaners wish you wouldn’t do in your room.

Leaving Your Stuff Everywhere

There’s no need to remake a dirty hotel bed before housekeeping arrives — doing so can actually make things more complicated for cleaners. But there is one useful rule when it comes to the bed: Get your belongings out of the way. 

Clothes, chargers, toiletries, shopping bags, and other personal items scattered across beds or strewn around the floor can force housekeepers to clean around them rather than simply straightening up, wiping, or vacuuming those areas. Housekeeping staff discussing the subject in online forums such as Reddit regularly mention clutter as an obstacle that adds extra time to doing a thorough job. You don’t need to make the room look spotless, of course, but keeping your belongings together and off the surfaces that need cleaning can make the turnover much easier.

Using Towels To Remove Makeup

Those pristine white hotel towels are most likely all you have when you’re washing up at the end of a long day. But housekeeping staff say cosmetics and other substances can permanently stain them, meaning an otherwise perfectly usable towel may have to be discarded. 

A housekeeping manager interviewed by Travel + Leisure specifically mentioned mascara and foundation as common culprits, while another housekeeping professional noted that dirt, wax, and even grease from guests wiping down shoes or ski equipment can also ruin towels. Hair dye is a concern, too, with housekeepers reporting that bath and bed linens can easily be ruined by bleeding color. If your hotel provides specific cloths for makeup removal, which are usually dark in color, use those. But otherwise, it’s a good idea to bring or buy your own washcloth.

Leaving Wet Towels on Furniture

When you’re finished with a hotel towel, keep your used towels together in the bathroom rather than leaving damp ones to soak into the fabrics on the bed, a chair, or the floor. Housekeeping workers say grouping towels together makes it easier to know if linens need to be removed. 

Cleaners also suggest leaving wet towels on the sink or a closed toilet lid rather than on the floor or in the bottom of the tub, since repeatedly bending down to retrieve heavy, wet towels can be physically hard on workers. Of course, it’s best to follow any specific towel instructions your hotel may have, but in general, you want to keep wet towels together and somewhere they’re easy to collect.

Putting Garbage in the Wrong Places

Hotels almost always have garbage cans available and visible in a room, but that’s not always where garbage ends up. Housekeeping workers have reported finding trash tucked into drawers, under beds, behind furniture, and in other places where guests apparently thought it would be less conspicuous. 

You don’t have to neatly sort items, tie every garbage bag, or consolidate every scrap of trash before leaving. But at least make sure to put your waste in the provided bins, and if you’ve accumulated more garbage than they can hold, you can always ask the front desk for another bag.

Leaving Old Food Behind

A few leftover chips or a half-empty, closed container aren’t likely to cause a major issue, but taking care of forgotten food can become a taxing additional task for housekeeping, especially if it’s left sitting in a cupboard or on a nightstand. Beyond creating more things to pick up, perishable food can leave behind odors, spills, and unappealing residue. Forgotten leftovers may even attract insects. 

Before checking out, take a quick look around the room and empty any drawers or cupboards, as well as the mini fridge if you’ve used it. If something has spilled, don’t simply cover it up and hope housekeeping won’t notice — mentioning problems is not only the most courteous way to handle it, but also lets staff deal with it before the mess has more time to set.