Painted stones in the holiday home: what the three kinds mean, and why you should never throw them out
If you have rented a holiday home in West Jutland, you have probably seen them: small painted stones on the windowsill, by the front door or on the terrace. Some have a sweet little drawing, some a name and a date, and a few have a short text and a code on the back. Most people assume they are all the same thing. They are not. There are actually three different kinds, and they mean very different things. Here is the story behind all three, and why you should never throw them out.
The three kinds of painted stone
1. Wandering stones: the one with the Facebook code
This is the kind with a text like "Wanderstein, bitte posten" (please post) and a code such as "HW 22049" on the back. It is a game called wandering stones. Someone paints a stone, hides it in a public spot, and whoever finds it posts a photo in the Facebook group the code points to. Then you hide the stone somewhere new so it can keep wandering. That way the person who painted it can follow its journey across the country, sometimes across borders. The game is especially big in Germany and Austria, where it is called Wandersteine, which is exactly why it turns up here so often: German guests bring it with them. It is not a West Jutland invention but an international hobby that started in the US around 2015 and spread through Facebook.
2. Decorative stones: just a painted motif
The next kind has no code and no text, just a picture. A ladybird, a bee, a heart, a fish or a flower. These are not part of any game. Someone painted something pretty and left it to brighten the day of the next person who walks past. It is pure decoration and a small act of kindness with no expectation of anything in return. Both Danes and Germans make them, and children love them.
3. Memory stones: names, dates and "mum is awesome"
The third kind is the most personal, and it is a Danish holiday-home tradition. These are the stones with a name, a date or a little message such as "mor er sej" (mum is awesome). Many families have a fixed ritual: every holiday the children paint a stone with the family name and the week, for example "Familie Sørensen, week 29", and leave it on the windowsill. Year after year the house collects a whole row of them, and they become a kind of guestbook in stone, a small archive of everyone who has stayed there. "Mor er sej" is almost always a child who painted something loving for their mother on a rainy day. Because that is what you do when the weather turns at the North Sea: you paint stones at the kitchen table.
Is it special to West Jutland?
Both yes and no. The wandering-stone game is international and especially German, and it follows the tourists to the coast. The memory stones, the ones with names and dates that stay behind in the house, are more of a Danish summer-house custom, and it is strongest in holiday-home areas like the west coast, because that is where the summer-house culture lives. Children painting stones, on the other hand, is something people do everywhere.
Why you should never throw them out
Whatever kind it is, the stone means something to someone. A "mor er sej" stone or one with a name and date is pure sentimental value, and the row on the sill is often the owner's deliberate collection. A wandering stone is still in play and needs to be found again. So the rule is simple: leave them where they are. Dust around them and put them back exactly where they stood.
How we handle it
At IT IS DONE we treat it as a fixed part of our changeover cleaning: painted stones stay put. If we find a new one a guest has left behind, we set it neatly on the sill instead of removing it. It is a small detail, but it is exactly the kind of thing both owners and guests notice. A clean house is not only about surfaces. It is also about caring for the little things that make a holiday home more than four walls.
See also: our holiday home cleaning in Henne Strand and Lønne.