House and Pet Sitting
What is housesitting?
We’ve completed housesitting assignments in the UK, Australia, Mexico, the USA and Canada over our three years travelling full time around the world.
It’s a great way of meeting new people, taking care of some awesome pets and getting to visit destinations you might not think of visiting off the tourist trail.
We discovered it was possible to house/pet sit while we were still in the UK and thought it would be a brilliant idea so we joined the Trusted House Sitters website, created our profile page and were pretty much set to start applying for house sits.
As a housesitter we will be responsible for taking care of peoples homes and maybe their cherished pets while they go away on trips or vacations.
We may be asked to do some other tasks like looking after the garden or collecting mail and taking the trash out.
As a matter, of course, we also keep properties tidy, clean and take care of homeowners belongings.
How Does It Work?
Just to let you know, we are not being sponsored or anything else by Trusted House Sitters, we just like their website, the ease of use and the results we’ve had from them.
There are other housesitting websites out there but we’ve not liked the website layout etc in the same way.
At the bottom of this article, we’ve included a link which is our own discount referral link that will give you a 25% discount on membership should you want to join Trusted House Sitters.
Lots of people ask us how the house sitting works so here’s the lowdown.
First of all, you pay an annual membership fee to become a housesitter (or you can choose house/pet owner membership if you’re looking for a sitter to take care of things for you).
Once you’ve paid you can start setting up your profile page and adding photos and a description about yourself and any relevant experience you may have as well as any personal references.
Start applying for house sits
Most days we’ll take a look at what has come on to the site and if anything takes our fancy we’ll apply. You’ll see a Find a House Sit tab on the main menu and that will show you a page with lots of thumbnail images with a title, the start and end date of the sit and the location it’s in.
You can also filter the results by date, location or by what type of pets you want to take care of if you would rather not have pets then there are house only sits too.
You can click on an image to go to the full description given by the house/pet owners, their requirements and photos they have uploaded and see how many other people have applied.
If you’re interested then you can apply with a message through the website.
That’s it. Now it’s a case of waiting for a reply.
Sometimes you’ll get replies other times you won’t hear anything which can be a bit off-putting but stick with it and apply for more sits.
Once we get a reply where the owner is interested in taking things further, we’ll usually set up a Skype call to chat with them.
Then several things may happen
You could be given the sit there and then, which we have a few times or the owner may have other people to talk to and get back to you or you may go away and think about it and let you know at a later time.
Some house sits have lots of people apply so the owner will have their own way of filtering applicants.
Do You Get Paid Or Do You Have To Pay?
No to both. We don’t get paid to house/pet sit and we don’t have to pay anything besides our membership fee and of course everyday things you would need to live in the house.
It’s a deal that works out well for owners and sitters alike.
What Type Of Animals Do You have To Look After
You can choose what animals you would like to care for or no animals at all.
We’ve looked after cats and dogs who have all been wonderful and it can be sad to leave them having got close to them especially if it’s a long sit.
You can use the filter on the site to only show certain animals like only cats or only small animals (rabbits etc)
There are some sits that have an assortment of pets including cats, dogs, horses and farm animals or birds.
Why Do We House/Pet Sit
We love the chance to take care of homes and pets while their owners are away. It’s away of us being able to serve others and help but it also means we get to spend time with some cool pets and stay in places that we wouldn’t normally think of going. The longer sits especially give us time to live like a local and get involved in the local community and really get under the skin of a destination.
It’s a privilege to be trusted to take care of peoples loved pets and homes.
We get to make new friends and we get invited back to house sit regularly as the owners know they can trust us.
Click On The Image Below For A 25% Discount On Trusted House Sitters Membership
Have you ever thought about house sitting?
Please leave us a comment below.