Have you noticed how most long-term house-sitters are international travellers? Almost to the point where it’s an assumption that if you sit you must be touring the world. But, just to break the rule, there are some people out there who house-sit without a passport - me, for one.
A decision I made primarily because I like the nomadic life, the variety, and (as cliche as it sounds) I like the fact that it enables other people to enjoy holidays they might not have had otherwise - plus both my passports (UK and Aussie) are out of date. Besides, look at Australia… It’s one of the largest countries in the world, has numerous climates, a diverse heritage… In fact, I could probably spend a lifetime exploring it and still miss bits. So staying makes perfect sense to me.
The risk, though, if you do want to travel within a country is that it’s easy to get too comfortable in one town or city. It’s not like you spent thousands on a plane ticket, so have a set time-frame. Plus, of course, if you do a good job you’ll get referrals, rebooks, become the go-to person and before you know it you’ll be booked up twelve months in advance. Of course, if that’s what you want, that’s fine. But, if it’s not, it’s easy for time to slip away.
Over the last few years, other than a handful of sits on rural blocks, all our bookings have been in and around Perth. Last year, we planned to head out of the state (or even just out of Perth) but we didn’t quite make it - people just kept requesting and we kept booking. It’s so easy when you know the people, homes and pets.
Still, this year will be different, this year we will travel! How do I know this? Because last month we bought a car (suitable for long distance travel and the occasional sleep-over) and yesterday I made a conscious decision and turned down a lovely-looking booking for September (when we plan to head out). I’m even looking for sits in Tasmania from September onwards! So it’s definite - we are going!
I have no doubt we could keep house-sitting in Perth for years. But the decision to move is all about not getting so settled that you forget your dreams. I’m not in a position where I need life to be predictable, I’m in the wonderful position where I can do just about anything I like. What a situation to be in, huh? And not one to waste, or regret ignoring later. So it’s official, this September I venture out of the comfort of Western Australia to start the next stage of house-sitting, and truly house-sitting in (and across) Australia.
Do you ever have one of those lurking premonitions that you ignore and then kick yourself later for ignoring? One of those that makes you think afterwards, ‘If only I’d listened. It’s my own (please insert preferred expletive) fault. I should have listened!’
Truth is, that’s exactly what happened to me last week.
As you may be aware, that was when I’d just completed my very first podcast interview. The topic itself was an insightful and important one, and something most (if not all) new sitters are eager to find the answer to.
So I was delighted when Suzanne agreed to discuss it with me. She was full of relevant information and had an honest answer to all my questions. The setting for the interview worked well, although a little warm (it was 38 degrees outside), but there were no rowdy neighbours, no low flying helicopters and no energetically barking dogs nearby… So why didn’t the interview come out quite as smoothly as I’d have liked?
‘This is where I realise I forgot to turn my mic on,’ I said as I turned Suzanne’s off. And there you go, that’s exactly what had happened. I wasn’t even able to blame the computer for playing up - there were no glitches or software hiccups! The only possible cause was that I’d forgotten to press the bright red (perfectly visible) button on my monitor. How frustrating is that… the lack of a complete recording was bad enough, but having to accept the blame as well… and on such a sought after topic too.
Still, there was an obvious lesson to be learned while spending hours piecing together all the retrieved audio into a decent podcast. Because, let’s face it, can you imagine all the teasing that would go on if I forgot to press the bright red button a second time? Ugh! No, thank you! From now on I’ll always double, if not triple, check the microphone is on… I hope.
And, as to the other important house-sitting insights to be gained from the podcast, (you know, the actual topic) they’re all clearly audible and available to everyone, just click here to listen.
I’ve been having fun putting together an article on Australian Public Holidays for housesittinginAustralia.com. No mean feat when you consider how many national holidays we have that are celebrated by different states on different dates.
Not that I’m unfamiliar with the seemingly illogical timing of public holidays though. After all, when I was growing up in England, I always found it interesting that the Queen had two birthdays - her real one (April 21st) and the Queen’s Birthday public holiday (the second Saturday in June).
At some particular stage of my childhood I started to reason that the public holiday was on a different day simply so that on her actual birthday she could open her presents, eat what she wanted and do whatever she wanted without having to go out in public. It all seemed quite logical, even as I got older.
However, having written the above website article, I’m now left with another Queen’s Birthday conundrum… because… along with the original two birthdays, I’ve discovered there are now three more official days to bake a cake and blow out candles. There’s the second Monday in June for everywhere Aussie (except Queensland and Western Australia), then the first Monday in October for Queensland, and somewhere between September and October for us Sandgropers.
I have yet to figure out a logical reason why it’s necessary to have all these dates - who knows maybe the Queen likes cakes and birthday whistles, or maybe it’s because she has too many parties and presents for one day. Or maybe, just maybe, I’m simply being way too whimsical about the whole thing and the dates were picked purely so that they didn’t clash with other celebrations and holidays around the world…
Either way, it’s probably a good thing that Australia doesn’t have any more states and territories, otherwise we’d have had even more opportunities to eat birthday cake. Plus, my article would have been longer… which would have left me wondering where to list each states’ names for the days around Easter. To say nothing of how to briefly describe the impact Melbourne Cup Day can have across the country - even though it’s only a public holiday in one state!
Just yesterday I held a ‘MeetUp’ discussion called All About House-sitting. It wasn’t something I’d even considered doing until somebody else suggested it to me. But, of course, in the way these things go, once the idea had been mentioned, everywhere I turned somebody was asking me something about house-sitting. We’d be out walking a dog and a quick chat to another dog owner would turn into half an hour on house-sitting, or I’d be lifting my bike on to the train and a fellow traveller would start talking about they dreams of exploring Australia, or I’d be outside a supermarket loading my panniers with a weekly shop and… well, I guess you can see where I’m going with this.
Suddenly, the mere mention that I should hold a talk (plus the creation of the House-sitting in Australia site), and the whole world seemed instantly crowded with people curious about my lifestyle.
So I gave my talk, and spent a fun 90 minutes answering questions on all aspects of house-sitting. Not surprisingly, though, the main topics of interest seemed to be how to get sits and why pet owners chose to arrange a sitter to stay in their house as opposed to putting their animals into a kennel. As always, everybody’s true-life and anecdotal stories added an extra depth and insight to the discussions.
There were, of course, the occasional stories of owners coming home to green pools, emptied wine cabinets and the like. But thankfully nowhere near as many as the tales of pets being disappointed that the house-sitter had had to leave when their owners returned home, or even the glowing reports from pet-owners who said that finding a reliable and trustworthy house-sitter had changed their life, and how they now booked their holidays around the house-sitter’s vacancies as opposed to normal holiday seasons.
It was interesting to see the benefits of my chosen lifestyle from different angles, but also more than a little humbling to be reminded of the huge worth and value people can place in our services.
Going away is no longer a case of simply asking a neighbour to keep an eye on the pets, collect the mail, and bring in the bins. The need for having a specialised house-sitter seems to be growing by the day - as does the amount of people eager to offer their services as a reliable house-sitter.
Well, it’s been a fun few days researching and writing up the first selection of articles for travellers visiting this site.
My favourite new bit of info was that when all our 1c and 2c pieces were taken out of circulation in 1992 they were then melted down and forged into the bronze medals for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. The theory being that each of these coins (which were first introduced in 1966 and therefore been in circulation for up to 26 years) would have travelled all over our vast country and had all kinds of stories to tell, thereby making them a true part of Australia. Great idea, huh?
Then there’s also the fact that our country sees as many beachgoers receiving spinal injuries as as we see drownings. Amazing, and to think most of thought sharks and other forms of sea life were the biggest risk. The spinal injuries come mainly from diving into areas where sandbars are obscured by the water and by being dumped by large waves! Think I’ll stick to paddling.
So there you go... I guess that’s one thing about living in such a large country… there’s always something new to learn.
Any of the facts about Australia that surprised you?
G’day and welcome to my first post on the House-sitting in Australia blog.
As you probably imagine this blog (surprise, surprise) will be offering insights, information and support for anybody who is, or is thinking of, house-sitting in Australia. Although, I imagine that most of the things covered here (other than the Aussie trivia) would probably be relevant to house-sitting almost anywhere.
I’ve currently been house-sitting in and around Perth, Western Australia for almost two and a half years. We, Steve (my husband) and I, had the idea suggested to us shortly after the children left home and I’d given up work. So, after limited research (which included looking up what house-sitting was), we sold our home and almost everything we owned and became full-time house-sitters.
Our biggest concern then was where would we sleep if we didn’t have a sit, thankfully our total days of couch-surfing has been six. That’s right six nights out of two and a half years, not bad huh? Much less than I’d expected.
When we started out we travelled by car, but a year ago we thought ‘What the heck!’, sold the car and bought ourselves a couple of electric bikes and downsized once again, this time to four panniers each.
So as you can tell our life is far from predictable, or even conventional. House-sitting has allowed us a freedom and variation we’d never have had if we’d said ‘no’ to the original idea, and although we’ve come across a few challenges they are definitely outweighed by the positives. Plus, of course, we’ve been able to help out numerous families along the way. All part of the fun of it!
I’ve already started putting some articles up on the House-sitting in Australia website, and even made a couple of online courses to help, but if you’re interested in more ongoing information, please sign up and stay tuned.
