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.
