Did You Say House-sitter?

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.