Jonno

A Housesitting Hiatus (or is it?)

Housesitting

In August 2016 when we were travelling across Canada we decided that we needed to find a way to extend our travelling life and make our meagre finances stretch further. With no income and a small, steadily-decreasing pot of savings we realised that our current backpacking wasn’t sustainable for long. So we started researching ….

Lots of options soon came to the surface including casual working, volunteering, workaways etc but one leapt out more obviously than anything else. Housesitting. We obviously knew what it was but had no idea that such a huge organised world existed. It was like lifting the covers and finding a whole new world that we didn’t even know existed.

Housesitting

TrustedHouseSitters

There are a whole host of different housesitting sites spread all around the world, some country specific but many worldwide. They all looked good but one just seemed bigger and better than the rest to us. That was TrustedHouseSitters.

It just seemed to have more sits and the fact that the onus was on trust really sold it to us. So we set to work writing our profile and organising as many references as we could. Getting your profile right is absolutely critical so we spent time and effort getting it right before we even considered applying for any sits.

Lots of research and connecting with existing housesitters via their blogs really helped us prepare and launch ourselves as potential housesitters. All from our little Airbnb lodge in Calgary in Alberta.

Applying for sits

We had been warned by virtually every single sitter that we spoke to that getting the first few sits was the most difficult time as you had no site-reviews for house owners to go on. Seemed to make sense so we were prepared to have a bit of a struggle on our hands as we started applying for sits in England when we returned from Canada.

I don’t know if it was down to our research or if it was just good timing but we were successful with our first four applications! Crazy huh? We were surprised, delighted, and a little daunted as we were now stepping into a new career that we had no experience of.

Our first housesits – From JWalking in North America to Dog Walking in Kent

“Our first official housesit with Roxy”

Our housesitting life

So the past 5 years or so have seen us look after a whole host of dogs, cats, chickens, budgies, fish, ducks, sheep, and of course houses. We have completed somewhere in the region of 60 housesits in a vast array of different locations and properties. It has been an absolutely fantastic experience that utterly changed our lives and enabled us to continue our nomadic lifestyle.

Along the way we’ve also made many good friends and explored lots of fabulous locations that perhaps we would never have imagined going to. In fact that’s one of things that we have loved about this stage of our lives.

Housesitting has taken us to so many places that we would never have previously planned to visit

The last year has proved a serious challenge as you can well imagine with countless sits being cancelled or re-arranged due to travel restrictions and lockdowns. None of it the home owners faults obviously but it has made our previous planning almost impossible to continue with.

Early retirement?

Perhaps. We are taking a break from sitting for a short while, it may turn out to be permanent or could be a hiatus. Who knows? Whilst we actively look for somewhere to settle down permanently we have decided to pause our TrustedHouseSitters membership and see where life takes us next. Watch this space.

Housesitting

27/12/2016 – 06/09/2021

40 comments

  4. Whatever you choose going forward, you’ve got some lovely memories and adventures behind you. Good luck house hunting and all the best going forward!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. We only did a little bit of house/hobby farm sitting whilst we were on the road full time. One of those stints was for 6 weeks, and provided us with absolutely the best time in all our travels. I’m sure which ever way you end up going, you’ll still possibly end up doing some sort of house sitting in the future.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  10. The very best of luck to both of you on your house hunting and wherever JWalkingin takes you next. I’m sure that too will be an amazing journey. I shall miss reading about your travels but I’m sure the next chapter will be just as exciting as the last one. Take care both of you and thank you again for sharing your amazing and fun filled travel adventures x x

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Hopefully we will still be having mini adventures and travelling once we’re settled but for now its a bit of househunting and a few months relaxing here in Wiltshire.

      Like

      Reply

  14. It’s just the start of new, different type of adventure Jon. I’m sure with all that planning you guys do it will be marvellous. Good luck with the house hunting.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  16. How goes the house hunt? You must have defined an area that makes it easy to see your youngsters? You seem a very enterprising couple and will soon fashion a new lifestyle. I wish you luck with it.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

Please leave us a comment, it always makes our day.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.