House-sitting

We’ve been asked a bit about whether we are getting house-sitters to look after our place while we’re away for the 3+ months – we definitely are. Working out who those housesitter/s might be, how to find them, how to prepare, etc. was quite a daunting task. So I wanted to share a few thoughts on that process in case it’s helpful to others.

Firstly some context – we have a cat, and she’s now 12 years old. Generally, when we’re away for a week or two, she will head to our local vet and go into their boarding. We think she tends to love that – they look after her well, and she always comes back quite happy. But three months is obviously much longer, and boarding wasn’t even really a consideration. Plus, the idea of having our house empty for three months also wasn’t really attractive.

The starting point was finding a friend who might be able to stay at our place – we knew of a few friends who are studying and still living with their parents who might enjoy their own place. In the end, we chatted with a couple of people, but nothing really naturally worked itself out – especially given the length of time (which did mean we wanted someone who perhaps had a bit more life experience than someone who hadn’t lived out of home before).

Enter, Aussie House Sitters.

We initially felt really uneasy with the idea of “someone random” staying at our place. But after chatting with a few people who had used a house-sitting connection site (either Aussie House Sitters or something similar), we became a bit more comfortable. We were reminded that each potential house-sitter has their own profile on this site, and after they complete a sit, the home owner is able to review them and their stay. That meant that if someone had left the house in a bad shape, or caused damage, those reviews would show up. Equally, you can see past positive reviews – so if someone has been house-sitting for a few years, they’ll have a dozen or so positive reviews from home owners.

We wrote up a short ad for our stay, and really quickly realised that our place was quite attractive for house-sitters – a long stay in a quiet street, in a leafy part of Sydney. So the hardest bit then became sorting through the ads and deciding how many we wanted to “interview” – and when I say interview, it was more about asking if they were able to come round and have a coffee and catch up (and although that felt strange initially, the house-sitters that we preferred were actually the ones to suggest it!). We ended up only meeting with one couple – both in their early 50s, entering a different stage of their lives, and spending a couple of years house-sitting across Sydney to help them decide where they wanted to live for the next part of their lives. And if you’ve ever done similar style of interviews or chats for various things, you’ll know that feeling of “yep, this is a perfect fit.” That was the case here.

Preparing for house-sitters.

With house-sitters decided, things quickly shifted to the daunting task of essentially “giving” the house to someone else for three months. It’s not just 2 weeks, where you really would just expect a house-sitter to work around your stuff. I think my biggest tip here is to be upfront with the house-sitters and ask what they expect. Hopefully, the right house-sitters will be upfront with what they expect and like, but equally gracious in their response – and with a bit of a discussion, everyone is happy.

For our house-sitters, they weren’t too fussed about wardrobe and drawer space (which surprised me) – but a priority of theirs was actually being able to use some home office space. So it was great to know this upfront so that I can make sure I get my desk clean of most of my “things” and make it easy for someone to just sit down at and work. I still feel it’s important to provide some wardrobe and drawer space, and so we’ll still do that… but having that upfront chat was helpful to understand what was important to them.

I also used a really helpful template to write down all those “house tips” that you need to share with house-sitters (especially for something as long as three months). There is one on Aussie House Sitters, but the one I used was a bit more thorough. Whichever one you use, these templates are really good for prompting you about things you need to let your house-sitter know. I won’t share the template I used publicly here (because I received it from someone else)… but perhaps send me an email if you think you need something.

Lastly, if you can, have a catch up with your house-sitters before you go. And do that after you’ve completed your house-sitting guide / tips and sent them to your house-sitters. That way, you can go through that list together, even just very briefly. I had that catch up with our house sitters last weekend (so, approximately 3 weeks before we leave), and it meant that I now feel really comfortable about leaving the house with them, and trusting that they have all they need to look after our place and our cat.