Some folks like to live part of their lives on the road, caravanning from one breath-taking slice of Australia to another.

It’s a growing trend amongst single, mature women.

Some leave behind a broken marriage or abusive relationship, a deceased partner, a home that’s no longer theirs or can no longer afford, or a stale, outdated life.

These women tow their ‘homes’ behind them. They embrace a nomadic lifestyle that allows them to live as cheaply as possible.

I’ve adopted a version of that adventurous lifestyle – minus the caravan.

I make my home in someone else’s home!

That is to say when someone wants to take off on a holiday and they need their vacant home and beloved pets taken care of, homeowners engage me as their house sitter.

I keep their homes and routines bubbling along, and their fur babies spoiled and exercised while they go off and have that well-earned get-away overseas to explore or visit family, or travel interstate to spend time with children and grandchildren.

Housesitting offers me — a single woman — the unique opportunity to explore a variety of locations and lifestyles and connect with delightful people.

What kind of people housesit?

There are many different kinds of people — Retired couples, professionals who work from home, singles, young families, and those who love to travel and make new connections.

Homeowners on these house and pet sit platforms expect you — the house sitter — to live in their vacant home and care for their pets just as they would, ensuring pets are happy and safe in an environment they are familiar with.

You handle day-to-day chores, such as collecting the mail and putting out the bins. On a farm sit, the to-do list tends to be more comprehensive. You are responsible for cleaning the house to the standard to which you found it, and you might also be asked to maintain the lawns and garden and any other jobs you and the owner mutually agree on

The various house sit providers incorporate an app that allows homeowners and house sitters to review and make contact via a messaging system, not unlike Airbnb. In this way, owners can understand whether the person they want to engage is right for them.

Getting a homeowner to choose you will depend on how you set up your profile. You need to demonstrate you are caring, reliable, and trustworthy.

Occasionally you’ll be asked to provide a Police Check. And these days, some homeowners ask you to prove you’ve been COVID vaxed.

My first house and pet-sit was caring for a tank of tropical goldfish!

Now years later, I am comfortable and capable of looking after horses, goats, sheep, large scary dogs, birds, chooks, ducks, peacocks, you get the idea. I also maintain backyard pools and use a ride-on mower to upkeep lawns. The sit can include tending to a veggie garden or watering pot plants.

A few things to know

Sometimes you get to meet each other beforehand to gauge whether the house sit will work.

Most times, that’s not possible if you’re on a sit that’s hours or days away. So a phone or Zoom call is preferred.

It is often frightening AND exciting rocking up to a stranger’s home, building rapport while they give a hand-over, and then, inside an hour, the owners are gone. You’re left with fretting pets to get acquainted with and a house or farm to run for the next week or few months!

Don’t let that scare you off. You’ll quickly develop an approach that puts everyone at ease. Your self-confidence translates into the homeowners’ confidence in you!

Preferably the homeowners invite you to stay over the night before they leave. Or they offer to pay for a motel room to ensure you’re close by and can be introduced to their pets and home without all that pressure.

Homeowners, in my experience, tend to bullet point their hand-over into a set of instructions they leave on the kitchen bench. Depending on their preference, notes can be pretty detailed that outline how the owners expect their pet(s) to be cared for and fed, what ingredients to include in meals, local vet details, and a neighbor or family contact.

Or, the flip side maybe is that they leave you with sketchy bullet point instructions scribbled on paper. That was my experience on a recent house sit.

A young family recovering from COVID and locked up for weeks were chomping at the bit to get away for Easter. When the opportunity came to hang with family on the coast, they wasted no time sprinting out the door, leaving their house in a mess!

These young homeowners expected me to be the Mary Poppins of house and pet sitting. Magically turn their chaos into calm and clean! They came home to a cleaner house, all chooks accounted for, the canary still upright on his perch, and their St Bernard not wanting to let me leave.

The thing to remember when you house-sit for someone is that whatever standard of living the homeowner calls their norm has to work for you. For instance, today, I sat with homeowners hoping to secure my services for a gig in October. The wife commented that she would be offended if the house sitter scrubbed down windows and garbage bins while they were away.

When pets don’t behave

Early in my house-sitting gigs, I learned that some owners can be self-serving and not care whether you’re comfy during your stay. It’s all about their pets, and their needs. House sitters, to them, are just the free help!

Back when I was new to the house and pet-sitting platform, I failed to vet a young couple in their 30s before committing myself to their house sit. The owners had two Labradors who were not used to submitting to any control. This behavior became apparent from the get-go.

They slept on their owners’ bed and just stopped short of defecating on it! They dragged curtains onto the floor and ripped them. Both dogs were known to climb up onto the kitchen bench. Owners, therefore, set up a barrier to keep the dogs out of some areas of the house.

I’d send the owners daily videos that captured the destruction they’d caused. He replied, “They do that sort of stuff all the time!”

Seriously?

I wrestled some control of the dogs by using feeding time to assert myself as the Alpha. They did as I instructed, or they weren’t allowed to eat. It worked in that they didn’t maul me. Still, I locked my bedroom door each night. My workaround was to get out of the house during the day and stay out until it was time to feed them. Then I’d quickly take myself off to bed.

It was a house sit from hell!

With more practice, I got better at vetting potential house sitting jobs. And as my 5-start reviews grew, I got to be more in demand.

Pushing boundaries and making friends along the way

You may wish to do as I do — travel the long open roads it takes to get from one sit to another, often interstate. I love to drive all day to places I’ve never been before — and stay awhile.

However, some house sitters prefer to stay local to their area and sit exclusively for their favorite families and pets.

When you put effort into building rapport with homeowners, you get invited back repeatedly, making you feel like part of the family.

I’ve made life-long friends from housesitting.

In my article “A Mature Woman’s Guide To Farm Sitting And A Gypsy Lifestyle,’ I shared how taking care of a 100-acre horse farm on my own pushed my boundaries. Thankfully the farm was still standing — as were the horses — when the owners arrived home!

Yes, you can bring your pet house-sitting with you. It just may limit some of your options. And in some cases, families’ house sit as a means to keep their costs down when out holidaying. Understandably some homeowners don’t want other pets or children in their home.

For anyone contemplating house sitting, I wholeheartedly encourage you to jump in. Have a go! Find a platform on which you feel comfortable.

I use Aussie House Sitters — the largest house and pet-sitting site in Australia. They have more than enough jobs to keep me fully booked.

House-sitting platforms give you access to homeowners in other countries looking for experienced, trustworthy sitters. Aussie House Sitters are affiliated with sites in Canada, America, the UK, and New Zealand.

An excellent 5-star rating with one house sitter provider would set you up as an ideal sitter across multiple platforms.

Things you need to consider

But that’s not all there is to it. You need to set up job alerts in the areas you are prepared to travel.

What type of animals are you comfortable looking after? Do the house sits line up on your calendar? And what will you do if you can’t get a job house-sitting? Can you pay for accommodation in a motel? Will that seriously hurt your budget? Or can you couch surf at a friend’s place? Maybe you can use the break to get back home to hug your family.

Can it get lonely? Hell, yes! But you can factor in a family member coming to visit. Or you might get involved in your local community by putting your hand up for short-term volunteer work. I use the time to write, study, explore the area, catch up with family when it works, and enjoy the pets I care for.

Think about setting up your profile

I’ve been living this housesitting lifestyle for a while, so my 5-star rating and being a mature-aged woman who doesn’t smoke means I’m never struggling to find a house sit gig.

This month I’m up on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland. Come June through to early November, I’m house-sitting in some of the most beautiful coastal ports of New South Wales.

In a few months, I turn 64. My older sister keeps reminding me, she and I are on the downward slide of that bell curve we call our “physically active years”. Having a full, adventurous life will get beyond us in a blink!

If nothing else, house-farm-pet sitting can offer life-changing alternatives to staying put in a life where we feel unfulfilled.

It doesn’t have to be a full-time lifestyle. But it can open up a magical life.

(Update – I now offer professional Emergency and Last-Minute Pet Sitting in my local area on the New South Wales coast.)

Wishing you all lots of love and light on your journey.