Advice for a full-time solo sitter based in the UK!

[Rtfc]

Hi all! I’ve been regularly cat-sitting through THS since June 2023 and have done 25+ sits so far. Most sits have been pretty positive, so I’m giving full-time sitting a proper try for the next year, mainly in and around London (open to travelling further afield and possibly abroad once I’m more settled), and I’d love to hear from other full-time, ideally solo, sitters about how sustainable it’s been.

A bit about my situation: I’ve lived in London for 12+ years but renting has become too stressful and expensive. I’m currently unemployed and job hunting, ideally for a remote or hybrid role based in London (my background is in events and admin). I’m hoping to be working again soon, but I’m unsure how well full-time sitting fits alongside employment, especially without family or many friends to stay with between sits.

Right now I’m cat sitting in Hackney for a lovely person who travels for work, and I’ve been invited back for repeat sits. Their schedule is a bit unpredictable, so there are some gaps for me to cover between now and late February. I’m hoping to fill them with other sits, but I’m also looking into short sublets or crashing with a friend if needed.

I only look after cats and plan to stick to that. I’m currently just on THS but will be signing up to other platforms like Rover to increase my chances of bookings. I have a small storage unit in London, so I’m trying to travel light(ish) while still staying comfortable.

I’d really appreciate some advice from folks who have done/are doing this full-time, especially in the UK:

• Has full-time housesitting helped you save money overall? Roughly how much do you save each month compared to renting? I’m budgeting around £5-600 per month, not including alternative accommodation costs (I have a small fund to cover gaps but would of course prefer to avoid dipping into this).

• How do you manage gaps between sits, especially if you don’t have family or friends to fall back on?

• Are there any affordable short-term accommodation options in/around London you’d recommend for gap days/weeks?

• If you work remotely or hybrid while sitting, how do you balance it with moving around?

• Do you use multiple platforms, and if so, which ones are worth it for cat-only sits?

• Any tips for someone doing this as a solo sitter in London?

• And finally - creature comforts! What do you always bring with you to make full-time sitting more comfortable without overpacking? I have a travel aeropress and am thinking of buying a handheld coffee grinder

[GotYourBack]

@Rtfc, wow what a post .

First a disclaimer - some aspects of your situation are relatable to us, but some are not.

On similar aspects - we are full-time sitters (2.5 years). We are using housesitting to bridge a gap period. We do have to manage gaps between sits, sometimes involving paid short-term accommodation.

Re money, housesitting has both saved us tens of thousands of canadian dollars (avoided shelter costs) and enabled an earlier, better lifestyle. But housesitting is not 100% (in 2024, we paid for 7% nights accommodation). And we choose/have to travel to sits that are non-local, so there are travel costs. Alternative accommodation is not always cheap - we suspect that it would not take many gap accommodation days to eat up your saved GBP500/month avoided rent. Suggest extend your budget to best-guess real-life - include periodic short-term accommodation, incremental travel costs as appropriate.

Re comforts, we also travel with Aeropress. We have substantially digitized our lives and travel with significant tech - travel router, Roku, etc. We have standardized power/data inputs for our tech devices to minimize cables.

We travel with only one carry-on luggage and one backpack per person, for months at a time. Over time, we have gradually optimized our possessions/stuff to travel friendly versions and brutally questioned functional necessity vs discretionary fashion/choices.

Re platforms, we have tried three - including French housesitting site and a lesser UK site. Each had major limitations vs THS. Some on THS Forum, not us, have used a different platform to generate income from pet care/housesitting.

Re visitors, we have sought permission from a handful of Pet Parents - mostly reasonable people. Be polite and ask upfront. In some cases, family visitor has [happily] slept on sofa!

Some Pet Parents may really love a remote/hybrid worker housesitter. Especially if this replicates the Pet Parent real life. Views may vary, upfront disclosure in application probably helpful. That said, in our experience, retiree Pet Parents tend to have longer duration listings (Saved Search for London month+).

Contingencies are necessary. Life happens. Two Pet Parents cancelled sits on us on first day. We had to pivot. At some expense. Consider THS Sit Cancellation Insurance and understand its limitations.

It’s not easy. Definitely takes work. Sometimes a deep breath. Some benefits of housesitting are experiential rather than financial.

[Silversitters]

@Rtfc Welcome to the forum - great thread .

In your favour

• U.K. has many sits.
• You already have experience of the platform and reviews .
• You already have repeat sit requests .
• You are looking at other platforms to increase your chances of finding a sit .

We sit as a couple and have been house sitting full time for 2+ years . We have been able to put together back to back sits for several consecutive months , but there are inevitably gaps . These we mostly fill with visits to friends and family or a trip to a place we want to visit . We also do house sits for other platforms . For us THS is our gap filler between private house sits that were in place long before we had heard of THS .

The riskiest part of your plan is to stay mostly in London . Just a few days “gap filler” in a hotel / Airbnb room in London could eat up your month’s budget .

If you have some flexibility with your employment and are not required to be in London , I would consider looking wider afield & consider filling the gaps with sits outside of London , somewhere you can easily reach by affordable public transport . Or use the opportunity to travel and stay in places that you haven’t visited before either in U.K. or abroad.

Sitters who are most flexible and adaptable with location and type of sit ( cats/ dogs etc ) are most suited to make full-time house sitting successful and an enjoyable experience too.

There is a risk that because of the pressure to fill a gap ( specific dates in a specific location ) you might accept a sit that isn’t a good match ( has red flags ) and ends up as a negative and disheartening experience and you may also end up with a bad review . Be mindful of looking for those red flags and not accepting a sit just because the dates match .

[Cathie]

Do you have a car ? I’m thinking no living in London for 12 years. If you had a car and remote work I think it would be a lot easier. We don’t do this full time but managed to line up some great sits this summer in the UK including back to back London ones. But both of those had dogs. A great sit in Wales was having difficulties finding a sitter for their sit later that year and when I look there are often sits in the Wiltshire area. Try to get longer sits if you can, less moving around is easier. As others have noted short term accommodation in London is very expensive. Maybe a bed in a hostel ? On the upside while you are looking for work you are not restricted to London. Good luck

[Colin]

We are a couple and have been sitting full-time for five years.

The biggest requirement of being able to sit full-time is flexibility. Unfortunately, you only wanting to care for cats, and only in a specific area will make it difficult for you.

Also, as a solo sitter, getting back-to-back sits is extremely difficult - and getting short-term accommodation, especially in and around London will be expensive.

Honestly, I think you will find it difficult to sustain unless you can be more flexible with your area and be willing to care for dogs as well as cats.

My advice is to look out for longer sits as these come without the expense of travelling and nights in hostels/hotels

[Becca]

Hi @Rtfc Your conundrum seems slightly contradictory. On the one hand you are hoping to find a remote or hybrid role based in London, but would also like to travel further afield once you’re more settled? Have you considered that the more ‘settled’ you become, the more difficult it may be to travel, unless you are really lucky and manage to land a role that allows you to work remotely all of the time?

If you can afford to do so, you could consider looking for sits that are further afield NOW, whilst you still have the flexibility to take on longer sits, sits that are not London-based, and even those abroad. Since many initial interviews are conducted online these days anyway, you could really make the most of enjoying your THS membership whilst job-hunting.

Once you have secured a job, I think it’s probably unrealistic to hope that you will find back-to-back cat sits in and around London, so a lot of your budget will disappear in travel costs and expensive short-term accommodation. It could also be quite stressful trying to juggle constantly being on the move, with full-time employment. I’m guessing that you’re paying to rent the small storage that you mention – have you thought of looking into the cost of renting a room from someone on spareroom dot co dot uk instead? As a lodger, bills are often included within the monthly rent, and it would give you the security of not only a place to keep your belongings, but also a guaranteed place to live. You could still apply for suitable sits as and when they appear, but without the pressure of relying on them for accommodation.

Good luck!

[richten1]

Hi @Rtfc
I’m not a full time sitter but I am London based when not sitting. I think your wish to get long sits in Greater London is going to be difficult as sits in and around London are highly desirable.
You ask about cheaper accommodation to fill gaps round London. I think getting cheaper places to stay around London could be hard. You can get places like travelodges in the outer zones for £35 a night but these prices are usually the odd night booked well in advance. Regular prices as someone that’s booked such accommodation for business is usually more likely to be around the £70 a night for a budget hotel in or near Greater London.

[Seniorsitter]

It sounds like you are free to live anywhere. Why not take this opportunity and explore a country which fits your budget better. I don’t see how your current plan will help your situation. You may even find a new career that will make you financially more stable in a new country. If you want to stay in an English speaking country I would suggest Canada. I did house and pet sitting there and joined a platform similar to THS but was exclusively for Canadian sits. I saw so many for 6 to 9 months. Also, a lot of people responding to you have a partner. They have pulled funds and have each other to figure things out when it can be stressful with a sudden cancellation and so little funds. I wish you luck whatever you decide.

[hellocat]

I would find this very stressful. I sit for most of the year but have my place to stay in between sits and to enjoy a few days to decompress and have no pets to mind. Cat sits only in London would be in very high demand and you will be rejected a lot as there is only 1 in 5 chance you would be chosen. Also, you still need to have transport/food etc which is more expensive in London. There are so many cheap buses you can take so you are really restricting yourself. Do you not like dogs or think they would be too much work? I sometimes sit for elderly dogs who like to sleep for most of the day and just like to potter around the garden. If you intend to work from home it can also be stressful. I recently did a 5 day sit and there was a complete power cut for 9 hours. I had no phone or internet and the nearest cafe was miles away. I echo what other people have said here - don’t restrict yourself to London. I know people who do this full-time without a base but they are extremely organized and flexible.

[GotYourBack]

@Seniorsitter, wise words. We’ve just booked two, likely three, housesits in Canada for early 2026. Gotta say that there are some truly fabulous opportunities, provided that someone is accustomed to chilly temperatures. Quite a few Canadians are ‘snowbirds’ - they fly away to warm climates, e.g. Mexico, when the snow falls - so housesits can be long duration. Canadians are more in need of housesitters as it’s cold - so house insurance policies require someone on-site on regular basis to identify water damage, etc.

@Rtfc, think there’s a bunch of thoughtful advice from some veteran housesitters. Relevancy depends on your primary objective and personal situation. Good luck!

[Sitandsat]

Welcome @Rtfc !

I am in a slightly similar situation to you. I currently don’t tenant or own any place of my own (can’t afford to). Am also at around 20-30 sits (TH, private, and others) since 2023.

Because we couldn’t find affordable rent anywhere near my job, my partner and I decided to try van-lifing in 2020 and we’re still going.

Having a vehicle with sleeping, storage, mini kitchen, and an emergency loo has ended up being much more affordable per night on days when we have no sits booked. Maybe that could be an option for you. It makes it easier to say no to unsuitable sits. As much as sitting has its comforts, it’s also nice, actually I’d say even necessary, to be “off-duty” in our own space, even if it is small.

It is really beneficial for us to be repeat sitters for hosts/pets. The reliability and familiarity is great for everyone. Meeting new people all the time can take its toll.

Catsitting is less labour intensive, but dog sits work for us if there is a fenced yard/garden for bathroom breaks. We’re not doing apartment dogs right now. In your settings, you can set how many minutes of walking you can commit to per day (if you want).

We definitely have our comforts. I like my own pillow, shampoo bar, travel mug, unscented/gentler soap + detergents, and some preferred kitchenware.

We’re based in a major city in Canada. A suitable rental for us would run us ~$1500/month - this is for a private suite/flat. Our van takes ~$300/month of gas. Sometimes we pay for camping. On good months we save ~$900.

We don’t save as much when we run into mechanical issues, or if we’ve been getting take-out too often.

It’s always in the back of my mind to try out Rover. I find it hard to make the mental leap of doing both paid + unpaid at the same time. But I know peiple do it. That said, we have received offers of pay for repeat sits, being a familiar presence is super valuable I think.

Congrats on all your positive sits!

• Oh, and, as far as platforms go, we’ve found TH to have the most sits available. However we have made good connections on another less busy platform. These connections have all become regular contacts for us now.

[HappyDeb]

We sit in the North East of England mainly, & in a specific area of Spain, so in both of those locations there are a lower population number (ie less pet sits) for both locations in comparison to where you are in both our areas. During our first year we had more gaps, but now the most we have is just 1 or 2 days, about once every 3-6 weeks.

We reduced the gaps by:-

1. Booking in any repeat sits as and when because they are easy to do without any thought process, and they are more likely to work their dates around your availability.
2. With fresh sits, book your dates in in date order, back to back, so let’s say you know you’ll finish a sit on 7th Jan, focus on sits that start either later in the day on the 7th as you can always apply and ask, because it’s quite likely that most people can easily find someone to help with care for a few hours until you arrive if need be… whereas it’s 1 week + where they struggle with care, or apply for sits on the 8th, 9th, 10th. So don’t look for random dates.
3. Top tip - Focus on sits that are 3 weeks or longer. This year (ie since Jan 2025) we’ve done 4 longer sits (3wks-6wks)… 3 out of those 4 were repeat sits, but just those 4 sits alone covered 4 whole months in total in 2025, they weren’t back to back, but they were all planned in waaaay ahead of time, so there’s so much less to think about, less to plan, less trravelling between sits, less voids/gaps. It hugely reduces your effort and mind-space, because instead of figuring out 12 months of accommodation/sits, we only had to figure out 8 months, and we just filled in any gaps in date order around those longer sits, so we only had 1-2 day of voids over a much longer period, which is much more cost effective.

[Lokstar]

I agree with @Debbie advice no.3 to focus on longer sits. This could be very helpful in your case. Having done several stints of shorter back to back sits (in UK) over the years, whilst boosting review numbers, we now find ourselves drawn to longer sits. Its more relaxing-& gives time to settle in a bit between travels. This year we’ve done 6 longer sits of 3-6 weeks each in Malaysia, France & Spain, two of which were repeats. We’ve filled the gaps with shorter sits, family visits, and non sit accoms in cheaper countries we travel in (e.g India & Malaysia)

Right now we’re on the second of two short sits in the UK after a 12 day sit cancelled with 3 days notice (our first cancellation ever after 7 years!) We were very lucky to find two back to back replacement sits, both beachside with spectacular views! It helps to be as flexible as possible with location & animals etc

We were also full time motorhomers for many years (before housesitting) & absolutely loved it so can highly recommend @Sitandsat van-life living between sits if that’s at all possible for you.

I have an old friend, I introduced to THS, who has been full time sitting exclusively in UK for 3 years now. She has a car so can travel widely. She’s booked up till well into next year and prioritises longer sits. She, like many full timers, find too many shorter sits in a row gets rather exhausting after a while.

Your current desire to sit only for cats and only in Greater London is pretty limiting and you may end up with lots of expensive gaps. Perhaps some of the ideas offered by your fellow sitters may encourage you to expand your horizons to make it work. Good luck!

[hitchedandhiking]

Hi @Rtfc, loved your post!

We’ve been full-time housesitters for around 3.5 years now, and we’re UK-based too. We’ve done sits in about 10 countries but mostly in the UK. We love all animals but often choose cat-only sits as they fit best around our online work schedules (my husband’s a full-time accountant and I’m a writer/editor). So we’re not solo sitters, but we’ve both done individual sits when the other’s been away for work.

We’d highly recommend combining remote work or a digital nomad lifestyle with housesitting. The reduced outgoings on accommodation and bills mean we can stress less about earning a huge income. When we lived in our own house, we were spending around £1,200 a month on mortgage and bills. Now, because we rent it out, that’s covered and our main expenses are travel, food, gym, and the occasional “gap” stay. We are definitely saving more money now than we were living conventionally.

For gaps between sits, we mix things up: short travel breaks, coliving spaces, or the odd apartment (though we avoid Airbnb where possible). We also had a motorhome for two years and combined vanlife with sitting which gives great flexibility if you ever want to travel further afield. Home exchanges are another option to look into; not all platforms require you to offer your own home.

On the work side, we always make sure homeowners know we work online and have meetings, calls, and deadlines. Clear communication is key - things like reliable Wi-Fi, a proper workspace (even just a dining table), and quiet hours are non-negotiables for us. We’ve worked from vans, coworking spaces, trains, planes — you name it! It takes some getting used to, but once you find your rhythm, it works really well.

Tech-wise: invest in good gear. A portable router for backup Wi-Fi is a must. Think about second screens and portable standing desks. We also travel with an Aeropress. I have a pillow spray that makes any place feel like home. Little things like this can help a lot.

We’ve only ever used TrustedHousesitters and have had great success finding consistent cat-only sits, both in the UK and around Europe (we try to travel by train when possible). Although we have the luxury of being able to go anywhere (not primarily one area like you’re looking for).

(edited by Forum team in line with Community Guidelines)

[The_Sollys]

@hitchedandhiking What a fantastic response! — a really helpful perspective for @Rtfc

[hitchedandhiking]

Thank you!