I’m considering joining TrustedHousesitters as a sitter and would love to become part of the community.
I live in Norfolk with my daughter, who’s currently studying for A-levels. My closest family (mum and sister) are down in Windsor. I’m hoping to use house sitting to make visits to them more affordable, as well as getting the lovely bonus of looking after people’s beloved pets. I’m also thinking longer term about using it for future school holidays and potentially Christmas.
I’ve been speaking with the Membership Support team and they’ve kindly offered me a 20% discount, but they’ve also mentioned that an existing member can refer a friend and that gives 25% off the joining fee.
I’m also very interested in hearing from experienced sitters about how easy it is to secure suitable sits around South Bucks / East Berkshire, particularly for someone just starting out.
Start local and short sits so you get some reviews under your belt then try further afield and for longer. The forum is a fount of knowledge that is well worth tapping too.
With great reviews I’m sure you will be popular and being two with a young energetic daughter you should be able to attract people with multiple pets that need cover. Try to widen the type of animals you care for as this will also increase your chances of gaining a housesit.
There are often quite a few sits in the Windsor area (I’ve done a few). There are several dozen listed right now, within a 30mile radius. In my experience, rural English sits often get very few applicants, so I think your chances are good.
You’re really lucky because school holidays and Christmas are times where there are more listings than sitters available. I’m sure you will have plenty of opportunities.
We sit to be close to family. We’ve been sitting for over 3.5 years, within 3 months of joining we were sitting full time in the UK (mainly Durham and North Yorkshire) and Spain too.
In the UK we sit within a 1.5 hour car journey of my partner’s Mother, and in Spain we stay within a 2 hour public transport distance of our son and his family.
We only paid for our first year with THS, as we’ve got free membership until 2040 off the back of recommending others, all those 2 months add up.
You won’t realise it yet, but you stand an excellent chance of securing sits, especially when you are focused on one specific region, because you aren’t a normal tourist, which most sitters are, you have a real reason to be in their area, family.
We also return to sit the same pets, which may work really well for you too, and if that is something you like the idea of, then ensure you mention it when you apply for a sit, because it’s a huge benefit to the owners to potentially have the same sitter return if they are happy with your first sit.
A lot of the owners we have sat for before, whatsapp us before they post their dates to see if/when we’re free too, which is amazing.
You mention longer term school holidays - you may find longer sits are fantastic, rather than moving from place to place, as it’s more relaxing, but do whatever takes your fancy.
Just a tip in case you join…keep in mind this is a very international community. When I read the first line you said “Norfolk” and I thought you meant Virginia in the US. I kept reading to see you were in the UK but it is helpful to mention the country as there are many cities with the same names in other countries and some very foreign names to members as well…not everyone knows what you know!
Those of us based in the US may know immediately what someone means by Santa Cruz without saying California, and others may be confused.
But yes, local sits is how most of us get started. As a US based sitter I always think there are an enormous amount of sits in the UK - more than enough sitters to cover them all - so to me it seems if you want to do this there in the UK you wouldn’t have much trouble. IMO
Hi @Julia_and_Rachel I house and pet sit in school holidays and at Christmas with my sons who are now 17 and 15. When we started they were 10 and 8.
There are lots of sits in the UK. There have been times when we have wanted to sit near to a specific place, and we have always managed to find something suitable eventually. Other times we are open minded. I’ve certainly seen a number of listings in the general area you mentioned, and we have done sits in both those counties ourselves.
As others have already said, rural sits where there is little or no public transport are less popular. They are also our favourite type of sit! If you have your own transport, you should have a good chance of finding sits closer to your family.
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