Just curious how many of you have been provided with closet or dresser drawer space for your clothes? It’s not such a big deal to me if I’m there for less than a week, but I’m always a bit surprised when there is no space at all provided for my clothes. It seems to be hit and miss. I’m not sure if they’ve just not thought of it, or if they don’t think it’s important.
It’s not a huge deal and I’d hate for any of the Home owners I’ve sat for in the past to read this and think I’m complaining.
Hi @Kelownagurl great question. We recently created a blog to help owners prepare for their sitters and one of the “tips” was to provide closet, draw and bathroom space, I once had to use a tread mill to hang my clothes on … I really don’t think some owners think about it.
My piece of advice, sitters may arrive with a suitcase but they really don’t want to live out of one …
@Kelownagurl We would also add to this refrigerator, freezer space and pantry space, especially for longer sits. (Most commonly not thought of is freezer space, but something we use often)
Our experience is also hit or miss. We’ve never felt that a ‘miss’ is purposefully done, and more likely a courtesy not thought of. However, we must say that an owner purposefully leaving us space to ‘live’ in their home is one of those extra touches that is very welcoming!
I also agree about freezer space. Nice to be able to squeeze something in there on a longer sit. I don’t think I’ve experience inadequate fridge space tho.
It’s rare not to have fridge space but it’s happened!
Our tip for freezer space if you need a bit more is to take a picture (so you remember to put it back) and then defrost ice packs. It give a bit more space and you can put the ice packs back a day before the sit ends and nothing is spoiled!
We’ve been provided some closet space and drawers for our clothes on most of our house sits. If we do local sits we usually ask if we can have some space in the fridge and freezer prior to arriving for the sit. It’s not always easy for the homeowners in condos to have space leftover to provide. Since we recently moved from a house to a condo we understand!
As a side note, I find taking photos are really helpful for a lot of things, especially if I move something around a bit during our stay and want to make sure everything goes back exactly the way it was!
Yes agree. Since returning to domestic rather than international sits more recently, we generally do a small shop on the way to a sit, so we can settle in the first few days without needing to go far. So I usually mention we’ll be doing this in our pre-sit chat, and on arrival we are able to unload fresh and frozen stuff where some space has inevitably been made. It also leads nicely into what food do they want us to leave untouched, and what perishables can be eaten (something that’s very different depening on length of sit we find). It’s interesting how we all develop little systems to make things flow easily but most are worked out through good communication before the sit.
Not to sure if it was this forum or not.
But I think it was the woman kept some of her belongs in the fridge.
It might have been Petermac.
Help me out on this one please
Thanks for the checklist Angela.
We arrived to one sit and was shown to our bedroom. It was the owners room. They didn’t clear the surfaces, but left them covered with personal medication and clothing. No wardrobe space just a hook behind the door. The bathroom still had dirty washing and wet towels.
We’ve learned so much since that sit and during a video chat prior to accepting we ask to see our room, if there are no photos. If they are reluctant, that’s an issue for us.
Hello Kelownagurl This is an interesting post which I too have noticed with hosts but haven’t done much about. I find that most hosts do make a space for me to hang gear/ place it in a drawer, however, as I have a very small footprint while staying (especially for short sits), I typically just live out of my open suitcase. The tip I wanted to share is that I put all of my gear eg suitcase, work materials, bulky gear into another room (as my ‘closet’) - always a room that I won’t be using for the duration of my stay. That way it’s out of sight but accessible without having to use cupboard space and it doesn’t clutter the room I’m sleeping in. I hope that’s helpful to fellow sitters! Thanks for your post. Lisa
PS I love BC, Kelownagurl!
We’ve found its a bit hit and miss with closet space - but we’ve now pretty much got used to living out of our bags not so we don’t mind too much.
We did buy a ‘foldable wardrobe’ (similar to this SKUBB dark grey, Storage with 9 compartments - IKEA) that we brought with us on a couple of sits - but still required something to hang it on and in the end we just stopped using it.
I travel super light, like one carry on size backpack for 4 months light, so I don’t need much space. That said, it does feel really nice to take everything out of the bag and be able to feel like you’re really living somewhere. It’s not expected but I really appreciate it when the homeowner leaves me a little closet and / or drawer space.
Hi Kelownagurl, good post thanks. Most of the times the house owners do provide us a separate bedroom with space for cloths. To us it happens more often that there is no space for groceries, neither in a cupboard nor in the fridge. And very often the dishwasher is not emptied. I don’t think most house owners leave it this way on purpose, but they don’t seem to realize that a clean house with space for our stuff feels, for us as sitters, like a warm welcome. Therefor I really support the checklist. Thanks Angela.
Hi @RonAgeeth welcome to the forum, thank you for joining in this conversation. As you say owners don’t leave certain things undone on purpose, I’ve encountered situations where they’ve had a very early departure and apologised for not doing certain tasks.
Space for food etc is equally important, it goes to giving a feeling of normality and being at “home” that’s why creating checklists for owners and sitters on all aspects of preparation for arrival and departure is helpful, many experienced members have created their own of course based on their knowledge gained through their own experiences.
Welcome again it’s great to have you hear and we look forward to sharing in your THS journey, enjoy the conversations and connecting with other members.
Having space to put away clothes is one of the things I really appreciate on a sit. I tend to go from one sit to another over a 3 or 4 month period, and although I travel light, living out of a suitcase can be annoying after a while. I don’t really expect space to be found on a very short sit, but would hope to find it on longer sits. Maybe I’ve just been lucky, but most of the people I’ve sat for have been extremely considerate.
