Hello,
I just started sitting full time in the spring and I am exhausted from it already. I do not know if I am doing something wrong. But the ding of notifications and trying to piece together days or weeks sits is getting to me. I do not like it and I really wanted to try being nomadic.
Any advice from nomads or people who do this full-time would be helpful. I work on and off and do not know how people who work online full time do it. I am exhausted from it.
Thank you
@Bamboo Longer sits! Constantly moving drives you crazy, so try to find longer sits where you can relax and get to know the area and pets at your own leisure. And donât be afraid to take some breaks inbetween. Housesitting can be stressful because weâre always switched on.
@Bamboo , I know youâll be receiving replies from nomadic sitters, which I am not, but I think it works best if you do long sits, so you donât have to move around as much. Another thought, maybe you need a break to reassess. Not everyone is cut out for that life style. I know when I am doing long sitting stints, I need days here and there to decompress in a Bnb or hotel.
What is your reason and motivation for doing it?
As others have said - longer sits is the answer, aim for 4 week sits where possible then fill in any gaps between with shorter stays
What length of sits have you had so far? What is it that you find exhausting?
Maybe itâs not the lifestyle for you atmâŚ
I can understand where youâre coming from. Just the administration alone can from time to time take some effort. I think about the administration and organization part alone as a small and fun part-time job and my expectations are adjusted accordingly.
When I got the hang of it and start having sits lined up I found it much less demanding though. My tips are:
As others have said, try to get long sits.
I also find it more stressful when you have a big gap in between sits that needs to be filled with the âperfectâ dates. Iâve found it less stressful to instead line up one sit after another. So if I have sits booked until the end of July, and I find a perfect one starting in September, Iâd rather prioritize finding one for August first and see when that one ends.
Make sure to budget for paying for more Airbnb/hotel nights than what you actually think youâll need and want, that gives a piece of mind.
Regarding notifications, do you mean getting emails and such regarding daily alerts? I get stressed and annoyed from getting too many notifications at all times of day and therefore sometimes need to limit them. A suggestion is to turn off the email updates and notifications related to house-sitting, and instead create a habit of checking saved searches and messages at a certain time every day. Then youâll be able to mentally prepare and be in the right mindset when you do it instead of stressing about new sits when going to bed, for example. I donât think itâs rude to answer a message the morning after someone sent it.
However, this obviously might not work if youâre trying to get very desirable sits which you need to get to the moment they appear. Maybe try and go for areas where the sittings have lower applications, that way you donât always have to be on your toes.
Hi Bamboo
My husband and I are full time sitters and have been for many years. This lifestyle definitely isnât for everyone, so if you are struggling with it, and decide itâs not really for you, thatâs okay. That you arenât adapting so well doesnât mean you must be doing something wrong.
It is easy to make this sort of lifestyle look very glamorous, but the reality can be quite different. Some peopleâs preferences and personalities just donât gel well with what is required to live this way and the sorts of challenges that inevitably arise.
No matter how much we want a certain experience or how much seems appealing about it, we really donât know how we will feel until we are actually doing it. And what we think we want may not be what we actually want once we get a taste.
There are all sorts of ânegativeâ things we donât anticipate or think much aboutâoften lots of little things that add upâthat make the experience totally different than what we thought.
There are certainly times I feel a bit weary moving from place to place, but overall I love it and I know that at least for now, I wouldnât want to live any other way. I feel very confident in my ability to book sits we find very desirable, so I really donât ever feel any major stress about planning.
You may find making some tweaks to how you go about booking sits, the types of places you stay, length of the sit,etcâŚmay make you feel differently.
It is important to examine the motivations behind our decisions, as that will affect how we experience what follows.
Moving towards a very wanted experience is very different than trying to move away from a negative one.
For example, someone who decided to house sit full time simply to reduce financial pressure without really having a true desire to live this way would probably have a very different experience of the various challenges than someone who is really drawn to this lifestyle overall.
If we donât have a strong âpositiveâ motivator for following a certain path, we probably wonât want to stay on that path as the challenging elements will not seem worth it, since we actually donât want to be doing what we are doing.
If you still feel like you want to give it a shot, other posters gave some good advice about practical tips that I would recommend as wellâsuch as longer sitsâand you may start feeling differently. But again, if you find it isnât for you, thatâs okay. You didnât fail at anything.
Hi @Bamboo - even full time sitters and digital nomads need a holiday .
If your schedule does not allow for a full week break how about a day off ?
Whether that is on a sit ( if it possible ) close your laptop and enjoy what the home or location has to offer for a day (or two )
Or between sits , schedule some time out from sitting responsibilities- spend it with a friend or family or treat yourself to a night in a hotel, Airbnb. Time to regroup - assess your priorities whatâs working ? - whatâs not ? Mute your notifications- have a digital detox -
Take time to think about the sits you enjoyed the most - why was that ?
Fewer pets ,type of home , great location ? Then you can choose only these type sits going forward.
For example we choose sits where the sit responsibilities are what we enjoy anyway - dog walking for example -( Iâd much rather walk a dog than go to the gym )so a sit where there are lovely countryside walks feels like a holiday for us . Other sitters love exploring new cities so itâs all about what makes you happy.
We also just started full time this year . Initially our priority was getting the sits booked in - so I can totally relate to the anxiety when your phone pings with a notification from your saved searches and you feel you must open it and apply before someone else gets there first . Now we are more relaxed about our sits because we know what type of sit works well for us and the HOs and we donât feel that we have to desperately spend all our time applying .
We also find that repeat sits works well for us - HO knows us - we know the home and pets and the routine . If weâd be happy to go back to a sit we always let the HO know - if they need us they send us a private invitation on THS . No need for us to compete with other applications- that reduces a lot of stress
Also, ânomadic livingâ doesnât always need to mean that you go to new and exciting destinations and you try to see and do every like a tourist. I find that being a tourist for more than a few days is exhausting to me.
I often book sits in cities that I know, so I donât need to spend a lot of time researching transportation options or where to buy food. I already know the area so I donât go sightseeing.
One of my repeat sits is in a luxury building in London. I live 45 minutes from London so I donât need to be a tourist there.
Instead I spend a few hours doing my online job while the cats sit next to me. Then I go downstairs to use the buildingâs pool and gym which is included in the sit. I might pop out for some nice food to cook as the shops are different here from where I live. But otherwise Iâm hanging out reading books and enjoying the beautiful view from the window of downtown London.
I refer to it as my âspa weekendâ away as itâs pretty relaxing and having a pool and nice gym just an elevator ride away are luxuries to me. Some of my family are surprised that Iâm not running around trying to catch a West End show or checking out the art museums in London, but thatâs the beauty of the nomadic lifestyle, you can shape it how you want/need it to be. 
Hi @Bamboo. Iâm sorry youâre finding it stressful. Thatâs never good.
I think you need to work out what works for you as there isnât really just one digital nomad lifestyle that fits everyone. For me I like 2-3 week sits then I have a break at home. My last 2 week sit was rather stressful with 2 ill cats during my sit so needed time to decompress. The sit Iâm currently on is very chilled.
Totally agree with all of this @Silversitters â my husband calls it the âHouse sitting snowball.â We have had many repeat sits and also âfriends of friendsâ wanting us to come and take care of their homes and pets. We also meet lots of dog owners as we walk them around town, and inevitably we chat and other dog owners become interested, and we have given our contact information to numerous people. We tell them about Trusted Housesitters and see the wheels turningâŚ
I felt some stress when I first started. Part of it was figuring out how this all works and getting used to this lifestyle as a full time sitter. I wasnât sure that was going to happen in the beginning, I had some fear and feelings of âwhat the heck am I doing?â It helped a lot to just gain more experience and only book longer sits so I wasnât moving around so much.
What really helped me was to reframe how I was looking at sitting. At first my thoughts were more like âwow look at these cool places I can stay for free and all I have to do is take care of these dogsâ but I soon changed my mindset to think âwow what awesome dogs I get to enjoy and oh, they live in a cool place!â Not just dogs but cats, birds, fish and livestock so far.
I am loving it and have finished 25 sits since September and am booked solid until January 2024. I donât see myself stopping any time soon but I have also learned to leave some time free to recharge my own batteries.
At first I was just excited to apply to all sorts of sits for my family. Now that we are on our 6th one, the short ones are exhausting. Unpack for family of five, petsit a few days, then repack and clean up. Iâm quickly learning that the short sits wear me out so going forward, we will be more strategic about it and look for longer sits. Itâs a pain in the butt to travel in our minivan with so much stuff, but we travel with our own pillows, beddings, blender, coffee/kettle. It makes it more homey with our own items and less wear and tear on HOâs belongings.
When you say you are booked solid, how easy is it to get to that point? Booked solid seems so effortless for you.
Weâve asked you a few questions and Iâd be interested to hear your answers
Iâm intrigued to know how this nomadic lifestyle works. Are you all working from home or independently rich?
Iâll be working till i drop so am fitting this around. I do have a hybrid job though. Very curiousđ
Iâve rented out my house while housesitting/travelling, have a pension and recently got my state pension. Itâs cheaper than living at home!
We live on rental income but are by no means âindependently richâ! One of the benefits of this lifestyle is that you can significantly reduce living costs by having no mortgage or rent to pay. That already reduces our need to have a high income! We live simply and eat at home. Our biggest expenditures are food, flights & fuel for our car. When we are in a sit we love nothing more than pottering around the local region getting to know it and enjoying the home weâre living in and whatever menagerie weâve been entrusted with!
At the moment we are on the 4th of 4 sits in rural France with 3 more in Spain to follow. Each sit is around 3 weeks long which weâve finding perfect- long enough to settle in well and short enough not to get boring! Right now we staying in a gorgeous part of rural SW France in a beautiful renovated farm house with a fab pool! Weâre taking care of 2 horses, 3 hens and 2 shy cats! Its great- weâre loving it all!