My husband and I are fulfilling our lifelong dream – selling everything and traveling the world snuggling animals! We have done 6 short sits so far and love it!
These are questions for those of you that do this full time:
What do you wish you would have known when you started doing this full time?
If you have standard questions you ask of each potential sit, what are they?
I am making a spreadsheet of all the things to take into consideration while considering a potential sit. I know some of these will be personal to what we prefer/looking for. Such as I look for either a king bed or 2 beds, as my husband and I don’t sleep comfortably together unless it’s a king.
What you look for in a potential sit?
I would love any suggestions, tips, ideas - whatever you have as we take this on the road full time!
Hi @glenycehughes , welcome to the forum! Congratulations on moving ahead with your dream of being full-time house and pet sitters! There are many other nomads on the forum too.
Take a read of these past discussions :
You can use the magnifying glass icon in the upper right to enter search terms or questions too There is so much useful information here. Enjoy reading!
Hi @glenycehughes
Go for longer sits as too many short sits will soon wear you out - plus the travelling between sits can get expensive.
We often split up and overlap dates by a day or two to avoid voids and expensive hotel accommodations.
Try to follow a rough route, don’t hop North-South North-South!
We always ask for two beds too as we don’t sleep well together.
Keep a spreadsheet so you know that you are within your budget.
Treat yourselves every now and then
It’s a great life - enjoy!
We gave up our rental and sold/gave to charity all of our furniture in June 2022, my brother graciously offered a spare room in his home when we are between sits. So far we have only had to stay a day or two with him. When we’re out of province and are between sits it’s in a hotel or BnB again that only amounted to a day or two a month, some months none. So we have a fixed address for our mail and drivers licence etc. We have a small area of my brothers garage where we have the personal items we couldn’t bear to dispose of.
Life is adventure and we all have a best before date.
Current self would tell former self to be choosy when applying for sits, be sure before committing too far into the future and to leave some time for recharging without the responsibilities of sitting.
We’ve only just started doing this (& we’re doing it full time), and we were amazed by how many owners would arrange their holidays around us, after we’d sat for the first time. We expected everyone to want us to return, but we hadn’t expected that they would purposefully book their holidays around us.
Definitely aim for longer term sits, rather than travelling from place to place, we’ve got a good mix of both, also if you take shorter ones (say 2 weeks or less) then it helps if you can stay in one particular area for a longer.
Also, we made a deliberate effort to keep within a 2hr journey of our home, simply to prevent life feeling a little too nomadic, which has worked great for us, as we’ve been totally relaxed and loving every minute because we’ve already got an overseas sit now planned for later in the year.
Thanks so much! I never considered committing too far in the future. Makes sense. What have you found to be too far?
Also, can you say more about being choosy?
I love the idea of recharging, that is great!
For example, I saw a sit this morning for an entire month next March for a place I like and my first reaction was to jump on it. But when I really think about it, I am a little up in the air about what I even might want to be doing or where I might want to be nine months from now so am not ready to make that commitment. There will be other sits and they don’t all have to be booked months in advance. If I take that March sit now, I am effectively declining anything else that might come up down the road.
About being choosier, now I look closer at things like whether there is a yard for the dogs. It’s much nicer to be able to let them out for a quick pee before bed rather than leashing them up and going down three flights of stairs of an apartment building.
Congratulations! It really is a wonderful life.
What I always say to people is, if you don’t have to sell your home, rent it out as a preference as it will bring you an income and keep you in the housing market. It will be very difficult in years to come to get back on the property ladder as I know others have found.
I agree with @Colin (I usually do) and make sure you’re certain about the sits you accept and can fulfil your obligations.
Hello & welcome @glenycehughes. Agree with @Smiley about renting out your house if you can as it’s bonus income plus insurance. We’ve done that too. Take longer sits if you can, 10 days to 3 weeks is pretty ideal for us. Have gaps so you can have time together and chill. We always have a few photos from home, a hot water bottle, playing cards and only travel with cabin baggage as much easier and cheaper and there’s always a washing machine. Trust your gut on sits you choose. Apply for whatever you like but always do a video call to sound each other out. For example, if the house is messy in the call you can be pretty sure it will be dirty when you arrive so if you’re a clean freak then best avoided We’re 20 months in, with 24 sits, 86 animals & 12 countries enjoyed since Oct 2021 full time and loving the life! It takes some organising so when things dont go to plan just roll with it and it will all come right in the end seems to be our motto. Have a blast!
& welcome 
We’re 20 months in, with 24 sits, 86 animals & 12 countries enjoyed since Oct 2021 full time and loving the life! It takes some organising so when things dont go to plan just roll with it and it will all come right in the end seems to be our motto. Have a blast! 
