Guidance for leaving a sit

Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat
21

Exactly. I can’t think of much more dispiriting than coming home to a machine full of wet sheets, or a dryer full of crinkled ones. Except, possibly, a leak. My habit is to strip the bed and leave my used sheets neatly folded in some obvious place. I then take a guess on whether the HOs will want the bed re-made with clean sheets - are they likely to have guests or another sitter any time soon?..

“Why take a guess?” - You cry, “Why not just ask?”

Because I’m a Brit and most of my HOs have been Brits. If you ask a Brit if they want you to re-make your bed for them (and if so, where’s the clean bedding, please?) there will only ever be one answer: “Oh… er… Don’t worry about that. Just leave it.”

22

IDK. When we leave a sit, the house is spotless (i.e., dishes done, floors and rugs vacuumed, things tidied up…), litterbox cleaned, and any sheets and towels left on the washing machine. As for food, we text the HO to see if they want any of the food we put in the fridge, freezer, and/or cabinets.

What else should anyone do?

23

Thank you for mentioning cleaning the litter boxes! I guess that would be the one thing that would irk me, if I came home from a long flight and the sitter left the boxes full…

24

Food waste is going to be left in the garbage by you or the homeowner; if the homeowner asks you nicely to discard it, then why not discard it?

25

Interesting take.

I leave instructions on what to do with the laundry, because what I’ve learned the most from THS (and this forum) is that common sense on how to leave a home is NOT a one-size-fits-all situation, and it’s better to give clarity than leave things ambiguous. I’ve had sitters strip the bed and leave the linens and used towels on the floor, which I really hate because 1) I’m not a hotel 2) I have a space for dirty laundry that I show sitters and ask them to use and most importantly 3), my cat once peed on bedding left on the floor after a sit just to let me know what she thought about it - never prior and never since, but for the love of Pete I don’t want to give her the opportunity.

After every sit I end up with new things I never knew I had to tell people, but we all have different ways of being. And lately sitters have not been reading the WG, so a message before the end of the sit it is, even though I also go over it during the video call because I don’t expect people to remember everything. I think of it as friendly, not infantilising, YMMV.

As for the OP - since you’ve sat for this HO before, did something change in their expectations since the last sit you did for them? I’d hope that both you and they are more comfortable with either other this time around. I’m shocked that no one has an extra set of bedding - if there is not a set of sheets to change over, I’d just strip the bed according to whatever arrangement was agreed to, hopefully before confirming. As for food, I think what you’ve said is totally reasonable.

26

Basically, we prefer joyful common sense contact during the video call :blush:
That usually saves everybody a lot of hassle afterwards.

We go the extra mile for the pets, communicate daily with photos and videos, and genuinely try to make the sit a relaxed and pleasant experience for everyone involved.

Most people honestly do not regularly check expiry dates in cupboards, and somewhere in the kitchen there is usually also a half bottle of wine quietly waiting for its next adventure :wine_glass:

We personally do not like wasting food, wine or perfectly usable products, so we often simply use them instead of throwing everything away. Apparently in modern times this can sometimes be seen as ‘risky behaviour’, but after more than 20 years of travelling, hiking and surviving questionable kitchens around the world, we are still very much alive :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

And the same goes the other way around. We are also perfectly happy to leave behind opened expensive bottles of liquor, fine pasta, chocolates or other good things for the next people. Life is too short for panic over an already opened package of pasta.

Until now we have never had complaints about that approach.

Our last sit was another really lovely one. One of the cats needed medication and extra care. We tried to make that as comfortable and stress free as possible, although for the cat it unfortunately remained a bit of an unpleasant experience anyway.

The HO invited us for dinner exactly during the time we would normally have been cleaning the house before departure. Honestly, it was not necessary at all because they already had a cleaning person arranged for that.

For us that is the ideal outcome: a win-win situation, good communication, happy pets, relaxed humans, and sometimes even new friendships on this tiny big planet :blush:

27

If I came home and found that the bag had been changed, I would be positively stunned. Then I would laugh hysterically.

28

Not sure if your reply was actually meant for me as the latter Part seems to be addressed to the OP. But just to clarify- I was speaking about the emails- check lists/tips etc -sent by THS before, during and after sits. I don’t read them anymore. They are helpful for newbies perhaps but not appropriate for highly experienced sitters. They are annoying overkill imho. But I definitely do try and follow all direct host instructions to a T. Esp things like laundry as everyone is different. E.g we used to always strip the beds and wash/dry/put back on (if time allowed.) But over time we learnt that some hosts will say ‘oh you didn’t need to do that’, ‘we prefer to wash the laundry ourselves’, just strip the bed and leave laundry in the bedroom/laundry’, ‘don’t strip the bed because the cats will leave hair all over the uncovered mattress’ etc etc. So now we always ask what the hosts would like us do, rather than anticipate. I just think there is no need for THS to get involved in all the small steps of arranging the sit and all the check ins- its irritating! Its all about good communication between host and sitter.

29

Beginning part was a response. Then I wandered… :innocent: Did not want to post back-to-back :slight_smile:

On this, ITA with you! :star_struck:

30

When we’re talking about food - are we talking about an open bag of coffee, or are we talking about a plastic container with cooked pasta in the fridge?
After having multiple sitters leaving their cooked food in the fridge I had to add this to guide, asking people not to leave any cooked food.

Some people hate throwing food more than anything. I hate facilitating them by having to throw their food for them, and I’m sure not eating that paste.

31

I tried to empty a Hoover bag once. After an hour working on what I assumed was the drum-opening mechanism with spanners, a monkey-wrench, a rheumatic-hands tin opener and YouTube, I somehow got it to give. By that stage, it had really got behind the project, so it gave with great enthusiasm.

… Two hours later, I was reasonably confident I’d removed the contents of the hoover bag from the kitchen counters, the inside of the grill, the edges of absolutely everything, three teacups, a 1950s standard lamp, the dog and my eyes. And ears. Since then, I haven’t emptied a bag.

32

I also have a Sitters Guide binder with different tabs in it. Behind each tab is the pertinent information I want the sitter to know about. And putting it in writing and asking a sitter to read through it eliminates the “I didn’t know that” syndrome. This way they don’t have to keep looking up the Welcome Guide. I also put notes on cabinets/closets revealing the content to make it a bit easier for the sitter. We clean the fridge out completely.

Our last sitter arrived with two coolers of food and there was plenty of room in the fridge and freezer for them.

We do invite our sitters to join us the night before so we can meet them in person and get an even better feel beyond the initial Zoom/Facetime/WhatsApp call. We invite them to join us for dinner too. We have no expectation for the sitter to prepare food for us if they are staying the night upon our return.

33

I hear about a lot of HOs who meet and have meals with sitters the day before a sit begins. What happens if there’s friction or doubts during those in-person meetings? Definitely could complicate things. Hopefully initial calls/video chats ensure that both parties are good matches.

34

I find the THS checklists and reminders incredibly insulting. I don’t know what kind of reminders Home Owners get but as a sitter, to have to be reminded that we need to let the HOs know we are coming a couple of days before hand, to be reminded how to write our application so that it appeals, to be reminded how to leave a home, etc., etc., really rankles. If an adult sitter is not capable of thinking of how to approach and deal with a sit they really should not be sitting.

35

Common sense isn’t as common as you would think. Too many people are just me me me. How would I like to be treated is always a good question and then treat others accordingly.

36

But they do. So there’s that.

37

True :slight_smile:

But that’s another conversation :slight_smile:

38

I’m late to this topic so I’m not sure if anyone will see this response. :rofl:. I read these forums from the THS community email I get every week or so with “popular topics”. Sometimes I fall behind. This was the second topic in the email while the first was “Free Holiday?” Which discussed the current advertising by THS and the subsequent downgrade in quality of both HOs and sitters using the platform.

We are now experienced sitters who previously used THS as HOs so we are familiar with both sides. I get how mature people might feel a “talked down to” with lists that, for the most part, state the obvious. However, it seems these lists are a way for THS to lay out expectations for the newbies who may not understand how this works. Sending pre-sit emails to HOs making sure the home is clean and welcoming for a sitter and sending pre-exit emails to sitters to leave the home clean and neat for the HOs return seems like something we WANT them to do!

39

Notes on cabinets/closets. I love this. Especially in kitchens when looking for cheese grater, sieve/colander, kitchen scissors, tin opener, cheese slice, in multiple drawers and cupboards.

I now carry my own scissors, mini grater, cheese slice, and tin opener for that reason, so I can always have these essential items to hand.

40

When a new comment is added on a thread we have previously read, and contributed to, it shows up as a number at end of topic title in pick list, so we will see it. :smiling_face_with_three_hearts: It’s never too late, if the theme is a general one like this,:slightly_smiling_face: but a tad annoying when people add to a thread about a specific situation which was listed months or even years ago and has been resolved, or even worse, when O.P. has even lost interest in it and no longer replies/engages.:thinking: