Hello @HOOPS4 and a warm welcome to the Community Forum and thank you for your contribution to this thread
For reference as a member, you can also add your TrustedHousesitters profile on to your Forum profile by following the attached link, should you wish. This will then enable others to offer you helpful advice and feedback.
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I have attached a thread below, it would be great if you could join in with this as we think you could offer great feedback and your input would be a great addition.
Iām doing all of these in my current home city (Seattle) - there seems to be a huge amount of sits here. Just want to build up some credibility and experience before I venture out into the rest of the world!
I messed. I cooked fish and after I was going to clean the sink and the dishes. The house had several cleaning products but I found out all of them were empty. I hate fish smell and had to think quick. I took toilet bowl blue cleaner and thought nothing about it. Unfortunately, they leave strike on stainless steel . I went to Home Depot, told my problem and learned it will go away but with time. Endless the HO was not happy.
Iām not a sitter but a user of Trustedhousesitters and I think that was incredibly harsh to make you pay Ā£350 for sheets (very expensive sheets??). You can by whiteners that will remove pink/red wash disasters and I would have tried that and if everything had been great otherwise it wouldnāt have been an issue. I wouldāt let it put you off.
Hi @LisaJ and itās lovely to see you posting again on the Forum
I have attached a thread below and it would be great if you could join in with this as we think you could offer great feedback and your input would be a great addition
I am not sure when your sit was with the sheets I would have scoured the internet for solutions to take the pink out. I would have attempted to replace the sheet, and I would not have given the host money. I agree with others who said that it was in poor taste of the host to take $350 from you AND to make you feel like you still didnāt do enough to rectify the situation. My advice would be to:
Relax and enjoy the sit but do the job with the upmost integrity and care.
Always video call with a host beforehand, ask lots of questions.
Do not take any sits where the host does not seem kind.
Continue doing sits and use resources like the internet, if you have problems.
I have screwed up on a few occasions too. One time I took the dog on walk and it got super muddy. He was not trained well and upon entering the house, I accidentally let him slip by me and he jumped on the couch leaving mud everywhere. I spent days cleaning it. Luckily the internet is full of advice on how to fix and clean things. It was stressful.
I would prefer sitters not to replace broken items. A sitter locally-not THS once broke a bowl in the kitchen and replaced it with an identical one. She didnāt know that I hated it and would have been delighted to have got rid of it.
I broke an expensive wine glass on current sit - I told the HO who said ānot to worry these things happenā but I felt bad about it .
It was a make that I hadnāt previously heard of but when I did a Google search for it I quickly discovered that it is very expensive
A quick search on eBay and someone was selling a pair of these glasses BNIB - I made a cheeky offer , explaining my predicament .
. For a fraction of the new price I bought them - but there was only a couple of days to go before the sit ended .
I am here to report that minutes before we left the sit the parcel arrived with glasses intact
You sound like a conscientious sitter that needs to be out there helping homeowners by pet sitting! Life happens, mistakes happenā¦and admitting them is the best remedy.You may be young, but you are wise and teachable and that will serve you well!
Once I went into the wrong backyard looking for the hidden key to enter a sit! Oops! Thanksfully, it ended up ok.
Mistakes happen! ā¦be kind to yourself. It is unfortunate that the Homeowner wasnt more understanding. You took responsibility and paid for replacement. Learn from it and put that knowledge into your future sits. Personally, I also had a miss-hap with SHEETS. LOL. The homeownerās pup had separation anxiety and told me when I left to always make sure my bedroom door was locked, since the dog will rip the sheets out of anger that we left it at home. Well, on our last day the door wasnāt completely shut and I came home to destroyed bedsheets. I was so upset that I didnāt double check the door before leaving the home. Lucky for me the sheets were Target brand, $50 value. The Homeowners told me no worries but I offered to pay for replacement, just like you. Thatās the responsible thing. The design was no longer available so I purchased a gift card for them and left it with a card/flowers. The owners left me a very nice review.
I took the experience and now make sure that if there are special instructions, I write them out on a post it and put it on the doorā¦ and triple check before I go out. LOL.
Get out there and get more sits under your belt. Pick ones that will be joyful and you feel a good connection with the owners. I hope your next sit is joyful.
I thought my last sitter had broken my espresso machine so I reached out to her (even apologized for bothering her with it) to understand what she had done to try to make coffee so I could figure out the problem and see if I could fix it, but honestly I wish she had reached out and asked questions (which I told her to do for anything) instead she felt like she would be bothering and tried to use it on her own and put coffee in the wrong pocket of the compartmentā¦ lol so it was really dirty and water was coming through the sides, but it wasnāt broken! she offered to pay for the damage, but our thought process was, āoh we could just get a nicer one one nowā my partner even started shopping for a new one not to say that what we have is crap, but sometimes accidents happen.
I found a couple of other little things broken too but not worth the time or money to even mention.
@wendy_chicago this is why when I sit, I use almost nothing belonging to the homeowners. I bring my own pots, pans, kettle, coffee, tablecloths, blender, juicer, etc. Iām scared Iāll break something or not use it correctly
Wow! Thatās a lot to carry around!
All the previous sitters we had just stayed away from the espresso machine and simply used the French press or air press even though they were welcome to use it but they always declined when I asked if they wanted me to show them. itās not an nespresso but itās not a commercial machine either.
I leave manuals for my appliances and usually I offer to show them how to use it but she arrived late and I had a flight to catch.
@IHeartAnimals you comment about bringing everything (but the kitchen sink!) made me giggle! Iām sure most HOs are not monsters and you donāt need to be afraid to use their things! But I do understand where you are coming from!
Personally there ARE things that we too always travel with because they are not always present. Most essential is our stovetop expresso pot! And a good supply of coffee till we can find a good local brand! A collapsible steamer- that fits all size pots and our IKEA feather pillows! These 3 items go with us everywhere around the world even when we are only taking hand luggage! Some things really are essential!
@Lokstar yes it makes me laugh a little as well. Luckily everything is small camper sized and youāre right, most homeowners are really kind about eating and using stuff in their homes. But since there are five of us, it puts me at ease that our kids donāt accidentally misuse something, scratch something, etc. One day when itās just me and my husband, watch out because we will use their Expresso machines and their bikes!
I use almost nothing belonging to the homeowners. I bring my own pots, pans, kettle, coffee, tablecloths,
OMG Iām not the only one?
I prefer to use my own equipment to conduct my online cooking classes when I travel, so I have an entire kitchenās worth of stuff (refined to very specific tools, bowls, cookware, etc.) that I keep in my car all the time anyway.
not to say that what we have is crap, but sometimes accidents happen.
