That’s an assumption you’re making. So you’re making my point for me. It’s leaving it up to the sitter to interpret what’s being implied. Better it should be brought up by the homeowner and discussed clearly and explicitly, starting in the listing. But I find I’m always the one who has to bring it up. And listings very rarely address cleaning.
As a homeowner (and occasional sitter), I want to thank you for your comment. That’s what it boils down to. It seems that many housesitters do not realise what an enormous matter of trust it is to leave the house and pets in the hands of mostly total strangers. My husband and I have had housesitters since 2007, several years before THS was founded. In those years the issue of end-cleaning never came up. It went without saying that it was done properly, meaning “leaving as you found”. Housesitting is a give and take. Unfortunately, and I am really quite generalising now, I have the impression that housesitting nowadays is regarded as a favour to the homeowners. And unfortunately I once had sitters who behaved as if they were on a holiday, just having a bit of fun with the animals and left the house, and in particular their accomodation, in very questionable condition. They did not show any respect for our propery and even left things broken without telling us etc. Luckily, though, other than that we’ve had really super sitters, and we have stayed friends with several of them.
Cleaning is really not my favourite thing to do either, and I am not at all obsessed, but it is part of housesitting and should to a certain extent be taken seriously. Talking with the HO ahead of time of course is always a good idea to prevent misunderstandings.
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Yes! I related to everything you said. Especially having sat in those gleaming sleek minimalist homes where any smudge will stand out.
They are very common where I do sits, in California. From my own travels, I think they are very unusual in the UK and most other countries. And if you’ve never done sits in those kinds of houses, it’s hard to understand why you feel you need to polish everything in order to not leave a single fingerprint and wipe the floor behind you as you walk out the door to leave!!
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General comment about pet hair/fur, which many people have commented on:
The pet would shed whether I (or any sitter) was there or not. The other stuff I clean is due to my being there, removing the impact I had on the house.
That’s why the time I was asked to pay for house cleaning at the last minute and most of the housecleaner’s time was spent vacuuming up hair/fur from the multiple pets, I felt a bit put out. I’d already been keeping the kitchen, bathroom etc clean from my own impact. And the homeowner would have had to pay the housecleaners to vacuum up all that hair/fur even if I hadn’t been there (e.g., if someone had just come in to feed the pets).
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I’m a HO. When the sitter arrives the house would be clean, I would expect my sitter to clean up after themselves. I have a standard poodle and he does not shed, so no pet hair to vacuum, and there is no carpet, so easy to keep clean. I would be happy if the house was in the same condition as the sitter found it.
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And another sitter has just started a new topic about being docked one star despite cleaning to the standard many people have said here is reasonable, but the owner was very picky. This is precisely why many of us “over clean”!
Topic is here: Once again docked a star for cleaning despite working hard
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It’s better to screen out those hosts in the first place, rather than to try to live up to unreasonable people.
To me, I’m never going to deep clean anyone’s house, simply because I’m not a professional cleaner. Plus, I live clean, so I don’t create anything that needs deep cleaning.
If sitting required deep cleaning, I’d just not sit.
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Oh they do exist in the UK as well. My strategy is to confine myself to as little rooms as possible and clean as I go.
If housesitters take care of pets, which to a large extent is the case and even the reason why people do housesit, accepting shedding and clean away the hair should really go without saying. I don’t quite understand why this is even an issue.
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I just always try to leave it a bit better than when I got there. I clean up where I’ve made a mess.
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I never do that unless I need it to be clean for me. This only happened once.
Sometimes I feel tempted to clean a kitchen drawer or something like that but that’s not important for me and I don’t want to indirectly judge the owners’ cleaning standards.
I was always taught to leave things the way I have found them. So, to me it’s common sense to clean up whatever mess I have left.
I treat others homes like my own. I would hate to leave a mess for them to clean up after me.
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My second sit was in an RV, in a RV park. Not the nicest, but OK. I never used the shower in the RV and did most of my business in the RV rec center toilet. I showered there every day. Just didn’t want to deal with any mess. It was a tight space, a lot of wires and things plugged in. Not easy to clean. So I kept it unmessy. I think all spaces are different. But I think cleaning what you use is the rule for me.
I clean as I go. The day before the sit ends I give the bathroom and kitchen a good cleaning (not deep cleaning) to make sure there are no stray hairs in the shower or grease/crumbs on the stovetop and sink. I will swifter / mop the kitchen and bathroom as these areas are frequently used and tend to need touching up at the end of the sit. I do not clean rooms I did not use. Upon arrival I close the doors to rooms I will not use. This ensures the pets do not go into these rooms and make a mess I have to cleanup later. The day the sit ends I take out the residual rubbish and recycling.
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I also do that but sometimes it’s not possible if those rooms are the familiar safe places for pets. But I keep my room closed. At least I keep that space free from pet hair and possible accidents.
I close doors depending on where the pets frequent and how well behaved they are. Like with cats, I take precautions right off and make sure all my luggage and anything else are shut away, till I get a read on them. Likewise with dogs who are rambunctious or into chewing.
But with some pets, having rooms open makes no difference. Like my current sit dog doesn’t make any trouble. She can wander throughout the house.
At home, our dog has run of the house and has never made a mess or chewed things he wasn’t supposed to. We adopted him and he’s always been that way.
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@Globetrotter - I wanted to suggest the “bring your own clean sheets” concept in this thread, and reading through your most “bothersome chore” thought this would be the right reply to do so… Then you beat me to it!
It takes a simple bit of advance coordination, but I think saves both parties the headache of stripping and remaking the bed (e.g. potentially at the start for the HO trying to prioritize other departure tasks and again for the sitter in the same predicament)… For shorter sits especially, it can also be a lot more sustainable!
I totally agree whirld.peas. We’ve done sits where the dryers have not been as good as ours at home and it certainly saves a lot of waiting around.
Trouble is, an HO could tell me they aren’t at all bothered about how clean the house is when they return, as long as the pets are happy… And I would STILL spend the best part of a day sweeping, mopping, wiping and hoovering. That’s just how I roll.
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That would also get around not having enough time to wash, dry and put the bedding back on too.
But i cant imagine anyone flying to a sit taking bedding with them.