No I have a window cleaner I’m older now don’t want to fall off steps and break my old weak bones.
I understand the fear, I’m always on the lookout for trip hazards, I don’t want to fall and break a hip.
I can reach my windows without any steps thankfully because I’ve never heard of a window cleaner where I live.
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@sandydandy, your example seems to neatly reflect the fair trade aspect of housesitting. Provided that it’s value-add for both parties, rather than “employer” of voluntary employee, then all good. Enjoy Hawaii!
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I thought I’d pop on and share this blog, which has some great tips for owners, as sitters do you think these cover off everything?
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One thing I totally agree with on the original post is how clean or how dirty a house is subjective. What I think is filthy maybe just untidy to someone else and what another sitter sees as unacceptable I may think is ok. We are not here to judge others life style choices. We go and look after animals and property in a fair exchange. Like most people who have commented, I make sure that the spaces we are using are cleaned to my standard and ignore the rest. And when I leave I only clean those spaces we have lived in. As for windows, I’ll wipe the dogs slavers off but that’s it. I don’t clean windows or iron. Never have and never will. Mark me down if you like.
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Thankfully I don’t have to deal with dog slabber. I stick to cats and small animals, there can be a lot of cage and litter tray cleaning with that though.
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In all my years of house sitting the only point on that list that I have seen being consistently done is providing a supply of pet food.
The rest are all very hit and miss. Even homes that look clean when you enter them reveal some nasty surprises at times. There may have possibly been 50% - 75% of those done on 75% of my sits but in some homes very little has been done. If it’s a reasonably clean home to begin with that’s not too much of a problem but if it’s a home that is in a perpetual state of chaos then it can be a big problem. Thankfully I’ve never arrived at one that I felt I should leave but I am very sure that some sitters would have left.
It doesn’t particularly bother me but, if this is the standard that THS aspire to, then they really need to up their game in communicating this with home owners.
If sitters do not give honest reviews (which is rare) then the problem will persist. Even though it doesn’t particularly bother me, with the new review system in place, I can break my review down more so I can indicate to others that a home may not be up to the standard they require.
On the other side of the coin, I see an increasing culture of resistance to cleaning/house care/garden care among sitters. So many posts saying, “I’m not a maid”, “that’s not my job”, 'that’s a paid job" etc etc.
Give and take seems to have gone out the window.
And one other point. Several years ago I did mark a sit as a 4* , not because I didn’t enjoy it, because I did, in spite of cleanliness issues, but because everyone on here was saying we needed to leave honest reviews and I felt that for most sitters it would have been a 3* or 4*. When I mentioned it on here I was criticised for doing so because I was told I should have discussed it with the owner first, and I had ruined her chances of ever getting another sitter. So it seems you can’t win 
.
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@CathyCat We are sitters as well as homeowners.
You asked about strategies used by other sitters to cope with a dirty home.
In our minds, the only strategy that makes us feel better is to mention facts (about clean or not clean) in our review.
Regardless of how much cleaning a sitter will do to make oneself feel okay with the sit, do you mention these facts – about the home being clean or not so clean – in your reviews?
Yes I do get it in there somewhere without being rude or, hopefully, not insulting.
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@CathyCat Good! It can be hard to be tactful sometimes, right? 
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It can but I think it’s a bit like using estate agent/realtor language, it can be subtle but other sitters know exactly what you mean and it helps now having the star system.
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A thousand times this!
What’s being advised here is to give the homeowners of a dirty home a free thorough housecleaning on top of doing pet and house sitting duties. No, no, no.
We are housesitters, not house cleaners. We should clean up anything we do while we’re there (and the pets do), but that’s it.
I always ask HO’s, “So, as far as cleaning goes…leave it as I found it, yes?” And they always happily agree. I usually do at least somewhat more than that, just to be sure they will be happy (and so far they always are).
But I will not do housecleaning chores that the HO didn’t bother to do before I arrived.
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As a sitter, I will clean what I (or the pets) get dirty while I’m there.
I don’t get the windows dirty while I’m there! That’s more on the order of deep house cleaning (same with cleaning the inside of the fridge), and it is NOT something an unpaid housesitter should be expected to do, ever, ever.
It’s frankly ridiculous to say that a sitter should do any deep cleaning tasks, like windows or insides of fridges, etc.
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I agree with you that a first look doesn’t tell you how clean the house is. (Ditto for when the HO does a walk around on a video call, although that’s helpful.) The toilet, bottoms of sinks, inside of fridges and cupboards, the shower and even the sheets on the bed can all be problematic and you won’t know until you start to settle in, after the HOs have left. You’re not going to open the cupboards, fridge, shower door or toilet seat when they’re doing a walk around w/you!
It hasn’t happened to me often, but it has happened.
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If I find myself in this situation I would rather attend to it myself in preference to leaving. Some sitters say they would ask the homeowner to send in a cleaner. I would prefer to do it myself rather than have the disruption of having a cleaner brought in.
Everyone is different, I thought the suggestion was an excellent one but it’s not the only solution, which is why I asked for other suggestions.
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Surely every sitter cleans the fridge before they leave? I would have thought that was a very basic task. And on a long sit it’s going to require regular cleaning. I don’t clean windows every week in my own home but it’s still a regular occurrence.
I’m beginning to wonder if I am a ‘clean freak’ what I consider routine cleaning others appear to consider deep cleaning. When someone mentions deep clean to me I think of cleaning carpets, washing curtains, cleaning inside cupboards etc. That’s what I would call spring cleaning, only to be done once a year.
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Yes it can be surprising, a first glance tells very little really. It’s only once you start living in a place that you begin to notice things.
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I agree and have had to clean a few of the houses I have sat. However I make myself feel better by knowing I am leaving the house in a better condition than when I arrived and have always got a 5star review with a mention of how clean the house was on return. This helps to promote me as a top sitter so a bonus in the end!
I always view the house photos with care zooming in if necessary. I once sat at a house where the hob had gravy stains on. Weeks later when we arrived at the sit I couldn’t believe that they were still there!!!
My real problem is with clutter as I am unsure about moving things or tidying things away? What is your view? Do you move things to better locations? I have put kitchen appliances away in cupboards to make more room on counter tops. I don’t see the point in leaving all appliances out if they are not used on a daily basis. It looks messy and creates more work cleaning round everything. But should I put them back? I must admit that I don’t and I’ve never had a complaint yet!
Again I now view the house photos to see if there is any clutter. If they haven’t bothered to tidy for the photos for all to see, then they probably aren’t going to make it any better for the sit!
I don’t deep clean, nor clean beyond how a home was left to me, yet I’ve received raves for cleanliness and tidiness on all of my sits. I just completed sit 25 a few days ago and the hosts likewise texted such, among their appreciation.
I only clean after myself and the pets, and don’t clean windows. (I would only if I dirtied them or maybe if the pets did while I was there.) I don’t clean anything I didn’t use. In larger homes I sit, I often don’t even enter some rooms or some floors in multi level homes.
If some hosts expect sitters to leave their homes cleaner than they handed them off, I wouldn’t want to sit for them, because they’re looking for more than a fair trade.
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I take photos of things before I move them so I know where to put them back. I also makes a list on my phone of things to remind myself. For example if I remove plug in air fresheners and put them outside I need to reito replace them, or if I take a battery out of a ticking clock I need to remember to put it back and set the clock to the correct time.
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