I was on a Sit where the dog nibbled her teat and it poured with blood! She had to wear one of those collars where they take “out” everything they come in contact with! the Owner had a long low cupboard with many photos, ornaments etc which I removed in case the dog took them “out”… Unfortunately when the vet said the collar could be removed I couldn’t remember where any of the items went. Not the end of the world, but I like to leave things just right. The next time I did that Sit, I took photos. Fortunately nothing untoward happened on that occasion.
As a HO I am more than happy for any sitter to use what is in the larder and most of the items in the freezer. If there is anything we particularly want I would say. I am grateful for the sitters looking after our pets. Enjoy our home produced beef and veg from the garden. We want to make your stay happy.
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Greetings from Wales where all is well.
My hosts cut their trip very short and We have been having too much fun. Staying cool “running”
through the sprinklers.
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Interesting thread. As a relative new housesitter on my 3rd sit I’ve seen the full spectrum from Homeowners. The first sit was some distance from any supermarket so the HO kindly said they’d do a grocery shop for me. Which they did and put in their spare fridge. They said to help myself to anything else but apart from some fruit that was on the turn and condiments I just used the food provided. The next sit the HO told me and left instructions not to touch any food in their house as it belonged to them and not me! I obviously abided by these rules. The current sit they took me shopping on the handover and asked me to use milk, eggs, bread that was going out of date and anything else I wanted. I have used the things that were going to waste (I’m a bit OCD on food waste and always try to use all food buy!).
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It will vary. Each sit is a unique experience. You just have to be prepared and don’t be shy to ask about where and how to access what you need.
Most will offer what they can, a trip to stock up is something I ask for in rural places.
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I tell every sitter to use whatever they find in my pantry, refrigerator and freezer. Some do but more do not. I really mean it as I appreciate them taking care of my pets and home.
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It varies so much from Sit to Sit.
From being offered nothing at all to being given free run of everything! And its not dependent on the wealth of the host! One host told us how much it would cost- per night- to put her 2 dogs in kennels and that we were free to use absolutely anything- in particular encouraging us to drink any wine & bubbly etc as (they said) there was no way we could possibly use anything close to what her costs would otherwise be! They also took us out to dinner and brought us presents! They were just so very grateful to have us! Such a great (though rather exceptional) attitude of appreciation. As a result we have sat for them 3 times and would never abuse such generosity! On the contrary if hosts offer nothing at all, not even the left overs in the fridge that clearly won’t survive their trip, it does sometimes feel like they are just taking advantage of a ‘free’ service.
Most hosts are somewhere inbetween these extremes and many are very generous.
We never actually have expectations regarding food stuffs- we always expect to provide all our own food & when on a road trip like now we carry lots of supplies - but if hosts leave us a bottle of wine or encourage us to use fridge or pantry stuff, or veggies from the garden etc it does give a good feeling & makes us feel appreciated.
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wow - I want to sit for this person!
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If offered to “help yourselves” we would use small quantities of spices, herbs, sauces etc but would replace anything that ran out and then add one or two new additions before leaving based on what they seem to like. If we did use any store cupboard staples we’d simply replace ‘like for like’.
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I’m curious, do they actually say “don’t touch anything in the fridge or the cabinets” or do you just assume you aren’t allowed because they don’t mention it?
When we first started out, we would always ask what we can use in the house, but to be honest, after 15 sits, we rarely bother to discuss it any more. Home owners often bring it up and say go ahead, but even if they don’t, we still use up or toss out anything that will go bad before they return, and we use a little of the condiments and spices or baking ingredients and replace any if we use too much. I always err on the side of replacing too much, rather than too little.
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When I say help yourself, I mean, herbs, spices and condiments, and any perishables, and anything from the larder,but if you do use up the last tin of beans or whatever, replace it so I don’t go expecting to find a tin next time I fancy some. When it comes to alcohol I expect moderation. A couple of beers maybe, a few of shots, but not like one sitter who drank 10 cans of beer and replaced them with four…
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Hi
I always buy things for the sitter, I usually ask what they like etc, and they can help themselves to anything in the fridge, freezer, pantry, and a tipple if they fancy one.
I had one lady who literally drank everything lol, she was funny, cats loved her.
I usually friendly decline offers like @Jan24 just mentioned, as I think it goes a bit overboard and it makes me feel kind of “overpaid” - especially if the HO even offers me unlimited consumption of wine and beer! An exception could be if there is really a lot of work to do for the sitter. Let’s say if you have a milk cow farm and the sitter is supposed to do three hours of milking every morning or something like that. However, there are other organisations for such kinds of arrangement, such as Wwoof (Willing Workers on Organic Farms) where the members get free accommodation plus full catering, but that is in exchange for half a day’s hard work. With THS, if we are only looking after a couple of pets, I believe that free accommodation is reward enough and the home owner does not need to feel obliged to give anything more than that.
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This was my first time using this service as a HO. In the past we’ve always had a family friend house sit for us, but they moved away for their medical residency. We decided to give this app a try after reading great reviews.
We said “help yourself to anything in the kitchen” and truly meant it. We didn’t have much in our fridge that wouldn’t keep past the sit date. We planned our groceries and dinners based on our travel schedule. I even made the sitter a goodie and snack basket full of their favorite items and foods.
When we came back, we were cleaned out. We have a full list of items we have to replace and it keeps growing every day once we find something new is missing. We feel like our hospitality was taken advantage of and are starting to feel weird in our own kitchen when we go to use something and it’s not there. And we swear we had the item before and it wasn’t even close to running out. It’s honestly making us feel a little crazy trying to think if we had that item before we left or not.
Are we overreacting because we told the sitter to help themselves? We don’t know if we want to use the service again or if we do, be more explicit in our instructions. We never thought this would happen or we would have been more specific.
Thanks in advance for the advice or comments!
Hello @Lparksandrec I’m a sitter and have been with TrustedHousesitters for almost eight years. I recently sat for fairly new owners. They said almost the same as you ’ help yourself to anything’. I smiled, thanked them, and then cautioned them to be more specific with other sitters (I knew I would not abuse their offer).
I explained that I’d hate to see someone take advantage of them, or misunderstand their hospitality. I’m not sure I convinced them, but will now share your experience with them. Sadly, your negative experience - which I’m hopeful is rare - will teach at least one owner to be more specific.
I’m truly sorry to hear of this experience as there are many (I hope most) sitters on this site who truly can be trusted to be respectful and appreciative of your generosity.
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Lparksandrec. Your experience is very unfortunate and it is certainly not the norm.
It sounds like you were very generous making a snack basket for the sitter which was very kind and unfortunately your kindness was not reciprocated.
There seem to be the odd sitters out there that take home owners literally when they say help yourself to anything and apparently cannot be given that open invitation. I believe most sitters like myself, use the odd condiment and fresh food that will not last until the HO’s return when offered.
I would feel really uncomfortable eating food from HO’s pantry/supplies even when given that invite, we always plan to purchase all our required groceries.
May I ask how long the sit was for?
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@Lparksandrec I agree wholeheartedly with @Kootenaigirl’s comment. This is not the norm and we would feel very uncomfortable to use the HO’s pantry food. On the very odd occasion that we did, we promptly replaced it during our next shopping trip.
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Oh my goodness, your experience is exactly what happened with our last sitters.
I had said “help yourself” but had no idea the extent of items that were gone. We also felt “a little crazy” as we kept noticing the food, baking supplies, dry goods that were gone or almost all gone. All previous house sitters replaced what they used and we assumed that all house sitters did the same. It was a very discouraging experience. They were here for two months.
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It’s really not the norm to clean out the whole kitchen and not to replace absolutely anything, but keep in mind cultural differences (sometimes even within a country) and the variety of attitudes. Our current host is explicit: “help yourself to anything” is to be taken literally and we can eat as much as we like (which isn’t going to be a lot in 4 days). In other cases we’re not 100% sure and use supplies sparingly.
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My last HO’s didn’t seem very happy when they said ‘Help yourself to anything’ and I took their fridge, cooker and kitchen table when I left! 