How did you learn about Trusted Housesitters?

Fun Stuff
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In the end of 2017 my husband and I started to research and plan our “year of travel” as we were starting the process I came across a few websites/blogs that had mentioned TrustedHousesitters and I was amazed! I thought it was the best idea EVER especially as we were so eager for any kind of pet interaction as we had longed to get a pet for years but work/travel wouldn’t allow it. What a perfect blend for those of us that want to travel and have the connection and bond with a loving pet…and yes save money too!

We signed up that night and were a little leery if we could even land a housesit. We had past experience taking care of pets for friends and family that was paid and thankfully those references paid off because we were able to book two sits in Australia. We were a little flabbergasted but excited! We didn’t do any video calls just emailed back and forth. We had no idea what the homeowners looked like until they picked us up at the airport. We fell in love with one of the dogs in particular Miles and English Springer Spaniel…this dog was something special and was the cure for us weary travelers that were in need of some good dog love. He’s the reason we ended up getting an English Springer Spaniel months after our trip around the world. We’re still in frequent communication with Miles’ parents in Cains and now we use THS regularly to take care of our dog…and this year we have our very first housesits lined up as a family of three. We’re so excited to now bring our daughter on the housesitting journey and hope someday to take her to some mini-farm housesits as she loves animals, we love slow travel with a toddler and want to continue to foster that love of animals and travel with her.

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Hi @FranklyT52 I went ahead and added your THS sitter profile link to your forum profile link so other members can easily find your page and provide helpful feedback if you wish. Please let us know if there is anything else we can help you with. Welcome to the THS community and happy travels!

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Welcome, @FranklyT52! Congratulations on entering this new chapter. I see you’re in Plano. I’m not too far away, in Van. If I were closer to the DFW area, I’d consider more sits in the area. The short ones can be a great mini vacation! Many like to travel farther, of course. Where do you want to sit?

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We learned about THS from friends of us. They used this side for some time and always mentioned to us, we should do the same. It took a while, because I am not a Cell phone person, or Computer person at all and really have to steal the time to sit on my laptop to do the work and research. I do not regret to join and hope to find future solutions to make traveling easier. I guess there is nothing better out there than THS.

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I was writing a book on how to plan, fund and execute a life of full-time, long-term travel for a well known travel publication. House and pet sitting came up while I was doing my research and THS was one of the many platforms. So we gave it a try to get further insight, found we loved being sitters and were good at it, so decided to make it one pillar of our full-time adventures. (The other 2 are bicycle touring and back packing)

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When I started fulltime traveling I joined some Dutch sites and a paid site for housesits.
The Dutch sites have mainly Dutch houses so that didn’t really work.
The paid site was good, I had some very nice international sits from it.
But… not really crowded, as in many sits.

So I googled more and finally saw THS, checked it and was surprised by the many international housesits.

Together with a nice app and forum it’s my main site for housesitting.

Strange that I only found it after hours and hours of googling.
THS can increase their findability for sure.

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Thank you @CamperCarl for joining in with the suggested thread, and I am pleased that you finally found TrustedHousesitters! :clap:t2::slightly_smiling_face:

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@Samox24: Thanks for reminding us about this thread! How did you hear about TH?

I guess I should share my story, but it’s really innocuous. In summer 2022, I was chatting (texting) with a world-traveler friend, and I probably mentioned Airbnb or couchsurfing. And she said, what about TrustedHousesitters.com? I had never heard of that, but I’m trying to have a growth/improve mindset, so I went to the website. Interesting idea. My friend doesn’t really pet sit and isn’t a TH member, but she probably heard about it from a travel site or magazine.

I was in the middle of a 100-day train trip around the U.S. At some point, I was going to Minnesota and then Chicago and didn’t have a friend to stay with. I decided to pay for a year of TH and hope to find a last-minute sit to save money vs an Airbnb. That was a bit naive of me, and I don’t think I even found anything available to apply for. Oh well.

When I got home to rural/East Texas, I felt I should try to get at least one sit and see what it was like. I also noticed the forums.

I’ve done only 4 sits on TH so far, but thankfully they’ve gone well and the PPs all seemed happy. I’ve also learned a lot about what I want and don’t want. Turns out that I like staying home! :sweat_smile: My favorite part of TH is reading on the forums about people’s journeys. I don’t mean like traveling around the world, but the personal growth from newbie sitter to super-experienced sitter. Then seeing those experienced sitters encourage the new newbies.

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I saw an ad in a magazine back in 2017. I was at vet school so it looked ideal! Told my bf (new at the time) all about it and he was also sold. We started with a house sit in Bath and havent looked back. I have a WFH job with travel all over Scotland so i use it for work and pleasure! Plus seeing friends and family all over the UK, it’s brilliant and we’re always telling ppl about it. Every sit is an adventure :purple_heart:

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THS sounded like a perfect solution for this pet mom who struggled to figure out how to go somewhere and have good care for my pets. I found them online and did some investigating before joining. Excited to meet my sitters visit my son for a week in San Diego next week

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@Max2 thank you so much for joining in with the suggested thread and have a lovely time in San Diego next week :clap:t2::slightly_smiling_face:

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I first heard about THS through a friend of the family who has used the site for a few years and had great results.

We used to get a company to pop in a few times a day when we just had the cats but I always felt guilty that they were on their own over night and no one was there to play. When we got our puppy the idea of putting her in a kennel left horrible and love the idea of all the kids (pets) can stay in their own environment where they feel safe plus the extra sense of house security with someone being in is a bonus.

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I joined in autumn 2012, then it was hard to get a first sit, there were not that many and it wasn’t as organised as it is now. I had lived in France and looked after people’s pets locally when they went on holiday or visits back to England but I didn’t live in. My partner became ill with a rare untreatable blood disease. When I came back to England a friend from France suggested this and another site. I looked at both and joined TH and did my first sit in Norwich for 5 weeks for a Professor from the university. It was a first sit for her to and she was going to India for textiles and would be out of touch most of the time.
I met her at Christmas she had the builders in they would be finished by February she said. They weren’t of course, ( wouldn’t be allowed now) it was a baptism of fire. But I had a great time catching up with friends and relatives and living in a house that had been Anna Sewell’s of Black Beauty fame. I could have gone back to work when I came back to England, instead I do house sitting, see loads of places and meet new people.

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My daughter was a full-time travel blogger for five years, and she and her husband, who’s a writer, enjoyed many sits through Trusted Housesitters during that time, many throughout the UK. She’s the one that recommended that we take a look at Trusted Housesitters as HO and we’ve been using it now for a number of years. She found out about Trusted Housesitters from other bloggers/travelers on Facebook. They now have a five year old and she has a part-time job that she can do remotely, so they still do many sits, but primarily keep to the western third of the U.S.

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Just before I retired in 2019, a work colleague said my husband and I would be great house/pet sitters (she was right :joy:). She told me she had used THS for a cat sitter. I was a bit dubious at first and thought it was a scam as it sounded too good to be true! Here we are 20+ sits later…

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It was the beginning of 2014, I had just received my Dutch passport after years and years and years of trying! I had rented my house out and decided to embark on a European trip, starting in Amsterdam to acknowledge my thanks for the best gift ever!

A friend in South Africa said she had stumbled on TrustedHousesitters and thought I should give it a go. My first sit was in Zurich for 2 months, then onto France for 5 weeks, It was a wonderful and exciting start to a truly fabulous journey for me, and I have met so many wonderful pets and people along the way.

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I heard about trusted Housesitters from a co-worker who had been referred to them but had never actually used them. I was very excited by the idea, but a bit overwhelmed with having to set up the profile, take the pictures, etc., and then review and interview the applicants. I ended up not using TH for my long trip last year as another solution came up. But when I got my kitty (during the pandemic) I promised myself to not let that stop me from traveling and it was getting harder to keep asking friends. Especially since my kitty is very social and outgoing, more like a dog, so I was having to find people to come twice a day. I’m intrigued with eventually signing up as a sitter, as I love to travel and like the idea of staying in one place for a week or two. But for now I want to get more comfortable offering my home to sitters and how to make that easy and comfortable for both of us.

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Before I retired I was working evening customer service for a bank. We weren’t very busy at night so we all spent a lot of time on the internet. I came across an article online about things people do after they retire. One of the things was house sitting and they mentioned THS. I started sitting a month after I retired 4 years ago. I leave tomorrow for sit #34. It’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made!

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Oh, Geoff, I had laughing-tears in my eyes, reading this;
Yes, I thought, I love to stay home!, too.

Then, I read further, and agreed again, I love the forum, and how it assists me, and others, in winding along on this road, learning, and growing in the process.

Thank you for being here, for your contributions, Geoff, and for your story.

I knew I was moving to Scotland, but not sure how to decide where to live, or how to enjoy exploring my many ancestral homelands in an affordable way, and in a way that allowed me to be of service, as I travelled.

In 2016, I had posted an ad on local community pages, in Orkney, Scotland, to start, and found 4 places to stay by asking locals if I could have a room and bath in exchange for my list of services(Permaculture design, walk/train dogs, horses, eco-deep cleaning/organis/zing, cooking dinners, etc.). It was really nice, and inclusive and felt great, to be welcomed by strangers and to be included in their lives, concerts, ceilidh dances, hearing their dreams, and visiting grandma! I stayed with 4 new friends for 4 months in Orkney, and loved it. I did research and found 33 generations of my lineage from Orkney.

One day, in 2022, I did a search for HOUSESITTING, and found TH.
I joined shortly after. 95 applications later, including many simple requests asking if their dog/animals would welcome my Assistance Dog, and I had been invited to accept wonderful opportunities in many places in England + Scotland, where I wanted to walk with my ancestors. It has been so rich; I am now sitting on my 6th Sit, through TH.

It has been really great for my girl, Tarkina, who has become very happy meeting new dogs, playing and running with a new friend often, and having great company, that is always changing.

We are very grateful to be living this story now, and for all the ways it invites integrity, self-trust, clear communication, self-knowledge, discernment and fun, fun, fun, sharing, and connecting with places and people with a sense of ease, and magic. I always mention on Day One of a Sit; this is WILD! I just love it; the exchange, the sharing a meal, and connection before they leave, and feeling the rhythm of the home before it grows quiet in their absence. I like being able to feel their energy in their home, so I can hold that field for the dogs, cats and horses, and plants.

I was brand new in Feb 2023, and now I feel part of something purely magical.
Thank you all, Thank you, Geoff,

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Aloha, Love, Claire + Tarkina

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I probably learned of THS around 2014-15, from Jodi Ettenberg aka the Legal Nomads blog. My partner and I did a RTW trip from 2017-18 and did not get it together to add THS to our travel routine (although we did end up petsitting a couple of times on the road!). I have been a member of couchsurfing for over a decade, both hosting and surfing, and the mutual exchange involved in THS really appealed to me. I’ve stayed in so many peoples’ homes over the years, and having animals around always makes it better!

After the end of our trip, we ended up on opposite continents, and I took the plunge and signed up as both sitter and PP… at the end of 2019 :joy: :smiling_face_with_tear: :confused:

Nowadays, I either travel to see my boo, or we travel together with limited time, so I am ‘just’ a PP right now. I eventually hope to start sitting, as that was the original draw for me.

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