Digital or Traditional, Spreadsheets or Memory, from planning sits and travel to storing images and memories, how do you organise, record and keep track of your housesitting lifestyles?
What’s the ‘go to’ travel hack you can’t live without?
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When it comes to the actual house sit, we do three things that keep everything straight for us.
First, once we confirm a house sit, we immediately make a contact in our phone with names, phone, address, etc. Then we utilize the note section to put important things to remember, like pet information, house sit dates, etc.
Second, we use our phone to set up alarms to remind us what day the trash needs to go out, when plants need watering, and any other time sensitive duties.
Third, when we arrive at a sit we take notes on our phone during the walkthrough with the owners. That way we have easy access to everything from a garage code and feeding details, to where the water shut off is.
This is a great topic, we can’t wait to hear everyone else’s tips!
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Can’t live without Trello and Google Photos!
We use Trello (it’s like a digital bulletin board/task and project planner) to organize literally everything. We use it to create checklists of things not to forget at house sits, questions to ask in the interview stage, even things we wanna see and explore in a place. Set reminders for planning trips, buying tickets, etc.
I take a lot of photos so Google Photos is a live saver. I never have to worry about losing photos of something happens to my phone, and it’s so easy to search by location, keyword, or date if I want to pull up a photo. I have unlimited storage because we have Google Pixel photos (also are on Google Fi worldwide cell phone plan which is great for international travel, never have to put in a new SIM card for each place).
And same, we also use our phones to set reminders for sit duties like taking the trash out, etc. We’re fully digital!
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We completely agree, and being totally digital sure helps to stay organized and pack light/minimally!
We also use Google Fi and very much appreciate not having to find a SIM locally for each country we visit.
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I keep a spreadsheet on Google Drive. I list dates (including extra days, like arriving early) address, owner’s “full” names, pets names, address, phone numbers, what’s app (if different), and email address. I can also make notes if needed. Because I have done this from the beginning I have a complete list of all 60 housesits and all the places we have gone when we are in transition.
The other nice thing about this “Google” spreadsheet is I share it with my family, they all know exactly where we are and were we are going next. They really appreciate knowing.
I also use Google calendar, also because It is sharable with my travel partner (my husband 
). I block out housesits, so he knows where he will be. LOL.
Ditto about pictures on Google photos. We usually take pictures the day the owner leaves, so we know if we move something etc, etc we can return it to where they were before we leave.
And ditto about traveling light - as full-time nomads it really is so much better to have less stuff to keep track of. We also mark phone chargers, cables, …, things that are ours with blue tape - that way we can spot common things that are ours and not to forget them.
Love to hear other ideas.
Great question.
Thanks.
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I use an old fashioned paper diary! I put the contact details of the owners in my phone and make sure all the information I need is in the string of emails. The dashboard on the website shows me my upcoming sits.
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We tend to use WhatsApp for contact information, paper diary for dates, and just use the THS messages for sit information. Prefer not to duplicate anything if at all possible.
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We use a spreadsheet as a calendar which we share across all our devices thru Dropbox so we can access anywhere, anytime. On this calendar we add important info re handover times etc. and a phone number. All colour coded.
Then we use Trello to store all the details of the sit and anything we discover on chats, followup calls etc. If we book a long way out we set notifications for “check-in” emails along the way. We also make a note of whether they have their own home book or use the THS welcome guide (which we try to encourage for newbies).
Whenever we book a sit we have a confirmation email that is send to confirm all the important details and dates, asking that they double check this to ensure no misunderstandings about handovers etc. It’s surprising how often people forget to add the handover day in. Especially important now with all the travel restrictions and potential changes to flights.
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Same as me then. I don’t need a spreadsheet nor google calendar. Must be my age! 
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Like the idea of a standard confirmation email with everything laid out. We always double-check and triple-check start and end dates as, like you mentioned, they often forget to include handovers. I think the site needs extra dates for owners to complete.
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I do the same with dates.
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You are so well organised. We just rely on the home owners for phone numbers and walk information and take our lead from them. Can’t ever print anything as don’t own a printer or a home.
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Oh thank heavens, the first in the thread with pen & paper 
I’m no Luddite but when I was planning for our (sadly curtailed) sitting lifestyle, I bought a nice notebook! It has removable pages and useful pockets. I don’t want to find that my battery is dead when I need that urgent vet’s number or similar.
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Always use a proper diary. You never know when web access will be unavailable and it’s great to see info and plans in black and white.
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How organised. Great tips, may try them. Everything is written down the old fashioned way and we do use the Dashboard although it is getting very messy this summer as people cancel trips or extend them but don’t alter their dates on site. Maybe there should be a reminder on how that is done as when we ask them to do it, the answer is inevitably don’t know how to do it. Grrrrr.
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I print out the welcome booklet, set notifications on my phone for trash/recycle, and anything else I may not automatically remember while at the sit, enter HO address and contact info into my phone and add extra notes in longhand on the printed pages. I am not a F/T sitter. The spreadsheet idea is great for full-timers and sharing them with family is very good idea. I use the app, All Trails, for finding good hikes. I also like Seek by Inaturalist for identifying plants. bugs, butterflies, reptiles and other things that I see in my travels.
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Google calendar synchronized with all my doodads so I can quickly check. I learned the hard way to get organized when I double booked travel to a sit. I had tickets via coach and train. The HO was expecting and waiting for me at the coach station and I was standing alone at night in the rail station!
It was embarrassing and I couldn’t apologize enough when it all got sorted out.
The HO was quite understanding and did not seem out out at all.
Now I set reminders.
We do the same!
Hi @ElsieDownie apparently homeowners can’t change the dates, which I suppose in some ways is a good thing.