We make it a standard departing phrase to each home owner ‘if you cannot find something please contact us to find where we have put it (mistakenly) or to discuss it’.
Perhaps make that similar comment from an owners perspective to departing sitters.
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With respect @Regi you joined yesterday, your first post suggests all sitters are thieves, then you disappear.
I’m hoping you do come back to this thread and clarify your post.
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good idea, will do this in future.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to offend anybody but this is the reason I joined because the community because I wanted to hear if someone came across the same problem and obviously not…
We had already 11 sitters since we joined over a year ago and I have had very good experiences so far and actually was very happy…but you normally don’t find out straight away if items are missing so I can’t and don’t want to accuse any of my sitters but you are asking yourselves what’s wrong when items disappear (Paella pan, blood pressure monitor and 2 big very nice tea mugs) since the place is very tidy and all of theses items have had their own spot, we have a room where we to lock valuables in, but not everything.
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No answer to my question of which items were missing either. Could have been a toilet roll or olive oil.
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Why don’t you go for the “don’t suppose you put the paella pan/tea mugs/blood monitor” somewhere different on your sit by any chance?” As can’t find them for love nor money.” You’ll either get an oops, yes they are in this place. An “oh man, so sorry I accidentally packed it” (only possible with BPM I think) or radio silence or “we broke them and didn’t want to tell you” which is also a possibility. Worth a try @Regi 
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My mother used to accuse me of taking things. I became an expert finder of misplaced things. It happens. She still calls me to find things and I haven’t lived in the same home for 40 years.
Cuttlefish, I agree, just a polite query as it is easy to put thing back in different places. But it should be written nicely without any accusations. I was really upset at a massage I received from one previous owner. It was sent a couple of weeks before Christmas; likely th only time ever used. This was also well over five months since I had completed the housesit. No pleasant intro with the message it just said, 'I have looked everywhere for (them) and can’t find (them), where did you put them? And that was it no signing off or anything. As far as I was aware not seen or used. I sent a polite reply back to that effect and added that if I had used them, they would have been put back in a certain drawer with smaller similar items. Never received any acknowlegement whatsoever. This was a sit where I had owners uni son and friends traipsing through for a couple of days. A cleaner a couple of times a week. Gardener various times, as well as lodger from across the way. And prior to holiday departure they had actually mislaid things, that they were looking everywhere for. A very large house. I just felt the tone of the message was very accusing. and not written in a nice way.
Sounds like a bad experience. In retrospect, are there any things you would’ve done differently with this HO or any signals to maybe have avoided the sit? I ask, because various sitters could run into such HOs.
We couldn’t find 3 teapots after one sit, it transpired that the sitter couldn’t remember where we kept our teapots and found what was in fact a much better place to keep them.
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Three tea pots!
Problem is the 3 items disappeared after 3 different stays, Pan and monitor a while ago (it takes a while realising items aren’t just mislayed or borrowed to somebody) so it would be too late, and the 2 cups I can get over it… I would feel awkward to get back and ask them now…never mind.
I was just wondering if it happened to other home owners as well…
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Hi Maggie, No not at all. I enjoyed the sit. Nice .location, close to a river. Owners friendly and welcoming. Left before they arrived back as planned due to cleaning lady there cleaning everywhere prior to their return shortly after. Had no idea regarding Uni son until middle of sit. But then I don’t think they knew his plans either. He arrived on my last few days. Of course he just treated it like home and was helping himself to my food in the fridge. I just could not understand the rather abrupt message received over five months after the sit. Likely mislaid since the previous Christmas, although so many people coming and going all the time. I wonder if she actually asked the cleaning lady, where she may have put them?
That’s unfortunate. Sounds like a rude or clueless way to ask about something missing. I’m sorry you had to deal with that.
Those don’t sound like items that anyone would take, even if they were the sort of person to take things. Houses can hide many things. I hide my valuables when I leave. I lost a valuable piece of jewelry after a sitter stayed in my house. I knew it could have been misplaced another time as I wasn’t wearing it during the pandemic. Turned the house upside down looking for it. Filed an insurance claim.
4 years later I moved. It was in a container in my kitchen.
It’s really hard to know what happened to your items. They may still be hiding.
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We are great tea drinkers!! We drink different teas to each other and also different herbal teas. We have 5 teapots in all of different sizes and for different teas.
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Hi Maggie thanks. I did suddenly remeber something she may have been a bit peeved about. I had been expected to be chief caterpillar squasher and go around squashing any on her many cabbages etc… There were so many I could not keep up. Clearly a job her gardener did not wish to undertake. Unfortunately some of her cabbages did get rather devoiured. She did not believe in sprays of any sort. BUt honestly I don’t think it is something a sitter should be asked to do. Would perhaps explain why rather hostile sounding. Other than that is was a lovely place in a great location. Am I expected to be a caterpillar squasher, is not a question that comes to mind to ask, when accepting a sit. : -)
@Regi, why don’t you send a note to each sitter telling them that because you only just now looked for these three items and couldn’t find them, you are writing to your last three sitters asking everyone if they had seen them, or if they had used them if they recall where they had put them back, or if by any chance they had inadvertently packed them thinking they were theirs. This way no one is being blamed and it also looks like perhaps you, yourself, had misplaced them.
Let us know what you find out.
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