It’s been a long time that me and my partner have been doing sitting, but this is the longest one we have been so far, for a period of 4 months. Our question is about taking care of the house. We normally stay in a place where we have cleaning products, garbage bags, soap and etc for the whole period of our staying so we never had to think about it, but we kind remember somewhere saying something about that.
We were thinking if the sitter has to pay for all cleaning supplies in the house, or if that’s a owners obligation. Just a quick doubt, and to see what you all think about it.
Usually HO provides whatever is necessary even long term. If not and it does and will happen, including food for the animals, I have always been thanked and happily reimbursed.
I do let them know in my updates and use what they prefer and keep receipts.
@Luna2000 On sits, especially longer ones we are happy to buy things that we are using regularly like toilet paper, kitchen rolls, bin bags, and washing-up liquid. Then we do not feel restricted on what we use and we would be paying for that as part of our weekly shop at home anyway.
We also like to use our preferred brands at times (skin issues) so for example we might leave the owners washing up liquid or hand soap aside and use one we buy.
We also always make sure that we leave enough supplied for when the owner returns.
But each sit is different. One two week sit the owner had got a stockpile of kitchen rolls/paper towels in the basement about 50 of them and insisted we use them as much as we need, so needless to say we did not buy any on that sit
Our sits are usually around a month in length, and the homeowners have always had sufficient cleaning products on hand for us. We bring our own toilet paper, paper towels, dish tabs and laundry detergent, since those are things we would purchase in our own home as well. For a shorter sit, I would hope the owner would have enough on hand.
Hi @Luna2000@Carla has written my reply we do exactly the same on longer stays, even shorter ones if the need arises and make certain the owners returns to a supply.
One home I go to the owner has a paper product “obsession” in a “must have enough” way and I don’t think an army would ever run out of supplies if camped there for a year.
We have done a 7 month sit and a 3 month sit. We would only expect the owners to provide pet-specific items (food, litter etc) and house-specific items (e.g. pool chemicals). We are always happy to buy household products as we would be buying them if we were at home.
On longer sits, we replace toilet roll and other consumables. We happily replace cleaning products when they run out, and swap in plant-based products - we hate using nasty chemicals!
I think technically, cleaning materials are supplied by the host, but hosts vary enormously in terms of what they provide: one of our regulars asks that we bring our own toilet roll, another leaves abundant supplies of everything we could need. I guess sitters vary too in terms of what they’re happy to replace.
Some hosts and sitters approach house-sitting as transactional, where values like fairness, professionalism, and sticking to protocol are most important. Others see it as more relational, where values like trust, generosity, and care are the most important.
There’s no right or wrong, but I think it helps a lot on both sides when there’s a match - and good communication. I would love to see a ‘what sitters can use’ section in the welcome guide.
we do exactly the same on longer stays, even shorter ones if the need arises and make certain the owners returns to a supply.