My name is Brighid and my husband,Jay of 34 years (almost) are retiring in April 2025 and are beginning an adventure of full time slow traveling the world. We are excited to be part of THS community as pet sitters and can’t wait to begin meeting new people and their fur babies. We have applied and accepted our first sit for the end of April. We are nervous and excited. I am sure that I will have lots of questions and will come back here for the answers. So far the search and application process have been easy enough and communication with pet owners have been welcoming for new sitters.
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Hi @JBGates and congratulations on your (almost) retirement. I am very envious, and house-sitting around the world sounds like a great way to enjoy it! Will you be writing a travel blog as you go?
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Good luck, it’s a fabulous lifestyle. I’ve sat so far in Australia and New Zealand in addition to England (where I’m from) and Scotland. Got a 3 month trip lined up from April in Ireland.
All the best to you. You’ll meet so many lovely people and animals.
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I also retired last year in May, but started sitting the previous Christmas whilst being able to work from home, anyone’s home! I haven’t looked back.
16 sits and 28 pets later, still loving it.
This year I plan to travel further afield.
Welcome to our world!
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Congratulations on retirement and first sit - and safe travels!
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Welcome to the Community @JBGates
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@JBGates, welcome to THS and THS Forum. Sound like are both approaching an important life phase. Exciting times ahead.
My spouse and I (early retirees) stumbled upon housesitting by chance in early 2022. An domestic Canada experiment became an exploratory UK experiment became a where-would-we-like-to-visit experiment. Still going. Full time, almost two years and 30+ housesitters later in Canada, US, UK and various European countries. What a remarkable experience. We’ve met many wonderful people; cared for fabulous pets; and looked after properties that range from modest to wow luxury. For what it’s worth, here’s our top five tips for newbie full-time retiree housesitters:
- Invest in profile. Take time to understand all the areas of THS profile. Complete them thoroughly. Lots photos (you+pets, add as gain experience)
- Garner 5* reviews. Applications become easier after a relatively modest number of reviews. Try hard in first few housesits to secure 5* reviews.
- Understand search function. This was a gamechanger for us. Dates, geographies, duration, etc. Forget blind scrolling and focus on prospective housesits that meet your criteria. Think ahead. Your preferred geography may greatly determine ease of finding housesits (near endless opportunities in UK, US, Canada … rest world requires more effort)
- Enjoy the ride
. Be selective (esp after accumulate 5* reviews). Not all housesit opportunities are equally attractive. Many are wonderful but some fail to provide a reasonable fair trade. After video call (always) then if red flags appear then walk away before commit. Most of our Pet Parents, pets and housesit experiences have been very positive. But not all. We now have a handful of PP-HS relationships that reach out to us prior to public listing, for which we’d travel internationally to housesit … as some aspect of their situation is notably appealing to us. - Understand THS terms and code of conduct. Given “full time slow traveling around the world” then especially Sit Cancellation Insurance (stuff happens, THS policy coverage has quirks).
p.s. Why wait? Consider setup search for your home area between now and retirement date (April 2025). Perhaps there may be one or more brief housesits (say 1-2 days, weekend) that you could complete to gain experience and accumulate initial reviews … those reviews may meaningfully help applications for overseas housesits.
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We’re in our 50’s and 60’s, we started in spring 2023 and have completed 30+ sits now. Our original idea was to sit just now and again… but within 3 months we were sitting full time, we love it, it’s so much fun!
Just a tip, if I were you, I would do the odd weekend or night sit locally before you retire, so by the time April comes around, you’ll have few reviews under your belt, and you can go wherever you please then, because you are much more likely to get accepted for the sits you want. It only took 3 reviews for that to happen for us, everything changed! It would then mean that when April comes around, you can be very selective about where you’d prefer to sit, rather than ‘hoping’ you’ll get picked.
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Hi @Becca Thanks! We are super excited but nervous too. I have thought about writing a travel blog but I am not sure I have the discipline. I will keep you posted.
Thanks, @RedLassie! THS community has been so welcoming! We appreciate all the encouraging words.
@GotYourBack - thanks so much for this advice! I love all the tips. You mentioned a couple of things that I had not considered. I have made a couple of missteps already but still feeling good about this amazing opportunity. I am looking at trying to find some local sits; however, it is proving difficult as we currently reside in a remote area of Japan. We are a train ride away from Tokyo so I am hoping to pick up at least one sit before we leave. Thank you for replying with such detail.
Thanks you @HappyDeb! It is encouraging to hear about your experience especially since you are the same age as Jay and I. I am hoping we are as successful as you are and love it as much.
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Congratulations! This is a wonderful community and please remember that although you may see posts on here that may cause you concern, most sits start and end successfully. Have a wonderful time on your first petsit
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It has been a fun journey for us although we are still working remotely, we take housesits where ever we want. I love having a dog. It helps me to meet the neighbors. One habit we have expecially for long sits is to take pictures of the counters and furniture before we start fitting ourselves into each home, including how the beds are made and bathrooms. Then we clear spaces to work, bathe and cook. When we pack out we have a reference to follow to make it as homey for the hosts as possible and we leave their favorite coffee creamer in the fridge and some other goodies, including anything we accidentally 
consume. aka chocolate!! Enjoy your housesitting.
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Welcome to your new lifestyle and adventures. So many lovely pets and people to get to know.
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@ClaudiaDub thank you for this wonderful advice. I would never have thought to take pictures. What a great idea!
Welcome to the world of sitting Brighid. It’s mostly wonderful. Enjoy your retirement!
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Welcome , how nice if you and I end up meeting and helping each other out! You’re going to love the life 
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I think this message was intended for JBGates? you won’t be meeting me as I only sit in Europe.