Hello Emma and Alex here. We are “Nomads” (working in software so we can live anywhere). Realistically, nomads simply are just renters, but we move more regularly!
Living nomadically means we constantly are wrestling with our freedom!
We have found this personally - constantly wanting to settle down in a beautiful area and get a dog and wanting to stay here, there and everywhere.
This is our constant dilemma when thinking where we will live.
For this dilemma, TrustedHousesitters is perfect. We love your pets like they were our own. We get to experience homelife - if only for a short while. We also get to keep our freedom to explore new places. Pet and house sitting is the perfect middle ground for us and hence why we signed up once we heard about it. Yes accommodation is rent free but it is so much more about the homelife and pets!
We are currently looking for somewhere (and some dog(s)) in the UK to call home during Jan, Feb and March so if we can help please do message us.
Otherwise, hello everyone. Feel free to ask questions here - even ones you would feel weird asking in person! Happy to dispel some myths of nomads!
For example, “Nomads are just on long holidays”.
We both lived in London for 4 years before we became nomadic and we continued to work in the very same jobs we had before! Now Emma makes software for careworkers and carehomes and Alex has started a company - an food diary app to help understand and diet your carbon emissions!
Welcome @EmmaAndAlex and we look forward to seeing you around the forum joining in the conversations. We do ask members not to post personal links to their profiles on the forum topics, so they have been removed, however, you are very welcome, and we’d encourage you to pop some information in your forum profile where you can also put links to your THS profile and/or a website.
Have fun connecting and hope you find some good sits for your time in the UK!
Hi guys and welcome! I totally get it! My partner and I are nomads too. We’ve been house sitting full-time since July 2020. It’s the perfect way indeed to get to know a place better and to discover new areas. And to make new furry friends of course!! We’ve been sitting around Spain, France & Portugal so far. Current
Hello Emma and Alex,
nice to meet you.
We are not located in UK, but we are searching for house sitters from now till 28th of January. We are located in Germany, near Frankfurt in the nature park Spessart.
We have full internet connection, a newly reconstructed house and three lovely dogs, all of different size
If you, or any of the readers here are interested - we would be very happy to hear from you…
Hello Rüdiger, thank you! We would love to but because of Brexit we are unable to be in the Schengen zone until March.
I hope someone can help you soon!
@Els your view looks amazing! I would love to see some suggested tips on full-time house sitting! Must be tricky to get them to all line up! This is what we are hoping to do in the future too!
Hi @EmmaAndAlex - We are also full time nomadic sitters - We have been of no fixed abode since September 2020 and in that time have had very few dates that we have not been house sitting. We often split up for a day or two to avoid voids.
Our big problem is that we are too fickle. So many times we have stayed in a home/area with certain pets that we fall in love with and declare how nothing could beat this…then we move on to our next sit and fall in love there all over again for different reasons!
The magic of being a full time traveller is being able to sample so many different lifestyles
I did it for about three years (including the 1st year of the pandemic).
From my experience:
It’s worth waiting for longer sits, but make sure the fit is right. Don’t panic and grab one when you have doubts.
Obviously, more sits are available during when/where the weather is not great. An exception that comes to mind is Australia during the Christmas/into January period, b/c so many people travel overseas (in normal times, anyway).
Related to #1, be sure the HO understands that you both work full time. Some sits are more labor- and time-intensive than others. Example: a 3-week sit I did with 2 dogs and 2 cats and an extensive garden + indoor plants. I had to drive the dogs to dog parks and mountain trails daily, and they were a lot to handle. I probably did about 4 hours of pet/house work per day. Had I been busy with work as well (I was freelancing, and it was a quiet period), that would have been very difficult.
For a longer sit, don’t be shy about asking about occasional backup, e.g., a dog walker if you spend some days sightseeing.
@Katie gave some great tips already. Totally agree with going for longer sits. We did a 4 month one in Spain and a 2.5 month one in France & it really gives you time to get used to everything, the house, the pets, … not to mention peace of mind during these challenging times.
We usually manage to find sits that line up, occasionally we have a gap of a few days, which we fill up with Airbnb.
To be honest these breaks can be really good. We prefer making a clean ‘break’ between one sit and the next.
@Colin you mentioned you occasionally split up. How do home owners generally react to that, if you applied as a couple but only one shows up at the start?
@Els - All our home hosts have been fine with the arrangement and are always informed before we arrive, usually on application. We don’t apply for sits where two sitters are a specific requirement due to extra duties or too many pets etc. We try to go for longer sits, for us, a month is ideal - any longer than that, no matter how great the sit has been, the wanderer in us kicks in and we find ourselves itching to move on!
There are A Lot of us here. There are several threads where we have shared how we manage. We all basically do the same thing but different. You find a rhythm, a personal style based on your preferences and choices. Again a lot of self assessment of what you are willing to do, won’t do and that great zone of “oh wow! I can do this”
Have fun. Just know that you are free to live as you choose.
@Colin we completely the same. everywhere is better and the more we try the more we enjoy!
@Katie thank you for all the advice!
Currently we have reached out to 4 lovely homes and pets, but all have been left on read! I presume the first one is the hardest to convince people.
Good point on the full time jobs - I wouldn’t have thought of this otherwise.
Did you travel with a car?
@Els agreed on length. We have found in the last year + that anything less than 6 weeks feels like we didn’t live there - even out in the countryside.
Thank you everyone for the welcome! We hope someone replies to our messages soon!!
@EmmaAndAlex I did not travel with a car, no. For a few sits, HOs have provided a car. I had a rental car for a few others (though since the pandemic, rental car prices–at least in the US–have soared). And, I’ve had no car nor needed one for some others.
Hi @EmmaAndAlex welcome to our community forum I see you have started a great conversation. I was a full time nomadic sitter working remotely for THS with no fixed abode, for almost 6 years, before that a full time sitter/owner with sitters spending more time in my home than I did, the reason for launching into perpetual motion. Long sits were great for the reasons other members have highlighted, our longest was 8 months in Spain.
Then there was COVID, the deciding factor for us on having a base, but our time of life was also a huge influence, we had a couple of situations (apart from COVID) which stopped us in our tracks, questioning the lifestyle we were living.
Having said all of that pet and house sitting is an amazing lifestyle, my three P’s PETS, PEOPLE & PLACES, I may have unpacked my suitcase permanently but not hung up my sitter’s hat we are still sitting … it’s all about the animals and the joy they give.
Regarding being new and getting your first sit sometimes a fresh pair of experienced eyes on a profile or a listing can be helpful, if you’d like to DM me your profile link I’d be happy to have a look at it, with an owner’s “hat” on.
I’m sure you have a great THS journey ahead of you and we cannot wait to share in your new adventure.
#els we also do split in some house sitting and we are honest with both owner right away before we take the sit, and usually they are very open to that
Danielle
We are digital nomads for 4 years and doing full-time HS with the wonderful plateforme THS this is the best life ever, use to be in the cinema business in Montreal for 30. years and now I’m helping women to become digital nomads especially after 50 years olds, I am happy to meet you
Emma and Alex here. We are “Nomads” (working in software so we can live anywhere). Realistically, nomads simply are just renters, but we move more regularly!
