I’ve seen a pattern develop in what I do on house sits.
So many houses have lose toilet seats. I try to resist but I just cannot ignore them and often fix them. I’m not even sure the owners notice they have been fixed but that’s fine, I go to bed happy. 
Do you have a ‘must do’ fix?
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YES! I travel with a small can of WD40 and un-squeek doors / handles etc…
We also seem to be the “our remote needs new batteries” Charges Of The Universe, so we have replaced many many many TV remote batteries over the last few years.
Oh, and I am a dead-header! I can’t walk past dead flowers in gardens, without feeling the overbearing need to dead-head them. I feel the owners might just come back to a few fresh blooms, who knows…
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@botvot if I didn’t travel with hand luggage only I would possibly pick up on the WD40 idea. There’s SO much I could fix with that. I’m quite envious. 
Yep, I always dead head.
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I cannot allow any water leaks, even the smallest amount. So if I’m unable to fix it myself, I ask the owners for the number of the plumber 
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Hoovers! I think my husband has cleaned & mended all but one on a year of house sits 
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@Cuttlefish I wouldn’t be able to fix them but I often give all the filters a good clean. It’s the sort of thing busy working people just don’t get around to doing.
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Batteries, mainly in clocks! - We carry a selection and am amazed how many times they come in handy. The sit we are on at the moment has me weighing raw meat on digital scales -on the second day the scales started to flash ‘low battery’ - luckily we had some that fit
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@Colin - I don’t really look at clocks, but batteries can be a problem.
On a sit in Calif, one of the smoke detectors was beeping - the HO was still around and I asked, she gave me batteries and I changed them both.
Current sit, I was awakened by double beeps - thought it was the dog flap battery (it showed as low on the home app that the owner installed on my phone so I could manage the alarm). I removed the battery but that wasn’t it. Tracked it down to one of the CO2 detectors - there are 2 of them. Pulled the battery out to silence it.
If there was only that one, I’d by another battery but since there are 2 I’ll just let the HO know.
I really like the HOs who leave some spare cash around for the minor things.
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OMG same here. We use digital kitchen scales at home & always complaining about how quickly the batteries die. Second day of our 4 week sit & low battery flashes up!!
One sit I fixed a clogged bathroom sink drain. It had a toothpaste cap stuck in it.
The next I cleaned out the shower vent which was totally clogged and cleaned the bugs out of the light fixture.
The last one we vacuumed the pool.
I don’t want people to be offended but I try and find one small thing each place I stay.
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@toml those beeping detectors are very annoying. My carbon monoxide alarms have to be replaced though, new batteries cannot be inserted. And my smoke alarm started beeping incessantly when the temperature dropped too low. I had to get out of bed every night and warm it up with my hairdryer.
I bought a new combined alarm and placed it in a different position so I’m hoping this winter it doesn’t start beeping again.
@Molly42 I do those sort of things too. I often wonder to the owners even notice but I just can’t leave them.
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I don’t use a scale for cooking the pup I’m sitting for gets 110-120 g of food so I need the scale for that!
Reminds me of our very first sit. I finally had to message the home owners because I couldn’t figure out what the non-stop beep in the kitchen was. After a few back and forths, we finally realized that it was the dishwasher which beeps every 5 minutes when it’s done. 
I have a few “must fix” things, similar to many on here: I almost always clean out the shower drain. I do like to dead head. And my partner always cleans out the vacuum filter.
I also like to wipe down the fronts of kitchen cabinets, drawer pulls, and the fridge. While I can’t attest to the entire house being cleaner than when I arrived, I know for a fact the kitchen is!
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Hi @Jilly …what a great question! As silly and mundane as this sounds, the one thing I always carry is a pen and pad of paper. You would be surprised as to how many folks don’t think to leave those things accessible, and I surely would never start going to drawers in search of them. Just so much easier to carry with me.
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Squeaky doors! We carry WD40 wherever we go 
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I’ve cleaned out a mold situation in the HO washing machine…I also tend to clean the dust off ceilings fans. The latter is more for myself as visible dust bunnies on the top irk me.
We once had a sitter that professionally cleaned all of our windows (inside/out and the screens) and we were so immensely grateful! My neighbors were all jealous too 
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@Kelly, yes I have often done windows too. I like to have something to do when I’m on a sit otherwise the days can be a bit long.
Don’t think I’ve ever done a ceiling fan, I don’t recall being in a house that had one.
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