Hahaha, it looks like we have lots in common. The reason we’re in Portugal this winter is to escape the cold and damp British winter. We started in the Algarve and slowly made our way up; a couple of weeks ago, we were at the very top, north, close to Spain. It was gorgeous. Rainy and soggy, but still can’t compete with UK winter. 
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It’s interesting that you mention the work topic, because I first took a sabbatical to be able to do full-time pet sitting. Being in my 40s, I eventually needed to get back to work, so I considered a career change that would fit my new way of life, which has brought me so much on many levels. I went from being a school teacher working with students with disabilities to an online Spanish teacher, which I’m absolutely loving. This way I can keep doing pet sitting until we decide to stop.
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I totally empathise. However, I can envisage going back to full time housesitting having been back in my home since last July (with a two month trip to Chile and Argentina during that time). Meanwhile, I am enjoying being back in my home
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12 years since starting internationally, 3 months annually back at ‘home’ in Tasmania, love it, live it, experience it to the utmost! Stop? When the darling husband can no longer carry my bags!!
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Thanks everyone for your replies! I’d love to respond to each of you individually, but knowing that’s going to be a bit tricky, I’m writing this message as a big group thank you instead!
Your messages felt super inspiring to me, and I really feel like in this community we share similar values, mindsets, and tastes. I’m not sure if we came with them already or if they’ve developed through this lifestyle…
Reading you all has made me feel really supported and understood. 
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Ahh thanks for responding Smiley. I have really loved exploring new places and have rarely chosen to return to a sit. I just find it more fun to visit different areas. But you’re right, I can still go off and discover new places and continue pet sitting in between paying the house bills and working. I think it will be lovely knowing I have a home to go back to. 
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Hey @MyrCar, thank you for highlighting this topic and asking such interesting questions!
My husband and I have been full time sitters for almost four years, and we too got very tired last year, missing familiarity, craving connection, and wondering, “What now?”
We decided to hunt for a long sit in our home country of the UK so we could continue sitting whilst deciding if stopping is right for us. We have just secured a 5 month sit to do just that, so this year is definitely going to be slower, more settled, and seeing if being in one place suits us.
Something that has crossed our mind a lot in the last year is whether we could buy a “base” somewhere overseas (for obvious cold, wet, damp, reasons, it wouldn’t be in the UK), and then go there whenever we want to for extended periods, and leave again to travel / housesit when it suited us.
We are in our early 30’s now and have been semi-nomadic for the last decade. We both secured online work to faciliate this lifestyle, but I’m not sure what the future holds.
I guess that’s like all pathways of life, right? 
You guys sound very similar to us, so I’ll DM you in case you wanted to chat more!
Jess
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I’ve been full-time housesitting for 12 years now and even managed during Covid to find extended sits. Continue to love the opportunity to travel, meet new people, enjoy the company of pets and discover new places and cultures. Have sat in over a dozen countries and enjoyed every moment of it. Initially could work remotely and just continued after retirement to keep exploring. Some sits may have been better than others but have never had a bad experience. These days I do prefer longer sits but happy to take short fill-in sits when necessary. I will probably keep on housesitting for as long as I can lift my suitcase as it perfectly suits my restless spirit and sense of adventure. There’s nothing quite as rewarding as being able to live like a local rather than experience a new destination as a tourist.
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We also only meant to do a few then did it full time for three years… we realized at about the 2.5 year mark that we were getting a bit worn out with the constant moving. For us, we started when only one was working- and as you know, piecing together logistics of sits is a job in and of itself. So when we were both full time employed again, it got to be a bit too much for full time. We used the sits to sort out where we wanted to move to, and then did it. We love having a home base again, all our stuff (not much, but still ours) and getting into routines again and working on building community. We use the platform for occasional sits still at the moment, and like knowing that full time is an option should we decide to do that again. But it feels good to be a bit settled for now.
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@MyrCar what an interesting & relevant question - something we have been talking about! We started with THS in 2018 just doing holiday times. We originally did it to see if running a small holding might be for us but soon realised it would be too expensive! But we thoroughly enjoy looking after other people’s
We rented our house out, when my husband got a job in Devon and pet sat all around the South Hams. A great way to see where we might live in the future. After renting for a time during & after COVID, we were given notice and decided to petsit fulltime and see how far we could get before running out of sits! Here we are four years later, on pet sit 119! We have loved sitting, probably count on one hand any sits we wouldn’t do again but met lovely people, stayed in some beautiful homes & looked after a huge variety of gorgeous & unusual animals e.g. Rheas! We are currently in Australia, hoping to finally put our house on the market on our return, to move Devon. We often wonder if we will get bored but I guess our lives will become full with new activities, and having family to visit. We hope to keep sitting, but be able to choose where we go and maybe pick some of those crazy last minute sits that often pop up. Impossible to do if you have to plan ahead! It’s a wonderful lifestyle & something difficult to let go forever. 
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A very pertinent question for me as I started doing this 9 months ago with the intention of doing it until the New Year. I’ve just secured sits up until next New year so guess that has been a massive change. I’m just buying a campervan to ensure I can do it for longer and enable me to explore Europe in 2027. I don’t miss the community side as I feel I now have small communities across GB i can dip into and return to when sitting nearby or even in return sits. Not sure how long I’ll do this but I’ll keep you posted in 2027.
Dave
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