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In my last post I told you all about the benefits of house sitting, and now aren’t you convinced that it’s something you want to do?
But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows! Just like anything, there are downsides to house sitting.
This is the second in a three-part series on house sitting, where I give you the complete low-down and tell you what’s good, what’s bad, and finally a full guide on how to make it work for you.
So now, the bad:
1. Loneliness
Doing this on your own can get lonely. If you’re the kind of person who can walk into a bar without knowing anyone and come out with 16 new friends, it won’t be a problem. But for us introverts, finding ourselves in a neighbourhood where we know nobody at all can be difficult, and there isn’t the constant stream of new people coming through the door like there is in a hostel.
This can be totally ok if you’re a bit of a loner like me, but my introversion also makes it extremely hard to go out and put the effort into meeting new people when I want to, knowing I will be gone in two months’ time. There were definitely times I ended up talking to myself or to the dog or even the chickens for lack of anyone else!
2. Responsibility for pets and plants and property
Of all the downsides to house sitting, this is probably the biggest. As nice as it is to have little buddies around, looking after pets is a huge responsibility, and they can be difficult. With some dogs I found our walks to actually be far more stressful than they should be. One pup loved to chase buses, and would take off down the road after them at any opportunity. He also would sometimes snap at other dogs, and on one of our walks attacked (and maybe killed?) some creature in the forest.
Another dog was scared of bikes but would chase rabbits endlessly if I let him off the leash (ok, that’s most dogs) and yet another dog chewed right through his leash in about 10 seconds flat and at any opportunity would make a break for the ocean, which was nice and close but across a very busy road. I can’t imagine having to tell a homeowner that something terrible had happened to their dog while it was in my care.
There are plants to water and keep alive, and no homeowner wants to return to find their entire garden dead because you either didn’t water enough or watered too much. At one house sit I was brought an orchid, told that it was her ‘baby’ and to please not let it die. Orchids are notoriously hard to take care of, so I was feeling the pressure there!
And of course you need to look after the house. Keeping it secure is key but also making sure nothing gets broken (I broke a couple of things on different occasions, and either replaced it automatically or at least offered to) and that the place is maintained in the same condition as when the homeowners left. This means if you’re going to eat on the couch, make very sure you don’t spill! And that dog that likes to sneak up onto the couch to sleep when he thinks you won’t catch him? If he makes a mess, it’s on you to clean it up.
And if anything should happen, or go wrong, you have to just take care of it. Aside from being a general cleaner, dog walker, and mail collector, at various times in my house sitting career I’ve also been a plumber, gas fitter, shepherd, chicken nurse, rabbit nurse, homestay host, cook, and chicken coop builder (well, fixer, anyway). I also had to go buy a new leash for the dog that chewed through his, and a toy for a dog that needed one. One homeowner had the roof re-done while I was there, which wasn’t a big deal but it was one more thing for me to think about.
3. Commitment
The thing with a house sit is that once you’re there, you’re stuck. If you don’t like the place or the pets, or if something happens to make you want to leave, you can’t. In your normal travelling life, if you need to go home all of a sudden, you just go.
But you cannot just walk away from a pet that needs to be fed and walked every day, from plants that need to be watered or a lawn that needs mowing regularly. These people trusted you with their home and their lives and you gave your word that you would make sure it’s all the same when they get back.
4. Living in someone else’s space
Having to get used to someone else’s way of doing things, the layout of their house or kitchen, and the quirks of their stuff can be frustrating. If you don’t have much time before they leave you might get a lot of information very quickly, and if you’re like me, you can’t remember all of it. At one house sit the homeowner just briefly showed me how his very complicated TV worked, but I guess I didn’t really get it because I was never able to figure it out once he was gone!
Mostly this is ok, but when when you spend hours searching for that cheese grater that you KNOW they must have and can’t find it, it gets pretty annoying. And then later when you don’t need it anymore, you find the cheese grater in the most unlikely place, and you just think ‘WHY?’
5. Lots of duties
Sometimes there’s a lot of work to be done. Before the homeowners come back it’s important to make sure the house is as they left it, in terms of cleanliness and also anything you might have moved around to suit you better. If it’s a big house this can take quite a while!
The pets can also take up a lot of your time. One dog I looked after had so much energy that he required at least an hour’s walk twice a day, rain or shine. On some days this really seemed like a lot, and was also hard to plan around when I wanted to be out exploring the area.
One house sit had a massive yard and vegetable garden and they went away in the spring, when there was a ton to do. Just mowing the lawn took me 5 hours, and they had a long list of other things they wanted done. I did what I could, but I think it probably wasn’t as much as they’d hoped for. But then, for those homeowners, I’m not sure any amount would have actually been enough.
6. Some people
This leads me to my next point. At one house sit the homeowners were just not very considerate of me, and I felt a bit more like a servant than someone on equal ground who was there to help them out.
It was one thing after another, a long series of unpleasant surprises and inconveniences for me and unreasonable demands from them, which lasted right up until the moment I left.
Like I said, this only happened at one house sit out of five, and the others were all exceptionally wonderful people. It also did not change the fact that I had a lovely time there, mostly because the homeowners were not around! But it was definitely a learning experience on the questions to ask, red flags to look for, and the general nature of some people.
7. Having to leave
When you spend a length of time in one place, made friends and become settled in the house and active in the community, it suddenly gets very difficult to leave. This is a problem with travelling in general, but it sometimes seems amplified in a house sitting situation. And the absolute worst part seems to be leaving the doggie behind. It’s amazing how I get so attached so quickly! I was almost in tears as I drove out the driveway for the last time with Buster staring at me from behind the gate, knowing I would never see him again.
So there are my seven downsides to house sitting. Have I turned you off it completely? It’s not all bad, go back and read my post about the benefits and you’ll get all excited about it again! I’ve had a great time doing it, learned a lot and had some fantastic experiences.
In my next post I’ll get down to the nitty-gritty, the important stuff: a full guide on how to make house sitting work for you, as well as a chance to download a checklist of questions to ask on any house sit!
Have you had any negative house sitting experiences? Tell me about them in the comments!
Hi Jenny,
I really like your blog. I too am an introverted traveller who has house sat in New Zealand.
I’m also glad someone is also writing about the downsides of house sitting and some cautionary steps one could take. Because I feel a lot of what I have read online is one-sided, ‘travel-the-world-for-free’ sort of stuff.
I wanted to share some of my experiences in case they are helpful to anyone. I have been house sitting for just over a year. I’ve completed 15 house sits in that time – 9 of them were either great or fine and 6 of them were pretty bad.
2 house sits in NZ had pretty severe flea infestations that required fumigation, one of them I left early as a result.
One home owner, an organic farmer, didn’t believe in conventional flea treatments (i.e. using chemicals) and just scattered some weird natural substance on the pets’ food, which did nothing to protect them against fleas. I got bitten so badly on both sits – I counted 36 bites on one of them.
The other house sit involving fleas was one with 3 elderly cats, and the home owner hadn’t deflead them in a while but did it the day she left. I saw fleas leaping off the cats onto me! Lots of them. When I stroked the cats I got black stuff under my fingernails (flea poo). That house sit was also very dirty and smelt strongly of cat urine. The hot water didn’t work either so I had to find somewhere else to shower for the duration of the sit.
Another house sit, in New Zealand was absolutely filthy and took about 2 days to clean a tiny kitchen and bathroom from top to bottom.
One was for a dog that had a multitude of behavioural issues -barked all night and growled at me when I was eating – it was like looking after a baby. Not much sleep was had. The owner was in hospital having an operation but wanted me to be there in the house to look after the dog while she recovered. It was awful – she was very bad-tempered after her operation. As a result, I now never share the space with the home owner or anyone in their family for longer than one night.
The house sit that I’m currently in was also very dirty and the cat (which the owner hardly saw because it was scared of their dog and never visited) is essentially a stray cat – half starved and neglected. It was in such poor shape that within 10 days of the sit starting it was in the vet hospital. The home owner texted me to say not to spend money on its food and to feed it rice. The cat was so hungry and starved it stole meat off my plate. I’ve been feeding it properly, paid for out of my own pocket and it is now better. But I am worried about what will happen to it when I leave, as the owners clearly are not bothered about it. I’ve bought a big pile of tinned food for it which I hope it will get fed after I leave.
Here are my tips for house sitting:
1. Don’t share a home with a returning home owner, or their family members at any time
2. Do ask if the home owner treats their pets for fleas (don’t assume everyone does)
3. Get photos of the bathroom and kitchen to see if it looks clean
4. Do ask if animals have any behavioural issues before accepting a house sit
Don’t expect house sitting to be all plain sailing – it’s a lot of hard work and if you’re not careful and take lots of short sits or pick dirty ones by accident that requires heaps of cleaning, you can burn out after a year or two of doing it full time. People sometimes think you are receiving free accommodation, but it isn’t really free, and don’t let home owners make you feel it is either – you will be earning your keep through the responsibility you take on, and all the tasks that come with that.
Eleanor, thank you for your input! You’re right, so much out there is about the glories of house sitting, but I think people don’t realize how much work it can be, or how you REALLY don’t know exactly what you’re getting into. I kind of think that as much as homeowners can ask for references from house sitters, house sitters should also be able to ask for references from homeowners! Doubt that will ever happen though. It definitely sounds like you’ve had your fair share of nightmares. I hope some of those great ones were enough to make up for the bad! You’ve got some good tips here. I’ll be adding them to my post!
Hi Jenny,
I really enjoyed reading the downside of sitting. The flee and worm treatments are one I always address as diplomatically as possible by asking. Will I be needing to give treatments for fleas and worms during the sit. And have they had a recent vet check I can then assess if it’s going to be weird and wonderful or they are in touch with the vet and maintain the pets good health?
I do this as I have had a couple of experiences with worm-infested animals. I was bitten by one dog in an attempt to get to the food and another was attacking a door to get to the food. I found it easier to purchase the treatments and pay for it myself. Another cat had an abscessed tooth which I had to nurse post extraction. These animals had all been rescue pets, Interestingly the owners on their return had not been happy at the quality of the sit. Even though I had gone the extra mile. And complained about the expense.
In saying this the majority of the sits and caring for the pets I have had have been a positive experience for both parties and I hope to enjoy plenty more for a good while to come.
Lynda
Thanks Lynda, that’s great advice to ask about the pets’ flea and worm treatments and a recent vet check. I’m going to add that to my list! It sounds like you’ve had a few rather interesting house sitting experiences (you end up with some great stories, don’t you?) but you’d think the owners would be thrilled that you’d taken the effort to care for the cat’s tooth! Like you, I’ve had some great experiences too and hope to do lots more!
hello there Jenny,
thank you so much for all these valuable
informations and testimonials.
it is an eye opener.
you are doing a great job.
thank you and happy new year to you and all your readers from Switzerland.
hello there Jenny, I just discovered you and wanted to
thank you so much for all these valuable
informations and testimonials.
it is an eye opener.
you are doing a great job.
thank you and happy new year to you and all your readers from Switzerland.
Thanks Isa, and a (belated) Happy New Year to you too!
Despite all this, house sitting has taught me loads and given amazing experiences!
Me too, I’m so glad I’ve done it!
You need to let dogs off leads more, you’re in NZ where there’s plenty of space, far away from roads and traffic. Poor dogs
Hi Sarah,
First of all, it’s not that the dogs NEVER got off the leads. They did, when it was safe.
But my most important job as house/pet sitter is to keep the dog safe, so if it means they have to be attached to me, so be it. If there’s any risk of them being near a road, or of them not coming back to me, I won’t set them free. For two weeks of their lives, I think they can manage it ok. And I can assure you that all dogs always got plenty of exercise, on leash or off.
Hi Jenny,
Fellow Jenny here, and excited to come across your blog, albeit several years later. I’m wondering if you are still house sitting?
I’ve been a full time sitter in the UK for 2.5 years and boy, do I agree with all your points! It’s good to feel like someone understands. I’m also an introvert but have met some lovely people during my longer term sits, only to up and leave them behind. In my current sit, I feel more isolated than I ever have and am wondering if it’s approaching the time to throw in the towel. That, coupled with demanding animals and sometimes entitled home owners can make me feel a bit taken for granted. While house sitting is a great money saver, it’s not something I want to do forever. All this to say, thank you for sharing your experience. It’s definitely given me food for thought.
Jenny x
Hi Jenny!
I haven’t done any house sitting for a long time, but not because I don’t want to! I had a full time job in Oman for a long time and now have moved to Denmark to be with my husband. I would definitely consider it again in the future!
It’s nice to hear someone has some of the same experiences as me. I feel like it’s important to be realistic about house sitting, and not just think of it as a free vacation, because it certainly isn’t! I’m glad you enjoyed my post, and happy house sitting!
Jenny
Are you always so negative and whiny about everything? Seriously get a life! Just be grateful you’re alive, whinging cow
Hi Sarah!
Nope, I’m not! I’m actually a pretty positive and cheerful person, and if you read more posts on my blog, you’ll probably see that. Did you notice that there’s another post about all the upsides of house sitting? I just think it’s good to be realistic about it, and have balanced information for anyone considering house sitting, so they don’t just think of it as a free vacation. But take it however you want.
Signed, a happy cow who occasionally whinges about things (because don’t we all, now and then?) 😉