House Sitting as a Lifestyle Choice

Frank and Susan with students

We registered with Housecarers in October 2009 and changed our six-year lifestyle as English second-language-teachers to apartment managers the following year and then to full-time house sitters in 2015.

We brought our bulky house items to the auction and wrapped a good majority of our personal possessions in colourful paper and gave them away as gifts to family, friends and sometimes complete strangers.

Sent to the auction

All of our possessions in totes

 We packed the rest of our things into portable totes, handed in our final notice to our apartment property manager and took on our first house sitting gig in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Our lifestyle now consists of living full time in our recreational vehicle, which we’ve named Big White. We haul our Ural sidecar motorbike behind the converted bus and make our way from one house sitting adventure to another. 

Our sleeping quarters in Big White

We take our time in preparing for every new house sitting contract by familiarizing ourselves with the location and the animals we have been invited to care for. We even have a personal collection of tools to help us tend to the animals, like a cat brush and a sturdy pooper-scooper.

We love that homeowners trust us with their precious animals and property. We take our jobs seriously and adhere to the rules set out for us in writing and what we pick up over several face to face or phone interviews. We are now collecting a list of questions we ask the homeowners. We consider house sitting a fabulous career choice for us at this time in our lives.