We love hearing stories from others who live similar lives to us. In September, we chatted with Suze and Chris, a house-sitting couple from Kent, England!
Read on to learn about their adventures in caring for tortoises, bearded dragons, alpacas, donkeys, and geckos as well as spending Chris’s 30th birthday in Iceland!
Hey Guys! Tell us a little bit about yourselves
We are Chris and Suze, a couple originally from Kent in England. We’ve been together for nine years and three of those years have been spent housesitting. At the end of 2017, we gave up our flat and our jobs to house sit back to back and travel the UK and beyond!
How Many Housesits Have You Completed and Where?
Over the past three years, we have completed 58 housesits, mainly in the UK but we have completed sits in Germany and Sweden too! We’ve cared for 74 dogs and 36 cats, as well as flocks of hens, ducks, a herd of alpacas, donkeys, guinea fowl, lizards, pigs, and more! All our house sitting jobs have been found using a house sitting website, this makes it simple to plan our travels
Why Do You Housesit? What is Your Main Motivation?
Before we began housesitting we were completely burnt out from the 9-5 grind and in desperate need of a lifestyle change. Housesitting full time allows us to work for ourselves, spend our time together doing whatever we feel, and choose a new adventure each week! We love spending our days together and it’s completely changed our lives.
How Did You Find out About Housesitting?
In the year before beginning our housesitting adventure, we lived in a flat in the center of Brighton. Our landlady told us about the company she works for – Trusted Housesitters, a Brighton-based housesitting company.
Suze applied for a customer service role there, which she wasn’t successful in, but she received a year’s free membership to the site as part of the application process.
The job rejection became the best thing that could’ve happened for us, as three months later, tired of the nonstop working lifestyle and looking for a change, we remembered we had that membership and gave up everything to hit the road to travel and house sit full time.
What’s Been the Biggest Adventure so Far?
We were lucky enough to get away to Scandinavia just before lockdown occurred earlier this year! We spent New Year’s Eve at a public concert in Stockholm, before beginning a ten-day housesit just outside the city a few days later.
The house was situated beside a beautifully peaceful lake, and our daily dog walks consisted of getting lost in the forest and spending time sitting by the lakeside to admire the thin sheet of ice across the water. We then flew from Stockholm to Reykjavik, Iceland, for Chris’ 30th birthday where we spent a week visiting glaciers, waterfalls and the famous Blue Lagoon!
It was otherworldly and we’ll never forget it. Our travels mightn’t have worked out that way if it wasn’t for planning that Swedish housesit.
Pros of Housesitting
The full-time housesitting lifestyle is wonderful and it’s completely changed our lives. We love living like a local in places all over the country and beyond, slotting into new routines and experiencing life in places we wouldn’t get to see if not for housesitting.
As huge animal lovers, spending our days caring for all kinds of pets is awesome! Every sit is different – from hiking mountains with dogs and cuddling up with cats, to petting pigs and feeding alpacas by hand.
When we worked 9-5, we were exhausted, and our free time at weekends was spent recovering from the week. Now, we create our own schedule and spend all our time together, and we don’t have to wait until the weekend to visit new places!
Traveling all over the UK, with no set work hours to work around, means we can visit friends any time and make new ones along the way, too.
Cons of Housesitting
Over our three years of housesitting full time, one of the most stressful parts of our job is trusting that homeowners will be honest about our on-site responsibilities. We no longer apply for housesits that provide little to no information and have become adept at spotting red flags and creating our own checklist of questions to ask before confirming!
Another downside of full-time travel is having no base. Having no base can be annoying when housesitter dates don’t line up, and we have to make arrangements for days in between. Though there are a handful of cons to housesitting full time, we both agree that these are a worthy price to pay for getting out of the rat race and spending our days how we choose!
How Do You Decide on a Destination?
To a certain degree, this depends on what housesits are available at the time, but we consider the location (if we feel there’s enough for us to do in the area), the pets (are they something we’re happy to look after), and the experience (does it offer an opportunity for new adventures!).
How much Luggage Do You Travel With?
A lot less than we used to!! We completely stuffed our car for our first house sit, the boot was full, and the back seats were rammed with things we thought we’d need.
Over the years we’ve got to know what we actually need on our travels, and can fit everything into: one backpack for both our clothes, one bag for Suze’s sewing materials, one backpack for Chris’ photography equipment, one small shopping bag for any dry food we have with us, and one tote bag for things like travel games, books etc. We’re always happy to realize how few material possessions we need to be content.
Have you Ever Have Any Unusual Pets?
We’ve completed so many unconventional housesits that we almost can’t tell what’s the norm anymore! People are always excited to hear about our sit with a herd of ten alpacas, who lived in the garden and loved to be petted and fed carrots.
We’ve also cared for tortoises, bearded dragons, and geckos, each allowing us to learn new skills and expand our pet care experience. The strangest responsibility we’ve had to date was being asked to push an elderly dog in a pram while we walked her younger sister, and not a pram made for dogs either – it was a Victorian-style baby carriage! We got a lot of strange looks out on walkies during that sit.
Favorite Housesitting Experience?
As keen walkers, one of our all-time favourite housesit has been dog-sitting a lovely Border Collie for a month in the Lake District. We visited in January when it was snowing and the footpaths were deserted.
We spent every day of that sit hiking trails and mountains with the dog, completely in awe of the breath-taking landscapes and beautiful mountaintop views. No two days were the same, and we got a real taste for outdoor adventure.
Was it Hard for You to Secure your First Housesitting Gig?
Before our travels, we used various websites to find opportunities to care for dogs, cats, and small animals, so we had some pet care experience to write about in our applications.
Thinking back, we only had to send a couple of applications before we confirmed our first housesit – but this was actually due to our love of walking! The homeowner had had previous bad experiences with sitters who could not give her dog the walks he needed.
She and her doggo completed hikes for up to eight hours a day every day, so when we applied and expressed how keen we were to do the same, she booked us in and our adventures began.
Any Funny Housesitting Experiences?
We find there’s never a dull moment when housesitting, and the funniest part of our travels is getting to know each pet’s different personality and learning new things about animals. In one of our first housesits, we learned that certain dogs go WILD when blowing raspberries on their belly—Chris tests this out at every housesit we do now!
We also recently discovered Cat TV, which has endless videos on YouTube to keep cats entertained. The videos consist of hours of footage of birds and mice. Cats are hypnotized by it!!
Tips for Others Wanting to Get Started?
If you’re looking to pet sit or house sit, our top tip is to gain some pet care experience before you get started. Before we set out, we’d spent months finding dogs to care for using the website Borrow My Doggy and scanning local Facebook groups for people looking for pet sitters.
We also took care of friends’ animals when asked. As for getting ready to housesit, we’d recommend putting real care and effort into crafting your profile—varied photos, lots of information about yourself—and if you’re looking to travel full time, think about what you need or don’t need when on the road! Paring down your possessions before you set off can save you lots of hassle in the long run.
We’re getting ready to launch our new website later this month with all our top housesitting tips, so keep your eyes peeled!
Want to Find More About Suze and Chris?
Find them on Instagram: @ChrisAndSuzeGoWalkies Facebook: Facebook.com/ChrisAndSuzeGoWalkies and their website here
Need Help Getting Started With House Sitting
Have we got you excited about house-sitting? We love sharing our house-sitting experiences and teaching others how to become house-sitters and start their journeys.
So, if you need help starting your house-sitting journey, see my resources here, and don’t hesitate to contact me and ask me any questions.
Author: Jayden Mckinlay
Hiya! I am Jayden. I am originally from New Zealand and am one-half of the Travelling House Sitters. During my house-sitting journey, I looked after 35 cats, 25 dogs, and one turtle!
I have cared for over 40 homes in 15 countries and even a catamaran in the Caribbean!
I want to show you how to become a professional housesitter by putting together all the resources I wish I had when I started. You can enjoy this lifestyle as well!
You can read more about Brittnay and me on our about page.
Or connect with me on Facebook or in their house sitting community on Facebook
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