Recently, we had a chat with Moz.
She travels with her partner Jay and they house sit around the world together!
They sold all their possessions and now just have 70kgs between them!
Basing themselves out of the spectacular Mauritius, find out how they got started as house sitters and where they are headed next!
Tell us a little bit about yourself – who are you, where are you from, for, do you do it full-time or sporadically
My name is Moz and my partner is Jay. We are 52 and 47 years old respectively and come from Cape Town, South Africa.
We specifically adopted a less flashy lifestyle by downgrading cars and houses a number of years ago with the aim to reduce our footprint, as well as our expenses to enable a nomadic lifestyle in the future.
By November 2018 we gave away what we couldn’t sell and rented out our house ( only a 2 bed ) and flew to Bali on 31 December 2018.
For 11 months of 2019, we traveled around SE Asia. As we had a specific schedule we wanted to follow we didn’t house sit – but as we love animals we tried to stay in Air BnBs or at places with pets.
By November 2019 we arrived back in Cape Town and once lockdown hit we were pretty much stuck in Cape Town until the end of 2021. During that time, we did a number of sits – but our focus is not on pet sitting. Our focus is on travel.
We both work nomadically to support ourselves. I am an education consultant in the higher education space and my husband is a compliance specialist in financial services.
How many housesits have you had and where?
2019-2021. Cape Town – family and friends – 7 sits – cats, dogs and budgies. We never went back to our own place as we have had good tenants, so we are flexible to pet sit
2022 – Mauritius – Dogs. One so far with a repeat booked for the end of April, end of June, and October
Why do you housesit? What is the main motivation?
Up until now, it’s been to help family and friends, and also to get a change of scenery. We dont pet sit with our own pets but we love a little heartbeat around the house, we love pet sitting.
How did you find out about house sitting?
I’ve house sat for many years….since I was a student.
Was it hard for you to secure your first housesitting gig? How many applications did you have to send before you got accepted for your first assignment?
NA/ we housesat for friends and then got referred. When we travel next year we are hoping to use some of those experiences as referrals for more formal sits
Pros of House Sitting?
- Change of scenery
- Some pretty cool pets to look after
- Although we know all the people we pet sit for – we are hopeful to also do some sits for some interesting folk we don’t know in the next year.
Cons of House Sitting?
My hubby and I are awake in different time zones – I’m an early riser, and he’s late to bed – as a result, we don’t like sharing a room. Sometimes with house sits, we need to.
How do you decide on a destination?
We haven’t been to the USA or South America. This was on our bucket list when Covid hit.
So some slow traveling in southern USA, with a bit of housesitting if possible would be nice. Followed by some more adventure in South America.
Was it hard for you to secure your first housesitting gig? How many applications did you have to send before you got accepted for your first assignment?
NA/ we housesat for friends and then got referred. When we travel next year we are hoping to use some of those experiences as referrals for more formal sits
What’s been the biggest adventure so far?
Our year in SE Asia was amazing. We now know we can work part-time remotely as well as travel – and its made us want to keep going. Although we will remain in Mauritius on the very flexible premium visa for 1 year – we are keen to head to the USA next year.
What was your favorite housesitting experience to date and why?
We babysat a kitten a few years ago who we named the “terrorist” – he was super busy and we loved chasing him around the house and watching his antics as he almost got himself into all sorts of trouble.
How much luggage do you travel with?
We sold or gave away everything and rented out our house in 2018.
We travel with 2x 23KG bags plus 2 x backpacks of 5kg. These are all our worldly possessions that we have left. Although I have 1 confession to make – I have a small box with some keepsakes stored at my sister-in-law’s house in South Africa. It weighs less than 10KG.
So all in we are down to less than 70Kg of moveable worldly possessions. ( excluding our small 2-bed home in Ct).
We rent a furnished place in Mauritius.
Did you ever have any unusual pets to take care of or responsibilities that were out of the norm?
Nope – just give love and treats.
Tips for others wanting to get started?
I’m not sure how the more formal sitter sites are going to work out for us next year ….but I suspect having referrals from people ones knows could help. I would suggest folk start with sits in one’s city via friends and family referrals and build up from there.
Where to next (when you can)
We are headed to the USA in 2023.
Want to see what they get up to next?
You can follow Moz and Jay’s adventures on their Instagram marcelle_durand
Want to try House Sitting As Well?
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Check out the resources for getting started as a house sitter here.
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