Recently, we had a chat with Linda.
We chatted about house sitting for families and travels with her husband and son in a Land Rover Defender and they are house sitting along the way!
Find out how they sold all their home and belongings and set off to explore the world!
Tell us a little bit about yourself – who are you, where are you from, for, do you do it full-time or sporadically
We are a family of 3 my son is 18. We are overlanding and are Itchy Feet Overland.
We were supposed to be doing the Pan American Highway last year but had to delay because of covid. We had sold everything and our home is a Land Rover Defender 130 with roof tents.
We are in Italy as we had lived here for 6 years and wanted to travel down to the south because we had not done this and we wanted to stay ahead of the cold.
We gradually made our way to Sicily and after being introduced to a lady wanting us to help her with her animals.
She would go away a bit too we stayed in an apartment in exchange for the work etc. beautiful area loved the animals but the lady was not great and started wanting money because there were 3 of us. Even though we all did our bit around the place.
Not a great experience and she really was not a very nice person which put us off abit. We had heard of trusted house sitters so joined them.
How many housesits have you had and where?
We have done 3 1 being a friend and we have 2 more lined up. All in Italy.
Why do you housesit? What is the main motivation?
The motivation is I miss not having dogs and we are animal lovers and being on the road we cannot have pets.
We also like getting out the cold and being able to have access to a shower and washing machine. Also my husband is writing a book.
How did you find out about house sitting?
Trusted house sitters we heard through a friend traveler who had a good experience and travelling house sitters on Facebook just came up.
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?
When we registered with trusted house sitters which is a house sitting website, we were contacted the next day and did a video interview and were excepted.
Pros of House Sitting?
The pros for us is pet therapy a warm house with free housing and a shower and washing facilities etc.
How do you decide on a destination?
The destination is decided on what our plans are. We are in Northern Italy from next Tuesday ( 12th ) because we will gradually make our way back to the UK in May.
Cons of House Sitting?
The cons is our last sit was 2 1/2 months looking after 5 dogs and we got very attached.
How much luggage do you travel with?
Everything in our Land Rover to live on the road.
Did you ever have any unusual pets to take care of or responsibilities that were out of the norm?
In my first on I dealt with taking 2 of the dogs to be sterilized and all the aftercare etc. I even had them sleeping with us so they did not lick their stitches. I do medication if needed. Anything the pets need really.
The 2nd one in Tuscany looking after 5 dogs. The owner was moving so she would be there on and off but we ended up feeling part of the family and love the dogs. We are doing a 2nd sit for her for 2 weeks in her new home. She has said she would love to adopt us if she could.
I even cooked the odd meal for her when she was around and baked cakes. She had a good kitchen. We have always got a place in Tuscany to park our truck.
Tips for others wanting to get started?
I would make sure that you check that you do not need to pay anything and what they expect from you.
There is no guarantee because we did all this for the first one. Maybe get a reference from your house sits too.
Where to next (when you can)
Turin Northern Italy 12th to the 21st April.
Want to see what they get up to next?
Check out the blog and Instagram.
Want to try House Sitting As Well?
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