Why I was a full-time house sitter for 6 years

Between 2014 and 2020, my partner and I were permanent house sitters. Sometimes, people would question us about why we were doing it – more specifically, why on earth someone would choose to move house every two to five weeks and spend a significant amount of time applying for house sits and meeting homeowners.

Without meaning to be rude, people would ask questions like: don’t you get sick of moving all the time? Aren’t you worried about where you’re going to live next week? Don’t you care that you haven’t entered the property market yet?

Saving money

The truth is, in the six years we were house sitters, we saved $160,000 – and that’s just on the rent we would have paid in our original apartment. We also saved money on other expenses like electricity and internet bills. You can read more about our savings here.

How house sitting works

For those unfamiliar with house sitting, and how Aussie House Sitters works: there is no payment for house sitting. People going away can find someone to look after their home and their pets for free, and while the house sitters don’t get paid, the accommodation is completely free.

It took some creativity to do this, and it was certainly a different way of living – but sometimes, it’s worth going against the grain. It was tough at times, but for us, the pros well and truly outweighed the cons.

Other benefits to house sitting

There were other benefits to house sitting apart from the money we saved. We got to live all over Sydney, stretching across a huge area from Wisemans Ferry to Wollongong. We got to know areas of Sydney like we never would have before.

Living in this way was flexible. With no rent or mortgage, we were able to take breaks in our work and house sitting to travel overseas. And not paying rent made it a lot faster to save money for going away.

Looking after pets was a positive aspect, too. We got to know many different breeds and had the benefits of looking after pets without the huge responsibility of owning one.

We never set out to house sit for so long – we intended on doing so for about three months. But it was such a good lifestyle that we ended up doing it for 6 years – only stopping due to Covid-19. With the lockdowns and border closures, travelling was off the cards – which meant that most house sitting opportunities were gone, too. Now, with local travel opening up again, you’ll find there are more and more house sits becoming available, too.

Apart from being easy and convenient, house sitting also taught us to live as minimalists – because when you move so frequently, you do not want to be moving carloads of items. House sitting makes you realise how little you actually need to get by, and how much junk you store up when you have a house to keep it all in.

By far the biggest benefit of house sitting is the money that can be saved, which in turn gives you a lot of other opportunities – whether it’s to do with travel or saving for something big.