After nine months of housesitting, I’ve decided to take a break from it. 

Or, at least, I’m going to scale it back a bit. 

While living in lots of lovely houses and looking after a range of furry, cuddly pets has been hugely fun.

It also got to the point where I was finishing one housesit only to jump straight into the next one.

When I last blogged about my housesitting, I had only just started.

I originally started over Christmas 2023 and had a few gaps between sits in January, February and March

But then I fell into a pattern of housesitting in an unbroken chain from April through to the beginning of October 2024.

Taking a break from living in a shared house and having access to all these different quiet and peaceful houses was definitely an advantage for getting work on my MTA Portfolio done. 

But, in its own way, it was also hugely exhausting and, in the last couple of months, it just started to feel like a chore.

Having an outdoor heated pool might sound good on paper… but you still have to clean the thing

I was only housesitting in Bristol, a city I’ve come to know very well after eleven years living here. 

But, even so, I found the experience of moving to a new house every couple of weeks to be hugely disorientating!

It was very much akin to traveler’s fatigue. 

I was also continuing to pay rent on the room in my actual house without living in it. 

So, I made the decision to wind down the housesitting for a bit at the end of September. 

The dogsits I found especially draining because dogs are just so much more demanding of attention

I’m now back in my shared house, not only with a huge sense of relief that I’m having a bit of a break from housesitting, but also with a refreshed resolve towards living in a shared house. 

This won’t be the end of my housesitting. 

I fully intend to do more and I have already agreed to do a week long housesit at the end of October where I’ll be doing a repeat sit at one of favourite houses. 

The house I’m re-sitting at the end of October I felt instantly at home in when I was first there in July.
I also get to look after these two snuggly cuddlies – Willow (small one) & Winter (Big one) – again for a week

But I definitely want to space out the housesits a bit more moving forward. 

I’m also going to try to do more catsits opposed to dogsits, because cats are less draining and are just so much more fun any way!