Housesitting: How I travel the world for free full-time

Imagine that you’re living in a warm and cosy home, snuggling up to gorgeous pets and spending your days working remotely and going to places you’ve always wanted to visit nearby. Oh! And did I mention you have no rent or bills to pay? It sounds unattainable, but it has become my reality as I travel the world by housesitting. I’m spreading the word so that others can create a lifestyle of freedom and adventure too! 

By Jessica Holmes

@hitchedhikingandhousesitting  

Travel was fully and firmly under my skin from a young age. It sat there, unwilling to move, an itch I had to constantly scratch throughout my late teens. But it was in my early twenties that the itch took over, becoming a full-blown fever which I thought a two-year round the world trip would soothe. On this trip, all I had ended up doing, was unlock the door to my soul and nudge it open slightly. Housesitting would be the thing that kept that door open. Travel made me feel alive. It filled me with a joy I had never experienced before. And it was not something I was going to give up. 

After I graduated from University – where I’d studied criminology and decided to pursue a career in the police – I took that two year round the world trip to ensure I had ‘seen things’ before starting my career. My mind was blown at what I saw, experienced and felt. But I missed my family and was looking forward to going home. I got home, got into the police and started working my way towards investigations. I bought a house with my partner and we got a pet – we felt very grown up. People started talking about “wedding bells”and “children”and I felt dazed. In society’s eyes, we really had “settled down”. But that just wasn’t us. Luckily, my partner felt the same about travel and also wanted to escape conventional life. 

And then came the pandemic. I felt so claustrophobic and trapped. Like a bug under a glass. Pinned down and unsure what to do, where to turn. I’d just had a revelation; conventional life wasn’t for me, and I couldn’t do a fig about it. I kept on at my career until I persevered in getting into Major Crimes as an investigator. I was doing incredibly well and proud of myself. 

But I had this nagging feeling. A feeling I just couldn’t shake. A feeling that I was on the wrong path in life.

Enter: Housesitting. 

My partner and I, had met a family in China in 2016 who had been using housesitting to travel the world. It was impressive and inspiring. But since then we’d thought no more about it. 

But what is it?

Housesitting is the concept of looking after someone’s home whilst they are temporarily away from it – more often than not they are on holiday themselves or may be working away from the area. Housesitting almost always involves looking after the homeowners’ pets as well.

In 2022, we decided it would be great to use housesitting to get away during weekends and visit places in the UK that we’d not been to before – it would be free accommodation, and we’d enjoy spending time with animals which I’d always felt passionate about. 

We tried it, loved it and built up great reviews. 

How do you get started?

Housesitting can be paid work, but more commonly, housesitting is facilitated on websites that charge a sign-up fee for homeowners and housesitters, and after that the entire process is review based. The homeowner and the housesitter score each other after a housesit on things such as communication, cleanliness, reliability and so on. The website we use is called Trusted Housesitters, and we love it as it facilitates world-wide opportunities, but there are many websites out there and some cater for specific countries or regions.

In the summer of 2022, after doing around five housesits in the local area, we had a brain wave. We could do housesitting full time. We could even continue working if we had remote jobs. For my partner this wasn’t an issue, and he found a job fairly quickly which he can do from anywhere with Wi-Fi, with the added bonus that he absolutely loves his work.

For me, it was a complete crisis. I had by this time put seven years into my career and still felt excited and privileged to work in the ‘murder squad’. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a job that could be done remotely. And so, the two halves of me came to a head. 

Sitting in my carefully curated, blooming and much-loved garden in that same summer, I was drinking a cup of tea and thinking. I had to make a decision. Was I a go-getting career-driven boss-woman, or was I a free-spirited adventure-planning life-grabbing traveller? 

During that cup of tea my life changed course. I decided that I’d never know if I didn’t go. Travel it was. Travel it had always been, deep down. 

My soul sang a sweet tune of freedom.

Fast forward to today and I’ve been doing housesitting full time for a year. My own house is permanently rented out. My possessions equal one backpack and one small day bag. I have been able to travel to several new countries, revisit ones I’ve been to before, and go where the wind takes me. I live rent free and pay no bills. I am extremely fortunate in that I have found solace and a new career as a writer.

My book The Housesitter’s Guide to the Galaxy is being released on 23^rd October. It’s a guide on how to live your best housesitting life, including how to be eco-friendly on the road and how to travel slower and more sustainably by making conscious decisions when choosing housesits. You can pre-order it here. 

Where have you been while housesitting?

So far I’ve done housesits in the UK, Germany, Belgium and Spain, and have a “sit” lined up in Austria in the new year. Doing housesits and living rent-free has also allowed me to save money and use it to take a few weeks or months away from housesitting as and when I want, so that I can simply travel.

I want to inspire others to consider an alternative path; conventional life isn’t for everyone and that’s ok. There is a whole world out there to explore. Housesitting can enable travel with ease and home comforts thrown in. The best part? Housesitting can work for anyone; whether you are a solo traveller, a couple, a group of friends, a family with children, or even travelling with your own pet – there’s a housesit out there for you. 

Many sites let you filter when searching for housesits by animal type; for example, if you prefer looking after cats you can select to search exclusively for homes with cats that need looking after. You can also search by duration; if you’re like me and you hate packing and unpacking then you may find this useful, I tend to search for longer sits. 

You can also pre-select homes that have high-speed Wi-Fi, so that if you need a good connection for work, you don’t waste time looking at sits with little to no signal. The websites are set up with great filters for you to take advantage of to find the perfect housesit for you. 

Housesitting is an ideal option for travelers seeking comfort and privacy without sacrificing affordability. While hostel dorms and budget backpacking have their charm, they aren’t always suited for a full-time lifestyle. Housesitting provides a slower, more sustainable way to travel, with savings on rent and utilities allowing you to support local communities by shopping at farmers’ markets, dining out, and buying regional products. You can also reduce energy expenses by researching new suppliers—exploring CleanChoice Energy reviews, for example, can help identify eco-friendly options. Additionally, housesitting often means spending quality time with animals and nature, which is a great way to recharge.

What are your top tips as a world-wide housesitter?

1. Communication is the key to a successful housesit. As it is a trust exchange you have to be open and honest with the homeowner and trust that they will do the same for you.

2. Never take on more than you can handle – if you know you’re going to struggle looking after five dogs on your own, don’t apply to a sit with so many dogs!

3. Pack lightly – you never know how much space you’re going to have to unpack at a housesit. Plus, travelling with less ‘stuff’ means less harmful emissions into the environment.

4. Choose housesits strategically so you don’t have to fly or travel huge distances between each one – being a 21^st century traveller means conscious decision making about how we get from A to B.

5. Treat peoples’ homes and pets with the respect and care they deserve.

6. Always do some research on the area before you agree to a housesit – for example, if you need a gym nearby to keep you sane, check if there is one beforehand!

7. Never take for granted how lucky and privileged you are to be able to roam the world at length for little cost and maximum rewards. 

People often ask me if I’m annoyed that I did all that work and training at University and in the police. It’s natural to look back and wonder. But I’ll never be annoyed or frustrated at any part of my journey. Everything that I worked for has led me to today. Who knows, maybe I’ll go back to policing one day. Maybe I’ll write a crime fiction book. All I know for certain is that I’m on the right path now. How do I know that? My soul feels free. My needs are met. I feel content. I no longer have that inner feeling that something isn’t quite right. 

In a way it was the pandemic that pushed me into realising who I really was deep down. In that way, I suppose good can always come from bad. Life was shouting at me for a long time, but I was ignoring it. I was caught up in doing what society expected me to do. I was trying to conform. To squash my free spirit into a house and career. But it simply wouldn’t stay shut in there. 

To anyone who feels the calling of travel but can’t quite see how they will be able to break free of the mould, housesitting could be the key that unlocks the door to your soul, or like it was for me, it could be the thing that keeps that door open. Give it a go, trust me, you won’t regret it. 

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