House-sitting

I am away on vacation. Or sort of.
At the moment I am house- and cat-sitting in an apartment, surrounded by luscious forest.

House-sitting is an awesome concept. The owner of the house (and often pets) gets to leave their house for a while without worries about who should take care of their plants, animals, garbage and mailbox.
The sittee (haha) has great benefit because it could be like a free holiday, or even a way of life. I know people living a nomadic life, doing volunteer work here and there for a place to stay and food, and doing house-sitting. Win-win.
Why would you need parks with holiday homes, when the people that live in that area go away on vacation as well and leave behind empty houses?

Of course, there is the issue of trust. For a lot of people it will probably be a big stretch to let someone they don't know sleep in their house, hand them the keys and be away for a while. For me it is also about building community, the new way. By trusting eachother and helping eachother, we create a new way of being together. We acknowledge that we are in this world together. By supporting eachother with our own talents and what we happen to have lying around (an empty house for example), we make this experience that is life so much nicer and more friendly.
(And of course you can snoop around on facebook and ask around to check if someone feels trustworthy to you…)
We can learn and fully feel that there actually is an abundance, not a lack, and enjoy it and dare to share it freely.

I will not be doing any 'work', so if you would like to contact me, I'll probably be slow with sending a reply. I'll be back in my studio in two weeks (just so you know).
I do plan on keeping track of my time here by pictures and writing, so you might even see more of me over here, on the blog.

And let me introduce you to Tijgertje, my new roommate for the next two weeks.. She doesn't fully approve of the camera, as you can see, but is a sweetheart.
The photo above is the view from the front door.





And here the view from the balcony on the other side.. Equally glittering green!

Interested in doing some house-sitting yourself? Or finding a house-sitter? Facebook is the most personal source.. And then there are some more organised websites to go to.
Note that I don't have experience with these myself.. You'll have to see for yourself.. :)

The sitters club - This is a group on Couchsurfing. I strongly recommend Couchsurfing anyway! It is a great and social and cheap and fun way to travel and experience new things!
The homesit service in New Zealand
Aussie housesitters - Australia
Mind my house - An international housesitting site. (Quite big..)
Housecarers.com - Another worldwide housesitting site.
Trusted house sitters - another website...

Have you had some housesitting experience already? How do you feel about it?
Share in the comments below!

Love,
Dorien Hannah