We are out of the house for three months while my husband is doing a sabbatical in Germany and thought it would be a good idea for someone to house sit.

We decided to do this since we are gone for such a long time. You always have that fear that someone might break-in, or a pipe bursts or something else, and it would be nice to know someone is there so we don’t find the place flooded when we get back. Also, we needed our dog to be taken care of.

How we found someone?

We asked family friends, work associates and neighbors if they knew of someone who would be able to house sit for a few months. We had some interest from a work associate, but that fell through. Then we asked a close friend and they said they knew of someone who would be able to do it.

We met with them and talked about what we needed. The length of stay and most of all if they could take care of the dog. This would make it easier for our pet, since instead of having to live away from home, with family or close friends, she could stay here.

They said they would be fine with taking care of the dog. We then invited them over to go over what was expected.

We asked if they could start the car on occasion to keep the battery charged and if they could water the plants once a week. Keep the house up some. We wanted the mail kept in order. We told them, most of all we wanted someone to be around to watch over the house.

What the house sitter should know

When the house sitter came over we explained the Internet, went over when garbage came so they will know when to put the garbage out and in our case recycling is separate and collected on alternating weeks. We did a tour of the house showing where the light switches were and how the TVs worked. We sat down and talked about any concerns they had.

Before we left we cleaned up the house, stopped subscriptions, parked the cars in back and made sure everything was in working order for the house sitter.

How about the yard?

They didn’t want to do the yard, so we turned to someone else. I talked to a work associate and found that their son would be willing to tend it while he is at the local college. This was excellent news and now I have someone to mow the yard every other week.

Share Contact Information

I made sure that the person watching the house and the mower will have each others contact information so the house sitter wouldn’t suddenly hear the mower running and not know who it is.

We also made sure that they had our contact information so they can easily reach us if they had a concern or couldn’t find something or needed to know something we hadn’t discussed.

Have you had someone house hit for you, what did you do, what advice do you have? Feel free to leave comments below.