You’ve booked your vacation, hired a babysitter for your kids to travel with you, hired a pet sitter for your dog to be safe and cared for while you are gone, but aren’t you forgetting something else? Who is taking care of your home while you are away?
You should consider hiring a professional house sitter to make sure your home is safe, your plants are watered, and your errands are taken care of when you are on vacation. Your home is your largest investment, ensure it is well looked after in your absence.
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- Why should you hire a house sitter?
A house sitter will provide you with services you need taken care of while you are not home. Either because you are on vacation, or you happen to work late hours, they can help you take care of errands you cannot attend yourself. If you need somebody to sign for a home delivery, meet the plumber or the maintenance person while you are away, a house sitter will be your perfect help.
House sitters can also run other errands like pick up your dry cleaning, drop some mail to the post office, water your plants and many more. They can also do your grocery shopping or buy a surprise birthday gift while you are away. Be mindful though, a house sitter is not a housemaid, so unless specifically agreed upon, she will not clean your house, do your laundry nor prepare your meals.
- Where can you find a house sitter?
Just like finding any other professional sitter, there are several ways you can hire a house sitter. You could look up ads in your local newspaper and search for ads about people needing house sitter jobs. You can also put an ad in the newspaper advertising your need for a house sitter.
A more convenient and also faster way to find a house sitter is searching for house sitters online. Most house sitter agencies will have a website about the services they offer, customer reviews and their contact info.
- Your To-Do list once you have hired a house sitter
As your house sitter will take care of your errands while you are away, there are some key issues you should be mindful of.
- Make sure you sitter knows when you leave and when you get back
and inform her of what exactly she needs to do in the time you are gone.
- Provide your house keeper with all the access needed to get in your
house, garage, basement and so on. Provide her with keys and
instruct her on how to handle various alarm or other security
systems you might have installed in your home.
- Provide your house sitter with your contact information and also
emergency contact information, to make sure she will be able to
inform you of any new situation that might occur.
- Give clear instructions on how you want your errands run, what type
of groceries to buy, how to water your plants, how to sort your mail
and so on.
