House-Sitting Adventures

"In our regular environments, routine or complacency can kick in. Mixing this up can help us focus or simply allow one to do things that we may not get to ordinarily do, be it for faffing or otherwise." A few years ago, a friend and I discussed how cool it would be to house sit; a change of scenery, no accommodation costs and something that one can do anywhere in the world. Enter also, the rise of remote working and the growing market share of the like of Airbnb.Back then, the dream never really become a reality, more speculative discussions and searching online that transpired in 95% of such opportunities on listing sites making it very clear that house sitting usually means pet sitting. Having never had a pet of my own, this may not have been something for me after all.Fast forward to the present day, I've experienced Airbnb, I've tried this remote working malarkey from various locations globally and I'm now sat writing this in one of my best friend's houses, sitting two cats and two rabbits.Accommodating the lives of four animals routines has been character building. Apart from the obvious respect and responsibility that come with caring for another's family home, this has been a holiday, and frankly a well-timed break.​Needless to say things are constantly evolving however every now and again we experience sudden, obvious (and sometimes enforced) periods of change. I feel like I am in one of those periods now. Being away from my regular environment, yet not in completely unfamiliar surroundings has allowed me a period of reflection, opportunity to prepare for what is to come, but perhaps most importantly the chance to do things that in one's everyday environment does not happen ​​'It's odd how, when you live in a city, you always postpone getting to know it and usually end up never knowing it at all.'Paolo Coelho In summary:​I've read a fantastic book by Paolo Coelho hence the quote and as some previous blogs have alluded. I am a big believer that books present themselves at the right time and they have important things to teach us. There's also something that fascinates me about people's bookshelves. Something that I'd recommend for house sitting: you're already in a different world, why not take the escapism further? With the owner's permission of course!Being a micro-business owner, it's pretty hard to completely 'switch off', there is something to be said for limiting internet time. So this week, it has been no internet after 6pm and sometimes earlier. By only acting and respond to things that are urgent with two hours of work related stuff maximum I am experiencing greater productivity. I'd only enough petrol in the car to get me around for the week and outside of some business meetings which were paid for out of said account, my total personal expenditure for the week was less than £20. To be frank, I probably didn't even NEED to spend that too.Total hours of television including films watched = thirteen. This could have been a lot higher.​In our regular environments, routine or complacency can kick in. Mixing this up can help us focus or simply allow one to do things that we may not get to ordinarily do, be it for faffing or otherwise.The pets sometimes had other ideas for me but in spite of this – I'd happily house sit or do something similar again. Perhaps next time, I'll take in more of the locality, maybe getting away from all the busyness and noise is all we really need once in a while. We'd love to hear about your house-sitting adventures – drop us a line in the comments box!