Hi, what do you all take when you start a house sit, we have 2 boxes which we have labeled our "sit boxes" one containes all our basic food stuff, salt & Pepper, olive oil, tea, coffee ,sugar etc, the other one containes all our cleaning products, oven cleaner, washing up liquid or tablets etc, I have dicovered over the last 18 months that I really prefer to use my own knives while cooking, so along they come, also my can opener and cheese slicer. On top of this we also have the lap top plus the printer as I do a lot of scrapbooking, ( so also lots of craft stuff!!) On top of this there is the usual amount of suitcases with clothing in, First Aid supplies and ( being of mature age!!!) all our pills, and our toiletries and towels and pillows, think that is all, crikey, looking at that I am not suprised my husband usually has a whinge and the car is full to overflowing!!!

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happy wanderers

Edited: 01/06/2008 at 08:05 PM by lexilou

I'm like you, although I've been moving from housesit to housesit the past 15 months across Europe (I'm American but sold my house before coming here and buying a car) so I'm toting a year-round wardrobe as well as any leftover nonperishable groceries and condiments. I have my own knives, scissors, corkscrew and wine pump accessories, toiletries, cleaning supplies, paper products, several basic tools like screwdrivers and a pair of pliers, laptop, printer (I'm a writer), backup hard drive and a CD-Rom that plays Europe-style DVDs and--don't laugh--my own two down pillows and a featherbed! (it makes sleeping in strange beds ever so more comfortable; I do long-term sits only so that's important to me.) By the time I jam all that plus my one tiny dog into my Renault Scenic, there's zero visibility in the rearview mirror. I wouldn't have room for a husband!!! ) But I find myself far more comfortable using my own stuff as a rule and even though I'm not paid for housesits and often have to pay my own utilities, it still doesn't seem right to me to use someone else's nonperishables, office supplies, etc.

This is our first house sit and we certainly came prepared!! Besides all our basic foodstuffs, sheets, towels, clothes, toiletaries etc etc. we also brought a microwave oven, small electric cooker, slow cooker, george foreman grill, steamer, kettle, laptop, Nintendo DS (x2) radio/CD player and a set of french language tapes. I am ashamed to say that we are leaving at the end of this month and have never had the tapes out of the pack!! I am a crafter and made all my own Christmas cards (which were also sold on our local market) and I have half made a pair of curtains. I have only read one of the many books I bought with me and have not had my embroidery out of the box. Can anyone please tell me where the times goes!? Perhaps I spend too much time on the computer!!

Happy housesitting - Sue

Oh gee Sue that was soooo funny, I thought I was a bit over the top as on top of everything else I listed I usually take my pressure cooker and sometimes , (if we know they have a 2nd TV) we take our DVD recorder and set that up, like you said though, where does the time go, I too make all my cards and Scrapbook and with walking the dogs I honestly find, I get into bed on a night and after 1/2 page of reading I am gone!!!

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happy wanderers

We try to think of everytihng we might need but you always find there was something you wish you had brought. We use our toaster oven a LOT so that comes with us. We always bring our own sheets, pillows and favorite blankie. Except for our first house sit we have been fortunate to have wonderful beds to sleep on. We must have our fan for white noise for sleeping. However we have recently invested in a sound machine which we love. It is much smaller than the fan. I would consider bringing an electric can opener because I am amazed at how many people only have the manual type. Your own set of good knives would be an excellent idea. We have been known to bring our coffeemaker if one is not available for our use. Since we have been fulltime for a year now we travel with year-round wardrobe. We always bring our computer, a small TV, my crafts and books as well as the basic things everyone has mentioned previously.

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Kathy and Leo, Housesitters will travel.

Hi
I thought we were overloaded! We make sure we have two bags, one with Tinned foods - Soups/tomatoes/meat/custard/Fruit. The other with spices/mixes/some cooking utensils - decent tin opener/ tongs/fish slice/Frying Pan/ large spoon/ salt/pepper mills/ oil/tomato puree/coffee/sugar.
Wellingtons - lap top/printer/paper/ in other words a mini office!
Frozen foods - general fresh foods - butter/bread
We just class these items as stand bys, if we cannot get to a supermarket.
It is amazing how many people do not have efficient Kitchen equipment!
williamina

And there I was thinking we were a sad and sorry couple, we take a Vileda mop and bucket, a squeegie window cleaner, a grass strimmer( all the places we were at had rubbish machines) all bedding and food, laptop, a Magimix food processor which I can't cook without, my knives and of course all our basic foodstuffs. My one gripe is there is never space to store anything!

Wow - are we the only housesitters without a car??? I felt we were overloaded with a laptop and camera equipment! As we travel (for 6-8 months of the year) between European/UK housesits by train, bus, or those cheap anti-baggage airlines, we take what we can carry and manage ourselves (remember all those train station stairs....and we are 64/72 yrs old). We both wear a small daypack, my husband takes a rollaboard suitcase for laptop and camera stuff, I carry same size bag with clothes and basic necessities. I will add that we have a daughter in London, which provides a very helpful "storage/changeover" base.

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Jack and Patsy
Gypsies at Heart

Wow this is all good info thanks I was just going to show up with clothes and a good book...

WOW,
I am totally exhausted from just reading all this. Phewww. You guys do take a lot of stuff.

The first sit I did in Australia was close to home and I took a small suitcase with just my work and dog walking clothes. Fortunately I was able to keep working.

My subsequent sits have been long term and overseas as I am semi retired and single. The first time I took all my "important" items including books, large sized toiletries, cosmetics, unnecessary clothes and accessories, evening dresses, handbags, many pairs of shoes, hairdryer, chargers for mobile, batteries, laptop etc, etc, etc. Big mistake. Excess baggage, extra cost.

I forgot to figure that I could buy any of these things at my destination or use the ones at the property or just simply read and go without. Most items I bought with me, were provided for my use by the homeowners. I hardly used the evening dresses and cosmetics. I also found out that I could shop at the used clothing stores and markets in Canada and Europe and pick up any necessity that I required for a fraction of the cost of excess baggage, then just donate it back to the shop or pass it on at the end of my sit.

Now I travel with only a mid sized suitcase and leave the rest in storage at home.

I think that some of us may find it very hard to step out of our comfort zone even for a short time.

Lexilou just try out a number of different ways to travel to your sits to see what suits you.

Happy sitting.

Mal (travelling light)

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2 or 1 the choice is yours.
Mal & Lea

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Since I am new at housesitting out of town and new to this housesitting community forum I just wanted to make the comment that this was a breath of fresh air. Thanks for all the helpful input and advice.

I have been sitting since 2000 and take very little with me. I have found that a lot of things I need can be found in the home I sit. I take my prescriptions, clothes I want or think I will need, my contacts, my laptop and my pillow. I know that I can pick up what I want in toiletries, etc at a Wal-Mart or such. I have sat in three countries and in many US states and I have learned to travel light.

Usually the owners have great books and magazines to read and DVD's to watch that I don't. I love to explore other people's lives, their books, pictures, kitchen tools and ingredients.

I think some people have trouble 'stepping out of our comfort zone'. I have friends and family that say they couldn't live in someone else's home without all 'their' stuff around them. The neat thing about living 'light' is that when I come home I really appreciate my own place. It has also taught me that I don't need as much stuff as I thought. I have been thinning out my place and keep doing so.

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Things change and everything happens for a reason, even if you don't know why right now.

I don't think taking a lot of stuff is purely about not wanting to step out of one's comfort zone. When one is housesitting as a way of life one has to do things to keep oneself orientated and functional. There is also the issue of not wanting to damage things in the house you are sitting and the fact that, as someone said above, people simply don't always have the stuff you need. BTW, I housesit locally and have a home base (a shared flat) where I can pick up and drop off stuff. Here is my list:

Some of this depends on whether or not the house actually has the items

Kitchen equipment
Dish rack. Even if you have a dishwasher you still need a dishrack. I never put saucepans in the dishwasher as they don't really wash. I'm surprised by how many people don't have a dishrack but I suppose people must just put their dishes and pots on the drainer next to the sink - but that system doesn't work very well.

Blender for early morning smoothies, vegetable peeler, sharp knife, cutting board - so I can keep the owner's board and knives in pristine condition.

Dishwashing detergent - so I don't suffer chemical overload using one with perfume I am not used to. The same goes for laundry soap powder.

Rubber gloves for washing up and cleaning.
Sponges, cloths etc.

Bottle opener. When I have people over for lunch I usually need to open a bottle of wine (or two). I have found that the houses I am looking after often have very non functional bottle openers. One house had a 'fish' bottle opener which could only be used with difficulty. One of my visitors, after opening the second bottle, left the cork screwed so far onto the corkscrew section that I had to go and buy a pair of plyers to separate cork from corkscrew.

Salt, pepper, tea, coffee, sugar.

Audio-visual
Cordless phone if the house doesn't have one or if the phone is too grotty. I need to be able to walk around or lounge on the couch while I am on the phone.

Music. Music is very important for my well being! If the homeowner has foxtel I will just listen to the foxtel lounge and cafe radio stations. I will only do this if they have a separate amplifier as I don't want to cause screen burn by having the TV on all the time. If I can't do this, I will bring my ipod and use an FM transmitter to play music on their stereo, or a cable if they have an auxiliary jack, or failing that, my own portable speakers.

VCR/DVD player. If the house has neither one of these I bring my VCR which allows for taping of programs. I have been considering investing in a portable DVD player but will wait till I get a house where I need it.

Laptop. I will often use the owner's computer just for checking email if they are linked up to broadband. I have my own dial up account which is of course transportable from house to house and is good for when no internet is available.

Extension chords, powerboard, double adaptors

Garden
I only bring these items when needed: watering can for the garden, gardening gloves.

General maintenance
string, sticky tape and masking tape, plyers, screwdriver,

Bed and bath
Mattress protector. I don't like putting my sheets on the bare mattress. The mattress protector has a double function of protecting the mattress and me from a foreign mattress!

Sheets and towels. Then I have my own 100% cotton items and don't have to worry about a huge wash at the end of the sit.

Pillows - one's own pillows are always the most comfy.

Blankets - one knows where these have been and they are right warmth.

Bedside lamp. There have been some houses which don't have bedside lamps.

Pet equipment
Dog food bowls. One house had such miniscule plastic bowls which kept sliding everywhere and slopping the food over the sides that I invested in two proper dog bowls to make my life easier.

Kitty litter. One house had a cat who would often stay in at night - but no outside access and no kitty litter. It didn't actually use the kitty litter I set up however. In another house, I set up a kitty litter at night on the front verandah so the cat didn't have to go out and be beaten up by the toms next door.

Disinfectant, rubber gloves, dog poo bags, urine-off cleaner. These speak for themselves really!

Retractable dog leads. With unruly dogs not trained to walk properly on the leash these have come in handy.

Pet brush for brushing animals if there are no brushes in the house.

Pet toys - but I have found that these usually don't work.

Edited: 08/31/2008 at 03:48 AM by Panopticon

Pano
That is a phenominal amount of stuff. I imagine that you look at what is in the house before you bring all this stuff along.

Because we have been sitting since our arrival and don't have our own place we take everything we own. We have had to buy the occasional thing that a house doesn't have but we don't want to accumulate too much stuff.

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View My Profile

It's not the destination it's the glory of the ride!

It is a huge amount of stuff - but a lot of it I will only bring to the house if the house doesn't have it - eg I have only had to take dog bowls to one house and the kitty litter to two houses. And if the house has a dishrack I don't bother bringing my own.

What I do is I move in - check what I need then go home and pick stuff up. If I were housesitting out of my local area - this list would be much reduced!

I think this is quite a good topic! Especially for new house sitters!

One thing I want to put together is a comprehensive medicine box. We had a couple of first aid kits between us but one was left in a car that we sold and the other has been depleted of a lot of things.

What I would like is a big box with a couple of smaller boxes to put into it (for ease of finding what you need) and for ease of moving between locations.

One box will have emergency first aid kit. One box for perscription meds and repeats so they are easy to find) and another box with medical supplies such as panadol, lemsip, small hipflask of whisky (we like hot toddies when we are sick) etc. It makes sense to have these things to hand and then replace them when you see good prices rather than spending heaps when sick). I'm also thinking about getting a homeopathy first aid/medical kit as apparently these treatments work a treat.

The other thing we are thinking about if we decide to continue house sitting is some large plastic (stackable) boxes so that if we don't have a lot of drawers of shelf space for some of our bits and pieces we can have them in the boxes stacked neatly some where rather than having cardboard boxes everywhere. It will make it easier to move as well.

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View My Profile

It's not the destination it's the glory of the ride!

Interesting topic. As a person hoping for my first house sit soon, I think I will take sheets and my own pillow because I will feel more comfortable with them. I will take some disenfectant spray and all the normal stuff I would take if I were staying in a hotel on vacation, including first aid/medicines as these are always needed in the middle of the night haha. And that would be it the first time out.

I figure anything I would have to go out and buy on that first sit would be the beginning of my house sitting kit. From there I would plan to buy things as I need them at a house sit and as I move forward would then be taking only what has been needed in the past. It would be interesting to see how much a person would accumulate in their kit doing it this way.

Now I just need that first house sit!

I'm a creature of comfort so I almost always take my own sheets, pillows and pillow cases. The only time I wouldn't do that is if I flew to a housesit. So far, I've driven and prefer driving to flying.

In addition, I take plastic glasses and my own coffee cup. It's just less stressful for me than being concerned about breaking a glass while I'm there.

I like the idea of taking basic supplies like olive oil, etc. and also taking cleaning supplies. I had not thought of that but since I like to use green cleaning supplies, it would be a good idea for me to start taking them along too. Thanks for that tip.

I usually take my little white noise machine too, in case the neighborhood is a bit noisier than I like at night.

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Responsible Housesitting

We move out of our motor home into a housesit so easy to transfer all our home comforts . We use our own linen. I will use the homes kitchen items but add my pressure cooker and my flexi CUTTING BOARDS. Other people's cutting boards are always yukky don't you think?

In addition to most of the things already listed, I also take my rebounder and other small exercise stuff. On my current sit my cell phone doesn't work very well in the house, so I subscribed to Skype and bought a Skype head set. For $2.95 per month I get unlimited minutes for the US and Canada. I also purchased a telephone number for $30 for 12 months (this gives me a phone number for friends and family who have caller-id). The SKype headset plugs right into my laptop and I have my laptop accessing the cable. It works wonderfully.

I find that it is most important that I have all of my kitchen implements so I bring blender, food processor, juicer, pressure cooker, salad spinner, knives, -- even some silverware. I will take whatever I have room for in the car to keep down the cost of purchasing new and often duplicate implements and kitchen tools.

I always take a portable clothes-drying rack - one of those metal ones that lays flat when not in use, and an orange-juicer. You'd be surprised what people don't own that you would expect them to own.

Caro

WOW!!!! I have found this very interesting. I take my clothes, any meds for me and my dogs and off we go. I am always beating myself up for taking too much with me.

My first time away I did take more "stuff" but found that it was all just way TOO MUCH. Very stressful to be packing and dragging it around. I think half the experience of the housesit is working with what they have and you can always buy something if you really can't live without it.

I can't even imagine as a homeowner if I saw someone drive up and unpack a complete kitchen full of small appliances etc.

I guess we all have to do what is comfortable to us.

Happy and safe housesitting!

Very interesting. I think people need to take what they want really but definitely your own pillow! My partner and I sat for nearly four years around Sydney and the rest of Australia and had everything we needed in our trusty little van. We used the plastic stacking boxes instead of suitcases and found them wonderful - no unpacking in the sit, no burrowing in a suitcase and they sealed nicely to keep the pussy cats out and stacked well in the vehicle. We always used their salt and pepper and spices etc but did have a few of our own just in case. We enjoyed using their recipe books, movies and books. We found homeowners wanted us to use their perishable foods and condiments. Many prepared meals for us or left chocolates and wine for us to use. One owner actually fed us completely for the 4 weeks! Mind you we had travelled a 1000 miles to get there! We have broken the odd glass, but really for a home owner to get a sitter, they are caring about their animals over their homes and so we found that is what they worry about most, not whether we break a glass or chip a knife. But I agree it is stressful living in someone elses home, I always worry that I will bang something, scratch something or break something.

This is a good point actually. I always make sure that I move the bulk of my stuff in and out while the owners aren't there. I've noticed they don't like it when you turn up with a huge number of bags. They don't need to know what you've brought with you both to make yourself comfortable and to protect their own property!

There is an interesting article, "Housesitting Equipment Update below written by someone who has made housesitting a lifestyle.

Housesitting Equipment (update)

Hi VernieP

I actually wrote this article and it appears earlier in this thread. I also posted that particular version on my housesitting blog.

So the url looks like it is actually a 'splog' - one of those blogs which just steals material from other blogs.

Good to hear all the input on this thread.

It inspires one to get together a list of one's basics needs.

Working towards doing without what you would normally have in your own environment - just
to push those boundaries... and try a few things without your usual resources I found good. Thanks!

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"Do what you can, with what you've got, where you are."

http://www.housecarers.com/sit...fm/MamaandPapaBear.htm

WOW!! We have just joined and want to visit Europe next year for about six months. We were just thinking of throwing a few clothes into a suitecase and off we go! Reading your comments I feel exhausted. I have done housesitting before in Australia, locally to where I now live and apart from my own pillow and sheets have not needed to take anything else, apart from personal stuff. We are semi-retired early 60's, so if anyone out there can give us some helping info, we would be grateful. thanks.

We always travel light! On a 3 month sit in France, we arrived with one carry on size suitcase, each, plus one small totebag, with cold weather clothing and coats. (Winter in Normandy is chilly!) The house had most every thing we needed. The owner even purchased a coffee maker for us. To us the joy of house sitting is being there, using what is available, and enjoying what we have. Our one common complaint, on almost every sit? Dull kitchen knives, so now we travel with a small stone for sharpening. Good luck with your house sitting!

Mary and Bill
aka House_mom_2

Happiness is not a destination we arrive at, but a manner of traveling.

Goodness me - do you need a semi-trailer to move all of your stuff.
The home owner has all the needed cleaning stuff and kitchen stuff.
Surely you can use their clean sheets and towels.
If they have an animal they need you to look after then they MUST have all the necessary equipment for that animal.
Housesitting is meant to be fun and enjoyable - not tedious.