Our first entry into the 2018 Housesitting Blog Competition, run annually by HouseSitMatch, comes from the family Hamner house sitting their way around the world. Read on to discover their take on how housesitting enables authentic travel. DON’T FORGET TO VOTE – FIND BUTTON AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG POST. Only one vote per email will be counted, so vote for your favourite. Last votes counted at midnight on 22 December (GMT).

Family house sitting

Hello from the Hamner family. I am on a horizon widening life journey with my husband and our daughter, whom we have been world schooling along the way.

We have been travelling without owning home for the past four years. We thought it would be just for the Summer when we started, before we moved and settled back where my husband originally came from. Here’s a little about how house sitting enabled us to travel.

Wow – how the world opened up to us during our family house sitting adventure. And we jumped right on board. We have met lovely people along the way, people who do not make excuses, but rather welcome new people into their home and lives. House sitting enables authentic travel literally opening doors into homes of others who share life with us. It allows us to BE AT HOME wherever we are in authentic environments. It’s a real experience.

Extended travel and family house sitting

As a family house sitting we were agreed that we would not have continued to travel if we were going to do so as tourists. We wanted  to experience life in a community.  Our aim was to live alongside others, real people rather than anonymous city dwellers. House sitting has enabled us to visit different places. We lived in new communities for extended periods like Quepos in Costa Rica where we took care of an ‘ecolodge’ allowing the owners to return to America for over 2 months. It worked for both of us. We kept a B&B in Hawaii to give the owners a 2 month break, and this allowed us to  live on the Big Island for a good period of time, rather than just sightseeing the lava flow for a short visit.

Additional benefits of family house sitting

As a family house sitting has also been a means of making deep connections with family as well. We have since returned to the mainland of USA and did a year of various housesits across our own country, allowing us to reconnect with relatives who live far away. And one highlight was getting a family housesit in Europe where I could trace my ancestors trail.

During our travels we have also done this for my husband on a previous family house sitting adventure.

We have been pet sitting and caring for all kinds of animals on our housesits, this amplifies the experience of being at home in each place rather than just being a guest.

Our duties while house sitting

As well as taking care of plants or a garden we care for a wide variety of pets on our family house sitting journey.

It has been so enriching to our health and lives to have these opportunities. And we have gained a wholesome view of the people we share the world with;

people who trust others, and welcome us into their home, their community, their culture.

We LOVE this time in history where this is possible, and we are so grateful for the platforms that exist, like HouseSitMatch.com that makes the connections available.

To start your house sitting adventure or to find your house and pet sitting solution register now with HouseSitMatch.