Community forum: March round-up

From how to get settled as a full-time sitter and first-time owner success stories to chats about sleeping arrangements, airport layovers, digital book clubs and more, suffice to say, it's been another exciting month over on our friendly community forum! 

Missed out on some of these great conversations, and feeling a bit of ‘forum FOMO’? Fret not, for we’ve rounded some of the best chats, discussions, and thought-provoking tidbits from this month. Pull up a chair, get yourself comfy, and read on to find out what our lovely members have been chin-wagging about this month...

Topic of the month

House sitting full-time is a dream for many a sitter - and we can see why! A life on the road, exploring new places and meeting fluffy new friends along the way? Yes please! That said, it can be tricky to get into the swing of a being a full-time house sitter.

In this topic all about how to feel settled while house sitting full-time, forum member @Karfy87 asked the community how they get used to being nomadic - especially after having their own ‘space’ and a homebase to return to.  

Many of our members - both full-time and part-time sitters - chimed in with their support, tips, and advice. If you’ve been thinking about a life on the (house sitting) road, you’ll definitely want to get stuck into this one!

Category of the month

Our lovely forum sitter members were out in their droves this month, chit-chatting about all manner of things in our ever-popular Sitter Questions, Advice & Chat category. 

From conversations about repeat house sits and advice on finding long-term sits - to discussions on what to do when a dog runs past an electric fence! - there was something for everyone this month. We loved seeing our members come together (both experienced and new) to encourage each other, offer their advice, ask questions, and share their own thoughts, feelings, and experiences. 

Forum member of the month

If you’ve spent any amount of time on our friendly forum, you’ll likely have run into member @Colin. An ever-present voice on the forum and an experienced sitter member with an abundance of advice and insights under his belt, @Colin is always one of the first members to offer up solid advice to newcomers - whether it's how to improve a profile or home listing, to facilitating our forum member meet-ups. Honestly, we’re not quite sure how the lovely @Colin has evaded our ‘forum member of the month’ title up until now! 

“We are not born ‘n’ bred Mancunians, but lived in Manchester city centre for 15 years. In 2020 we decided that we had had enough of city life so gave up our permanent address to become full-time nomadic travellers. As experienced Airbnb hosts our original intention was to use Airbnb as our accommodation choice. This went well until May 2021 when we discovered house/pet sitting and, as they say, the rest is history!” - @Colin

Quote of the month

There’s nothing we like more than seeing new members find success - so suffice to say, this topic posted by member @SabrinaCam absolutely brightened up our whole day, week, and month! 

“We just confirmed our first sitter today! We are very excited to share our home and fur babies with the applicant for our trip in a few months.

We are very thankful to this community forum for being so helpful. There are so many threads to read, advice and insight. It really made this very new process so much easier!

To anyone just joining (we are new Jan 2023) this forum is such a great tool. Be patient, don’t get discouraged and wait for the right applicant. We had a few applications prior that didn’t work for various reasons. Today, we confirmed!”

Photos of the month

If there’s one thing we love to see on the forum, it’s happy smiling faces and the news of a new member meet-up! This month, our aptly named member @Smiley shared this great snap in our Meet up gallery - share your meet up pics topic from when she caught up with fellow THS members, @theglobalpetsitters. 

Meanwhile, in our (extremely wholesome) What brought you joy today? topic, member @botvot shared this great snap from Cape Town. 

“We are currently in Cape Town and there is a colony of these guys just around the corner from us. Can’t help feeling joy when you’re watching some penguins at play!” - @botvot

We’re not sure about you, but this definitely brought a little joy to our day! 

Finally, member @temba shared these two beautiful birds in our Who’s on a house sit now? How’s it going? topic, from her recent house sit in Bathurst, NSW. 

“The canaries, finches and quail are a first for me and I love watching them and admiring their beautiful colours.”

What else have the community been discussing this month?

In short? LOTS! But don't worry - we’ve whittled it down to three top trending topics, starting with:

New owner question about sleeping arrangements

In this forum topic, member @anntmiller10 started up a great conversation all about sitter sleeping arrangements and organization tips. As ever, our forum members arrived in their droves to help answer @anntmiller10’s question - providing tips on how to realistically display her home listing to sitters, and offering encouragement along the way. 

Sleeping in the airport - overnight layover

We've all been there - an airport layover, hours of time stretching ahead of you, and a rolled-up jumper for a makeshift pillow... admittedly, it's usually not the most fun of situations. And so, this forum topic started by @Crittersitter about how to make the experience overall more enjoyable and comfortable is going straight into our bookmarks folder! From black-out eyemasks and noise-canceling earplugs to checking airport closing hours, if you're a regular traveller, this topic is guaranteed to come in super handy!

Book club anyone?

Sure - most people are familiar with the idea of a book club - but what about a virtual book club? In this topic, @Karen-Moderator suggested forming an online forum book club, meeting over Zoom once a month. If your Goodreads reading challenge needed an extra incentive, this might just be it!

Join our friendly community forum

Looking for tips or advice on your listing or sitter profile? Or just fancy a chat about some of your favorite travel destinations, house sitting experiences, or pets? Then pop along to our community forum today - a friendly, welcoming, get-involved-as-much-as-you-like kinda place, where pet people like you can come together to chat, share experiences, and get advice from real-life members.