Housesitting: The Simple Answer to Living, Learning, and Traveling for Free

Cairngorms National Park

As a society, we’re remarkably good at putting ourselves in boxes—literal ones, like houses with mortgages, and metaphorical ones, like the idea that life must follow a rigid, predictable script. Get a job, rent a house, work harder to afford a bigger house, retire, and then—finally—start enjoying life.

But what if there’s another way?

What if you could travel, educate your children, save money, and create unforgettable experiences, without the burden of rent, bills, or the daily grind?

This is precisely the question our family asked when, after seven years in the same rented house, we decided to sell everything we owned, move into a self-converted van, and embrace a new adventure.

It was, in theory, the dream. Life on the open road, freedom from financial constraints, the ability to show our children the world rather than just tell them about it.

And then reality hit.

Van life, as it turns out, is a romantic idea until you’re tripping over a pile of shoes in a three-metre space, trying to cook dinner while refereeing an argument over who touched who first. It was fun. It was exciting. But it wasn’t exactly low-cost or sustainable.

So, we found ourselves asking a new question:

How long could we live for free?

And then it happened, the accidental discovery of housesitting!

One of the great myths of modern life is that if something is valuable, it must be expensive. Housing, education, travel—we’ve been conditioned to believe that these things require enormous financial investment. But that’s only true if we accept the standard path.

Housesitting, as we soon discovered, turns this idea on its head.

The concept is simple: people who go on holiday need someone to look after their home and pets. In return, you get free accommodation. No rent. No bills. Just a genuine exchange of trust and benefit.

For homeowners, it provides peace of mind—their pets stay comfortable in their own environment, and their home remains secure.

For us, it became the key to unlocking a life we never thought possible.

12 Months, 16 Houses, and a completely different perspective.

Since embarking on this experiment, we’ve housesat across:

Switzerland

The French Alps

The Netherlands

The Scottish Highlands (our personal favourite!)

…and multiple locations across the UK.

And the best part? We did it all without paying rent, utilities, or WiFi bills for an entire year.

Think about that.

Imagine how different life could be if the money you spent on housing suddenly became optional. What choices would open up? How much time would you get back?

For us, the answer has been profound. Without the need to work long hours just to cover rent, we’ve had more time for our children’s education, more freedom to explore, and—perhaps most importantly—a deeper understanding that life doesn’t have to be lived the way we were told it should be.

Rethinking What’s Possible

The real lesson in all of this isn’t just about housesitting—it’s about questioning assumptions.

We live in a world that often tells us what we can’t do.

You can’t travel full-time with children.

You can’t live rent-free.

You can’t educate your children outside of school.

You can’t have freedom unless you’re wealthy.

But what if you can?

What if the biggest obstacle isn’t money, but the way we’ve been conditioned to think about it?

Our experience has taught us that, with a little creativity and a willingness to step outside the conventional path, life can be richer, fuller, and far more possible than we ever imagined.

So, Has housesitting changed our life? Yes.

Will we ever go back to van life? Probably not.

But will we keep thinking differently, embracing adventure, and living on our own terms?

Always!

We get asked a lot of questions about housesitting, so much so, that we have put together a free guide. Download it here...

Free Housesitting Guide

We use Trusted Housesitters and found it absolutely brilliant.

You can have a browse through all of the housesits that are currently available here

Trusted Housesitters

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