You need to be adaptable.

One of the more difficult things with house sitting is the constant change. If you are a person of habit and hate change, then you might find this harder to deal with. Lets consider some of the changes a house sitter faces in the kitchen.

With every house there is a different kitchen. I have had everything from grubby, messy and small, to large and spotless and everything inbetween. Every kitchen has a few similarities. There are usually at least one set of drawers, and look in every kitchen, you will probably find the cutlery in the top one, cooking utensils in the second, teatowels somewhere in the third or fourth and things like cling wrap and plastic bags in the other.

This is one of the nicer kitchens I have had to work in. A large corner pantry had lots of storage space and a large fridge/freezer with icemaking facilities was good.



As for stoves I have had to get used to gas which was a new experience for me, and several kinds of other cooktops. I had one that was a ceramic cook top with a touch panel instead of knobs. I really found that hard to work, the pressure needed on the cook top varied with every button.

Ovens vary, from lovely clean wall ovens to huge family ovens to dirty things I refused to cook in until it had been scrubbed out. But it's the variation in the temperatures of ovens that takes a while to get used to.

Dishwashers are another thing. Some work really well, and others are hopeless, but it takes a while to get to know the different machinery in a home. In two places we ended up doing the dishes by hand, we just didn't like the dishwashers.

One of the main things is what is left in the cupboard for you, as the visitor to use when you arrive. I have had one place, a beautiful kitchen, clean and large, where the people didn't even leave us milk for a cuppa, nor one slice of bread for breakfast. We had stayed the night, they left early in the morning, we then went to make some breakfast, but the cupboards were bare. I knew we would have to do shopping, no problems there, but enough for breakfast would be expected. On the other hand, in the present place we are sitting, the lady left a panty and fridge chock full of food. We work on the 'use it and replace it' method, so that when we leave, the cupboards are in much the same condition as when we arrived.

So be prepared to be adaptable when moving from place to place. I usually take one or two of my own things so I have something of my own on the bench, but you can't make many changes. One further thought, I always take photographs of the house as soon as we move in. I do the whole house, so that if I make changes it can go back to the original look when we leave. It's also useful in case of any damage, or in case they say something goes missing. We have never had any problems in this regard, but you might think that having a photographic record of everything as you move in is a good idea.