I’ve been thinking about stepping away from house sitting for good.
I used to take back-to-back stays all the time and was constantly onboarding new clients. At first, the steady income felt great, but over time I realized I was barely seeing my boyfriend, family, or friends. That started making me really frustrated and kind of stuck in this cycle where I always had money coming in but no real time to enjoy life.
A few months ago, in therapy, I decided to scale back and only keep my regular clients so I could feel less overwhelmed and have more freedom. But even that is starting to feel like too much.
I babysit and pet sit as my only jobs while being a full-time online college student, so my schedule is flexible—but I still feel like I’m always working. It’s getting harder to focus on school, I’m constantly tired, and by the end of the day I just want to sleep. On top of that, I’ve started feeling a lot of anxiety about clients, messages, and how I’m being perceived on/off Rover, plus always needing to be somewhere.
At this point, I think I might be done with house sitting completely. I’m worried drop-ins alone might not be enough financially, but I also feel like I deserve to feel calm, have a life again, and actually spend time with the people I care about without constantly stressing about where I need to be next.
I’ve been doing this for about 3 years now and I’m honestly really burnt out. Has anyone else dealt with this? How do you find a balance without it taking over everything? Even when I only house sit a few nights a week, it still feels like it completely runs my life. I miss my bed :/