Home is where the pants are

[listersgirl]

I'm officially tired of housesitting. I want my own bed back, not to mention clothing other than the suitcase-full I took with me. Also, I still can't find a broom, and I'm not entirely sure how to get the cat litter off the floor. Plus I'm really busy this weekend, and it would all be much easier if I weren't going back and forth between two places. I just have to make it until Monday, though, and Squishy didn't wake me up this morning*, so it's not too painful.

Has anyone done any housesitting? How much cleaning should I be doing? I'm going to clean the bathroom (ie. get the cat litter off the floor somehow, clean my hair out of the sink, that sort of thing) and the kitchen, but should I wash the sheets? I'm not really sure there's much point, since I'd have to use them again after I washed them, but I'm not sure. What would you expect if someone were staying at your place?

Speaking of cleaning, I'm having belated spring cleaning urges. I attribute this to the fact that I'm not at home, and therefore have no responsibility to act on them. I'm sure by the time I get home for good, any inclination I have to dust will have faded away, to be replaced by the urge to sit and do nothing.

*Actually she did, if you count 2:30 am as morning, but it was a nice change from the normal 5 am wake-up call, other than the fact that for a few minutes I thought that meant I was going to have to get up soon, and I couldn't figure out why it felt like I had just gone to bed.

Comments

[morag-gunn.livejournal.com]

I house-sat/cat-sat once and I think I felt the same way you feel. At first it's kind of fun and exotic to live in somebody else's house (esp when it's nicer than yours) but then you want your own stuff and you wonder where things are and generally get a bit homesick. I ended up carting a lot of my stuff from home to the house-sitting place so that by the time the owner got back, I had to make several trips (on the bus). She also never thanked me, which pissed me off and made me swear never to do it again.

I did wash the sheets though, and I even bought her a "Welcome Home" balloon. And I tried to put everything back as it was when I got there and stuff. Still, she didn't thank me so I wonder if I was a terrible house-sitter/cat-sitter. Or if maybe she was just mean. Or distracted. Hmmmmm... .

It's nice to come home to a clean house.

[listersgirl]

I really would like to leave flowers, but I'm having a hard time scheduling in some time to buy them (as pathetic as that seems). Part of the awkwardness comes from the fact that I have to stay there Sunday night so I can feed the cat on Monday, but I start work very early on Monday, so there's no time to do anything in the house before they get back.

And I just don't understand people who don't say thanks. How hard is that?