Nomadic Living — Barb and Jim

Editor’s note: Before each zoom meeting, many of us socialize in small breakout rooms to get to know each other better. I had the good fortune to chat with member Barb H and discovered that she and her husband Jim are now full-time “nomads.” Everyone in our breakout room was fascinated, and I thought it would be a great story to share with our community. 

GT: Start with a little background on what your life is like now, e.g. full-time nomad, pet / house-sitting in the U.S. and Europe and occasionally renting an apartment on your own.  

Barb H: We travel nearly 100% of the time – exploring new places or returning to places we might have visited for work but didn’t really get to experience. We pet/house sit in some places, stay in hotels or AirBnB’s in others and stay/visit friends and family (usually for no more than 2-3 days.😊) We usually stay in AirBnB’s if we’re in one location for more than 4-5 days; we stay in hotels when we’re “on the road” traveling from place to place. 

We absolutely love our lifestyle! It works well for us, and we’ve had zero regrets about our decision. We are both retired, have no children or pets of our own so we aren’t tied to any particular location for those reasons. We have some immediate family in Minnesota but others live throughout the US.

And we both love going on road trips which is important because we drive everywhere within North America. Fortunately Jim likes to drive, and I’m a good navigator so it works out well.

GT:  Do you have a “home base” — perhaps where your family lives?  Did you sell all your stuff or do you have things in storage someplace?

Barb H: Our home base is Minnesota. We have family and friends there, and it’s where we return most frequently. We sold 95-99% of our “things” but those that have special meaning for us are in storage. We review the items there every year to determine what we really still want to keep. For example, over the past several years we have sold our second car, a TV, printer/copier, kitchen dishes/pots and pans, and a few more pieces of furniture. Our view is “let’s have others use these items for their intended purpose instead of keeping them in a box/storage where  they aren’t being utilized.” Especially electronics…they become obsolete so quickly.

GT:  How many years did you do pet / house sitting occasionally before you decided to make it your full-time lifestyle?

Barb H: About 2 years. We spent 3 winters (4-5 months) traveling to southern states visiting friends and family. When we were at our home during the other months of the year, we occasionally traveled abroad or visited friends in northern states. During that time, we did a couple of pet and house sits for friends and found we enjoyed it. Then we did a few local pet sits in Minneapolis through the website we use. One thing led to another and here we are!

GT:  Was it a tough decision to decide to do this full time and what does your family think?

Barb H: By the time we decided to we were ready. So, no it wasn’t a tough decision. I’ve always been a wanderer so this was a dream come true for me. For Jim it was more out of his comfort zone initially but he was on board when we decided to take the plunge.

The hardest part was doing the research and dealing with all the details and logistics that go into a nomadic lifestyle. Luckily I love doing that sort of stuff!

Our families are excited for us and enjoy following along on our travels via social media. We all like being able to spend more time together. They all have kids/grandkids or are still working, so it’s easier for us nomads to go to them than vice versa.

 

GT: How do you find your gigs?

Barb H:  We’ve completed over 70 sits and about 15% have been word of mouth. Most are through an international website, Trusted Housesitters: https://www.trustedhousesitters.com/house-and-pet-sitting-assignments/

There were a couple of other sites we joined for domestic pet sits, but we didn’t find them as useful for us. So we exclusively use Trusted Housesitters for non-family/friend sits now. But regardless of how we hear of a sit, we still do our due diligence to be sure it’s a good fit for both parties. 

Because we’ve been doing this awhile, we have quite a few repeat sits now. We’ll apply for new sits to fill space when we’re on multiple repeat sits in a particular area (eg, Denver or Portland) or if we want to travel someplace we’ve not been before. But mostly now past sits will contact us about an upcoming trip to see if we’re available OR we will contact them to let them know we’ll be their area and are available to sit for them if they want to plan a trip. Between pet sits, family events and personal travel we’re usually booked 6-8 months in advance.

Our longest sit has been 7 weeks and our shortest 1 night, but most are 5-10 days. Up until last year all our sits were in the US, largely due to Covid restrictions. But now we’ve had several international sits and are looking forward to more in 2024.

GT: What are some great places you have lived?

Barb H: If by lived you mean places we’ve spend time on sits or extended holiday between sits, here are some of our favorite locations, in no particular order.

  • Colorado, between Colorado Springs and Fort Collins
  • North Carolina
  • Bend Oregon
  • Tucson Arizona
  • Lake Tahoe California
  • San Francisco California from Bodega Bay to Monterey Peninsula
  • Encinitas California
  • Hill County of Texas
  • Vancouver, Victoria and Kelowna British Columbia
  • The Netherlands
  • Madrid and Barcelona Spain

GT: Do you have a wish list of places you would like to live?

Barb H: We don’t have plans to “settle down” in the near future, but we are leaning toward The Front Range area of Colorado and Tucson. We also really like British Columbia, the Netherlands and Spain so those places might factor in for some short terms stays (2-3 months) as well.

GT: Any thoughts on what characteristics make this lifestyle a good option for people?

Barb H:

  • Flexibility, being comfortable with the unfamiliar, good problem solving skills, patience, organized, clear communicator, curious/openness to learn new things
  • Comfortable with a minimalist lifestyle. We have everything we need or want but we don’t have a lot of it.
  • Relatively good health because you’re usually not near your regular medical providers
  • Liking the person you’re traveling with since you’re with them 24/7 😉
  • And most importantly if you’re pet sitting as part of your nomadic lifestyle, truly loving to be with the type of pets you’re caring for.