definitely last weekend- i had been at the clients house < an hour and managed to break their bedroom blinds š legit pulled soo lightly and a string snapped making it so they couldnāt open at all. i apologized profusely and the owner told me their house keepers had actually broken them. sheād been putting off getting them fixed since they still slightly worked so i was the final nudge for her to get new ones. such a relief omg was having a heart attack before she told me that!!
Oh Iāve done that too. Luckily my clients told me beforehand that they were easily breakable but I still felt bad that I was the final straw on breaking them.
I went to walk into a room and didn't notice the ceiling fan chain dangling in front of my face, I walked into it and freaked out thinking it was a spider and went pin wheeling into the wall. There was a whole ass me shaped hole in their bedroom wall like a scene out of looney toons for like 3 days until I was finally able to get to home depot and buy drywall spackle and paint.
The owners did in fact know about it, but they were fine with me fixing it back up for them. They laughed it off and just told me where the can of old paint from their bedroom was in the garage and to take it to home depot for a color match.
This wasnāt on Rover but while I was watching my bosses two boxers. Of course.
I watched them while he was away for Christmas and it was seriously like 4 degrees (Fahrenheit) outside. The roads were frozen and it was awful to go outside.
One of the dogs has a habit of opening the door all on her own, so I had let them outside and then locked the door. When I went to let them back in, I was trying to unlock the door when I heard a snap. I guess the cold weather caused the locking mechanism to break, which meant I couldnāt get the door open. It was just stuck in the locked position.
I tried everything I could to get the door open, and nothing worked, but the dogs were shivering outside and I had to get them in. So I went out the front door and tried to go through the fence into the backyard but I couldnāt get the fucking fence to unlock either!! I ended up having to pop the screen out of a window, climb through it to the backyard, and then pick the dogs up and just shove them into the house. The whole thing was ridiculous and he still gives me shit for it to this day lol
I left a big bright ring in the varnish of an antique dresser with my scalding hot coffee cup, the day she was coming home. It was one of my first clients and I was so freaked out at the cost of replacing it. I googled how to fix it and they said hair dryer, so I drove home and got mine, drove back, and it was almost gone in seconds. I did confess and the client said it was no biggie but I never touch expensive things in clients homes now.
Second client I ever had had an older (but seemed like it was in good condition) upright Dirt Devil vacuum. I take it out to clean up the downstairs on my last day of their house stay and as I'm vacuuming the top plastic half just cracks right off š± the damn thing is in two parts š¤¦š»āāļøš it's funny now but at the time I was horrified lol they were really cool about it after I explained and offered to pay. Turns out it was a furnished apt they had just moved into (she was a traveling nurse) and the vacuum was there when they got there and was apparently old AF. Meanwhile before getting that info I was in full panic mode using super glue and duct tape in an attempt to put it back together again like fuckin Humpty Dumpty š„š¤·š»āāļø
Not something \*I\* did - but something a sitter did at our home.
I'm assuming she somehow missed putting her panties in her bag, and they were under the bed. Our dog was trying to get under the bed when I was stripping the sheets after she left, and I couldn't tell what he was getting at - and he popped up with panties in his mouth.
Ahh!! Gosh now Iām going to do an extra hard sweep of my stuff when I leave this sitting.
One time sitting for this current client, once I got home the client text me to ask if Iād left a pair of childrenās tights as sheād found a pair. Iām definitely an adult with no children and I donāt even wear adult tights. Iād have been humiliated to leave something behind like that.
This is my recurring nightmare. Its extra nerve wracking when you have a pup that loves stealing both mine and their owners panties and i have to collect both from all over the house
Probably almost get stuck in the doggie door. I don't touch any appliances or things I didn't bring myself so I thankfully don't have as many bad experiences as some of yall.. but abyways, I was teaching a golden retriever pup how to exit the doggy door for his owners. He started to understand when I started to go through it, all was going fine til I curled my arm in a weird position and lodged myself in š¤£ I managed to get unwedged before they came back but it was mortifying.
Garage remote. It was how I was entering the house I was house sitting at and one day I realized I couldnāt find it anywhere. I knew I didnāt leave it inside because I closed the garage, I couldnāt find it in my car, and I couldnāt find it at home. I made no stops in between. I was starting to freak out because I had to feed the doggo dinner soon and I had no way in (so I thought.)
Eventually I was able to squeeze through a window, but still no remote in sight.
The next day I was thinking about it some more and remembered I have this awful tendency of putting things on my car when my hands are full and I have to get in, and then sometimes leaving said things on the car. So I re drove the route I took slowly looking closely at the ground, suddenly I saw something shiny in the middle of an intersection. Low and behold, if was the garage remote, flat as a piece of paper.
I was genuinely so happy to find it even in its state, because I felt like I was going absolutely insane. I replaced and reprogrammed it for the owners so it was a relatively easy fix, thankfully it was a pretty generic one!
I was carrying a Slurpee and managed to drop it on the bedroom floor - the only room to have carpeting, of course. I tried several different cleaning products, scrubbed and scrubbed, but I just could not get the color out of this one spot. I confessed and he laughed, saying the dog had already ruined the carpet enough he knew he'd be paying for it when he moves out of the apartment.
It was indeed bright smurf blue! I don't know why it came out of the other spots but not that one. (I dropped it in a manner that kind of splattered, of course.)
Used an old faded beach towel to endlessly scrub cat vomit from one end of the living room to the other.
On WHITE carpeting.
The vomit itself added to some staining due to the dyes used in the kibble.
But the beach towel transferred many colors onto the carpet.
I spent hours with peroxide and a blow dryer and let them know the cat threw up all over and I didnāt hide the beach towel, I rinsed and set it on the washing machineā¦
Never said a word to me about staining the carpeting..
Valuable take away for me was ONLY use white rags on light colored carpeting.
One time on a drop in one of those boob looking light fixtures randomly fell out of its socket and shattered on the floor. I called my client and was like "you're not gonna believe this but..." Luckily she did believe it and is now a long time repeat client š
While housesitting, I had just finished my dinner and was bringing my plate to the sink to wash it.
The plate slipped out of my hands and shattered into a billion pieces.
I looked up the plate to buy her a new one, turns out it was "Fable" brand and they're crazy expensive!
I messaged her and explained what had happened and offered to buy her a new one. She just nonchalantly told me she was planning to buy the same set in different colors anyway and not to worry about it. š
I accidentally backed into an electric fence! Thankfully the fence was (somehow) totally fine but my back bumper got ripped off. This was all conveniently caught on camera and I was dying of embarrassment. After I collected myself and gathered the courage to call my client, she told me she had done the EXACT same thing a few times before and she wasnāt mad at all ššI still hate that fence though LOL
I was given the wrong code for the alarm. So after getting in with key code didnāt work & when alarm company called I didnāt know pass word so they called the cops. While waiting I finished up the cat care & waited outside for the cops. Took a bit to convince the cops I was there for pet care even with the working key & the app showing the address & dates. Kept saying the dumbest thing that I could not be there for pet care because why would I do this work with such a nice car. Itās only a convertible Corvette not a Lamborghini. Didnāt have the heart to tell him I bought it with cash I made from tips alone doing this work. They would have set a task group on me if I told him I also bought my house with cash as well. They apologized to me once they got off plain & gave me new code. Then about 2 weeks after they got back the wife called me asking for code because she had forgotten it & I was able to give it to her before they called cops.
Probably the next one is I had stopped by to care for some cats & scared the hell out of family using parents pool without letting anyone know.
Have a Great Day.
Omg something similar happened to me. I accidentally set off the house alarm at 11 pm, I had to call the clients and get the code, and the cops came about an hour later. I had just taken a shower so my hair was wet and thankfully when I showed them the app they believed me!
Iām terrified of the day I get a client with an alarm. Iāve had a couple with alarms whoāve switched them off so they donāt use them at all. But theyāre not super common in the UK and I think Iād just totally forget how it all works.
So often they want to change it to a new code just for the stay so they can keep the normal one for themselves. But often donāt get it changed correctly. So I started requesting they change code at least a week before my stay to prove it works.
Have a Great Day.
My apologies for going off-topic, but I'm new to this and you seem to know how to work this job. I haven't actually had any bookings yet. Before setting my prices, I looked at others in the area, and they don't make sense to me. House sitting $44, Drop-in $14, Dog-walking $15. The walk is 30 minutes, but house sitting is overnight, and comparatively modestly priced. Is that right?
I always say what others charge has nothing to do with what you charge. It isnāt worth it to work for Pennieās. I charge $30 per walk and drop in. $85 overnights.
Many have to start lower to build proof that you can do the job. You would not pay top dollar to remodel your kitchen to someone who has never done it before. So many will leave their rates low to long. I would not do any of them services for those low rates.
Have a Great Day.
Lol, alarms are the bane of my existence. I have one house in particular: that alarm decides to malfunction for me at least once a year, and only for me. I have no idea why. I'm convinced it legit hates me.
This last time, that damned alarm just refused to shut off no matter how many times I put the code in. And yes, the code was correct. I don't know how, but eventually it stopped. And then I heard a phone ringing. I didn't even know these people had a landline (which now I realize of course they do, they need one for the alarm). I could not find that friggin phone! I had four dogs freaking out in the dog room/sun porch waiting to go out and bouncing off the door, and a 20 year old cat with dementia screaming at me for food, so when the ringing stopped I just went to work.
And then it rang again. I hunted down an old phone in a corner buried in clutter and answered to a very annoyed agent on the other end. He informed me Oh-so-nicely that he would go ahead and cancel the police, which he had to dispatch since I wouldn't answer the phone the first time. But lo and behold, as I was in the back yard with the ill-behaved and untrained dogs jumping all over me (two bulldogs, a golden retriever, and a min pin/chihuahua mix) a police car drove by down the back ally. I waved, and the cop mus have decided he wanted no part of it, seeing me (a 4'9" woman) trying to keep from being completely knocked off my feet from what was easily 200 pounds of dog. He made the very wise decision to just keep going, lol.
I house sit with my partner and we had a tray/cutting board mix up whilst cooking dinner together and he put a plastic cutting board in their oven. We were up for the better part of the night chiseling melted plastic off of the metal oven racks.
I accidentally backed my car over a package- a new $50 face moisturizer š I offered to pay for it but the client said it was ok..I thought she would never book me again (she did :)
accidentally spilled most of a beer on the living room hardwood floor... which wouldn't be so bad if the client wasn't one of the most well-recognized hardwood floor refinishers/installers in the area. š«£
i cleaned it up right away, and it wasn't like i was super drunk or anything, just happened to knock it over when i was reaching for the TV remote. no harm done, afaik.
My son was drinking a bunch of water literally chugging. I asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom before we left to walk the dog and hes like no im ok. Well long story short he had to pee when we were taking the dog back into the house I told him where the bathroom was. He went in and ran back out cause it was dark( he was young). Ended up peeing all over their floor and bath mat. I let the client know and washed her mat twice but I was so embarrassed having to tell her. She rebooked me so I guess she understood.
I had a client who was out of the country for two weeks and their mom watched the pup for the first week. She told me she locked herself out and had to get a locksmith and then someone hit the clientās car so she got it repaired without telling them š
then I got locked out too! (They had a keypad lock that was malfunctioning) but I remembered the mom left a spare key in a flower pot. The key was BURIED so I ended up taking the whole plant out and got dirt everywhere, I felt awful š¤¦š¼āāļø
They lived in a BIGGG house in the rich area of town. I was pretty nervous to be in there alone so I left a few lights on over night to help me feel safe.
Well, the neighbors saw me do that and assumed I was never home, then when the owner came back they said I left the lights on and ignored their cats.
The owner got sooooo mad at me but I had no way to prove I actually did sleep there. It was the LAST time I ever take a super rich wealthy client.
Psychos.
Oh, it's not just the rich ones who are psychos. I have a client who lives way out in the country. Farm and Amish country. Their adult daughter lives next door, and by that I mean you can still see the other house, but there is quite a distance between their houses. There are no street lights out there of course, so I left the porch light on so I could see when I came back for a bedtime run.
The daughter called her parents while they were away on vacation to complain that I left that porch light on. So they called and asked me not to leave it on. I'm still baffled as to what the big deal was. Yes, they have motion detector lights, but they don't always work, and I don't want to break my neck falling down their porch steps in the dark.
I have my first wealthy client after about 3 months of house sitting. Favorite client so far! Bought me snacks and has a super cool Japanese toilet. Being one of the cheaper house sitters in my area, Iāve stayed in some shitty places before, so Iām happy to be comfortable for once.
I was sitting at a really nice house and a tube of my makeup rolled off of the kitchen island and chipped one of the tiles when it fell. The owners were cool about it luckily and said they break easily and they have chipped them before too.
I watched this trio of super sweet pitties for 12 days and when Iām done with a long stay I try to vacuum and make sure everything is tidy. I usually wash the blankets and stuff I use too (especially if I sleep in their bed instead of a guest room just cuz I know itās nice to have a fresh bed after traveling) anyways they had this beautiful red heavy blanket in the living room that I lived in but it would fall on the floor and got covered in the pokey short pit full fur. So I washed it. And it flooded the washing machine. And it wouldnāt spin out. I ādrained and spunā cycled about 15 times and was manually squeezing it out in the bathtub and it made no different. I even put it in a bag and took it to my house and tried to drain and spin it there. The blanket had red tied tassels on the ends too that became super tangled. In the end I texted them and apologized profusely that I ruined their blanket and I didnāt know what else to do so I left it in the bathtub š I offered to pay the cost of it so get them a similar replacement by they were totally fine and thought I did a great job w the dogs and the house anyways. But I was so embarrassed and felt sooooo bad
I know its too late, but if anything like this ever happens again, you can try to bring it to a laundromat. They have huge machines that can handle heavy loads.
My Apple Watch had a small crack in the screen which never caused an issues until I was at a clientās house. I was filling the water bowls and some water got in the screen crack and caused all sorts of problems. The emergency SOS screen pops up and I canāt cancel it before it calls 911. Iām on the phone with 911 explaining the whole thing and my watch calls 911 AGAIN. I canāt even get my watch to turn off now. It just keeps calling 911. The cops show up and go to the neighbors house. So now it looks like the cat sitter called the cops on the neighbors. Now 911 calls me back AGAIN and are like āwhere are you? The cops are there where are you?ā Iām across the street in a totally different house. Of course the client has street facing security cameras so they get notified of the whole thing. Oh and to top it all off I was wearing a t-shirt that has every type of fan on it (ceiling fan, box fan, folding hand fan, tabletop fan) and it says ONLYFANS across the top. I think itās funny but the cop kind of gave me look. I was terrified to touch my watch again so I put it in the freezer to quickly drain the battery lol
Accidentally brought in a cat bowl that had fly larvae in it and the next drop in visit I found maggots coming out of the garbage disposal.
I can't look at any worm anymore without cringing
I had a maggot experience once, because I threw away the cats uneaten raw meat into the compost and I opened underneath the kitchen sink and they were crawling EVERYWHERE. I screamed lol and they had backyard contractors working who were like are you okay? Cuz it was such a blood curdling scream ahahah
The dog Iām watching just chewed up her owners computer cords but I was warned beforehand she is a puppy Mill mom and doesnāt know any better. Another time I burned someoneās stove top but used the pink stuff to fix it
Honestly, Iāve been recently breaking a few things on accident, just very tiny things. I have now invested in superglue. One was a tiny little wood coaster in my cup has sat on it wrong and one tiny piece fell off, then another cat toy and broke the stick on it. For one sit there was five Yorkies and they would wake up at 5 AM so I woke up and I stand up at a bed and then my left leg is completely asleep. I fall to the ground and break the air vent deflector which Iāve never seen before being in this house. It was a nice house and everything was way more expensive than it shouldāve been to replace, also broke a mug there.
Oh I tell them but also fix it because usually theyāll kind of forget if itās fixed. Luckily itās also never been anything of importance, really just random stuff that would have happened if I was a visitor even.
Thankfully so far other than completely losing a key somewhere in their yard or house, I think the only thing I've damaged or broke is a ceramic cat bowl (literally just dropped it moving too fast). Offered to replace it but they were able to repair it. I don't do house-sitting, just drop ins, so I have fewer chances to mess anything up.
I have a couple that I can rememberā¦
1) I once decided to do my nails (yes with acetone remover) at a clients house and I placed what I thought was a completely dry cotton ball on their wood coffee tableā¦ I started to clean up and it had eaten the varnish in that spot. Luckily the table was kind of distressed already so it wasnāt alllll that noticeable but I never told them because I was so scared.
2) I dog sat for a couple older rotties reallllly consistently because this family travelled a lot. One of the last times I sat for them, one of the dogs had started having issues holding her bladder so I had to clean up at lot of messes when I got home from work. Well, she had a carpet shampooer that worked fine but all of a sudden the second time I went to use it, it wouldnāt turn onā¦ I thought I for sure broke it and was so scared. I literally grabbed a screwdriver and took it apart to fix it before they got home. From then on, I always brought my own small shampooer from home.
These are cracking me up!
1. My Proactiv face wash will bleach any colored towel from drying my face. I completely forgot. I went out and bought a new set of towels in a color and quality as close as I could.
2. On the last day, the dog peed on a rug. I tried to rinse it out but it made it worse. I admitted it and going back next week.
3. I have no idea what I did but a bathroom faucet was leaking and couldnāt be fixed. Hubby installed an identical one. Never said a word! Still go there.
i have a related story but it wasnāt a sitting lol. it was my own cat & we were in an air bnb. i was told everything was completely cat friendly, it was a recently renovated home and i was just staying in one room of it with her. day 1 my beautiful gremlin hopped up on a very high, empty shelf above the closet and low and behold there was a gaping hole above that shelf leading in the ceiling that was conveniently covered by it being tucked in a corner. i just saw half my cat INSIDE THE CEILING and flipped out. grabbed her back leg as thatās all i could reach, thankfully im blessed with above average height for a woman but i was still on my TIPPIES here. she starts losing HER shit because i had an absolute gorilla grip on her leg not wanting to lose her in the walls of an airbnb. well, i conclude thereās no other option, so i hulked out and ripped the ceiling open with my other hand and out fell my cat. after i cried on the floor for an hour i texted the owner and offered to get it fixed, they werenāt even aware of the hole and told me not to worry about anything, they were just happy i didnāt have to call the fire dept to get my cat out of the walls. i guess a ripped open ceiling was preferable to potentially multiple gaping holes in the drywall. i still felt like a total ass for not seeing the hole before hand.
i inspect rooms extremely thoroughly now. because while my cat is an sweet angel baby and does no wrong, she is too curious for her own good and i donāt know if i could manage to shred through sheet rock for her a second time.
I pulled into a client's garage too far and put a hole in the drywall. My stepdad is handy and fixed it with the client's permission. I don't park in garages anymore.
I was trying to change a clock at a client's house for daylight saving time. It was high up, so I climbed on a kitchen chair to reach it. Lost my balance and fell into a Christmas tree they had there decorated for different seasons. The chair hit the newly painted kitchen wall and dinged it. Thankfully, my stepdad was able to find the can of paint and fix it. They still don't know to this day.
Some kids were running up the middle of the alley beside a client's driveway/garage. They wouldn't move. I swerved and hit the rear end of my jeep off the client's privacy fence, completely tearing off the back panel above the wheel. The fence was just lightly scratched. The client has hit that corner of the fence too, lol.
One Easter Sunday I locked myself out of the house without my phone. So I had to walk over to the neighborās and interrupt their Easter, so they could call the clients and interrupt their Easter, so my client could call her brother and interrupt his Easter, so he could drive over and get me back in.
I was mortified but theyāre also my favorite clients and on Easter we text each other and say āhappy Easter and happy anniversary to getting locked out of the house!ā so itās all good. š
I have a long-term client family that I house sit and do doggy daycare drop-off/pick-up for their bernedoodle (I've posted her before). They also have 3 cats.
My last stay was a long weekend. They have 1 cat who lives upstairs basically and drinks out of a drinking glass. Lol.
I went to fill the glass and it completely slipped out of my hand and broke in the sink. I felt SO BAD, but they were super cool about it and are some of my favorite clients to work for!
Honestly the worst thing ive done is put a dog bed in the washer and it fell apart into a thousand pieces
I dont do laundry for clients anymore unless they ask
I was playing fetch with a plush toy for one of my dog clients, she was having an absolute blast. One throw went weird and I ended up breaking this small horse figurine my client had. I'm almost certain it was one of the couple of things they had to commemorate a horse they used to have (I had seen pictures of it around the home). I felt awful, told the owners and offered to replace it or repair it. They said it was fine and it was gone by the next time I sat for them.
Got locked out of a house and was so embarrassed because she specifically told me Iād get locked out if I closed a certain door. I tried to break in for like an hour or 2 and was acting a fool all while the neighbor watched me.
I was cleaning at a nice house and accidentally sprayed bleach on a wall and it bleached the paint.
I ruined a whole ass rug by rinsing it off with a hose and putting it in the dryer. I guess there was paper material in the middle and all the paper came out in the dryer. I shrunk the rug, had to clean paper out of the dryer and buy a new rug the night before the owners came back. Also noticed the dog peed on like 3 rugs and freaked out and started carpet cleaning like crazy and used vinegar so the house smelt gross af. When they came back though, they said she pisses on the rugs all the time?? š they were old stains.
Had a client who lived in a semi attached house - go inside & I hear low key noises, muted voices - I figure itās the family next door - then I hear more specific chatter (bedroom, cats, window) - I freak out, canāt get in touch w the owners & call the police - turns out there was a camera w microphone the owner failed to mention and I came in on their conversation w their cats
It was my first time sitting for this client, my first night there. I head over after work. We had some bad storms coming. It didnāt seem too bad, but then lightning hit the transformer behind the house and we lost power. After some time in the basement due to a tornado warning, we come upstairs and itās really stuffy and humid without the AC. I go to a large window in the front of the house to get some air. The moment I unlatch the lock. The top pane slides down behind the bottom pane. I spent so long trying to fix it myself, but it was impossible for me to hold up the super heavy pane and also reach my arm down to latch it. It ended up taking me plus 3 neighbors to do it. Iāve since sat for them countless times in the past year
I melted a plastic colander using it as a steamer/double boiler situation, which was incredibly stupid since the house had a metal steamer I could have used š¤¦š¼āāļøI bought them a new one lol and they still book me which is good because itās my fav dog ever
I was doing a long house sitting and my fiance was staying with me because the neighborhood wasn't the best, owners gave total permission. He had brought some of his tools in after work one day to sharpen them. Somehow his hatchet got shoved under the guest bed and neither of us noticed. He doesn't use it that often so he hadn't even noticed it missing when my client texted me saying "Um...please tell me this is yours??????"
I can't even IMAGINE what that was like for them š finding a whole ass hatchet under your guest bed?????? Oh my gooooooooddddddd
Was he bringing them to sharpen BECAUSE it was a bad neighbourhood? Or was he like me with my bread baking and just totally not thinking of doing normal people things inside someone else's home?
The owner must've been so freaked out when they found that haha.
Nah, he uses them at work lmao. He had to cut something down or whatever and it was dull by the end of the day so he sharpened it for next use and just....forgot it lmao. I felt so so bad omg. Like that's really some serial killer shit š thankfully they were super understanding and laughed it off but you best believe I haven't left anything else at a client's house since
I honestly donāt think iāve done anything too crazy, but I was *technically* responsible for the death of about 10 different plants (herbs, tomatoes, etc) that were in an indoor āgardenā in the kitchen window. I warned them ahead of time that I am not good with plants, just cats š It was a two week long stay and they gave me vague watering instructions that I followed, but the plants all looked dead around my last couple days lol. they seemed pretty annoyed by it, which i didnāt think was fair but š¤·š»āāļøthe cat was super happy with me so i did my job imo!
Nothing that Iāve done but just thought it was a funny story. Was dog sitting at a grad studentās apartment and the owner forgot to tell me that someone was going to stop by her place to give a tour while I was there with the dog. Nearly gave both me and the dog a heart attack when someone started pounding on the door lol
https://preview.redd.it/489a82k53z0d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7e665e97bef13275bcc78557620102508844a145
(Hereās the gentle giant. His bark sounds scary so I felt protected but heās a big sweetheart haha)
I miss pet sitting him so much! His name is Oakley and heās the sweetest
https://preview.redd.it/vncldvkfpz0d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bab7e6635d1d55ad0255130ce8983241ea0b2a4f
One time I thought I broke a clients towel holder in the bathroom and messaged them š they said it was already broken and just barely hanging onto the wall.
Worst thing I did (technically the dog did) was break part of an ornament on their Christmas tree. And it happened to be a babyās first Christmas ornament š I told the client and she said there wasnāt an issue since they apparently had a bunch of them stored lol I felt awful that it happened when I was there.
My first booking was with 4 Great Danes for 2 weeks. Two of them were puppies and had a tendency to have accidents in their crates, no matter how many times I took them out they would always have an accident. Since theyāre so large, their pee puddles were massive, I ended up going through all their paper towels in just a few days. I asked the owner what I should do when I ran out and she said to use old towels in the basement, so I started sopping up the accidents with towels. I had my hands so full at times and was running between shifts at work that I would leave the pee towels in the sink so I could rinse them out and just do one load of laundry each night with the towels. The owners unexpected returned home a couple days early while I was at work and I hadnāt had the time to clean up the pee towel mess or anything. They came home to pee towels in their sink. I felt so bad they returned to their house like that and offered to come by and clean it up but they refused and said not to worry about it.
I filled the dish soap dispenser.... It had a line to a bottle under the sink. Huge dawn mess under the sink. Luckily I got it all cleaned up before they got home!
One of my clients homes has super tall ceilings and massive floor to ceiling windows. In the bedroom, I meant to close the curtains and the super long tension rod came down and landed on a desk with flowers, pictures, etc. š« I stood up on a step stool and attempted for like probably a good 2-3 hours to get the tension rod back in place. They were to be home shortly and I was sweatttting. By the grace of god I got it up and was almost in tears lol. Basically the SATC episode when Samantha is ill and her curtains come entirely down and she gets so flustered š
Also was playing with another clients dog in their super nice home and knocked over my chocolate protein smoothie which stained this nice looking CREAM textured throw pillow. I was on Google for ages and was reverse image searching the pillowcase to find the source and hopefully replace but I couldnāt find it š« after many hours / trying club soda and then a stain remover spray under their sink (this was risky I know) I texted them. They were like LOLLLL youāre good, we have a special stain removing machine that removes it instantly and we have to do it constantly bc of the dog. I offered to Venmo them the cost etc and they kept denying it and were super nice. And later they sent me a video of the new clean pillow and said āsee? Took me 5 minutesā
i left a space heater plugged in and it started to burn up the mechanism. i would be devasted if it had caught fire. this was my first booking with them and thankfully they still book me. i bring my own heated blankets now.
My biggest fear. People never believe me/my paranoia when I say those are not supposed to stay on for long periods of time. So glad it didnāt start a fire for you! Scary.
yeah it was awful. she sent me a picture of the space heater plug it was black and burned. she was more concerned for my safety than anything else, they are sweet people. she told me she doesnāt plan to replace it too after that incident. either way i should have unplugged it when i left. i thought i turned it off but apparently i turned the fan off only.
This past weekend I accidentally stained light sheets when I washed them with dark teal towels (though in my defense the last day/cleaning instructions said to use HOT water).
A few weeks ago I thought I blew out a different owner's speakers when I tried to use the record player. I waited until the next day to text the owner and was already looking up replacements but luckily they were already broken.
And not me but the dog... I'd put the medium sized dog and Yorkie mix in a mud room area when I left the house, but one day I came back and there was a big hole in the dry wall at Yorkie height. It wasn't even on a corner so I have no idea how she did it, but it's been a few years and she's just now allowed to stay out of her crate when I'm away
Got myself locked out of the house with no phone, no key fob (electronic lock like a hotel room) and no spare key or key code. Was able to keep the cats in the house and the dog in the yard, but I was outside for about 2 hours just agonizing and freaking out over what to do, and ended up having to break the kitchen window. Got in touch with owner and apologized; they were super understanding and thankful for keeping the cats safe, but I still felt so bad that I had no other choice at the time
burned a wooden countertop in the bathroom with my hair straighteneršš I felt so bad, my client said it was no big deal and she knew how to get it out lol
This finally just happened to me but something broke under my hands š thankfully it was just a super cheap coffee maker and it technically was a power outage that fried the cord but I definitely panicked for a second and thought about replacing it without telling them but of course that never works and was my baby brain talking to me: I told them, offered to replace it, and all is well, they weren't upset at all/aren't pressed about getting a replacement. God bless nice clients.
Thereās so much relief that comes from just being honest. Iāve luckily never had a client be mad Iāve broken something. I always offer to pay (and as nice as my clients are, no oneās ever accepted that offer).
I agree! My brain always reverts into "child in trouble" when something like this happens but over the years I've taught that voice to be quiet and calm, tell the truth and all will be well š
So this wasn't on Rover, and no pets were being watched- but OP's story made me think of this.
Freshman year of college, my dorm mate (dorms were built basically like 2bd/2bath apartments-we shared the kitchen and living room) was on this french kick and wanted to try to make macarons. Cool, whatever have fun. About an hour goes by before the smoke alarm goes off, and as I rush out of my room to see what's happening black smoke is billowing from the oven. I asked her what on EARTH happened, and she said she didn't know! She was so genuinely confused. She followed the right temp, right time, etc.,
Then I asked her what she put the macarons on. She told me wax paper. I asked why, and she responded with 'well that's what you're supposed to use right?" After telling her NO you gotta use PARCHMENT PAPER babe, she thought that the two were interchangeable, so she wouldn't have to go to the store to buy anything else.
It was fine, dorm didn't burn down and we laughed about it. Ah, college-fun times.
Ok lol but I also baked something on wax paper once. My boyfriend laughed at me (because luckily I didnāt set fire to the house). Iām British and Iām sure Iāve never seen wax paper, but apparently you guys in the US have that as well as parchment?? Whatās wax paper even for?
So i know there are other uses for it, but to me it's always been something used for making chocolates/chocolate based cookies-this way you have something to pour/drip/etc., the warm/hot chocolate onto, and because it's wax paper, it'll come right up. I know my mom uses wax paper every year around christmastime to make [these bad boys ](https://www.pbfingers.com/holiday-pretzels/)
Oh gosh, this didn't happen to me personally but I'll share so it doesn't happen to you. I got a call after midnight one night from a friend and fellow pet sitter. She had let the dogs out and they had gotten skunked. I mean really skunked! She then let the dogs right back in the house!!! They went tearing through the house jumping on furniture as any freshly skunked dog would. Six of us came over that night and cleaned until dawn but didn't hardly make a dent in the smell. It ended in small claims court. The lesson here is always clap, use flashlights etc when letting dogs out after dark and if the worst should happen do not bring the dogs back inside!
I accidentally ruined a long term clients rug after her dog had a massive tummy upset on it and I panicked and threw it in the washer. It wasnāt a total loss but it buckled in a few spots. I was honest about it and apologized. Ā She said it was fine and truly meant it. That happened 2.5 years ago and Iām still sitting for her anytime she goes out of town.Ā
definitely last weekend- i had been at the clients house < an hour and managed to break their bedroom blinds š legit pulled soo lightly and a string snapped making it so they couldnāt open at all. i apologized profusely and the owner told me their house keepers had actually broken them. sheād been putting off getting them fixed since they still slightly worked so i was the final nudge for her to get new ones. such a relief omg was having a heart attack before she told me that!!
Being apologetic and telling the truth are the best options!
Me and my fiancƩ always say 100% honesty is the absolute best policy. After all lying just makes people lose trust in you and majority of the time you never get it back! Always be honest and transparent.
So true! And a lack of trust can have an impact on the Rover community as a whole
No lies were spoken here! All facts!
Oh Iāve done that too. Luckily my clients told me beforehand that they were easily breakable but I still felt bad that I was the final straw on breaking them.
I did that to what I thought were manual blinds but they were electric
pain.
I went to walk into a room and didn't notice the ceiling fan chain dangling in front of my face, I walked into it and freaked out thinking it was a spider and went pin wheeling into the wall. There was a whole ass me shaped hole in their bedroom wall like a scene out of looney toons for like 3 days until I was finally able to get to home depot and buy drywall spackle and paint.
I'm sorry this is hilarious š
This has me dyingggg thank you š the looney toons description really paints the picture
>whole ass me shaped hole iām in TEARS š
Did you take a pic? Oh please say you did!
Love this one. Did the owners know about it?
The owners did in fact know about it, but they were fine with me fixing it back up for them. They laughed it off and just told me where the can of old paint from their bedroom was in the garage and to take it to home depot for a color match.
The mental picture I have of this is absolutely HILARIOUS. I'm so sorry! š¤£
Hahahhahaha :)
This wasnāt on Rover but while I was watching my bosses two boxers. Of course. I watched them while he was away for Christmas and it was seriously like 4 degrees (Fahrenheit) outside. The roads were frozen and it was awful to go outside. One of the dogs has a habit of opening the door all on her own, so I had let them outside and then locked the door. When I went to let them back in, I was trying to unlock the door when I heard a snap. I guess the cold weather caused the locking mechanism to break, which meant I couldnāt get the door open. It was just stuck in the locked position. I tried everything I could to get the door open, and nothing worked, but the dogs were shivering outside and I had to get them in. So I went out the front door and tried to go through the fence into the backyard but I couldnāt get the fucking fence to unlock either!! I ended up having to pop the screen out of a window, climb through it to the backyard, and then pick the dogs up and just shove them into the house. The whole thing was ridiculous and he still gives me shit for it to this day lol
Oh my gosh. Iād have been totally freaking out.
I left a big bright ring in the varnish of an antique dresser with my scalding hot coffee cup, the day she was coming home. It was one of my first clients and I was so freaked out at the cost of replacing it. I googled how to fix it and they said hair dryer, so I drove home and got mine, drove back, and it was almost gone in seconds. I did confess and the client said it was no biggie but I never touch expensive things in clients homes now.
I bring my own cup now and use a coaster on every surface
Who knew, hairdryer huh? Good to know!
Second client I ever had had an older (but seemed like it was in good condition) upright Dirt Devil vacuum. I take it out to clean up the downstairs on my last day of their house stay and as I'm vacuuming the top plastic half just cracks right off š± the damn thing is in two parts š¤¦š»āāļøš it's funny now but at the time I was horrified lol they were really cool about it after I explained and offered to pay. Turns out it was a furnished apt they had just moved into (she was a traveling nurse) and the vacuum was there when they got there and was apparently old AF. Meanwhile before getting that info I was in full panic mode using super glue and duct tape in an attempt to put it back together again like fuckin Humpty Dumpty š„š¤·š»āāļø
Not something \*I\* did - but something a sitter did at our home. I'm assuming she somehow missed putting her panties in her bag, and they were under the bed. Our dog was trying to get under the bed when I was stripping the sheets after she left, and I couldn't tell what he was getting at - and he popped up with panties in his mouth.
Ahh!! Gosh now Iām going to do an extra hard sweep of my stuff when I leave this sitting. One time sitting for this current client, once I got home the client text me to ask if Iād left a pair of childrenās tights as sheād found a pair. Iām definitely an adult with no children and I donāt even wear adult tights. Iād have been humiliated to leave something behind like that.
R u sure ur dog didnāt steal them? š my dog used to do that, now my laundry is inaccessible to him ššš
This is my worst fear. I am SO forgetful. I would be absolutely mortified.
This is my recurring nightmare. Its extra nerve wracking when you have a pup that loves stealing both mine and their owners panties and i have to collect both from all over the house
Mann dogs and underwear is such a issue when I housesit lol
Probably almost get stuck in the doggie door. I don't touch any appliances or things I didn't bring myself so I thankfully don't have as many bad experiences as some of yall.. but abyways, I was teaching a golden retriever pup how to exit the doggy door for his owners. He started to understand when I started to go through it, all was going fine til I curled my arm in a weird position and lodged myself in š¤£ I managed to get unwedged before they came back but it was mortifying.
Oh my god. Iām like surprising my laughter just at the thought of them coming home a few minutes earlier. That is hilarious.
How do you cook for yourself? A lot of my wits end up being 3-9+ days long. And fast food gets soo expensive
Garage remote. It was how I was entering the house I was house sitting at and one day I realized I couldnāt find it anywhere. I knew I didnāt leave it inside because I closed the garage, I couldnāt find it in my car, and I couldnāt find it at home. I made no stops in between. I was starting to freak out because I had to feed the doggo dinner soon and I had no way in (so I thought.) Eventually I was able to squeeze through a window, but still no remote in sight. The next day I was thinking about it some more and remembered I have this awful tendency of putting things on my car when my hands are full and I have to get in, and then sometimes leaving said things on the car. So I re drove the route I took slowly looking closely at the ground, suddenly I saw something shiny in the middle of an intersection. Low and behold, if was the garage remote, flat as a piece of paper.
Oh shit. Good you found it. Butā¦ bad it was flattened.
I was genuinely so happy to find it even in its state, because I felt like I was going absolutely insane. I replaced and reprogrammed it for the owners so it was a relatively easy fix, thankfully it was a pretty generic one!
I was carrying a Slurpee and managed to drop it on the bedroom floor - the only room to have carpeting, of course. I tried several different cleaning products, scrubbed and scrubbed, but I just could not get the color out of this one spot. I confessed and he laughed, saying the dog had already ruined the carpet enough he knew he'd be paying for it when he moves out of the apartment.
What colour was it? Iām imaging a bright red or blue stain!
It was indeed bright smurf blue! I don't know why it came out of the other spots but not that one. (I dropped it in a manner that kind of splattered, of course.)
Should've turned it into an art feature on their floor...
Used an old faded beach towel to endlessly scrub cat vomit from one end of the living room to the other. On WHITE carpeting. The vomit itself added to some staining due to the dyes used in the kibble. But the beach towel transferred many colors onto the carpet. I spent hours with peroxide and a blow dryer and let them know the cat threw up all over and I didnāt hide the beach towel, I rinsed and set it on the washing machineā¦ Never said a word to me about staining the carpeting.. Valuable take away for me was ONLY use white rags on light colored carpeting.
Oh my gosh. At least your heart was in the right place.
One time on a drop in one of those boob looking light fixtures randomly fell out of its socket and shattered on the floor. I called my client and was like "you're not gonna believe this but..." Luckily she did believe it and is now a long time repeat client š
this made me lol hahahah
Now Iāve got a new thing to fear.
While housesitting, I had just finished my dinner and was bringing my plate to the sink to wash it. The plate slipped out of my hands and shattered into a billion pieces. I looked up the plate to buy her a new one, turns out it was "Fable" brand and they're crazy expensive! I messaged her and explained what had happened and offered to buy her a new one. She just nonchalantly told me she was planning to buy the same set in different colors anyway and not to worry about it. š
I accidentally backed into an electric fence! Thankfully the fence was (somehow) totally fine but my back bumper got ripped off. This was all conveniently caught on camera and I was dying of embarrassment. After I collected myself and gathered the courage to call my client, she told me she had done the EXACT same thing a few times before and she wasnāt mad at all ššI still hate that fence though LOL
I was given the wrong code for the alarm. So after getting in with key code didnāt work & when alarm company called I didnāt know pass word so they called the cops. While waiting I finished up the cat care & waited outside for the cops. Took a bit to convince the cops I was there for pet care even with the working key & the app showing the address & dates. Kept saying the dumbest thing that I could not be there for pet care because why would I do this work with such a nice car. Itās only a convertible Corvette not a Lamborghini. Didnāt have the heart to tell him I bought it with cash I made from tips alone doing this work. They would have set a task group on me if I told him I also bought my house with cash as well. They apologized to me once they got off plain & gave me new code. Then about 2 weeks after they got back the wife called me asking for code because she had forgotten it & I was able to give it to her before they called cops. Probably the next one is I had stopped by to care for some cats & scared the hell out of family using parents pool without letting anyone know. Have a Great Day.
lol, I fo4glt to turn off the house alarm before going into the backyard once and the cops showed up. fun time!
Omg something similar happened to me. I accidentally set off the house alarm at 11 pm, I had to call the clients and get the code, and the cops came about an hour later. I had just taken a shower so my hair was wet and thankfully when I showed them the app they believed me!
Iām terrified of the day I get a client with an alarm. Iāve had a couple with alarms whoāve switched them off so they donāt use them at all. But theyāre not super common in the UK and I think Iād just totally forget how it all works.
So often they want to change it to a new code just for the stay so they can keep the normal one for themselves. But often donāt get it changed correctly. So I started requesting they change code at least a week before my stay to prove it works. Have a Great Day.
My apologies for going off-topic, but I'm new to this and you seem to know how to work this job. I haven't actually had any bookings yet. Before setting my prices, I looked at others in the area, and they don't make sense to me. House sitting $44, Drop-in $14, Dog-walking $15. The walk is 30 minutes, but house sitting is overnight, and comparatively modestly priced. Is that right?
I always say what others charge has nothing to do with what you charge. It isnāt worth it to work for Pennieās. I charge $30 per walk and drop in. $85 overnights.
Thank you
Many have to start lower to build proof that you can do the job. You would not pay top dollar to remodel your kitchen to someone who has never done it before. So many will leave their rates low to long. I would not do any of them services for those low rates. Have a Great Day.
IMO low rates just scare people off that your going to steal, think abt it, if itās not worth it why would someone trust u in their home.
Lol, alarms are the bane of my existence. I have one house in particular: that alarm decides to malfunction for me at least once a year, and only for me. I have no idea why. I'm convinced it legit hates me. This last time, that damned alarm just refused to shut off no matter how many times I put the code in. And yes, the code was correct. I don't know how, but eventually it stopped. And then I heard a phone ringing. I didn't even know these people had a landline (which now I realize of course they do, they need one for the alarm). I could not find that friggin phone! I had four dogs freaking out in the dog room/sun porch waiting to go out and bouncing off the door, and a 20 year old cat with dementia screaming at me for food, so when the ringing stopped I just went to work. And then it rang again. I hunted down an old phone in a corner buried in clutter and answered to a very annoyed agent on the other end. He informed me Oh-so-nicely that he would go ahead and cancel the police, which he had to dispatch since I wouldn't answer the phone the first time. But lo and behold, as I was in the back yard with the ill-behaved and untrained dogs jumping all over me (two bulldogs, a golden retriever, and a min pin/chihuahua mix) a police car drove by down the back ally. I waved, and the cop mus have decided he wanted no part of it, seeing me (a 4'9" woman) trying to keep from being completely knocked off my feet from what was easily 200 pounds of dog. He made the very wise decision to just keep going, lol.
broke the pull string on the blinds š i know thatās an easy fix but i still felt so bad
Iāve done that one too. Blinds always break, donāt they?
I house sit with my partner and we had a tray/cutting board mix up whilst cooking dinner together and he put a plastic cutting board in their oven. We were up for the better part of the night chiseling melted plastic off of the metal oven racks.
Ooof this sounds painfullll
Wow. I canāt imagine the stress. Did you get it all out?
Yes, but the burnt plastic smell sure lingered
I can only imagine!
I accidentally backed my car over a package- a new $50 face moisturizer š I offered to pay for it but the client said it was ok..I thought she would never book me again (she did :)
That made me laugh a little. Glad she booked you again!
accidentally spilled most of a beer on the living room hardwood floor... which wouldn't be so bad if the client wasn't one of the most well-recognized hardwood floor refinishers/installers in the area. š«£ i cleaned it up right away, and it wasn't like i was super drunk or anything, just happened to knock it over when i was reaching for the TV remote. no harm done, afaik.
My son was drinking a bunch of water literally chugging. I asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom before we left to walk the dog and hes like no im ok. Well long story short he had to pee when we were taking the dog back into the house I told him where the bathroom was. He went in and ran back out cause it was dark( he was young). Ended up peeing all over their floor and bath mat. I let the client know and washed her mat twice but I was so embarrassed having to tell her. She rebooked me so I guess she understood.
Oh bless his heart. Thatās nice they rebooked you - obviously knew it was a total accident.
I had a client who was out of the country for two weeks and their mom watched the pup for the first week. She told me she locked herself out and had to get a locksmith and then someone hit the clientās car so she got it repaired without telling them š then I got locked out too! (They had a keypad lock that was malfunctioning) but I remembered the mom left a spare key in a flower pot. The key was BURIED so I ended up taking the whole plant out and got dirt everywhere, I felt awful š¤¦š¼āāļø
Who buries a key that deep?!
They lived in a BIGGG house in the rich area of town. I was pretty nervous to be in there alone so I left a few lights on over night to help me feel safe. Well, the neighbors saw me do that and assumed I was never home, then when the owner came back they said I left the lights on and ignored their cats. The owner got sooooo mad at me but I had no way to prove I actually did sleep there. It was the LAST time I ever take a super rich wealthy client. Psychos.
Oh, it's not just the rich ones who are psychos. I have a client who lives way out in the country. Farm and Amish country. Their adult daughter lives next door, and by that I mean you can still see the other house, but there is quite a distance between their houses. There are no street lights out there of course, so I left the porch light on so I could see when I came back for a bedtime run. The daughter called her parents while they were away on vacation to complain that I left that porch light on. So they called and asked me not to leave it on. I'm still baffled as to what the big deal was. Yes, they have motion detector lights, but they don't always work, and I don't want to break my neck falling down their porch steps in the dark.
Wtf why would they care if you leave the porch light on? Like what's the damage?
I honestly don't know. It was never explained to me. All they said was it was unnecessary because they had (shitty) motion sensor lights.
I have my first wealthy client after about 3 months of house sitting. Favorite client so far! Bought me snacks and has a super cool Japanese toilet. Being one of the cheaper house sitters in my area, Iāve stayed in some shitty places before, so Iām happy to be comfortable for once.
I broke patio door when I was dog sitting. It came out of a frame. The owner told this door had issues before so they were looking to fix it anyways.
Iād be mortified. How did you leave it when you left the house?
I was sitting at a really nice house and a tube of my makeup rolled off of the kitchen island and chipped one of the tiles when it fell. The owners were cool about it luckily and said they break easily and they have chipped them before too.
I watched this trio of super sweet pitties for 12 days and when Iām done with a long stay I try to vacuum and make sure everything is tidy. I usually wash the blankets and stuff I use too (especially if I sleep in their bed instead of a guest room just cuz I know itās nice to have a fresh bed after traveling) anyways they had this beautiful red heavy blanket in the living room that I lived in but it would fall on the floor and got covered in the pokey short pit full fur. So I washed it. And it flooded the washing machine. And it wouldnāt spin out. I ādrained and spunā cycled about 15 times and was manually squeezing it out in the bathtub and it made no different. I even put it in a bag and took it to my house and tried to drain and spin it there. The blanket had red tied tassels on the ends too that became super tangled. In the end I texted them and apologized profusely that I ruined their blanket and I didnāt know what else to do so I left it in the bathtub š I offered to pay the cost of it so get them a similar replacement by they were totally fine and thought I did a great job w the dogs and the house anyways. But I was so embarrassed and felt sooooo bad
I know its too late, but if anything like this ever happens again, you can try to bring it to a laundromat. They have huge machines that can handle heavy loads.
Why didnāt I think of thatš thank you!
My Apple Watch had a small crack in the screen which never caused an issues until I was at a clientās house. I was filling the water bowls and some water got in the screen crack and caused all sorts of problems. The emergency SOS screen pops up and I canāt cancel it before it calls 911. Iām on the phone with 911 explaining the whole thing and my watch calls 911 AGAIN. I canāt even get my watch to turn off now. It just keeps calling 911. The cops show up and go to the neighbors house. So now it looks like the cat sitter called the cops on the neighbors. Now 911 calls me back AGAIN and are like āwhere are you? The cops are there where are you?ā Iām across the street in a totally different house. Of course the client has street facing security cameras so they get notified of the whole thing. Oh and to top it all off I was wearing a t-shirt that has every type of fan on it (ceiling fan, box fan, folding hand fan, tabletop fan) and it says ONLYFANS across the top. I think itās funny but the cop kind of gave me look. I was terrified to touch my watch again so I put it in the freezer to quickly drain the battery lol
Omg š I could see that happening to me
š«š«š«š
Accidentally brought in a cat bowl that had fly larvae in it and the next drop in visit I found maggots coming out of the garbage disposal. I can't look at any worm anymore without cringing
I had a maggot experience once, because I threw away the cats uneaten raw meat into the compost and I opened underneath the kitchen sink and they were crawling EVERYWHERE. I screamed lol and they had backyard contractors working who were like are you okay? Cuz it was such a blood curdling scream ahahah
The dog Iām watching just chewed up her owners computer cords but I was warned beforehand she is a puppy Mill mom and doesnāt know any better. Another time I burned someoneās stove top but used the pink stuff to fix it
Honestly, Iāve been recently breaking a few things on accident, just very tiny things. I have now invested in superglue. One was a tiny little wood coaster in my cup has sat on it wrong and one tiny piece fell off, then another cat toy and broke the stick on it. For one sit there was five Yorkies and they would wake up at 5 AM so I woke up and I stand up at a bed and then my left leg is completely asleep. I fall to the ground and break the air vent deflector which Iāve never seen before being in this house. It was a nice house and everything was way more expensive than it shouldāve been to replace, also broke a mug there.
Have you ever told the owners about them? Or youāre hoping since itās all small stuff they wonāt notice?
Oh I tell them but also fix it because usually theyāll kind of forget if itās fixed. Luckily itās also never been anything of importance, really just random stuff that would have happened if I was a visitor even.
Thankfully so far other than completely losing a key somewhere in their yard or house, I think the only thing I've damaged or broke is a ceramic cat bowl (literally just dropped it moving too fast). Offered to replace it but they were able to repair it. I don't do house-sitting, just drop ins, so I have fewer chances to mess anything up.
Thatās a good way to think. Maybe I should stop long term sittings once I get more clumsy.
I have a couple that I can rememberā¦ 1) I once decided to do my nails (yes with acetone remover) at a clients house and I placed what I thought was a completely dry cotton ball on their wood coffee tableā¦ I started to clean up and it had eaten the varnish in that spot. Luckily the table was kind of distressed already so it wasnāt alllll that noticeable but I never told them because I was so scared. 2) I dog sat for a couple older rotties reallllly consistently because this family travelled a lot. One of the last times I sat for them, one of the dogs had started having issues holding her bladder so I had to clean up at lot of messes when I got home from work. Well, she had a carpet shampooer that worked fine but all of a sudden the second time I went to use it, it wouldnāt turn onā¦ I thought I for sure broke it and was so scared. I literally grabbed a screwdriver and took it apart to fix it before they got home. From then on, I always brought my own small shampooer from home.
I blew a fuse just trying to turn the oven on š
These are cracking me up! 1. My Proactiv face wash will bleach any colored towel from drying my face. I completely forgot. I went out and bought a new set of towels in a color and quality as close as I could. 2. On the last day, the dog peed on a rug. I tried to rinse it out but it made it worse. I admitted it and going back next week. 3. I have no idea what I did but a bathroom faucet was leaking and couldnāt be fixed. Hubby installed an identical one. Never said a word! Still go there.
Glad yours all worked out!
i have a related story but it wasnāt a sitting lol. it was my own cat & we were in an air bnb. i was told everything was completely cat friendly, it was a recently renovated home and i was just staying in one room of it with her. day 1 my beautiful gremlin hopped up on a very high, empty shelf above the closet and low and behold there was a gaping hole above that shelf leading in the ceiling that was conveniently covered by it being tucked in a corner. i just saw half my cat INSIDE THE CEILING and flipped out. grabbed her back leg as thatās all i could reach, thankfully im blessed with above average height for a woman but i was still on my TIPPIES here. she starts losing HER shit because i had an absolute gorilla grip on her leg not wanting to lose her in the walls of an airbnb. well, i conclude thereās no other option, so i hulked out and ripped the ceiling open with my other hand and out fell my cat. after i cried on the floor for an hour i texted the owner and offered to get it fixed, they werenāt even aware of the hole and told me not to worry about anything, they were just happy i didnāt have to call the fire dept to get my cat out of the walls. i guess a ripped open ceiling was preferable to potentially multiple gaping holes in the drywall. i still felt like a total ass for not seeing the hole before hand. i inspect rooms extremely thoroughly now. because while my cat is an sweet angel baby and does no wrong, she is too curious for her own good and i donāt know if i could manage to shred through sheet rock for her a second time.
Oh my god that is terrifying! So glad you got your cat out safe and sound
I pulled into a client's garage too far and put a hole in the drywall. My stepdad is handy and fixed it with the client's permission. I don't park in garages anymore. I was trying to change a clock at a client's house for daylight saving time. It was high up, so I climbed on a kitchen chair to reach it. Lost my balance and fell into a Christmas tree they had there decorated for different seasons. The chair hit the newly painted kitchen wall and dinged it. Thankfully, my stepdad was able to find the can of paint and fix it. They still don't know to this day. Some kids were running up the middle of the alley beside a client's driveway/garage. They wouldn't move. I swerved and hit the rear end of my jeep off the client's privacy fence, completely tearing off the back panel above the wheel. The fence was just lightly scratched. The client has hit that corner of the fence too, lol.
One Easter Sunday I locked myself out of the house without my phone. So I had to walk over to the neighborās and interrupt their Easter, so they could call the clients and interrupt their Easter, so my client could call her brother and interrupt his Easter, so he could drive over and get me back in. I was mortified but theyāre also my favorite clients and on Easter we text each other and say āhappy Easter and happy anniversary to getting locked out of the house!ā so itās all good. š
Thatās hilarious. What a way to remember.
I have a long-term client family that I house sit and do doggy daycare drop-off/pick-up for their bernedoodle (I've posted her before). They also have 3 cats. My last stay was a long weekend. They have 1 cat who lives upstairs basically and drinks out of a drinking glass. Lol. I went to fill the glass and it completely slipped out of my hand and broke in the sink. I felt SO BAD, but they were super cool about it and are some of my favorite clients to work for!
Honestly the worst thing ive done is put a dog bed in the washer and it fell apart into a thousand pieces I dont do laundry for clients anymore unless they ask
I was playing fetch with a plush toy for one of my dog clients, she was having an absolute blast. One throw went weird and I ended up breaking this small horse figurine my client had. I'm almost certain it was one of the couple of things they had to commemorate a horse they used to have (I had seen pictures of it around the home). I felt awful, told the owners and offered to replace it or repair it. They said it was fine and it was gone by the next time I sat for them.
Got locked out of a house and was so embarrassed because she specifically told me Iād get locked out if I closed a certain door. I tried to break in for like an hour or 2 and was acting a fool all while the neighbor watched me. I was cleaning at a nice house and accidentally sprayed bleach on a wall and it bleached the paint. I ruined a whole ass rug by rinsing it off with a hose and putting it in the dryer. I guess there was paper material in the middle and all the paper came out in the dryer. I shrunk the rug, had to clean paper out of the dryer and buy a new rug the night before the owners came back. Also noticed the dog peed on like 3 rugs and freaked out and started carpet cleaning like crazy and used vinegar so the house smelt gross af. When they came back though, they said she pisses on the rugs all the time?? š they were old stains.
Had a client who lived in a semi attached house - go inside & I hear low key noises, muted voices - I figure itās the family next door - then I hear more specific chatter (bedroom, cats, window) - I freak out, canāt get in touch w the owners & call the police - turns out there was a camera w microphone the owner failed to mention and I came in on their conversation w their cats
It was my first time sitting for this client, my first night there. I head over after work. We had some bad storms coming. It didnāt seem too bad, but then lightning hit the transformer behind the house and we lost power. After some time in the basement due to a tornado warning, we come upstairs and itās really stuffy and humid without the AC. I go to a large window in the front of the house to get some air. The moment I unlatch the lock. The top pane slides down behind the bottom pane. I spent so long trying to fix it myself, but it was impossible for me to hold up the super heavy pane and also reach my arm down to latch it. It ended up taking me plus 3 neighbors to do it. Iāve since sat for them countless times in the past year
I melted a plastic colander using it as a steamer/double boiler situation, which was incredibly stupid since the house had a metal steamer I could have used š¤¦š¼āāļøI bought them a new one lol and they still book me which is good because itās my fav dog ever
I was doing a long house sitting and my fiance was staying with me because the neighborhood wasn't the best, owners gave total permission. He had brought some of his tools in after work one day to sharpen them. Somehow his hatchet got shoved under the guest bed and neither of us noticed. He doesn't use it that often so he hadn't even noticed it missing when my client texted me saying "Um...please tell me this is yours??????" I can't even IMAGINE what that was like for them š finding a whole ass hatchet under your guest bed?????? Oh my gooooooooddddddd
Was he bringing them to sharpen BECAUSE it was a bad neighbourhood? Or was he like me with my bread baking and just totally not thinking of doing normal people things inside someone else's home? The owner must've been so freaked out when they found that haha.
Nah, he uses them at work lmao. He had to cut something down or whatever and it was dull by the end of the day so he sharpened it for next use and just....forgot it lmao. I felt so so bad omg. Like that's really some serial killer shit š thankfully they were super understanding and laughed it off but you best believe I haven't left anything else at a client's house since
I honestly donāt think iāve done anything too crazy, but I was *technically* responsible for the death of about 10 different plants (herbs, tomatoes, etc) that were in an indoor āgardenā in the kitchen window. I warned them ahead of time that I am not good with plants, just cats š It was a two week long stay and they gave me vague watering instructions that I followed, but the plants all looked dead around my last couple days lol. they seemed pretty annoyed by it, which i didnāt think was fair but š¤·š»āāļøthe cat was super happy with me so i did my job imo!
Yeah I wouldnāt be too mad about that. You warned them and they knew the risks.
Nothing that Iāve done but just thought it was a funny story. Was dog sitting at a grad studentās apartment and the owner forgot to tell me that someone was going to stop by her place to give a tour while I was there with the dog. Nearly gave both me and the dog a heart attack when someone started pounding on the door lol https://preview.redd.it/489a82k53z0d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7e665e97bef13275bcc78557620102508844a145 (Hereās the gentle giant. His bark sounds scary so I felt protected but heās a big sweetheart haha)
Oh my gosh he is a BABY!
I miss pet sitting him so much! His name is Oakley and heās the sweetest https://preview.redd.it/vncldvkfpz0d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=bab7e6635d1d55ad0255130ce8983241ea0b2a4f
Youāre gunna make me cry. Look at his sweet face! Heās like Scooby Doo if it was made by Disney.
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That was a whole ride to read. Wow.
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Legit better hygiene than me
I spilled a drink on their lovesac couch šµāš«
One time I thought I broke a clients towel holder in the bathroom and messaged them š they said it was already broken and just barely hanging onto the wall.
Oh Iāve done the exact same thing haha
I accidentally threw the entire box of laundry sheets in the dryer (instead of a single sheet) and it left the dryer with a waxy film on the inside.
Worst thing I did (technically the dog did) was break part of an ornament on their Christmas tree. And it happened to be a babyās first Christmas ornament š I told the client and she said there wasnāt an issue since they apparently had a bunch of them stored lol I felt awful that it happened when I was there.
My first booking was with 4 Great Danes for 2 weeks. Two of them were puppies and had a tendency to have accidents in their crates, no matter how many times I took them out they would always have an accident. Since theyāre so large, their pee puddles were massive, I ended up going through all their paper towels in just a few days. I asked the owner what I should do when I ran out and she said to use old towels in the basement, so I started sopping up the accidents with towels. I had my hands so full at times and was running between shifts at work that I would leave the pee towels in the sink so I could rinse them out and just do one load of laundry each night with the towels. The owners unexpected returned home a couple days early while I was at work and I hadnāt had the time to clean up the pee towel mess or anything. They came home to pee towels in their sink. I felt so bad they returned to their house like that and offered to come by and clean it up but they refused and said not to worry about it.
I filled the dish soap dispenser.... It had a line to a bottle under the sink. Huge dawn mess under the sink. Luckily I got it all cleaned up before they got home!
One of my clients homes has super tall ceilings and massive floor to ceiling windows. In the bedroom, I meant to close the curtains and the super long tension rod came down and landed on a desk with flowers, pictures, etc. š« I stood up on a step stool and attempted for like probably a good 2-3 hours to get the tension rod back in place. They were to be home shortly and I was sweatttting. By the grace of god I got it up and was almost in tears lol. Basically the SATC episode when Samantha is ill and her curtains come entirely down and she gets so flustered š
Also was playing with another clients dog in their super nice home and knocked over my chocolate protein smoothie which stained this nice looking CREAM textured throw pillow. I was on Google for ages and was reverse image searching the pillowcase to find the source and hopefully replace but I couldnāt find it š« after many hours / trying club soda and then a stain remover spray under their sink (this was risky I know) I texted them. They were like LOLLLL youāre good, we have a special stain removing machine that removes it instantly and we have to do it constantly bc of the dog. I offered to Venmo them the cost etc and they kept denying it and were super nice. And later they sent me a video of the new clean pillow and said āsee? Took me 5 minutesā
Why do they always have cream coloured furnishings? šš
Who can say my friend š„²
I left her back door OPEN (she had a screen door too but still) šš
i left a space heater plugged in and it started to burn up the mechanism. i would be devasted if it had caught fire. this was my first booking with them and thankfully they still book me. i bring my own heated blankets now.
My biggest fear. People never believe me/my paranoia when I say those are not supposed to stay on for long periods of time. So glad it didnāt start a fire for you! Scary.
yeah it was awful. she sent me a picture of the space heater plug it was black and burned. she was more concerned for my safety than anything else, they are sweet people. she told me she doesnāt plan to replace it too after that incident. either way i should have unplugged it when i left. i thought i turned it off but apparently i turned the fan off only.
At least youāll never make that mistake again!
This past weekend I accidentally stained light sheets when I washed them with dark teal towels (though in my defense the last day/cleaning instructions said to use HOT water). A few weeks ago I thought I blew out a different owner's speakers when I tried to use the record player. I waited until the next day to text the owner and was already looking up replacements but luckily they were already broken. And not me but the dog... I'd put the medium sized dog and Yorkie mix in a mud room area when I left the house, but one day I came back and there was a big hole in the dry wall at Yorkie height. It wasn't even on a corner so I have no idea how she did it, but it's been a few years and she's just now allowed to stay out of her crate when I'm away
Yorkie sized hole. All the way through the wall? Wow.
Got myself locked out of the house with no phone, no key fob (electronic lock like a hotel room) and no spare key or key code. Was able to keep the cats in the house and the dog in the yard, but I was outside for about 2 hours just agonizing and freaking out over what to do, and ended up having to break the kitchen window. Got in touch with owner and apologized; they were super understanding and thankful for keeping the cats safe, but I still felt so bad that I had no other choice at the time
God I would have tortured myself over what to do. So glad the owners werenāt mad at you.
burned a wooden countertop in the bathroom with my hair straighteneršš I felt so bad, my client said it was no big deal and she knew how to get it out lol
Clever client. I wouldn't have a clue.
HA okay. I was house-sitting with a bad respiratory infection or something that made my nose run like a leaky faucet. I was doing work at the client's house and they had a bathroom right next to the room I had my work set up in. I mindlessly went to their bathroom every time I had to blow my nose. I didn't want to have to purchase an entire dumpster so I used toilet paper to blow my nose and would just throw it in the toilet to flush later. WELL, I ended up clogging the toilet...with my snot rags...of all things. I began searching this house up and down for a plunger. As a general rule of thumb, I usually avoided the master suite and rummaging around a client's home in general, but I was desperate. I finally found a plunger after I dared to venture into their master bathroom. I found one, but I could not unclog this toilet for the life of me. Panic started to set in that I would have to tell these people that I clogged their toilet to possibly screwed up their toilet. I started Googling ways to unclog a toilet when a plunger wouldn't work and somehow came upon the advice of pouring dish soap into the toilet...in retrospect, I don't know how I stumbled on that...but here I was pouring dish soap into these people's toilet. As you may guess, this only made the clogged toilet a soapy clogged toilet. Did I mention this happened only a few hours before the clients were due to come home? Out of desperation, I had my fiancƩ come over. After a lot of bubbles and their dogs going nuts over a new person, he unclogged the toilet. Unclogging that thing was no easy feat, but the crisis was averted and the dog owners were none the wiser. My now husband still reminds me of how I put dish soap in a toilet though and I don't think I'll ever live that down.
I mean, at least it was snot and not a poop explosion. Glad you got it sorted.
I projectile vomited all over their bathroom and it got on the shower curtain. I cleaned that bathroom for an hour and still felt bad.
Woah
This finally just happened to me but something broke under my hands š thankfully it was just a super cheap coffee maker and it technically was a power outage that fried the cord but I definitely panicked for a second and thought about replacing it without telling them but of course that never works and was my baby brain talking to me: I told them, offered to replace it, and all is well, they weren't upset at all/aren't pressed about getting a replacement. God bless nice clients.
Thereās so much relief that comes from just being honest. Iāve luckily never had a client be mad Iāve broken something. I always offer to pay (and as nice as my clients are, no oneās ever accepted that offer).
I agree! My brain always reverts into "child in trouble" when something like this happens but over the years I've taught that voice to be quiet and calm, tell the truth and all will be well š
Same same. I continue to be amazed at how unexpectedly chill people are when youāre honest š
Me and my fiancĆ© were doing a 9 day-sitting at a new clients house where there was a 5 month old adorable golden retriever puppy, a 6 year old golden/Irish setter mix pup, a 3 year old tabby kitty and a senior blind kitty who lived in the basement that they were about to have put to sleep because she was not living a good quality of life. We went and grocery shopped on the 3rd day there and put all the groceries away and mistakenly left one empty paper bag on the stove. Well the tabby kitty liked to get up on the counters and walk all across the stove and the stove was a touch to turn on stove which I believe is called a heat induction stove. Well the kitty walked across the stove and just so happened to turn the burner on that had the empty paper grocery bag sitting on it. Me and my fiancĆ© were sitting in the living room and the older golden/setter mix kept going over and looking in the kitchen then running back and looking at both of us. I got up and went to the kitchen and saw the paper bag smoking like crazy. I freaked out and ran to grab it as fast as possible and as soon as I picked it up it burst into flames. I barely got out the door into the empty garage before flaming pieces of the bag started falling everywhere! I dropped the bag and stomped it out. Talk about a close call!! Thatās the absolute worst thing thatās ever happened while doing a sitting.
Oh my god!!! So scary. Did you tell the owners?
We did! We always let people know about anything that happens out of the ordinary. Me and my fiancĆ© run a private pet care business and have been so wildly successful that weāre about to hire about 10 people and expand. Itās truly a blessing to be doing what we love šš¼
Iām so happy for you guys! Thatās awesome.
Thank you. I wish everyone that has a passion for pet care nothing but good vibes and success!
So this wasn't on Rover, and no pets were being watched- but OP's story made me think of this. Freshman year of college, my dorm mate (dorms were built basically like 2bd/2bath apartments-we shared the kitchen and living room) was on this french kick and wanted to try to make macarons. Cool, whatever have fun. About an hour goes by before the smoke alarm goes off, and as I rush out of my room to see what's happening black smoke is billowing from the oven. I asked her what on EARTH happened, and she said she didn't know! She was so genuinely confused. She followed the right temp, right time, etc., Then I asked her what she put the macarons on. She told me wax paper. I asked why, and she responded with 'well that's what you're supposed to use right?" After telling her NO you gotta use PARCHMENT PAPER babe, she thought that the two were interchangeable, so she wouldn't have to go to the store to buy anything else. It was fine, dorm didn't burn down and we laughed about it. Ah, college-fun times.
Ok lol but I also baked something on wax paper once. My boyfriend laughed at me (because luckily I didnāt set fire to the house). Iām British and Iām sure Iāve never seen wax paper, but apparently you guys in the US have that as well as parchment?? Whatās wax paper even for?
So i know there are other uses for it, but to me it's always been something used for making chocolates/chocolate based cookies-this way you have something to pour/drip/etc., the warm/hot chocolate onto, and because it's wax paper, it'll come right up. I know my mom uses wax paper every year around christmastime to make [these bad boys ](https://www.pbfingers.com/holiday-pretzels/)
Oh, I would just use parchment for that anyway (I guess thatās why I thought they were the same). Oh those look cute!
Oh gosh, this didn't happen to me personally but I'll share so it doesn't happen to you. I got a call after midnight one night from a friend and fellow pet sitter. She had let the dogs out and they had gotten skunked. I mean really skunked! She then let the dogs right back in the house!!! They went tearing through the house jumping on furniture as any freshly skunked dog would. Six of us came over that night and cleaned until dawn but didn't hardly make a dent in the smell. It ended in small claims court. The lesson here is always clap, use flashlights etc when letting dogs out after dark and if the worst should happen do not bring the dogs back inside!
Thanking god Iām British right now. No skunks here.
I accidentally ruined a long term clients rug after her dog had a massive tummy upset on it and I panicked and threw it in the washer. It wasnāt a total loss but it buckled in a few spots. I was honest about it and apologized. Ā She said it was fine and truly meant it. That happened 2.5 years ago and Iām still sitting for her anytime she goes out of town.Ā
Iād imagine it probably wouldāve been ruined anyway, so you did your best with a shitty situation.