LITTLE ROCK — Perhaps the most veteran housesitter in all of Arkansas is Mary Miller of Fayetteville.
She’s “The Housesitter” - she’s got the business cards to prove it - and has been doing it 25 years or more.
“One or two families plan their trips around my availability,” she says.
The three rules she lives by are:
Be flexible: Families want different things. If you want to be a good housesitter, be flexible and go with the flow.
Be aware of your surroundings: Though she is a self-professed “slob” in her own digs, she doesn’t hold clutter against her clients or clean up after them. She leaves the house as she finds it.
Be open and compassionate with the animals: “One house I sit, the animals bring in birds or other [dead or killed] animals in from out in the yard. If you’re going to freak out with things like that, it won’t work.” The primary reason her clients call on her is that she, in the short time she spends in a home, has a knack for putting pets at ease.
HomeStyle, Pages 33 on 07/28/2012