{"id":48515,"date":"2026-03-31T21:56:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/i-gave-up-my-corporate-job-to-travel-full-time-and-live-in-other-peoples-homes-for-free\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T21:56:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T21:56:28","slug":"i-gave-up-my-corporate-job-to-travel-full-time-and-live-in-other-peoples-homes-for-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/i-gave-up-my-corporate-job-to-travel-full-time-and-live-in-other-peoples-homes-for-free\/","title":{"rendered":"I gave up my corporate job to travel full-time and live in other people&#8217;s homes for free"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69c41639732a02451471310d?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Woman in sunglasses holding coffee, smiling on trail\"\/><figcaption>After years of 9-to-5 corporate life, I decided to travel full-time and use house-sitting and pet-sitting to help do it for as long as possible.<\/p>\n<p>Alanna Parrish<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>A few years ago, I left my traditional corporate job and used my savings to travel full-time.<\/li>\n<li>I&#039;ve been able to prolong my travels and stretch my budget by being a house- and pet-sitter.<\/li>\n<li>This lifestyle can be unreliable and chaotic, but I love the freedom it offers me.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>A few years ago, I was working a traditional 9-to-5 corporate management job in the San Francisco Bay Area.<\/p>\n<p>After nearly a decade in my field, I had a car, a home, emergency savings, and no debts to pay off. I&#039;d done everything &quot;right&quot; and accomplished things many strive for, but I wasn&#039;t completely satisfied.<\/p>\n<p>Then, in 2022, I left my job, booked a one-way flight to Italy, and began traveling full-time. What I thought would be a short break turned into over two years of seeing new countries while living entirely off my savings.<\/p>\n<p>I kept thinking, &quot;When am I going to get tired of constantly moving around \u2026 and how can I extend this lifestyle until that time comes?&quot;<\/p>\n<p>In an effort to stretch my savings further and extend my travels, I started house-sitting.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>House- and pet-sitting has helped me keep traveling and stretch my savings<\/strong><\/h2>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69c41654732a02451471310e?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Woman smiling with cat\"\/><figcaption>By 2022, I wanted something different for my life.<\/p>\n<p>Alanna Parrish<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I came across the idea to house-sit while looking for ways to travel more economically. In return for looking after someone&#039;s home while they are away, I get a place to stay. <\/p>\n<p>For me, this felt like an amazing trade and a way to avoid paying for hotels or rentals. Sometimes, I&#039;m also paid for these gigs \u2014 especially if pet-sitting is involved.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69c4168b732a024514713114?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Woman smiling taking selfie while holding\"\/><figcaption>I&#039;ve watched homes and pets in many different cities.<\/p>\n<p>Alanna Parrish<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Once I started, I expanded my network through travel, and I discovered a high demand for house-sitters, not only in the United States but also outside of it.<\/p>\n<p>So far, I&#039;ve watched pets and homes in more than 15 different cities, including some international ones. <\/p>\n<p>I&#039;ve woken up to ocean views in Honolulu; explored the food scene in Santa Fe, New Mexico; biked along Chicago&#039;s Gold Coast; and discovered hidden-gem caf\u00e9s throughout Greenpoint and Fort Greene, Brooklyn.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>I love the freedom that comes with this lifestyle and the connections I&#039;ve made<\/strong><\/h2>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69c4165d732a02451471310f?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Woman smiling with cat on her shoulder\"\/><figcaption>A lot of my house-sitting gigs involve watching pets.<\/p>\n<p>Alanna Parrish<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Many people&#039;s biggest living expense is rent or housing, but I don&#039;t have to worry about budgeting for those. I try to line up my sits so that I don&#039;t often need to pay for hotels or rentals, either.<\/p>\n<p>This has completely changed the way I live. I love the freedom that this life brings, not only financially but alsoemotionally<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Since I&#039;m staying in actual homes and often for longer periods, I&#039;m better able to explore different cities and neighborhoods the way locals do, rather than as a tourist passing through.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69c416ab299090a8c09b62ca?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Perosn holding e-reader, coffee, on sunny balcony\"\/><figcaption>It&#039;s been nice experiencing some neighborhoods as a local.<\/p>\n<p>Alanna Parrish<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I get to meet homeowners from all over the world who&#039;ve been incredibly generous and welcoming, often going above and beyond to make sure I feel at home in their space.<\/p>\n<p>Building these relationships with the homeowners and their animals has been such an amazing part of this experience. I take it very seriously that people are trusting me to live in their spaces and care for every home and pet as if they were my own.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>It&#039;s not always easy to live this way, but I&#039;m enjoying it<\/strong><\/h2>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/69c41697732a024514713115?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Woman standing in front of columns and arches\"\/><figcaption>Before I started house-sitting, my life looked very different from how it looks now.<\/p>\n<p>Alanna Parrish<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This lifestyle is not for everyone. I live out of a suitcase and often don&#039;t know where I&#039;m going next.<\/p>\n<p>I am constantly planning where I will be living and how I&#039;m going to get there. Sometimes I am booked months in advance; other times, I am figuring things out a few days before or dealing with last-minute cancellations.<\/p>\n<p>The uncertainty can be stressful, but the trade-off has been worth it for me in the end.<\/p>\n<p>These days, I work remotely while juggling paid sits and free ones so I can keep traveling. I don&#039;t know when I&#039;ll settle down and stay in one place again. <\/p>\n<p>For now, this lifestyle fulfills my desire to explore, connect with others, and discover new places. And I still have a list of cities that I would love to visit \u2014 both in the United States and internationally. <\/p>\n<p>Whether I see them through house-sitting or not, I don&#039;t see myself slowing down anytime soon.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After years of 9-to-5 corporate life, I decided to travel full-time and use house-sitting and pet-sitting to help do it for as long as possible. Alanna Parrish A few years ago, I left my traditional corporate job and used my savings to travel full-time. I&#039;ve been able to prolong my travels and stretch my budget [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-48515","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48515\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}