If a novel depicted house sitters’ lives, its scenes would depict the complex relationship between the homeowner and sitter, the way trust is built between strangers in such an intimate setting as a home: how house keys are swapped, free food is provided or withheld.
At the Paris Review, Aaron Gilbreath writes about his history of side jobs, including that of house sitter. Gilbreath maintains that house-sitting is an “invisible economy” (he also says that, in his history of house-sitting, he didn’t go through medicine cabinets—making him an ideal house sitter).
