MindMyHouse News

Dear MindMyHousies, kia ora (Maori for hello and welcome) from Aotearoa (New Zealand) just before the Christmas/holiday rush, but just after Halloween. Hot on the heels of our last newsletter (which featured lots of new stuff), here comes more!

Dear MindMyHousies, kia ora (Maori for hello and welcome) from Aotearoa (New Zealand) on the first week of the southern hemisphere spring time. It is glorious here with wild spring daffodils coming up all over the place. We’ve just dusted our hearth and put away the jute sack full of pine cones, as last night’s woodfire here at our house might just be the last for the year. Hoping that the change of season, wherever you are on Earth, feels just as mindfully pleasant…

Dear MindMyHousies, In another special edition of our irregular newsletter, we feature three new amazing pets whom we spotted on MindMyHouse – Moose, Juno, and Teddy. We think they are very special – we hope you do too. Also, we add Emoji’s to testimonials, we’ve reached a milestone – One million messages via MMH, and lastly we increase message sending limits. Hurrah.

Dear MindMyHousies,
welcome to our latest newsletter (April 2024) with all the recent updates we’ve been making to our site and our service. This good stuff happens (day by day) to improve your all-round user experience in our online global community of fun and adventure-seeking folk (of course!)

Dear MindMyHousies, In this special edition of our irregular newsletter, we feature three amazing pets whom we spotted on MindMyHouse – Cortana, Albus, and Woody. We think they are very special – we hope you do too. Also, we cover home owners with two or more listings and lastly we touch on home owner memberships.

In this edition of MindMyHouse news, we are excited to introduce our new photo editor. Also, Alan reveals some interesting tidbits from our website, such as busy times of the year for house sitting, and a few global trends.

Kia ora (a Māori greeting term which is widely in use here in New Zealand/Aotearoa) which literally means: ‘have life-force’, to you all, our thousands of house sitter and home owner members (not forgetting our dual home owners & house sitter members, cos that’s a thing…).

Your attention please: We are tweaking the way you search our sitter wanted listings (We also need more house sitter members!) ‘Why now?’ you may ask… Well because, at the depths of the pandemic global crisis, and despite extending our house sitters’ memberships for free for an extra six months, we lost almost half of […]

In this issue: Tweaks to our photo uploader: when landscape becomes portrait; Where are some of our most remote assignments?; MMH is featured recently in the news; and Why are so many of our house sitters now from the US? Tweaks to our Photo Uploader At the help desk here at MindMyHouse, we often get […]

Hello again to all our global house sitters, from our little island of Waiheke. Apologies that we haven’t written for a while! In this issue, we have finally made our ‘house sitter agreement’ editable. About time! And a few gems from our Advice/Help section.

In this issue, a call to stay safe; we extend your house sitter membership; and new features for the site.

Introducing your new ‘My Assignments’ section for house sitters, which will list all of the assignments that you have applied for, and much more!

Introducing your new ‘My current sitter & applicants page’, which will list all of the house sitters who have contacted you, or whom you have contacted via our Message Centre.

Dear MindMyHousies,
hello from Susan and Alan, your web editor and web master @ MindMyHouse. As you might know already, we are the proud builders and keepers of this global online community of over 14,000 trusting, cheerful souls looking for hearty adventure worldwide. Thought we would say hello to y’all from our little island here in the South Pacific (land of the long white cloud) as we would seem to be heading for a time of restricted movement and uncertainty worldwide.

Here is some advice to help you decide what to do during the Covid-19 crisis.

With travel bans popping up everywhere, this edition of our little community e-newsletter focuses on finding a house sitting assignment near you.

With travel bans popping up everywhere, this edition of our little community e-newsletter focuses on finding a house sitter that lives near you.

Hello again to all our global house sitters, from our little island of Waiheke. Apologies that we haven’t written for a while! We been super busy on working on some new improvements to MindMyHouse, and also trying to get our own house built.

A big Kia Ora (this is Maori term for a warm Hello!) to our members present, past and future. While the world may seem slightly more imperilled than usual, we hope you’re all going about your business with a light heart and a cheery smile. Here on Waiheke Island (in the Hauraki Gulf, North Island, beautiful Aotearoa/New Zealand!) we’re busy bustling around in our home office with our desktop computers on night and day making all the magic happen for you in our beloved online community that is MindMyHouse.

Hello to the ever-lovin’ and steadily-growing community that is the membership of MindMyHouse worldwide. First, we would like to wish you all a very happy new year for 2018! We also have some exciting news to whet your appetites about the next version of MindMyHouse – version 3! Read on for details…

Hello to the ever-lovin’ and steadily-growing community that is the membership of MindMyHouse worldwide and welcome to our first newsletter for 2017. We have some exciting news to share with you about what we have been up to recently to further enhance your experience of using our service. To summarise: you asked for it, we have provided it (again): Searching by pet type is now a thing; we’ve made your login more secure; we have also tweaked our main keyword search to make it generate better results; we’ve added some additional FAQ content about an often asked questions about police checks; we’ve increased your email sending limit; and lastly we still have some house sitters without listings (groan), but less than last time (yay).

To summarise: you asked for it, we have provided it (!), Testimonials and References are now actually a thing with us; celebrating the loyalty of our 85 longest-joining ‘gold star’ members with a nice personal thank-you letter from us plus the next 24 months of their membership on the house (so to speak); the next time you login to your account area on our site, look into the right-hand corner of the page to check on your brand new NOTIFICATIONS; we have given you two new ways to search our database of sitter wanted listings, which brings your ways to search up to a grand total of FIVE. Just wow, people! House sitters: if you have yet to create your sitter available listing with us, what’s stopping you? Plus: the webmaster squishes virtual bugs on the site and finds this a strangely satisfying experience. Finally: photos of our wonderful Welsh springer spaniel Ellaballoo as taken by our children. Awwwwww….

Well, it didn’t take half long enough! Our apologies to our members near and far (we’re beaming out to you from sunny New Zealand, in case you didn’t know) as we have been aware for a while now that our growing community website wasn’t very cell phone (or other tablet or mobile device) friendly. While we don’t have the exact statistics (OK it’s around 43.19%) for the numbers of screen views you are making via different mobile devices versus laptop and desktop computers, many of you have no doubt been struggling away for some time trying to see our site on your little screens! All should be good now… You have probably noticed that MindMyHouse is finally mobile device friendly. Huzzah!

Happy new year to all our members 2014? Woah, when did that happen? It certainly snuck up on us here at MindMyHouse. We hope the previous year was good for you and of course, wish all our members the very best for the new year. And yes, we know! This newsletter has been too long […]

A few upgrades and bug fixes coming your way and some pre-Christmas activity on the site.

MindMyHouse turns seven and we’re celebrating it with a photo mosaic of our members. We also looking to the future with details of the recent, whilst also looking back at our past growth over the years. Read on.

In this edition 27 of MindMyHouse News: where to find us in the international media; we sort out the problem of many repeat alerts arriving in your inbox; MindMyHouse II, take a sneak peek here of our redesign of the site and tell us what you think; a home owner member in Costa Rica would like to invite you to help her care for her many beloved rescue dogs in her dog sanctuary; a home owner tells it like it is, why you need a cover letter AND your own sitter available listing; and finally, our regular slot featuring the email addresses of those would-be fraudsters who tried to use our service for no good and failed.

In this edition 26 of MindMyHouse News: American freelance journalist, Jim Daniels, wants to talk to you about the weird and wonderful world of house sitting worldwide; we profile our longest-joining members, Larry Gregory and partner, Janis Stewardson from Canada; to the 45% of our house sitters who have yet to create their own listing – just do it!; “You wouldn’t mind letting the builders in would you?” Why this question upsets professional house sitter and long-time Blogger on Assignment, Tom Hill; and finally, a Nigerian fraudster makes it through our surveillance net (briefly) to entertain us with his eloquence and charm.

Tune into edition 25 of our little community e-newsletter for all of the following: Tom Hill publishes his excellent how-to e-book (free for 25 of you!) to help get you on your way to house sitting success; do our listings seem to disappear just as you try to click through to them from your email alert?; what do you take with you? part II, thanks to Linda Razzell for this one; and finally, an ever-shorter list of losers.

Tune into edition 24 of MindMyHouse News for all of the following:
when anywhere in Europe is good, our new ‘all of Europe’ search return and alerts; what do you take with you? Clare our intrepid blogger and full-time house sitter from Queensland, Australia has a handy penchant for writing lists; more great advice on how to have big adventures on tiny budgets (we like this one!) from the UK’s Guardian; and finally, how to succeed through our service versus ‘whistling in the wind’.

Tune into edition 23 of MindMyHouse News for all of the following: what’s a couple of years? Why we have adjusted our system of age ranges; our new banner advert exchange program with friends of MindMyHouse; vacation rental owners are welcome at MindMyHouse! Introducing our friends at www.vacationrentalscommunity.com; flashing the cash on a new Google Adwords campaign; the so-called ‘war on spam’ has forced us to make a small change to our Terms and Conditions; and finally, a regular slot: hall of shame – here they are for you to throw rotten tomatoes at!

Tune into edition 22 of MindMyHouse News for all the following: our email alerts system goes down then comes up again five weeks later; we ask you to re-subscribe to this humble community e-newsletter and re-create your alerts; our back-end is now much more highly developed; you’ve got mail! We roll out a new Message Centre facility for your enjoyment; beautiful words – you can now format your listings using our new WYSIWYG text editor; why do some of our sitter wanted listings contain no dates at all?; and finally, after three beautiful years as a free service we will be charging a small fee for annual house sitter memberships.

Tune into edition number 21 of MindMyHouse News for all of the following: we form a mutual appreciation society with a savvy blogger at www.thesavvyboomer.com; excitement builds as we prepare to roll out a new site feature: your very own MindMyHouse message centre; liability insurance for house sitters – who needs it?; and finally, please show courtesy to your fellow MindMyHousies and respond to EVERY email you receive through your membership.

Check out the twentieth edition of our little community e-newsletter for all of the following: we find inspiration in a house-sitting themed blog post by self-empowerment guru, Aaron Potts; attention house sitters – if you are not advertising your services with us, you are potentially missing out on 70% of the action; introducing Carole Livesey and Chris Lampard, two new intrepid profilees in our ‘Meet the house sitters’ section; if you fancy the idea of a nice bit of cultural exchange while travelling the world, check out www.Helpx.net; and finally, what’s up with our competitors’ collection of covert domain names?

Check out this nineteenth edition of MindMyHouse News for all of the following: ooooops! Our apologies for sending out multiple copies of our last e-newsletter; your opinions on our divergent sitter wanted listings – the home exchange question and others; hall of shame, here they are for you to throw rotten tomatoes at; a journalist’s request to interview UK people who work while on house sitting assignment; your editor gets to blah blah blah on American live radio about her favourite topic – house sitting of course!; and finally, more interesting MindMyHouse tidbits.

Check out this eighteenth edition of MindMyHouse News for all of the following: introducing two new Bloggers on assignment – house sitters extraordinaire Tom and Linda; meet our friends at UK-based ‘freecycling’ website UsefulGarbage; apologies to our UK members over some unreliable Geocoding map technology; hall of shame – an old loser returns to try to use our site for no good; looking good – do you want your photo included in our Meet the Sitters photo montage?; in the interests of even greater transparency we have created a new ‘site-at-a-glance’ statistics page; and finally: the editor has a little melt-down as she feels unappreciated. Awwwwwwwww.

Check out this seventeenth edition of MindMyHouse News for all of the following: walking the walk – our house sitting adventures in Auckland; when is an advert not an advert? When it’s a listing of course!; hall of shame – the latest fraudster who tried to use our site for no good; introducing approvals – why your pesky editor will be vetting your sitter wanted listings before they go live; and finally: when you really want to swap your house – ditch us for Digsville!

Check out this second anniversary edition (number sixteen) of MindMyHouse News for all of the following: take a look at us now that we are two years old!; ‘look mum, I’m on the radio!’ where to find us in the media; stupid fraudsters attempt to fool our members with spam scams; we are forced to take action as the AOL saga deepens; and finally, how to reduce the amount of mail you receive from us.

Check out this fifteenth edition of MindMyHouse News for all of the following: What else can I do? Boat sitting; AOL have finally lost the plot altogether; house sitting in an empty house-for-sale; and finally: more poll results: what’s in it for house sitters?

Something big is happening at MindMyHouse! This blockbuster 14th edition of our little community e-newsletter showcases an important new additional way of searching our site (called the Local Sitter Search) that has all sorts of implications for the way you use your memberships.

Something big is happening at MindMyHouse! This blockbuster 14th edition of our little community e-newsletter showcases an important new additional way of searching our site (called the Local Sitter Search) that has all sorts of implications for the way you use your memberships.

Check out this 13th edition of MindMyHouse News for all of the following: our new sitter wanted adverts from France to England and Australia to Detroit and Florida (USA); your responses to our plans to become an Internet portal for all things house sitting; what’s up at AOL? Our members who use its email browser start having all sorts of delivery problems; blink and you missed it – where has that sitter wanted advert gone?; a little lapse in our usual vigilant monitoring of the site has some embarrassing results; and finally, our experience of flat swapping the Digsville way – we are sold on this great way to get free accommodation and make new friends!

Edition 12 of our community newsletter brings you all of the following: our new sitter wanted adverts from metro NYC (USA) to Scotland; a small matter of home owner etiquette; a wonderful response to last month’s request for house sitters’ REAL job descriptions; site traffic goes through the roof as we are finally released from Google’s sandbox; and finally we ask you for your opinion on our latest hare-brained scheme for developing our site.

Check out this very hardy edition number twelve of MindMyHouse News for all of the following: our humblest apologies for having to re-set your passwords for you (not our fault honest!); what happens when house sitter’s email addresses no longer work; our regular feature ‘what else can I do?’ – workamping; house sitters – post us your REAL job description; our latest sitter wanted adverts from Ireland to North Virginia (USA); and finally a little eulogy to our beloved Jack Russell terrier who passed away 20 June 2006.

In this edition: lots of new sitter wanted adverts for you to peruse from the Caribbean to Japan; it’s now easier for home owners to hide their adverts; we’ve listened to our members and have given house sitters a way to track their messages to home owners; two more elucidating pieces from our Australian Blogger on Assignment; results are in for our polls on security deposits – to pay or not to pay; and finally, how to get more involved with the site – think of us as your home on the web!

Check out this tenth edition of MindMyHouse News for all of the following: our new sitter wanted adverts from the Sierra Mountains, California (USA), to Cape Cod, Massachusetts (USA); we are very excited to have rolled out our new interactive map feature; our call for volunteer French and German site translators has borne fruit; age discrimination among home owners – does it exist?; proof that the Digsville and MindMyHouse connection is working; and a home owner’s feedback pulls us up on our spelling and grammar – ouch.

Check out this ninth edition of MindMyHouse News for all of the following: our latest sitter wanted adverts from Northern Ireland to France to Florida; do you have any knowledge of translating English into French or German (and some spare time)?; is your version of our e-newsletter too ugly to read?; why do some of our sitter wanted adverts look as though they have expired?; and finally, the whys and hows of creating your very own web page to advertise your house sitting services (apart from your page on MindMyHouse of course).

The MindMyHouse project is one year old today – we’re very excited to have come this far in so short a time. We even had a record number of new house sitter memberships on the 20 February and a record number of home owners join us one day later, so that is the icing on our birthday cake!

Check out the first birthday edition of MindMyHouse News for all of the following: we’re extending your house sitter memberships for another year; a selection of our latest sitter wanted adverts from the Caribbean to Canada to Florida; creating your own email alert has just become a lot easier; the ins and outs of our internal contact form system; page ranking – what is it and why is it so important to us?; and finally: we ask you to help us out – not with money, silly – but by doing something as simple as advertising your services with us!

Tune into the seventh edition of MindMyHouse News for all of the following: we take a discerning look at the big industry in Holland and the UK that is passive property guardianship; introducing a new section in our Community area just for you called ‘Meet the house sitters’; the Comments facility in our blogsite is now officially open; and we welcome our 1000th house sitter to the MindMyHouse family!

Edition six of MindMyHouse News (18 December 2005) has been brought to you by us – your ever loving editor and webmaster – in association with Santa. I hope you are feeling festive because we are! Tune into this edition of MindMyHouse News for all of the following: a few short breaks to help you really unwind this silly season, we express remorse for leaving our poor flat alone for three days, Helen Bergstein of Digsville recounts one of her most memorable swaps, and yet another snowbirder needs your help. And from the desk of the webmaster: check out the photos of some of our more photogenic house sitters, and why we set up an email alert for every member. Finally: the editor explains (again) why she really hates Hotmail accounts. Happy festivities!

Would you believe this is the fifth edition of MindMyHouse News (18 November 2005)! In it we proudly introduce our first Blogger on Assignment: Clares droll accounts of wrestling with the flora and fauna in Queensland, Australia had us very amused. Also featuring more gold from Helen Bergstein, the home exchange guru at Digsville. If you are an RVer or a ski bunny check out our featured sitter wanted adverts. Finally: we listened to what our members wanted – you can now include photos in your sitter available adverts. Say cheese!

The fourth issue of MindMyHouse News (18 October 2005) is a cracker! In it we introduce our new partner website, Digsville.com, which is a fabulous US-based global website for all your home exchange needs. If you’re at all curious about home exchanging, the migratory patterns of Canadian and North American retirees, the many uses of your sitter available advert’s unique URL and our latest poll results (discussed at length by leading sociologists – not really) then tune in here!

Welcome to this third edition of our community website newsletter. Gee have six whole months really passed since we first launched our little house sitting website? We ask if you want to be able to post photos in your advert; the webmaster tweaks the site’s design; it’s poll time for home owners; we invite you to be profiled in our Community area; and the editor does a quick survey of the pros and cons of the world of web-based email accounts.

The second issue of MindMyHouse News (23 July 2005) takes our little site to five months old. This issue is not as revealing or as readable as the first. However, if you’re interested in our exhausting drive around German-speaking Europe, our success at finding a great house sitter through the site and the nuts and bolts of website upgrades between 9 May and 23 July then click to read more!

The first three months of MindMyHouse from your editor and webmaster. This very readable first issue of MindMyHouse News (9 May 2005) touches on all of the following: What are we doing to get our site a viable page ranking with the search engines? Who are our members? Why are some of our members unable to save their adverts? And finally, introducing our new Stories section in our Community area.

A recommended read for all members no matter when you joined!