I'm 55 with no idea where I want to retire. Housesitting is helping me work my way toward an answer.

I continually idea I'd be settled location for fine by age 55, alongside a comfortable home, established garden, and chest freezer in the garage.

But following expanding up in the San Francisco Bay Area, raising my kids in Seattle, and becoming an bare nester, I realized I had no idea anywhere I wanted to resolve down.

For the archetypal period in additional than 20 years, I abruptly had the liberty to choose anywhere I wanted to live.

So at 52, I started housesitting in toggle for places to remain so I could journey without depleting my savings. I quickly realized how much I enjoyed the nomadic lifestyle and how this gave me the chance to test out places I power eventually desire to live in.

After a few months, I liked it so much that I gave distant nearly everything I owned, put the remainder in storage, and decided to do it full-time.

That was nearly three years ago. Since then, I've lived in dozens of cities, towns, and distant islands, from northern Washington to the southeastern shoreline of Mexico's Baja California peninsula.

Housesitting has changed my intellect concerning what I idea I wanted

I typically remain in all residence for two weeks to three months at a time, which allows me to get to cognize a new location without signing a lease, purchasing a house, or committing to a community.

Instead, I conversation alongside locals, sojourn the archive and market store, examine nearby nature trails, and try to ideate what it would be akin to live there.

I ask myself a lot of questions: Can I tolerate this climate? Do I awareness capable to nexus alongside this community? Could I live without any item this location power be missing … which is sometimes as uncomplicated as my cherished Trader Joe's?

Throughout my stays, I've learned new things concerning myself and what I really want.

For example, I'd lengthy pictured myself settling in a city since I've spent most of my existence in important metropolitan areas.

So, I was thrilled to book a housesitting job correct throughout the street from my old elevated academy in San Francisco. I couldn't delay to stroll the identical streets I did in my younker and revisit my old haunts.

But the nostalgia wore off quickly, and a $105 street-cleaning ticket reminded me of the hassles of city life. I realized that a noisy, crowded, costly city isn't anywhere I desire to resolve following all.

These days, small traffic, additional green space, and a slower gait awareness additional akin my style.

After that stint in the city, I went to the another extreme and booked a multi-week housesit on a remote Pacific Northwest island anywhere the closest market shop was a ferry journey distant — lengthy adequate to necessitate ice packs and a cooler to get my icy food residence before it defrosted.

At first, I couldn't ideate staying there for additional than a few weeks, but I quickly cut in affection alongside the solitude and have returned multiple times.

I realized that being surrounded by water, going days without talking to another person, hearing owls hoot at night, and observing a mother cervid and her fawn roam throughout the pace made the additional attempt of isle existence worthwhile.

I was consenting to scheme errands about the ferry agenda and provision up several of the conveniences I'd continually taken for granted for that benevolent of peace.

Turns out, I'm additional open to living in a distant place than I expected.

Now, I'm rethinking what it method to resolve downward — and if I'd equal remain in the US

I'd additionally never equal considered moving abroad until I booked a five-week housesitting gig for an American female who had retired in La Paz, Mexico.

I felt inspired by my client's willingness to provision up acquainted comforts and conveniences to hazard starting complete in a new nation in hunt of the existence she wanted.

Although I'm not certain Mexico is anywhere I desire to settle, I loved my period in the Sonoran Desert and haven't ruled out retiring exterior of the US. This cognition helped me study what living abroad was really akin and acknowledge I'm additional capable of making that jump than I always imagined if it's what I ultimately choose.

After trying out additional than 50 locations in three years, I motionless don't cognize anywhere I eventually desire to retire. But I cognize I desire to be location I can stroll in nature, bask several solitude without emotion isolated, and affect alongside a community whenever I'm prepared for company.

Above all, I'm searching for a location that makes me awareness at residence — equal whenever I'm visiting for the archetypal time.