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Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Swapping with Strangers - #IBOT

I love the thought of swapping stuff - clothes, books, ummm, pencils? Well, just not partners. No, not into that.  But there are bigger things you can swap - like homes!

Recently I started looking into house swapping as a way to make a European holiday a reality.  I even received a few requests from potential overseas vacationers that were keen to stay in our Sydney home.  And fair enough too, the photo I posted on the site was magnificent, in fact I had lifted it from the real estate ad we had first spotted before we bought our house.  All golden light and filters.

I can see how somebody freezing their family tail off in the suburbs of London would find it a very attractive proposition to swap their cold abode for our sun filled, bayside holiday home in the middle of an Aussie Summer.  I love it.  In fact, for the first three months living here almost four years ago, I felt like we were staying in a holiday home purely built for fun in the sun.

But as I want to holiday in the Northern Hemisphere, the time I would like to vacate is our Winter and their Summer - not keen on the cold.  Funnily enough, those coming South want to do the opposite.

So I'm not sure how it would work out timing wise.  Not only that, I know I'll be doing weeks of paranoid cleaning before hand and locking up valuable possessions like my teenage journals, wedding underwear and other secret stuff I can't tell you about.

So have you ever taken part in a house swap with total strangers?  How did it go?


(French holiday anyone - from here)

2 comments:

  1. Sounds like a great idea. Have never done it myself but know of friends who have and they've ended up in beautiful places in Europe. It could just as easily go badly though I guess!

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  2. Haven't done it, but think it's a cool idea. Could you go for spring/autumn timing instead I wonder? That might be more agreeable to everyone? And isn't our winter like an English summer anyway? :)

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