HELP eXperience

Growing up it was always drilled into me; don't message strangers on the internet, don't plan to meet up with a stranger, don't get in a car with strangers and whatever you do DO NOT enter a strangers house. So obviously I took this advice very seriously and went ahead and did all the above. Naughty Ames!

Help-X is a free website which hosts can advertise for needed help in exchange for providing free accommodation (and sometimes food) for their helpers, and helpers can search for vacancy's. Hosts can contact helpers but if helpers want to contact hosts they need to upgrade to a paid subscription.

Without any luck on the job front and wanting to fill up some of our time before we fly to Sydney me and Jen decided to sign up. We received two messages; one from a family basically wanting a full time au pair (you don't earn a wage through Help X, it's voluntary) for only free accommodation. We declined this offer as we didn't feel it was our cup of tea or fair expectations for the reward.

A few days passed and we received another offer. This time 2.5 hours work daily in exchange for free accommodation. We felt this was a very reasonable offer. The wage for 2.5 hours work is roughly the equivalent cost of a private room in a hostel. We checked the hosts profile and saw they had a dog. A dog and a reasonable offer we decided to except.

A few days later we caught the train about 10 minutes from Perth CBD and waited for Celine to turn up for a lift to their house in Kalamunda, a suburb in the Perth Hills. At this point you would expect us to start thinking wtf are we doing waiting for a stranger in the dark evening light, but I was actually excited to see what was in store for us away from hostel life and to get some needed doggy fuss!

View of Perth CBD from Mount Lawley train station

A pleasant car journey of easy chit chatter before we arrived at the house and shown to our accommodation. Expecting a small shared room for the two of us we were a bit taken aback when we were shown to our own maisonette/flat which is accessed from inside Celine and Geoffs home. After weeks of hostel dorm life, our own space of a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen/lounge was heaven. There was also a private balcony which looked out over Perth with the best view of the evening sunsets.

Our accommodation

After a good night's sleep without ear plugs and people snoring we got to work. For the next 2 weeks we did sooooo much weeding. In 37 degree heat you are a sweaty mess at the end of it. But each day we could see improvements. We actually quite enjoyed the weeding and felt accomplished at the end of our stay on what a difference the garden looked from when we first arrived.

Before (left) & after (right)

Before (left) & after (right)

Aswel as weeding, we also helped shift heavy buckets of soil, manure and sand into flower beds. Well I'll tell you what, we had very toned arms at the end of that shift. I actually had a visible bicep muscle for the first time in my life!

Completed flower bed

Nearer the end of our stay we decided to have a few shifts indoors away from the extreme heat. I always laugh at my grandma when she cleans her windows. But there we were cleaning the entirety of the windows inside and out, washing and hoovering the floor and cleaning skirting boards. Maybe I will make a good wife after all (I'll probably just hire a cleaner lets be honest).

Some days we opted to work for 5 hours so we could have some days off to explore. Jen or I may do a blog on our days off, so watch this space.

Our hosts Celine and Geoff were lovely. For two people to open up their house and trust you to have access to it while they are away at work is brave! We got on very well and were made to feel very welcome. Peppy the dog had such a gentle nature, gave us the love we needed and had great fun dropping his toy off the balcony to us working below to throw back up to him.

Peppy decided to lick me as i took our photo

Overall our first Help-X experience was a positive enjoyable one, and we will be open to more in the future.

Amester x