House sitting

Nanny

Look at the link above if you still want to do that good luck.

jimR

I would first ask if your daughter can recommend someone who might be able to trusted and could use a place to stay while you are traveling. Maybe she has a friend, coworker, or someone who she can verify would be a good fit to house sit.

If you are near a college campus their are always options for Grad students or others looking to help out and in return a place to stay.

Angies' List is another option. I would stay away from Craigslist.

Of course with anyone you choose, ensure you get good references and verify their references -- maybe cross-check their references.

I personally would not want anyone I did not know personally having 100% access to my house. Relatives, close friends, yes. Stranger ... no.

But I do understand the "circle of friends and family" could be relatively small as mine are. And those availble might not be responsible either. I (thought) I was fortunate to entrust my house to my sister when we were gone for some longer trips. She would check on our cats, change litter every couple days, make sure they had water and food. No problem. This she did perfect, no complaints.

But to our sorrow, she also ended up bring my mother with her, my other sister with her, and between them all, the rummaged, pilfered, and nib-nosed into our personal files, finances, bills, paperwork, everything personal to figure out (who knows what). This caused quite a problem with my mother, which ended up at my request that my mother re-do her will and absolutely take me out of it. It got that awful. By the way, my mother did finally oblige, had her will re-done and made sure I was left out.

What I'm saying is, even someone you trust could stab you in the back!

We now take our cats with us. They're happier and so are we.

But enough of my personal battles.

Have you considered Angieslist.com?