Willow and Hearth

The words “I’m moving out” sit over the opening seconds of the video while @baddie.brad, who posts as Bradley On A Budget, stands beside a stripped blue mattress with a long cleaning pole raised over his head. “I’m moving out of my cheap, frugal apartment,” he says in the voiceover. “And no one is gonna guess the reason why.”

He rules out the obvious guess straight away. “Don’t worry. My landlord did not find my videos and is evicting me,” he says. The real reason comes later in the video, and it is not a house purchase. He has three pet sitting jobs booked one after another, and they will keep him out of the apartment for almost a month.

Before the reveal, the video is a cleaning session. He calls the apartment “a complete disaster.” The footage shows him bending over a clear storage bin beside the bed, carrying an armful of bedding down the stairs, crouching at the base of a washing machine and scrubbing the bare mattress by hand.

He says he used to feel embarrassed about the apartment getting messy. “People on social media fake their life to look so perfect, and that’s not me,” he says. “People get busy, life gets messy.” The mess paid a small dividend this time: “Positive note, I found money around the washing machine.”

Then he turns to the question his opening line raises. “I’ve been house hunting as a first time home buyer for almost two years now,” he says. He has seen “some pretty decent houses,” but “overall it just hasn’t been going my way.” What he actually wants is something else: “My real dream is to buy a plot of land and to live in a tiny home.” Where he lives, he says, “there’s so many rules and regulations that it feels nearly impossible for that dream to actually come true.”

The apartment is the other half of the problem. “It’s very cheap, it’s simple, it’s in a good location, I have a really good landlord,” he says, and in almost two years no house has been good enough to justify giving it up.

Then he explains the title. “I have a lot of side hustles and being a pet sitter is one of them,” he says. “And this has never happened to me before. I actually got booked for three pet sits back to back.” His next line settles it: “So I’m gonna be out of my apartment for almost an entire month.”

That is why the refrigerator gets the most attention in the second half. “I’m taking everything out of my fridge. I’m gonna unplug it, turn everything off in the breaker box,” he says. The camera shows trays of eggs still on the top shelf, then paper grocery bags filling up on the floor, then both doors hanging open on bare shelves while he runs a blue stick vacuum in front of it. “If I’m gone for a long period of time, I’m not gonna be here using my fridge,” he says. “Why should I keep it on and running? Cause that would be a waste of money.” The remaining shots are quick: a brush around the toilet bowl, floor debris swept into a paper bag, a cloth over the stovetop.

There is a second reveal near the end. “By the time you see this, my month of pet sitting is gonna be over,” he says. “Surprise! I’ve actually been pet sitting since September 12. And my last pet sit finally ends tomorrow.” The video went up on October 5. He says he has lived in the apartment for nearly seven years, “and I’ve never been out of it for this long.”

“Wish I could rent out my apartment when I’m gone for long pet sits, but my landlord won’t allow it,” he says.

The month away has not pushed him toward buying. He says he has been debating more and more whether a house is even worth it for him. “I’m definitely terrified because buying a house is a massive decision,” he says, adding that he is single and has no pets. His case for staying put is one sentence long: “The fact that I pay $850 a month for rent and I have no responsibilities in terms of maintenance, renting has honestly felt like the better financial decision.”

“Maybe I’m just delusional, but I am still holding on to my tiny home dream,” he says. He closes by correcting his own opening line: “For now, I am not moving out because I bought a house. I’m moving out because I have a big pet sit to do.” The caption reads, “I’ll miss my frugal chateau.”

Leaving a Rental Empty for a Month, the Way He Does It

His fridge routine is easy to copy for any renter facing weeks away. Take every item out, including the door shelves and the freezer, bag what will travel and throw out the rest. Wipe the shelves while they are bare, unplug the unit, and leave both doors open the way his are in the closing shots.

He says he turns everything off in the breaker box as well. Before doing the same, note anything that has to keep running while you are gone, leave that breaker on and flip the others. If you are not sure which switch feeds what, ask the landlord before you leave.

Deal with anything that will sit and smell. In the video that means bedding carried to the washing machine, liquid poured from a bottle down the bathroom sink drain, a brush around the toilet bowl and floor debris swept into a paper bag.

If the empty weeks tempt you to rent the place out, ask the landlord first. He says his landlord won’t allow it. Read the subletting and guest clauses in your lease before raising it, and get the answer in writing either way.