Managing long trips and long time from home?

I know many of you on this forum are going through long distance relationships and I have noticed that you all and your significant other sometimes spend least a few weeks, sometimes months abroad. I was just wondering, how do you manage trips like that and still keep your life back home going? Do you have someone house-sit your homes? What about pets? How do you arrange for several weeks or months time off work? Do you quit your job or do you return to your job? I'm just curious as to how you all do it

For me it all fell into place with a little luck, excellent timing, an excellent relationship with my boss, housemate, landlord, and a healthy amount of savings (sadly, now gone!)  Without these things it may not have worked for me at all.

The first trip was three months away and I paid my rent up three months in advance and got rid of enough stuff to have it all fit into half of a small room.  My boss said he couldn't promise me I'd still have a job, but that upon my return he'd see.  (It turned out there was plenty of work for me when I returned.)

That's pretty much how it went until half a small room of stuff became a few boxes in my best friend's basement and me staying at a friend's house when I returned the second time after a 6 month visit.

My gut was telling me the relationship with my then boyfriend was moving toward something permanent so I was able to get rid of more and more stuff and loosen my ties in big stages.  He proposed to me on the 6 month visit, so the final stage was simply to do the visa stuff, fill in at my old job a bit more, and leave for the UK with just two suitcases and my instruments.

Before I married my husband I was in university and used to go visit him in the States during the holidays (which are pretty long).  When I graduated he came to visit me in the UK for 6 months (with no bank statements etc, how things have changed!!).  After that when I started working it just got unfeasible for us to take time off to visit each other so we got married and he moved over here.  I imagine it's incredibly hard for working people to make regular time to see each other.

Basically it was 4 years of being very poor and somewhat of a nomad. And my resume has paid the price as well. I had 2 trips that were 3 months long, all the others were a couple weeks. When he was here, I would work. I lived with family and friends at times and for the long trips had to quit my jobs. It was extremely difficult, but I'm still young so I didn't have many ties - no big career, no house or kids or pets. I sold a lot of my things as well (or lost them with each move/trip). So it's definitely not easy, but can be very rewarding as well. I think you need to have a pretty adventurous spirit to handle this kind of LDR at times.

i'm envious of those who have been able to make long trips work!  my work schedule ties me to being here too much to be able to leave for more than a week during the school year and two weeks during the summer.  luckily, my boyfriend and i are only facing a year apart... he left at the end of june, i visited him for two weeks in august, then again for a week in november, he just visited me for 10 days this month, he will hopefully visit for a week in may, and i will hopefully move out there in july or august (or sooner, if the job search goes really well).  i think the only thing getting me through the short visits is knowing that we don't have too much longer to be apart. 

I absolutely have wondered this same thing!  I am glad someone asked this.  None of our trips have been longer than 8 days because of my work schedule.  I would be sacked for taking more than a week off, for sure!   Planning trips always involves a side-trip to the HR office with me batting my eyelashes and saying "now how much time do I have??" and them usually rolling their eyes, totally uneffected by my charm, reporting to me that I have a measly amount of vacation time stored.  

And my resume has paid the price as well.

My experience is from many moons ago, but we made the decision at the time to screw our professional lives so that we could spend months on end together. (Granted, it was much easier to do this 10 years ago with BUNAC and less strict immigration, and we were both in our early 20s) Then, once we WERE married and living together, we still were back and forth a lot of time deciding which country to live in.

In my (somewhat odd and very random) experience, it's been really hard to have to choose between love + poverty vs. a career.  Love won, for better or worse.

We only did LDR for a year, and kept our same jobs & everything.  He had about 5 weeks holiday (or so) - being in the UK.  I think I had just worked long enough at my job (5 years) to finally qualify for 3 weeks holiday - or was it 4 - I can't remember, lol!  Plus I had carried over some holiday from the preceding year.  So we basically spent every last annual leave day together - him coming to the US for a week or so, my going to the UK for a week or so, and usually grouping those trips around bank holiday weekends to give the extra day or so.  Then at the end of the year, I sold some share options I had & took an unpaid leave for a month to spend with him at Christmas/New Year (using my share option proceeds to pay my bills during the month I didn't get paid).

I still had a roommate in the US, so there weren't any worries over my place there.

And then at the end of that year, as I'd expended all my holiday time plus the unpaid leave - I told DH that I'd probably not have any holiday to see him again for at least 6 months if not more, I was looking at the big 4-0, and that either we needed to make a decision or start seeing other people.  But then, I'm pretty hard core.

He said - well why don't you move over here & we'll get married, and I said ok! 

Thank you all for your input. I had always wondered how such long trips were possible. 

I live with my mom, and I'm a writer, so my job is/was pretty much wherever my laptop is and my mom is nice enough to not ask me for rent while I'm away.  I sold my car in July to be able to afford the trip and have a cushion to bring along - I wasn't planning on staying for 4 months, but it's worked out that way.  I was here for 2, then Tim asked me to stay through christmas/new year's, his uncle passed away, and now his gran has been in hospital for the past 6 weeks, so I've stayed around.  Sadly, I'll have to return home soon regardless of if his gran is better or not because I'll run out of time on my stamp!

Oh, and I do have a cat, but since I live with my mom, it wasn't a big deal to have her take care of him for a few months - he likes her bed better than mine, anyway. 

It was a long time ago now, but when i first came to the UK, i was 6 months here, 6 months there for a couple of years.  Talk about being a nomad!  I lived on friends' couches, i lived in a fleabag motel... I even lived in my office for a couple of months!   With work, i was always very lucky... when i'd return to the US, I'd approach my old boss and he always took me back.

It was a long time ago now, but when i first came to the UK, i was 6 months here, 6 months there for a couple of years.  Talk about being a nomad!  I lived on friends' couches, i lived in a fleabag motel... I even lived in my office for a couple of months!   With work, i was always very lucky... when i'd return to the US, I'd approach my old boss and he always took me back.

Same here!  Except for the fleabag motel....