The dirty little secret about being a blogger for Apartment Therapy — or fill-in-the-blank with pretty much any contemporary profession — is that you don't have time to take care of a lot of the small details in your own home (or life for that matter). I know very few people with the spare time to stay ahead of their laundry, much less redecorate. For anyone who finds themselves in this situation, there are people you can pay to help you.
- Fancy Hands: Founded last year by developer Ted Roden, Fancy Hands is an online personal assistant service that costs $35 per month for 15 tasks. Their most frequently requested tasks include restaurant and hotel reservations, car services, haircuts, finding places that have iPads in stock, and — here's a surprising one — tracking down ad rates for major blogs.
- Laundry Local: Available in New York and Los Angeles, this is a website that connects customers with local laundry services. Pick-up, delivery, and payments are all scheduled and processed online — it's a new service and we don't know much beyond the basics, so let us know if you've used them in the comments.
- Eureka Furniture Assembly: Don't want to suffer through the pain of assembling your flat-packed IKEA media console? If you live in Toronto, Eureka Furniture Assembly will put it together for you for anywhere from $25 to $45.
- IKEA Pick-Up and Delivery by Eric: Are you someone who experiences a panic attack whenever you shop at IKEA? If you live in New York, Eric will take care of it for you. He'll pick up and deliver your stuff — he'll even shop — for between $80 and $155. Furniture assembly is an extra $35 an hour.
- Birthdays Without Pressure: Founded by parents and professionals in St. Paul, Minnesota, this organization believes that the expectations surrounding children's birthday parties have gotten out of hand. No, they won't plan your party for you, but they will give you free ideas for reducing the pressure and they'll connect you with resources and other parents who are sick of the stress.
- Bath Simple: Anyone who's ever undertaken a bathroom renovation knows that it always takes longer than you think it will. Bath Simple strives to cut down on the time and cost of remodeling with online design tools, an in-home design service, a "bathroom in a box" that ships to your door, and a network of certified contractors that they'll organize for you.
- 1-800-Got-Junk?: This full-service junk removal company will load up a truck and haul your stuff to be donated or recycled. Pricing starts around $100, and they broom clean the area before they leave.
- Speedy Fixit: Only operating in Manhattan, this is a "prompt, reliable, and reasonably priced home repair service" that's available to help with small jobs around the house, whether it's a room that needs painting, artwork that needs hanging, or a doorknob that needs to be replaced.
Who do you rely on to help you get through life's many little tasks? Share your sources in the comments.
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For better or worse, I grew up with the DIY ethos and just can't delegate stuff like this to other people or services.
I've definitely made use of grocery delivery services, especially around the holidays when the thought of going into a major grocery store to fight for baking supplies makes me break out in hives.
Grocery delivery. I don't have a car, my boyfriend works nights and has school during the day. They usually waive delivery fee for the first month, and then periodically if you haven't ordered in awhile. We don't use it often, but its great in a pinch, and the fee is a small price to pay to avoid busy weeks with nothing but takeout.
I'm outsourcing the lawn this year. I never got to it in a timely manner, I don't enjoy running the mower and it was just stressing me out.
It is the single happiest decision I've made since pulling up the carpet and putting down bamboo floor.
Time is limited. Spending it on something I find wholly unenjoyable is not worth my precious time.
broom clean = sweep
:)
I hired a cleaning lady (2x month) and lawn service for the first time recently. It has made a huge difference to my quality of life, since now after working long hours during the week I can spend weekends actually enjoying myself rather than cleaning and pulling weeds.
What I would REALLY love to outsource though are things like taking the car in for inspections and oil changes, and waiting around the house for furniture deliveries, contractors, plumbers, etc.
I too am a DIY gal, and it's hard for me to delegate. But our old apartment made laundry really difficult, 'til we managed to find Seattle Laundry Service, which was a huge time and sanity saver. And now, we just discovered a mobile cat vet which seems way easier. Both great ideas that we might use in the future!
However, I don't know if I'll feel like I can do housekeepers again -- we hired a young hip "green" cleaning couple who biked in all their environmentally-friendly equipment and took paperless PayPal payment and whatnot, but each time they came we'd come home and find something ever so slightly damaged/broken. Kinda lame while we were in a rental, but totally unacceptable now that we own our home and care that much more!
or fill-in-the-blank with pretty much any contemporary profession
It's a good thing you made that concession, since it would be ridiculous to claim that someone who is not required to leave the house is somehow disadvantaged compared to someone who has to commute to work and is out of their home for 8 hours or whatever in being able to do things around the home....
Don't forget Lala Luxe in LA and elsewhere. Its on the high end, but I have used them for their jewelry Concierge. I fancy myself a man with great taste, but I just don't get jewelry. I hired them, and I can tell you from experience it was well worth the money. My lady was very happy! http://www.lalaluxe.com/
http://www.allowme.info/ in Jackson Hole, WY.
In one hour Allow Me turned my closet from a tangled mess into a beautiful haven. If you've ever seen "What Not To Wear" you will appreciate it. The best part is that I'm a super messy person but the organization was so good that it was easy to stick to it. (Still hanging button downs next to button downs a year later) Sadly Allow Me only operates in Jackson Hole, WY.
This is an inspiring list of creative small businesses. Good for their founders, finding niches to fill even in these lean times. Though I'm not in a situation to be paying anyone to do anything, I was happy to see your nod to these clever folks.
i just STOPPED using these services. I spent 45 bucks a week in philly for laundry/dry cleaning services - so not worth it. $180 a month for something i could do myself - silly
Ah the travails of the petit-bourgeoisie...
These services all look really interesting and I love the ideas, but I will tell you that that best money I spend each month is on cleaning help. She comes every other week for three hours and does an amazing job. She does in three hours what would take me 6 or 8 just because I'm not a great cleaner myself.
And I could do it myself and save myself the money each month, but she's so great and she gives me back a day each month at least. Totally worth it. I was recently talking with her and told her she was so amazing that if I had to choose between her and cable...I'd cancel my cable yesterday!!!
If you live in the DC area, try 123Junk! They're locally owned and operated!
This is a great list. Used Eric's Ikea delivery alternative last week and was happy with the results.
I probably couldn't bring myself to pay someone to make phone calls or run errands for me, but I would definitely hire a general handyman-type-person to tackle my whole household repair list, or a cleaning company just to do a seasonal deep-clean.
One of the tasks that may seem extravagant but brings a lot of joy to us is outsourcing the exterior Holiday light installation. We have a three-story house and the light guys hang lights on every story, then weeks later sneak in (like elves) to remove them and leave the box on our doorstep. I smile every time I drive up to my house through the holidays.