hiring a personal assistant

[GravitySucks]

No, but I have thought of moving into an Embassy Suites hotel. Omelets made every am, drinks and snacks in the evening. No cleaning. No repairs.
I did hire a lawn service while I was traveling last year. DD refuses to learn how to mow. Neighbors kid wouldn't mow because there was a dog [emoji90] in the backyard.

 

[tb001]

I would be all about a yard service...for ALL of it. I don't mind the work, but when it's 90+ degrees at the end of September, I am OVER it!!! My MIL has a lawn service that does it all (and her yard is pretty awesome) but it costs almost $1500 a month. Our yard is about twice the size with a lot of beds/trees to tend to, so I can't even fathom how much it would cost.

As for having a maid, I remember a friend of mine who I was out having dinner with. He told the group that he had to leave early to "clean before the maid shows up"...and apparently this is actually a thing.

Wow, how large is her yard?

I’ve known a number of people with arrangements like this. Most started out as nannies who then began taking on additional responsibilities as the kids got older. As was said earlier, for two career families it can be the difference between making it or not.

We have Housekeepers and gardeners. I like to garden, but have little interest in the ongoing upkeep of a lawn, etc... I don’t mind cleaning, but it’s totally worth it to us to have someone come in and do a deeper cleaning twice a month. I’d do it weekly if we could justify it! We also have a nanny who does a lot of day to day picking up, kids laundry, etc... Honestly it’s awesome and I can easily see if you have the additional funds having someone come in for a couple of hours/day and do light housekeeping and laundry would be wonderful!

If I’m not working, which is the goal at some point, we won’t have the nanny but definitely keeping the housekeeper!

 

[sakowitzm]

"There's a thing called "taskrabbit", where they'll come and assemble your Ikea furniture, and stuff like that."

I've used taskrabbit for a few things and it's worked out quite well. Example1: I'm happy to spread mulch, but I need someone to distribute the 60 very heavy bags throughout the beds first. Example2: Topsoil delivery was about 50 bags to my driveway. I needed them in the backyard and would have gotten worn out moving them all.

For $40 or so, tasks accomplished!

 

[marko]

We have two separate ER'd neighbors with some form of assistants; one live-in the other day-help.

They do everything from walk the dogs, cook, run errands, make appointments and get groceries. They also provide driving for when their principals are 1) going somewhere that parking is difficult or 2) too drunk to drive themselves, which is quite often.

The neighbors aren't really busy, don't work and have no kids (other than each other) but more lazy and often heavy partyers where having someone sane and sober around is a good thing.

As noted above, the live-in has become part of the family often directing a contractor, sharing cocktail hour and even going on vacation with them, presumably doing the same concierge work as she does at home.

 

[googily]

I used to think that having a driver would be really cool for errands and places where parking is problematic. Then Uber and Lyft arrived. Which is great, and DH and I used them and cabs a lot to come home after a night out. I still use them some, except I'm starting to feel guilty about adding to congestion and whatnot when most of the time I could just walk to the subway.

But I haven't completely forsworn it.

 

[jimnjana]

Lawn service $75 per month. House cleaning $100 every two weeks. No pool guy yet. We also use s tree guy 2x a year. Handyman a must as well.

 

[marion10]

A friend of mine worked as a bookkeeper/ social secretary for about 10 years for a wealthy man. She was very mum about exactly who this was. She opened all the mail, kept his calendar, paid bills. She would RSVP for invitations for him, schedule things like furnace maintenance, etc. I have no idea how much she was paid. It was perfect for her as she had a school age daughter and worked about 10-15 hours a week while she was in school. She went to his house 2-3 days a week.

 

[Chapter 3]

I've learned I do not enjoy routine maintenance of things. Hence, living in a place where my only yard work is sweeping off the patio and tending to a few planters. Have a housecleaner twice per month that started when still working. Thought that would end when I retired but can't bring myself to let them go. Usually end up paying to have my car washed. DW does all shopping since she enjoys it, and I don't.