What Everyday Tasks You Hate to do?Would You Be Willing to Pay Someone to Do?

I would rather take a beating than dust, but I won't pay for someone else to do it.
My husband would rather dust than clean litter boxes, so he dusts and I clean litter boxes. When I lived alone, I just sucked it up and dusted when the dust became unbearable.

I'm a SAHM and while I have a few tasks I dislike, I wouldn't pay for anyone to do them. Mainly because that's my job. Sort of like my husband-- he has to go to work and do some things he finds unpleasant, too. I really don't pay out for work I know how to do or am able to do.

Oh, except for sewing on Cub Scout badges. There's a nice Polish woman who does those for us!

I was out with a group of women friends and we were talking about this. Some were saying that they work long hours, and when they get home, they want to give full attention to their kids, not have to spend their evenings dragging their kids from place to place with them. Some were saying they would love to find someone to pay to do this stuff, but didn't know this kind of service exists in our area (in other areas, I've heard of sites like taskrabbit.com). So, I think there is a market if that doesn't exist in your area.

Things on the list were the simple but annoying things.
- grocery shopping
- taking the car for oil changes/rotating tires/etc (which also might require dropping the owner at work and picking her up after)
- other errand shopping (random stuff from target, craft store, etc)
- prepping dinner

I know there was more, I'll try to remember what they said.

ETA:
- dropping off/picking up from the dry cleaners
- taking a pet for routine stuff (groomers, vet check up (not sick visit))
- sitting around the house for hours to wait for service people (cable guy, appliance repairmen, etc)

And, you didn't list your company name, so I didn't take your post as an advertisement at all. I appreciate that you were upfront that you are doing some market research instead of making up a fake question to try to get this information. Good luck. (actually, depending on your location, you could even register with an existing service, like taskrabbit, instead of starting your own business. Just a thought)

You can't advertise here.
It's against the site Terms and Conditions.
I WISH I could hire someone to do a lot of things but I can't afford it.
You need to hit a demographic which actually has the money to pay for this sort of thing - which I'm not sure is primarily the crowd that hangs out here.

Consider specializing.
Are you going to:
walk dogs
chauffeur kids to school/home/activities
cook
clean
yard work
take/pick up dry cleaning, groceries, make medical deliveries from pharmacies
pick up/deliver packages
do computer/paper work
pay bills
manage personal schedules/meeting/calendars/doctor appointments
etc
Anything where you are working with kids - be sure to have a background check - people will want proof you're not a pedophile.
Be licensed and bonded - and set yourself up as a limited liability corporation - so if you get sued they can't come after your house.
I think the term you're looking for is 'personal assistant'.

Good luck with your business venture but you can't advertise here without going through the process of becoming an approved vendor for the site - and that takes money.
Advertising should be part of your budget.

I think that elder care is an area where there are needs. Many people are in a sandwich of sorts, where they have kids and elderly parents, both of whom need rides to places, food cooked for them, etc. A trusted person like yourself who could take an elderly person to the hairdresser, drop in on them for a checkup on how they're doing and perhaps do little tasks like unloading the dishwasher for them, buy and deliver their groceries, etc, might be very helpful. It's not that their families hate to do those kind of tasks, it's just that with homework, soccer practice, etc, it's hard to be in two places at once.

i'm on my second go-round with having a housekeeper, and i think i struck gold this time.
i always thought that if i had more leisure time it wouldn't be such a PITA to clean the house, but know what? now that i have more leisure time i want to spend it doing things i love, and that doesn't include scrubbing bathrooms. i'm thrilled to work enough to pay for sherry to come take care of that for me.
i like doing the barn, and the yard, and shopping, and cooking. no need to pay anyone to do those things for me.
khairete
S.

A woman I worked with long ago quit her job to become her own boss. She found a niche in the elderly for something similar in the Northern Suburbs of Chicago. She got bonded and licensed etc. Her service was to provide rides and a hand to hold for doctor/hospital visits, rides to grocery or grocery shopping if preferred, pick up of dry cleaning or other services, laundry, cleaning. She actually started this before she quit and I remember she had a client that just wanted rides to the park and someone to walk with.

Grocery shopping. I'd pay for that. I don't enjoy grocery shopping.

Apart from cooking, homework assistance, cleaning, or driving (which I assume will be the top things mentioned), here are a couple of ideas that would probably be very successful: car drop off and pick up. Let me explain: say I need maintenance on my car, but tomorrow I am slated to go out of town early in the morning on a road trip (or pretend my tire may have a nail, or I need new tires, so the road trip would be a no go). I work full time, so getting my car into the mechanic is impossible, because he happens to work the same hours I do and I cannot take time off from work. He is not open early enough to go before my road trip. You would come to my home before I go to work, sit with me in the car, drop me off at work, and take my car to the mechanic to get the work done. When it is ready, you would either drive it back and leave it in its parking spot so my car is ready to be driven home, or you'd come pick me up in the evening when I am ready to go home for the day, and then I would drop you off at your home, bus stop, wherever. Same would apply for things like car washes (I don't have time for those as I cannot put my car through a machine and the hand washing places tend to close early), picking up groceries, taking packages to the post office or other little emergencies that may come up, like having to pick up kids from sports during working hours.

Another idea: house sitting...sort of. I live in a condo. Condos have very strict rules that entail moving can only take place Mon-Fri, 9-5, and same goes for any type of labor/repairs/furniture delivery. Someone must be present to open the door and supervise, which is an issue for us working moms. You would stay at home and open the door/supervise furniture deliveries, home repairs or remodeling, installation of appliances, etc., so that we would not have to get out of work or lose a day of work in addressing this. I would love to find someone I could pay to do this, but all my friends and family work, and my mom lives 30 miles away and cannot drive. Having someone who I can trust to not steal and will report to me if the workers damaged my walls, for example, would be great. This would not be exclusive to people living in condos -- people living in homes may only find employees that can work during the week while they are at work, or when they are out of town, so you would take care of that aspect for them.

Good luck with the errand service, whatever it is you decide to do!

Bathtime! when why 3 kids were little I was with them all the time. They loved the bath and never wanted to get out. I hired someone for 1 hr a day to do bathtime and I got a break. The gal didn't even speak english, but i gave her 3 dirty kids and got back 3 clean kids in jammies hair combed and teeth brushed, and a bathroom that was not covered in water. Best thing for my sanity, I usually ran to the grocery store or returned important phone calls at that time.

I read about a website - taskrabbit that is like a care.com for errands. You may want to check and see if you are in their area.

Cleaning my floors and baseboards. Kills my back. Would totally pay someone if I had $.

welcome to mamapedia - P. - it sounds like you are trying to sell something to me.

It's not that I "HATE" to do it - I pay someone to do it because I would rather spend my time with my family instead of cleaning my house.

i have no clue where Aliquippa, PA is - I doubt it's a metropolis - so how much business do you actually think you'll get? Have you tried getting licensed, insured and bonded? Have you the money to front the things that people typically use a personal assistant for:
picking up dry cleaning
going grocery shopping
getting gas in the car
getting the car washed
picking up prescriptions

My sister in law is a personal assistant. She has a business credit card and charges all the stuff to that card and then charges the client and her fees. She is licensed and bonded and insured. She has passed a background check that people would look for - especially those that are allowing people into their home and personal lives.

Good luck

Out of necessity, I pay someone to supervise my kids' homework and drive them places. I have one sitter who does this and she's especially awesome because she'll figure out if they need supplies for a project and if she or I don't already have them, she'll go to the store for me and buy them (I pay her back). She also picks up prescriptions for me at the pediatrician's office that can't be called into the pharmacy and drops them off for me.

If I could afford to hire more help, I would definitely pay for house cleaning, gift shopping, grocery shopping and meal prep. Oh and a dog walker would be wonderful! Another thing I wish someone could do for me is put books on hold at the library for me, drop off my returns and pick up new books. I love to read but often can't make it to the library when they're open.

Oh and car care! Such a pain in the butt...I would love to be able to pay someone to take care of basic maintenance - renew my registration, get the excise tax paid, get my inspection sticker, get oil changes, take care of things like replacing head lights, etc. I think I would seriously consider paying an annual fee for someone to do that. I would pay for the services, fees, etc. of course but to have someone remind me that something is due, check my tire tread or other wear and tear items that I don't think about or magically appear with the right missing bulb would be worth it. It would probably pay for itself with just avoiding a ticket for something stupid like an expired inspection ticket or a bulb out.

i would love to have someone else to do all my house cleaning and laundry. and i would pay for it, hubby.. not so much.
i would totally pay someone to grocery shop for me, to do my laundry, mow the lawn, and other house hold tasks.

I've never heard of taskrabbit before but I just looked it up, how cool!
They even offer furniture assembly, now *that* I would totally pay for! Or someone to help me hang curtains, decorating ideas even bc i suck at that! I probably wouldn't pay for much else but that's pretty cool. :)
Good luck!

Anything which requires me to stand in line!

I kind of enjoy errands--so I do not want help on that.

I am a good cook, but cannot bake to save my life. I would pay someone for weekly baked goods delivered on Sunday after church: a pound cake, tollhouse cookies (without the chocolate chips), pumpkin or banana breads...

I see nothing wrong with your idea but I'm a picky person and I just like doing things my way vs paying someone to try to meet my expectations.

I would not be the best customer for you unless I had an emergency of some sort,

I do think of you found the right niche for seniors or moms in s higher end area, you might get a break.

There is an errand service in my area but again...I'm the OCD one and prefer to do it myself.

I guess it depends on the geographical area of the people you are marketing to. New York City has easy access to many companies that allow people to do "errands" over the internet, so that is popular here - order groceries from companies like Fresh Direct, order meal ingredients from companies like Blue Apron, schedule laundry pickup and delivery, I have even ordered shampoo from Amazon. My non-online errands are generally things I need to be present for in person (like taking clothing to be tailored - I need to be there myself to get measured). Dogwalkers and housecleaners are popular here, but those are very specific services, not general errands.

I would say any errand that cuts into busy time. Or taking the laundry to the laundromat then washing and drying it according to their preferences then hanging everything or folding certain items a certain way and so forth. I would make sure I had specifics written down and both parties agree and sign off on it before any task was taken on.

Picking up our son's prescriptions at Kaiser. Hate the Disneyland-like line and I have to go every month due to regulations. Not sure someone else could do that, but I loathe going there.

Grocery shopping. Hate it. Have used the delivery services with mixed results. If they don't find what's on the list, I just don't get it and end up having to go out anyway. Would love it if someone got everything and then went to another store if the first place was out.