I’ve talked a lot here about my challenges with finding good help in my quest to outsource some of my daily tasks. I tried for too long to be a working mom while also doing all of the tasks I did as a stay-at-home mom. At the beginning of the year I made a commitment to use some of my earnings to outsource the things I would be doing if I was at home (the tough ones for me being laundry, organization, and administrative stuff). I felt empowered to stop trying to do it all myself. I like the idea of outsourcing in theory – but obviously making that a reality has been a challenge, for reasons both practical and financial. Enter TaskRabbit, who heard my lament about finding good help and let me try their services for free for the past month. They are a jack-of-all-trades task networking site . . . sort of like a personal assistant buffet that you can hire for tasks as small and as big as you need. I am here to tell you: I am a convert. I am their new best customer. The experience this month was so great that I decided not to keep looking for household help . . . I’m just going to hire a TaskRabbit when I need something done.
- There are a lot of things about TaskRabbit that make it an ideal service for my situation and personality:
- You can hire someone whenever you need them – even last minute.
- You can hire specific people who are good at different things. Some TaskRabbits are good at organization, others are great at computer design or administrative work. You can customize your outsourcing needs with people who like to do whatever task you need done.
- If you don’t jive with a specific TaskRabbit, you don’t have to use them again.
- You can use the service as little or as much as you want. You don’t have to commit to a certain amount of time like with an assistant, so there is no worrying about making sure you have consistent jobs in case some weeks are busier than others.
Here are some examples of things I had TaskRabbit do for me over the last month: 
TaskRabbit came to the rescue when I was too sick to make dinner. A TaskRabbit picked me up from the airport when my flight arrived during Mark’s work day. A TaskRabbit organized my messy cord closet, putting everything into labeled bins: 
TaskRabbit pretty much overhauled my life. It was incredibly helpful, in ways that I can’t even express. When our home flooded last year shortly after bringing home Kembe from Haiti, we had to hurriedly pack up every single belonging and put it in storage. Our house never fully recovered. We moved back in during a chaotic season, sometimes just shoving things into closets and drawers as we tried to keep up with the non-stop pace of raising four kids. We’ve not had time to dig in and re-organize. We’ve been living in controlled chaos for over a year, and as much as I am type-A and organized, I just did not have the margin to get us back to where we were before the flood. TaskRabbit seriously gave me my orderly home back. I’m planning to use TaskRabbit in the future. They have people from all over the country who can act as virtual assistants. I’ll be outsourcing more administrative stuff, I’ll be using them for grocery shopping, and I’m hoping to have one help me tackle the garage. I’m really looking forward to how this can help me be more productive, and add some balance to this working mom gig. If you live in a city that TaskRabbit serves (or need a virtual assistant) I definitely recommend it!
