Rabbits to the Rescue

I had a fantastic time experimenting more deeply (i.e., beyond the IKEA runs I've used the service for in the past) with TaskRabbit as the Boston spokeswoman for their Do More. Live More. Be More. campaign. I shared my mid-month recap a couple of weeks ago; below are my thoughts now that the campaign has come to a close. Also, read on for a discount code so you can give TaskRabbit a spin!

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Here are the 6 general buckets I planned on working on at the beginning of the campaign:

Purging. Well, I still haven't gotten around to this one in a big way, partly because I haven't had a chance to go through my basement, and partly because I unloaded a bunch of Violet and Laurel's outgrown clothes at Isis and Family Swap Day when I was changing over their wardrobes for the season. I will keep this on my TaskRabbit to-do list because I still want to lighten our household load!

Pickups. I cannot say enough how fantastic TaskRabbit is for pickups, particularly since we are a one-car family and I almost never have the car during the weekdays. The service has proven handy for random pickups (e.g., drugstore, hardware store) as well as more specialized runs (e.g., birthday cakes, CSA). Last week I also experimented with using the service to pick me up at home and drop me off somewhere; it ended up being a little more expensive than a cab, but was definitely more pleasant!

Event planning. I haven't needed event planning help since Pivot (during which TaskRabbit was insanely helpful) but I'm planning a baby shower in early November and probably will use the service to help me take care of various things.

Household. As I mentioned in my mid-month post, almost all of Jon and my household to-do's cannot be outsourced. However, I was thrilled to be reminded by Rookie Moms Heather and Whitney (who participated in the same campaign as the Bay Area spokeswomen) about using TaskRabbit for yard work. I cannot believe I didn't think of this earlier! We don't have a huge yard, but weeding and general upkeep has completely fallen to the wayside since Violet arrived. I'm totally going to post to have someone take care of that! Probably in advance of the baby shower I'm hosting.

Travel. I haven't yet used TaskRabbit for travel errands but I have a couple of trips coming up and will probably use them last minute to help me square up on logistics. Or better yet, to deliver a few surprises to Jon and the girls while I'm away.

Virtual assistant. As I mentioned mid-month, outsourcing work matters is hard for me, but the other week I gave it a go and had a rabbit do some data entry and research for me. It was fantastic and I will totally do it again. I also like Heather and Whitney's idea of hiring a rabbit to distribute promotional postcards. Since I operate Boston Mamas on a shoestring I don't take out ads or anything like that. So this would be a fun "small budget" way to help get the word out about my site.

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Concluding thoughts:

This outsourcing experiment has been really fantastic, and I'm grateful to TaskRabbit for asking me to be a part of the campaign. It's also been great to see how far TaskRabbit has come. When I first tested out the service, I was a very happy customer, but since that time, they have added a lot of features to improve the interface. Some of my favorites:

No cash needs to change hands when rabbits need to be reimbursed for purchases. This was a concern back when I first used TaskRabbit for IKEA runs because understandably, not all rabbits were psyched about plunking down large sums on their credit card for someone they didn't know. Now, all purchase reimbursements are handled on the TaskRabbit system. (So, the rabbit still needs to pay the expense, but they will be guaranteed reimbursement because task assigner's billing information is stored securely on the site.)

You can now set up tasks to recur. This has been handy for our CSA pickup as it saves on reposting time. (You also can repost previous tasks individually and update details.)

You can hire favorite rabbits to take care of tasks. I love this feature as it allows me to give first dibs to my favorite rabbits. What can I say, I'm loyal.

Similar to a coffee punch card, you can earn a free task for every three completed tasks. Sweet!

In short, I think TaskRabbit is a fantastic service for anyone who needs help with, well, anything. As an entrepreneur and a mother of two, I've found it particularly helpful to both lighten my load so I can be a happier, more engaged parent/wife/person in general, and also because the reality is that as someone who runs multiple businesses, it's often more time and cost effective for me to outsource small, not that complicated projects during time where I can work on large billable projects for clients.

Finally, I wanted to note that every single rabbit I have met through TaskRabbit has been courteous, on time, and really nice. To date, they have delivered on what I have asked them to do in every instance. Rabbits to the rescue, indeed.

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So, want to give TaskRabbit a spin? Of course you do! Use code PAL2676 to receive $10 off your first task. Happy outsourcing!