Chores outsourced

>> Service offers to free up your time
by doing your tedious tasks for you

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Andrea Yampolsky

Age: 37

Occupation: Head honcho of My Concierge+

Bio: This indefatigable Côte-St-Luc dynamo and mother of two young children had been working as an office manager for a speech therapy clinic when she decided “it was time for a change” and finally put the idea she’d been considering for almost eight years into action. And so it was to be, that in May 2006, My Concierge+ (www.myconciergeplus.com) was born, a service where Andrea or someone from her crew will come over and do just about any boring, tedious or unpleasant chores you might want to throw at them. If you’ve always longed for your own personal slave woman, call them up at (514) 928-4356

Just a few of the zillion services they offer: Grocery, pharmaceutical and wardrobe shopping, cooking lessons, house sitting, pet sitting, cupboard inventory/restocking, organizing garage sales, waiting for service/repair personnel to arrive, organizing vacations, scheduling doctor/dentist appointments, taking your vehicle in for repairs, dog walking, picking up and returning DVDs or library books, beauty makeovers, and private Pilates and yoga instruction. “We try to take care of absolutely everything for people.”

Should one suffer through a particularly nasty bowel movement adventure, can they call up My Concierge+ to have someone come over and wipe their ass for them? “Um, it’s never really come up before.”

Andrea’s personal specialty: “Shopping—especially for corporate and personal gifts and, of course, clothing. I love going through customers’ closets for them, getting rid of stuff that’s no longer stylish, and revamping and reorganizing their things.”

How the hell she knows to buy clothes for strangers: “First I have to get a feel for the person and learn what their budget is. But I’ve got a camera on my Blackberry so when I see something I think they’ll like, I’ll take a picture and send it to them to see how they feel—you know, so they can have some say in it. But people have to trust you, trust is the critical element—that, and a willingness to relinquish control of every small detail of their lives.”

How willing are most people to relinquish control over every small detail of their lives? “Actually, that’s the biggest hurdle to overcome with customers, women especially.”

Who’s hiring her: “Mostly middle- and upper-class working women. Lower income people can’t really afford the $30 an hour we charge. It’s really a quality of life thing. Say you have an hour, you could spend it doing something you enjoy, or stuck in line at the grocery store wanting to tear your hair out.”

Does she get any personal enjoyment, outside of getting paid, in doing other people’s bullshit for them? “Well, you’d have to. I mean, who wants to run errands all day if you don’t love doing it?”

What Andrea loves about errands: “Um… I love being busy. Sitting around doing nothing all day makes me crazy. And it’s a bit of an outlet for my shopping addiction. I love being out in the stores, seeing what’s new, what’s coming out, it’s exciting, I just love to shop!”

Childhood ambition: To become a lawyer.

Last book read: A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth.

Musical preferences: Elton John, Genesis, Phil Collins.

Words of wisdom: “Just do what makes you happy.”

Comments: dimwit@hdot.net