The past few weeks have been insane. Jasper contracted Roseola, an ear infection, pneumonia, and to make matters worse, I’ve had a crazy cough and felt run down. Needless to say, that’s why you haven’t seen any real ‘outfit’ posts. Why I’ve been kind of absent on social media. Right now, I’m laid up in bed, trying to crank out my posts, and well, trying not to do too much.

The thing is, life goes on, no matter how I’m feeling. Grocery shopping still needs to happen, the laundry still piles up, if you have kids, they still need to be taken care of, and you still need to get better. It’s enough to make anyone’s head spin. Anyway, I’ve been loving the prevalence of apps and web services that do things like send someone to the supermarket. Make dinner.  Send someone to pick up the laundry. Heck, even find a last minute sitter.

You might remember when I tried Blue Apron, which was an amazing experience. Unfortunately, I don’t have the energy to actually MAKE dinner, so I’ve been living off of Instacart and Munchery the past few weeks, and recently just tried Rinse for our laundry. There are several services out there that you can try. (Thanks, Temi for introducing me to this world of online services!)

Munchery

We use this so much, we know the Munchery delivery person by name. The food is made by local chefs, and menus change daily. I’ve ordered as late as 4:30 for a 7pm delivery, which is pretty amazing since I don’t always know if I’m going to have time/energy to make food. The prices are reasonable, about $9-$12 an entree. While they suggest you heat up in the oven, I always just pop the entrees in the microwave, and it’s pretty good!

Good Eggs

If you have a bit of lead time, great at meal planning and love eating organic food, Good Eggs is great for you. They have a full spectrum of produce, meats and even prepared meals for the whole family. It’s great for me, because I usually make Jasper his food, but sometimes it’s nice to buy freshly made baby food to take that off my “to do” list.

Instacart

I know a lot of people are trying Amazon Fresh and Google Express (disclaimer, my husband is Google employee) but I love the immediacy of Instacart. Depending on where you are, you can choose which supermarket you like. In my location, I can choose from Whole Foods, Rainbow Grocery, Safeway and Foods Co. oh, and Costco. I can schedule a delivery even two hours from the time of ordering. Heck, that’s almost as fast as going myself. This morning it was so fast, I really could not go to the market and back in the time they got my order. Deliveries cost anywhere from free if they are having a sale to $8 depending on how soon you need your goods. Great if you just realize you ran out of coffee or milk!

Sprig

Sprig, like Munchery is a meal delivery service, but instead of using a variety of chefs, this is all done by ex-Google chef, Nate Keller. They also deliver both lunch ($9) and dinner ($10). With a $2 delivery fee. Not bad for locally sourced and seasonal meals!

 

Task Rabbit

Say you need someone to pick up your prescriptions (like, if you’re REALLY sick), help around the house, run some errands for you, or all that random stuff that you need but can’t do yourself for whatever reason. You can put a job out at Task Rabbit, and someone will respond to your request and wella! You get your stuff done. I used this when I was 37 weeks pregnant and my husband was in China and I had the worst cold. It was great to send someone to Walgreens for me, because no way was I getting out of the house.

 

Washio

I HATE doing laundry. I’ve always hated it. One of the things I missed about living in New York was that everyone used the wash & fold service. I miss Mae our laundry lady on Elizabeth Street. She was awesome. If you need to schedule a pick up and delivery, or even get your dry cleaning done, Washio can be arranged right from your phone. Prices are $1.60/lb which is pretty steep, but if you are super busy, or have your hands full, sometimes ordering from your mobile phone is handy.

Rinse

Rinse is different from Washio in that it is only available online, but it does come at $1.50, and you can schedule your pick ups. We used this service last week, and they did a fantastic job of separating and folding our clothes. The only thing is, if you schedule on a Thursday, you won’t see your laundry until Sunday. But I did like how flexible they were with pick up times. In the end, I’d probably go with the neighborhood wash and fold ($1.10, plus free delivery on orders over $25) because they have a 24 hour max turnaround time.

Care.com

If you need more support than just getting your laundry picked up, Care.com has a range of help you can find, from nannies, to sitters, housekeepers and even personal assistants. You can run background checks on the people you hire, and they even give advice on taxes for the help you hire.

 

urbansitter

 

I used urbansitter when I needed to go to an event at the last minute and needed a sitter. urbansitter has a range of sitters you can choose from with availability you can see in real time along with reviews and references readily available. I had a good experience with them when my regular sitter couldn’t make it.

Anyway… wow, this turned out to be a huge post. Do you have any recommendations for apps that make our lives easier? I’d love to hear!