New York is the city that never sleeps — and, apparently, the city that never lifts a finger.
For the right price, you can get someone to do pretty much any job you can think of. Loads of new NYC-centric services have sprung up to handle even the most niche tasks so you’ll have more time to do what you’re meant to in New York: wait endlessly for the R train.
Don’t have time to pack your child’s lunch for school? There’s a company for that. Too lazy to walk 10 feet out your door to fetch your morning cappuccino? There’s a service for that.
Rick Kutler of Midwood is a former TLC driver who runs a business in which he drives New Yorkers wherever they need to go — in their own cars. As in, someone owns a car but can’t be bothered to operate it himself.
“It’s getting popular,” Kutler says of the four-month-old service. “I just got a couple calls about it today.”
He charges $20 an hour with a three-hour minimum. One Upper East Side man hired Kutler to drive him and a lady friend around town. Another man hired Kutler to drive him and a few lady friends around in a limo the client just happened to own. (Basically, it’s all about impressing women.)
Another enterprising New Yorker, Derek Sherrod, launched Bib In a Zip, a service that delivers race materials to runners, saving them the hassle of traveling to the Upper East Side offices of New York Road Runners. Just because you’re about to run long distances doesn’t mean you can afford to exert yourself.
For $15 plus a delivery fee ranging from $1 to $6, a courier will deliver the bib to your Manhattan door or to the Atlantic Terminal Starbucks for pick-up. Alternatively, the company will mail it for $15 plus $5.10 in postage.
Got a dog and a yard and live in Long Island or New Jersey? You can hire companies such as Scoopy Doo to come over and — well, scoop the doo from your lawn.
For pampered pooches like that, you can also hire a dog nanny, who will keep your dog company all day or overnight while you’re away.
High-end concierge service Bluefish will tackle lots of bizarre jobs, including sending someone over while you’re at work to decorate your apartment for Christmas.
WunWun, a delivery app, will show up at your door with items from most any store in Manhattan — at no charge. One customer used it to have coffee brought to her each morning. Another tasked the company to bring him a bottle of bubbly located in a fridge on the other side of his office building’s floor.
That’s just plain lazy. For those who are just busy, there’s In Box (inboxyourmeal.com), a newish service founded by two local moms that delivers a packed lunch for your child each morning.
Gourmet items include quinoa salad, bananas Foster, salmon over pasta and carrot-orange soup. Meals are around $10 each.
“I’m working. I have no time to prepare lunch for my daughter,” says Kim Martin, an Upper East Sider who uses the service for her 9-year-old. “It’s so easy. I find it on my doormat every morning.”
Still don’t have any free time? Try hiring someone to wait in line to snag you the latest iPhone (for a $400 fee). Or to wait around your apartment for the cable guy.
Want to sell your stuff on eBay but can’t be bothered to, like, type and junk? Someone will do it for you.
And how about that task residing in the ninth circle of handyman hell — putting together Ikea furniture? Of course there’s a company for that, too.
Furniture Assembly Service & More (furnitureassemblyservice. com) will build your Norrviken or Grankulla for around $150 for three pieces.
“I get calls from frustrated people saying, ‘I’ve been working on this for four or five hours and can’t figure it out,’ ” says owner Adam Tate. “Some are crazed. I’ve had calls at 11 at night and someone says, ‘I need you to come to Bay Ridge and put my furniture together.’ ”
Ranking slightly lower on the nightmare scale than assembling furniture is picking up your mail and opening it. Rather not? Hire a service such as Traveling Mailbox. Starting at $15 a month, they’ll open and scan all your mail and e-mail it to you. No paper cuts.