by Kara | Oct 11, 2020 | Home, News, Organizational, Outsourcing, Parenting, Residential
Hosting an unforgettable Halloween party takes creativity, organization, and attention to detail. A personal assistant can handle all the logistics, making the experience stress-free for you. From sending out spooky invitations to organizing a haunted house, here’s how a personal assistant can turn your Halloween party into an event your guests will talk about for years.
Crafting Custom Invitations
The first step to any successful party is getting the word out, and your personal assistant can make sure your invitations set the tone for an unforgettable night. They can help design personalized, Halloween-themed invitations that match your party’s vibe—whether it’s an elegant masquerade or a haunted house extravaganza. Your assistant will also handle all the RSVPs, keeping track of guest responses and any special requests. With custom digital or physical invites that impress, you’ll create excitement even before the event starts. A personal assistant can look and buy for you personalized invitations in sites like SimplytoImpress.com
Organizing Fun Halloween Activities
Halloween parties are all about the fun! Your personal assistant can design and set up activities that will keep guests entertained throughout the night. From classic games like apple bobbing and costume contests to creative Halloween crafts for the kids, there’s no limit to the fun you can offer. They’ll even coordinate activities that cater to all age groups, making your party an enjoyable experience for everyone. Your assistant can also manage the flow of the event, ensuring that each activity is well-timed and that no one misses out on the fun.
Decorating Your Home Inside and Out
Decorations set the stage for a memorable Halloween party. With your assistant’s help, you can transform your home into a haunted mansion or a chic, fall-inspired retreat. Whether you need spooky lighting for your backyard, cobwebs and pumpkins to adorn your entryway, or detailed indoor decorations, your assistant will handle it all—from brainstorming ideas to shopping for materials and setting everything up. When Halloween is over, they’ll take down the décor and neatly organize everything into storage bins, ensuring it’s ready for next year.
Themed Costumes for the Entire Family
Having trouble deciding on the perfect costume? Your personal assistant can take care of the entire family’s outfits, from shopping for materials to coordinating professional costume makers. Whether you’re aiming for a group theme or unique individual looks, your assistant ensures everyone is dressed to impress. They can even arrange for special makeup artists or hairstylists to complete the spooky look.
Party Planning and Food Preparation
Food is often the highlight of any gathering, and a Halloween party is no exception. Your personal assistant can plan a Halloween-themed menu that’s both delicious and festive. They can shop for groceries, prepare spooky snacks, and even cook themed meals or desserts like “witches’ fingers” or “monster mash” dips. Whether you’re hosting a large gathering or an intimate family party, your assistant will ensure the food is as impressive as the décor. For more meal ideas, check out our meal planning blog.
Halloween Party Goodie Bags
No Halloween party is complete without a fun parting gift. Your personal assistant can design and assemble goodie bags filled with themed treats, small toys, and Halloween trinkets that reflect your party’s theme. Whether it’s candy for the kids or a more sophisticated option for adult guests, they’ll source and organize the perfect mix of items to leave your guests with a lasting impression.
Clean-Up and Post-Halloween Organization
Once the party is over, the clean-up process begins, so let your personal assistant take care of this! From packing away decorations to cleaning up the party space, they’ll ensure everything is put away neatly, so you don’t have to worry about anything. They can also help organize your Halloween supplies for next year by placing them in labeled bins, ensuring that everything is stored and easy to find when the next spooky season rolls around. You can check here what current clients say about our services.
Planning Halloween Weekend Getaways
If hosting at home isn’t your style, why not plan a Halloween weekend getaway? A personal assistant can handle all the details, from booking haunted tours to finding spooky-themed vacation rentals. Whether you want to explore a local haunted house or visit a popular Halloween festival, your assistant will organize a memorable weekend escape, filled with thrills and chills.
By hiring a personal assistant, you’ll ensure your Halloween party is both spectacular and stress-free. From planning and organizing to clean-up and everything in between, your assistant will handle all the details, allowing you to enjoy the festivities with your friends and family. Ready to make this Halloween your best yet? Contact us today to start planning your ultimate Halloween bash!
by Kara | Oct 8, 2020 | Outsourcing, Parenting
We’re weeks into autumn and “back-to-school” looks a little different this year with remote learning due to the pandemic. This means if you or your partner stay home during the day, the time you might typically use to tidy up around the house, get through errands, and prep meals has been replaced with assisting your child with their virtual learning.
Many parents may even be working from home as well, turning the household into a multi-purpose building — a school, an office, a restaurant, and a place to (hopefully) get some sleep all in one.
[Related: Our Advice to Parents on Managing Remote Learning]
During this stressful time, managing the household tasks can fall to the bottom of your list. It’s impossible to do it all right now. This is why making the decision to outsource your to-do list can bring much needed relief and a feeling of calm to your household.
Here’s what hiring a personal assistant can do for you, so that you can focus on your career, assist with remote learning, and spend quality time with your family.
Grocery Shopping
After a long day troubleshooting Zoom calls and helping with homework, the last thing you want to face is an empty refrigerator. Hiring a personal assistant to help order groceries or go out and pick up healthy ingredients for dinner can help reduce your stress at the end of a long day.
Meal Planning and Prep
In addition to grocery shopping, a personal assistant can go one step further by taking over meal planning and prep throughout the week. Making sure your family is eating healthy can be difficult when you and your partner are home all day alternating between working and supporting your child through the remote learning process. When your typical schedule is upended, having someone to plan out nutritional dinners and even prep easy-to-grab lunches can take a load off of your shoulders.
[Related: How to Delegate When You’re Used to Doing It All Yourself]
Laundry
Even though we aren’t going out socially as much, and your child doesn’t have to wear a school uniform while remote learning, it doesn’t mean we should be recycling the same pair of sweatpants and t-shirts every couple of days. Finding time to wash, dry, fold, and iron clothes can seem impossible. We can get it done from start to finish so you can feel put-together no matter what the day brings.
Bill Paying
If you or your partner are already staring at a screen all day between working from home and helping your kids with virtual school, staying on the internet longer to organize and pay bills is going to be the last thing you want to do. A personal assistant can help you set up payment automation, and organize your finances so you have one less thing on your list.
[Related: What’s Your Time Worth?]
Shopping and Returns
Even before the pandemic scrambled everyone’s schedules, finding time to hit the stores, return products, or exchange purchases proved difficult — especially if you’re a working parent. Hiring a personal assistant to run these errands for you can free up precious free time, help you avoid having to leave the house, and shorten your to-do list.
How Pepper’s Personal Assistants Can Help
If you or your partner are currently at home with your kids and need more support when it comes to assisting with your child’s remote learning, working from home, and managing your household, Pepper’s Personal Assistants is ready to help.
Our Personal Assistant package will pair you with a dedicated personal assistant to help out 12-40 hours per week, tackling the aforementioned tasks and more, including pet care, home maintenance management, and scheduling.
Just need a little boost to help you keep organized? Pepper’s Task Management package matches you with a personal assistant that will come cross off things on your to-do list for 5 hours per week.
Call us at 206-228-5768, or send us a message today for a free consultation to see if Pepper’s Personal Assistants is the right fit and can help support your needs.
by Kara | Oct 3, 2020 | General, Home, Parenting, Residential
Halloween is a festive, fun time of year, but it can also come with a lot of planning and preparation. From setting up decorations to organizing a spooky party, there’s plenty to do! Luckily, hiring a personal assistant in Seattle can help you enjoy the season without the stress. Here are some creative ways a personal assistant can make your Halloween easier and more fun.
1. Decorating Your Home
Whether you’re going for spooky or stylish, a personal assistant can help come up with ideas, purchase decorations, and set everything up inside and outside your home. From hanging ghosts to creating pumpkin displays, we’ll make sure your house looks spectacular. Once Halloween is over, we’ll even organize the decorations into bins for easy storage, saving you time and effort. Learn more about our household management services.
2. Picking Up Costumes and Candy
Running around trying to find the perfect costumes and stocking up on candy? Let your personal assistant handle it! We’ll ensure that your family has exactly what they need for Halloween night, whether it’s a specific costume, the best candy, or special supplies for school events.
3. Planning a Halloween Party
Thinking of hosting a Halloween party? Your personal assistant can help you plan every detail, from creative party themes to setting up decorations, finding Halloween crafts, and even preparing goodie bags for your guests. We’ll also help create a Halloween-inspired menu with spooky desserts, drinks, and snacks.
4. Cooking Halloween-Inspired Foods
Whether you’re hosting a party or just want to surprise your family with festive treats, a personal assistant can handle the food. We can help plan and cook Halloween-themed meals, from pumpkin-inspired dishes to spooky desserts and drinks. You’ll have more time to enjoy the holiday without the stress of meal prep.
5. Organizing Family Halloween Activities
From pumpkin patches to haunted houses, Halloween is filled with fun activities. A personal assistant can find and book the best Halloween events for your family. We’ll take care of all the details so you can focus on making memories. We can even help you organize a scary movie night with snacks on hand to complete the spooky experience.
6. Wrapping Up the Season
When Halloween is over, the clean-up begins. Let your personal assistant handle taking down decorations and putting them away in storage bins for next year. We’ll ensure everything is neatly organized, so you don’t have to worry about a thing.
This Halloween, take the stress out of the equation by hiring a personal assistant. From decorating your home to planning the perfect party, we’ll ensure you have more time to enjoy the fun parts of the season with your family. Don’t wait—contact us today to schedule a consultation and make this Halloween your best yet!
by Kara | Sep 21, 2020 | Organizational
Years ago, a friend of mine was trying to justify hiring a housecleaning service. Anna struggled because she thought she “should” do the work herself. After all, her home was small and many of her friends had no problem keeping their places in order. She broke down her salary into an hourly rate and found that it was indeed more cost-effective to outsource this – Anna earned more per hour than the cleaning service would charge her.
There’s nothing wrong with Anna’s approach – it makes perfect sense to be mindful of spending money. But I think it’s time we changed the conversation about outsourcing household management tasks. It’s not about justifying an expense, but rather making an investment in our families and our careers.
Investing in a resource that can take on tasks you don’t have time – or don’t want – to do means you free yourself up for what’s more valuable to you. And perhaps more important than the hours you get back in your day? The ability to concentrate more fully on your family, career, or whatever else you choose, without household chores chipping away that focus.
The difficulties of 2020 have clarified our priorities, and in many cases, driven us to focus on people and emotional health more than ever. Managers and executives are leading teams through challenging circumstances; in many cases, they’re trying to help employees personally cope with stress resulting from the pandemic. Working parents have an added layer of pressure as they manage remote learning for younger children; college-age kids may also be studying at home instead of on campus, making for a full house. All of us are trying to be resources to our colleagues, friends, and families to help them manage uncertainty. But time is not easy to come by, and there are truly not enough hours in the day to accomplish all we want and need to do.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women in the U.S. spend more than 2 hours a day on household management activities, or more than 15 hours a week. This adds up to a staggering 780 hours a year. The latest figures available are from 2019; my guess is they’re even higher in 2020. We’re spending more time at home and may have more family members living under one roof, which means extra time spent preparing meals and cleaning up, grocery shopping, and laundry, among other activities.
While it’s not possible to outsource all of this activity, think about what might be possible if you delegated a few things. For instance, time spent doing laundry, folding, and putting away clothes could instead be spent helping your kids with schoolwork or going for a walk or bike ride together. Having an assistant take on grocery shopping and meal prep means the final hours of your workday can be focused on finishing a project or talking with colleagues without keeping one eye on the clock since dinner is already underway. Trimming down your list of home to-dos means less work, less time spent thinking about chores, and perhaps fewer disagreements at home about whose turn it is to make dinner or tidy up the living room.
One of my clients has her personal assistant come every Friday. The assistant grocery shops, does the laundry, puts fresh linens on all the beds, and prepares a slow cooker meal to be ready at dinner time. The family starts off the weekend by sitting down to eat together, followed by a movie. I can’t think of a better or more relaxing way to end the workweek and start the weekend.
As we approach the final months of the year, think about what your time is worth. How much value can you get back in your day by delegating what’s not important so you can focus your time on what is? Let us know in the comments.
by Kara | Sep 21, 2020 | Organizational, Outsourcing, Parenting
One of my newer clients, Leslie*, reached out to me after realizing she had problems getting things done at home. The biggest obstacle was not one single project, but rather the inability to make any headway on her to-do list.
Leslie had resigned from a demanding job and arranged to start at her new company in three months. Taking a break, she figured, would give her plenty of opportunities to tackle a long list of household projects, and spend quality time with her children. But after 10 weeks off, Leslie hadn’t made a dent in the list. Additionally, routine tasks like laundry, errands and meal prep were starting to pile up. She was frustrated she hadn’t accomplished more while she had time off to do so.
Many of us are familiar with the terms “decision paralysis” or “analysis paralysis” – being unable to make a choice between two or more options, sometimes leading one to choose an entirely different option, or do nothing at all. This problem is commonly discussed in business circles – overthinking and delays cost firms time and money – but it’s also relevant at home.
Leslie is by no means alone. I see this frequently in my business, Pepper’s Personal Assistants, and it’s become more common in recent months.
Fear about making the wrong decision often stands in our way. So can feelings of being overwhelmed and exhausted. Covid-19 and other distressing events of 2020 have added multiple layers of stress and uncertainty to our lives. All of this impacts the brain, according to this recent CNN article, and causes it to slow decision making. Even the smartest and most accomplished minds are not immune: Dr. Sanjay Gupta noted that simple decisions, like choosing a tie or what to eat for lunch, were not so easy for him these days.
At Pepper’s, we have four tips that can help you deal with decision paralysis:
- Make a list – Try to keep one list using one tool. Some people keep everything on their phones. Others use a Trello board or paper notebook. And some write each task on a separate sticky note. Use whatever option is best for you.
- Set a timer – Keep tasks manageable by setting a timer. If you’ve got mountains of paperwork, for instance, devote 20 minutes every couple of days to sorting a pile and stop when the timer beeps. Seeing progress – even in small increments – can help keep you motivated. Schedule these small blocks on your calendar just like you would for a meeting.
- Talk it out – Saying things out loud – what’s overwhelming, what’s on your to-do list, and why you’re feeling buried – helps in a number of ways. Verbalizing these issues can help determine what’s most important and set priorities. You can also gain clarity on what can be delegated vs. what you should do yourself. Finally, talking about your projects can decrease your overall stress level about them, especially when you have the right sounding board. In eight years of business, we’ve counseled many people on the best ways to tackle what’s in front of them and how we can help. Our team often takes on the projects they dislike the most, which lifts a heavy burden from their minds.
- Change your scenery – If working in one area in your house becomes overwhelming, switch to another room for a while. Going outside (e.g., for a 10-minute walk or to pick up your favorite drink from a nearby coffee shop) can help shift your mindset.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to fixing decision paralysis or eliminating it altogether. But the steps above can help you make some progress. Know that you’re not alone in facing this issue. Resources are available to help you prioritize, delegate, and conquer your to-do list.
*name has been changed
