Random services people use

Someone I know used a rabbit-bonding service. One of their two pet rabbits died, so they got a new one to keep the surviving one company, did the slow and careful introduction as recommended, but original bunny still hated new bunny. The rabbit-bonder took the two of them away, used her mysterious rabbit-bonding skills to convince them to like each other, and returned them as a happy pair of best pals a week or so later.

Charcoal is supposed to be good at trapping bad smells. You could get some charcoal bags and stick them inside the dog poo bin maybe? Inside the lid perhaps. Lots here

Someone in our local town Facebook runs a business where they will come and pick your dogs poo from your garden....

I imagine you need them every day....or if they come like once a week that's a lot of poo sitting around on the lawn waiting to be picked up! grim!

That sounds amazing! There are people near me who do this but the cost is quite high £350 to do a 3 hr wardrobe decluttering and £350 for 3hr shopping trip

Where is yours based? I'm in SW London

We have a subscription box of snacks from other countries each month. Always a surprise and the kids really enjoy it.

It might be a waste of money for you, but it isn't a waste of money for everyone. Nobody's suggesting it's compulsory!

We had ours cleaned once after a grim maggot incident and it made such a noticeable difference to the smell that we kept getting it done. It costs £3 a time so hardly breaking the bank and we don't have to walk past a nasty whiff on our own drive every day, so it's not a waste of our money. But we're all different.

That’s like asking ‘would you know if it wasn’t your own dog?’ 😂

Tortoises are all different - different sizes, different breeds, different shell markings etc.

Eat your Books website subscription- you tell it what cookbooks you own and it creates one massive searchable index of your collection.

And would the tortoise know?

Would people know if it wasn’t their own tortoise that was returned?

On the penultimate day of our holiday I always give all our dirty clothes to the hotel's laundry service. Everything comes back freshly washed, ironed and folded (even knickers) and ready to put in the suitcase.

Always pay for Fast Track through airport check in. We fly often and it's brilliant.

Regular deliveries of, or subscriptions to:
Loo roll (Who Gives A Crap)
Specialist cat food for urinary diet (can't find in shops)
Windows cleaned
Oven cleaned annually
Guttering and fascia cleaned annually
Boiler service annually and all gas fire checked
Some specialist stuff to do with hobbies for me and DH
Ad hoc deliveries of compost, gravel, chipped bark etc for garden (Wickes deliver and also carry it through to where I want it)
Weekly email showing which Kindle books are free or very cheap, for authors or genres I like (Bookbub)

Best one I saw on a tv show in a hotel somewhere was where they had a lady butler who packed your clothes for you! Lots of lovely white tissue paper around your dirty undies to go home with.
It’s another world

Ooh, I'd love to know more about the Sell It service please. Is this a nationwide thing? I've never heard of it but often wished it existed

My mum is retired and I pay her to wrap my Christmas presents - I know this is ridiculous but I absolutely do not care it’s a life saver 🤣 (I do wrap hers though I’m not that bad!)

There are loads of oven cleaners in my area, many are people who have retired early and set up this business as it’s fairly cheap to build up I think. They put the grill racks in a solution of some kind ( acid ?) in their vans and they come out sparkling !
It’s not cheap, but it’s lovely seeing it like new.

I think regular use of nasal decongestants can actually cause decongestion (essentially a withdrawal reaction). May be worth looking into if you’re suffering long term? (Appreciate could also be allergies etc.)

This is one of the best and most helpful threads I have ever read, some brilliant ideas 😊
I have a monthly bin clean and after reading this I am looking into getting my oven cleaned 😊

We have a cleaner, but over the years she has done more and more hours and things for us. It started when she was here cleaning and we needed to get the dog to the vet. We had something else come up and she offered to take the dog to the vet for us. Then she heard me trying to book someone to organise our garage and she said she could do it.

She cleans, irons, occassionally walks the dogs or takes them to the vet, feeds our animals and gives them medication, does a little bit of weeding, does some light DIY like changing lightbulbs and building furniture, wraps gifts, puts Xmas decorations up, has baked my children birthday cakes some years, will pick up anything we need from the shop etc. She just tells us to make a list and she’ll work through it. I’ve obviously always said anything that she doesn’t want to do or can’t do is fine but she’s never refused anything. 😇 I love her. 🤣

We own a drainage firm, and have lots of domestic customers who have us on a maintenance plan to come along and descale their drains, service their treatment plant, pumping station etc.

It hadn't occurred to me as a homeowner, but it's very popular!

I have my prescriptions delivered via an app, it was a game changer for me. The only one I need to collect in person now is my ADHD med as it is restricted.

I have a paid subscription to ChatGTP and it so helpful for me with the aforementioned ADHD and the executive function issues it can cause, this helps me format my ideas into something semi-comprehensible.

I'm sure there are more, I love automating things!

I have an annual chimney sweep, she's a lovely lady.
A foot man comes every couple of months to look at my sons feet, he's a wheelchair user with limited sensation in his feet so foot health is important

Yes, I'm in Brighton, Sussex; and we don't have it. I do tie food waste in a plastic bag, so it doesn't leak through to the bin.

• Supermarket deliveries
• Repeat prescription service (Pharmacy2U)
• Bins cleaned every week (alternate bins, I don't have the paper one done and the garden one is only done at the end of the season).
• Windows cleaned
• Lawns cut fortnightly from April to November
• Hedges (I have a lot) done every year (by Special Branch lol)
• When I have my car serviced and MOTd they collect it and bring it back (I pay over the phone).

A man in my neighbourhood offers a knife sharpening service a couple of times a year, it’s very handy.

@Salumthecat Overuse of decongestant sprays actually make the problem worse, you’re only meant to use them for a few days at a time.

Do some research into this, if you haven't already.

Apart from long term use of sudofed CAUSING the problems it claims to treat, there are also some scary studies coming out about the health implications of it.

Disclaimer - I dont use it so haven't looked into the legitimacy of the reports and it may be a load of scaremongering.