Affordable Help for Small Household Jobs
If you can’t do DIY yourself, it’s good to find trustworthy local people, who can fix things at an affordable rate. Always check reviews of recent jobs:
You can usually find people to do the following:
- Furniture assembly (flat-pack nightmares solved)
- Gardening (ensure it’s pet-friendly and wildlife-friendly)
- Cleaning (choose biodegradable cleaning brands)
- Minor repairs (fixing shelves, mending fences)
- Moving help (lifting boxes, shifting furniture inside homes)
- Rubbish removal (small clear-outs or tip runs)
- Gutter cleaning (saving you a climb up the ladder)
- Nextdoor is like a local Facebook, where you can set a boundary and then local people can post online (from lost pets to DIY jobs to litter clean-ups).
- TimeBanks are run by communities. Each person gives an hour of time to offer a skill or service (such as DIY). Then you can ‘buy’ other services with the hours earned.
Age UK offers a handyman service, just enter your postcode to find trustworthy affordable people to help with:
- Putting up curtain rails, shelves & pictures
- Fixing smoke & carbon dioxide alarms
- Fixing grab rails
- Fixing door/window locks & chains/viewers
- Installing radiator boosters & draught excluders
- Installing energy-efficient lightbulbs.
Adapt My Home is an online free self-assessment tool. If you qualify, you may be eligible for grants to help with:
- Ramps, stairlifts & floor lifts
- Ceiling track hoists & wider doors
- Walk-in showers & accessible toilets
- Accessible kitchen facilities & lower tables
- Improved heating & accessible controls
- Safety features & security lights
Extra Help (for little jobs and walking dogs!)
Extra Help is a nationwide franchise, where people help older people with little household jobs, and other things like walking dogs. It was set up by the ambassador for the British Franchise Association, and offers reference-checked staff to help also parents and anyone who needs a little extra help.
Services offered include:
- Small maintenance jobs (furniture, fixing leaky taps)
- Dog walking (read about volunteer dog walkers)
- Shopping (take a list or take you with them!)
- Providing company and ‘senior sitting’
- Helping with meal preparation
- Helping with parties (no balloons, to help turtles!)
- Transport (for appointments or outings)
- Help for homework and during school holidays
- Cleaning, tidying and ironing
- Gardening (read about pet-friendly gardens)
