No job too small - do they mean it in practice?

Curtains came off the rail, £10 to reinstate. Seemed like a good deal to me.

You will need to ask when you call them, try to get all of your small jobs together so that they will spend an hour doing it as most charge by the hour.

Our council has a department for these type of small jobs.My late MIL had lots of wee thngs done over the past few years ,might be worth seeing if your local council has a service like this for the more mature or physically disabled.

It’s hard enough getting someone for massive jobs, substantial jobs, big jobs; any bl**dy jobs around here.
If Brad Pitt knocked on my door I’d give him a list of jobs to do, rather than spend an hour just gazing at him!

Oopsadaisy1

You will need to ask when you call them, try to get all of your small jobs together so that they will spend an hour doing it as most charge by the hour.

This is what I do. I use a guy who works locally as a Handyman and I save up small jobs for him, he gives me a fixed price before he starts together with an invoice. He did pop round to hang some new pictures for me as a one off and charged £30 for about an hours work - but he had not long finished decorating every room in my house so I think it was a special rate!

My experience getting someone to do some relaying of patio slabs was not so good, two people gave me very inflated prices as I don’t think they wanted such a small job. The one who I decided on did a good job for a fair price but it took me six months to tie him down to a date as he was fitting me in between bigger jobs.

It really is a gap in the market. It would be the perfect opportunity for someone to recruit people who are retired/unemployed/students with basic skills (leaving skilled work to qualified people) and match them to those who need them at a fixed rate. There could be a minimum charge of about £20 to make the travel worthwhile, and people could 'save up' tiny jobs if necessary, so they get their money's worth.

There could even be a subscription option, so that for, say, £5 a month you get two small call-outs a year, so people could keep on top of running repairs, with a discount on bigger jobs for subscribers.

If workers were checked and vetted, it would give customers peace of mind, and it could be good for active retired people to earn a bit of money and feel useful.

Doodledog I think you have a marvellous and highly workable business idea.

Age UK have a 'handyperson' service in many parts of the country. An elderly friend of mine has found it helpful. I doubt anyone would come out to scatter a packet of seeds in the garden though. That seems rather extreme.

In our village, there is a handyman that charges £30 per hour, that is the minimum charge otherwise it is not worth his while. He will do as many small jobs that fit in that hour.

Doodledog that is what they call a million $ idea!
If you have a day job, give it up immediately and get this service up and running! You’ll be retiring to the Bahamas before you know where you are! ? ? ☀️

My council has a 'handyman' service too - for about £20, I believe. I may have to make use of it soon, for hanging curtains (the windows are huge) changing lightbulbs - and fixing things (I'll write a list). Things I've always done, like painting ceilings, seem a bit too much lately, so it's time to find reliable tradespeople!

The local handyman here charges by the hour and so it's a good idea, as others have said, to save up your small jobs. At the beginning of this year I had 2 roller blinds put up (one in a very awkward position over a steep stairwell) and he charged me a very reasonable £45. He's coming back next week to secure my rotary clothes line into a concrete base in the garden (it's too wobbly just in the lawn) and has again quoted £45 including the concrete. All work is guaranteed too.

Doodledog, my children used to cut the lawn, clear the weeds and sweep the paths/drives for a neighbour - in exchange for a nice swim in their pool!

I once had (supposedly) just such a man round for some small jobs in an admittedly still grotty-looking flat we were renovating.

He took one look, made a face, said, ‘I’m better than this!’ and scarpered!

We have one called Local Treasures, usually people over 50, retired or p/t workers, think they charge about £16 p/h. Very good.

Doodledog

It really is a gap in the market. It would be the perfect opportunity for someone to recruit people who are retired/unemployed/students with basic skills (leaving skilled work to qualified people) and match them to those who need them at a fixed rate. There could be a minimum charge of about £20 to make the travel worthwhile, and people could 'save up' tiny jobs if necessary, so they get their money's worth.

There could even be a subscription option, so that for, say, £5 a month you get two small call-outs a year, so people could keep on top of running repairs, with a discount on bigger jobs for subscribers.

If workers were checked and vetted, it would give customers peace of mind, and it could be good for active retired people to earn a bit of money and feel useful.

That's a great idea. We have very high ceilings and there's no way we could ever change a lightbulb.
I would be happy to pay £20 to someone I could call out to do small jobs.

That’s a good idea Doodle and made me think if anyone who goes to ‘Mens Shed’ would do jobs like that.

We have found a handyman recommended by our neighbour, so consider ourselves lucky. I thought I would use the local village tradesmen for washing machine repairs, annual boiler service etc, but soon found that no-one wanted these jobs. They prefer to work on bigger jobs like installing bathrooms etc. After this experience I decided to reinstate my washing machine insurance to cover breakdowns and also pay insurance to cover my annual boiler service and repairs. At least I have peace of mind if anything breaks down.