People ask us what a personal assistant service actually does. It's a fair question; the honest answer is: more than most people expect, and occasionally things that surprise us.
Queen of To Do has been operating in Austin since 2011. In that time, we've handled all the predictable things: errands, household management, vendor coordination, event support, home organization. But we've also handled maaany things that didn't come with or in the job description. 😅
In the years Kate spent building this work largely on her own, and in the years since the team has grown, the requests have ranged. Here's a sampling of what they look like:
Personal assistant work is largely logistical, and that can get complicated fast.
We've coordinated multiple vendors to prep a home for sale, managed a full house (6,800 sq feet) pack in under three days, and handled a weekend septic system backup by remotely coordinating vendors for repairs and cleanup while our client was out of town.
We've installed luxury vinyl plank flooring, designed and installed IKEA pantry and laundry room cabinets, completed a full closet remodel in a single day including removing all clothing, pulling out existing rods and shelves, installing new ones, and putting everything back, and arranged custom glass for upper kitchen cabinets.
We've also driven a 20-foot U-Haul from Austin, TX to Vancouver, WA. We've driven two dogs to Washington, DC in a client's car. We've picked up several clients to and from the airport.
When a client dropped a (newly sharpened 😬) chef's knife on their foot, we drove them to the emergency room. When another client had a gas leak they hadn't noticed, we did.
Kate has painted several wall-size murals, a rainbow room, clouds and fairy room, Minecraft room, TMNT room, and a Harry Potter room. She's also installed wallpaper, sewed 40 matching Christmas plaid aprons (in under three weeks!), repaired a client's dog's favorite toy, untangled a significant wad of fine chain necklaces using a velvet-covered piece of foam board, straight pins, and a headlamp, and constructed a custom fish piñata (so the kids weren't beating up Nemo).
We flew to and attended a Cosplay convention to assist a client during their sessions. We dropped everything and flew to New York City to purchase a one-of-a-kind bag from Bloomingdale's Manhattan with under 12 hours' notice.
Some requests don't fit a category.
We've replanned a wedding in a different state in under 48 hours after a hurricane came through the original venue. We've stocked an entire vacation home from scratch, ordering everything to our own house first, and fully prepared it for Christmas in under 30 days from closing to family arrival, including wrapped Santa gifts and a Texas-themed welcome basket. We've managed a short-notice New Year's Eve pre-party and a birthday party two days after Thanksgiving.
We've driven across Austin to check the battery on a boat (the breaker was flipped) and driven across Austin again on a separate occasion to plug in Christmas lights when a client's mantle lighting wouldn't turn on. We've bought, washed, and delivered underwear to a hotel for a client who forgot to pack any. We've installed a cat toilet.
We've done ADHD management and support.
We've provided head lice treatment for both a person and their home. We've unstuck a garbage disposal more times than we can count.
Pro tip: the worst offenders being chicken wing bones, a cleaning rag, broken glass, eggshells, and a dime. 🙃
Oh, and we've put out a literal fire!
We're not sharing this because we think the unusual jobs are the point of what we do. Most of what Queen of To Do handles is ordinary in the best possible way: the errands that pile up, the household systems that need attention, the things that keep getting pushed to next week. That's the work that actually changes how a home feels to live in.
But the range of what's on this list reflects something true about what a long-term personal assistant relationship becomes. When someone trusts you with their home and their life over months and years, the asks get more honest. People stop editing themselves. They ask for what they actually need instead of what they think is reasonable to ask for.
That's the relationship we build. It's why we've been doing this since 2011, and why clients who've been with us for years still call us first when something comes up without an obvious solution.
Queen of To Do is a women-owned personal assistant and lifestyle concierge service based in Austin, Texas. We've been operating since 2011.