How to Spend It: Outsource

The biggest luxury of all? Buying more time for yourself.

Freshly Pressed 

Hate laundry? We do, too. So make it someone else’s problem—preferably Fairview’s Greater Vancouver Laundry and Linen Service, which offers seven-day-a-week on-demand pickup and drop-off within 48 hours (either neatly folded or hung and pressed). The only downside? They won’t put it all away for you. $1.50 per pound with a minimum charge of $50; vancouverlaundry.ca

Drive Time

We’ve done the math: every minute you’re behind the wheel, that’s a minute of productivity lost. With Vancouver’s notoriously terrible taxi service and no Uber relief in sight, outsourcing driving isn’t always an easy task, but new private driver start-up Kater has stepped up to fill the market gap. Use the app to pick a driver, who will arrive at your designated time to chauffeur you around in your own car. From $15 an hour, kater.com

Slice and Dice 

With myriad meal prep services jockeying for position in the market, you’ve got plentiful options to take time-sucking meal planning and grocery shopping off your plate (pun very much intended). HelloFresh, Fresh Prep, Chef’s Plate and now even local grocery hero Spud offer subscriptions for weekly delivery of portioned ingredients and recipes for you to assemble come dinnertime. Of course, if you want to save even more time by taking the 30-minute food-prep step out of the equation, there’s always the personal chef route. Meal kits from $9 per serving; personal chef services from $40 per hour plus food costs, chefseanbone.com

Style Files

St. Albert, Alta., company Frock Box ships five clothing items each month to subscribers, each hand-picked and inspired by subscribers’ personal style profiles. Pay for what you keep, return what you don’t, never face the mall again. Another option for the time-starved fashionista: Nordstrom’s personal styling experience—stylists can create custom shopping suggestions remotely, sending recommendations to your phone. Frock Box subscription from $25 per month, frockbox.ca; personal shopping, free, nordstrom.com

The Big Assist

Until science develops a way to clone oneself (hopefully by next year’s edition of this list?), Urban Rush Concierge might be the only way for you to be everywhere at once. On a sliding scale, Urban Rush will do almost everything you would just rather not—personal assistant–style tasks like picking up dry cleaning, driving your dog to appointments, wrapping gift baskets or waiting in line for the new iPhone. urbanrushconcierge.com

See more from our How to Spend It package and put your money to work with the best ways to indulge, invest, give back and outsource your life.