Spring Cleaning story in the Redmond Reporter

Spring has sprung! The birds are singing, the trees are blooming and oh yes, it's raining.

Our personal assistants have been busy lately with spring cleaning and home de-cluttering. A clean house is a wonderful thing.

We have been so busy in fact, that the Redmond Reporter included us in a story about de-cluttering.

"Restoring Order to Your Home", a story about spring cleaning was published on Friday, April 3rd.

"Clients request assistance with problem areas and whole house cleanings equally," said Hagen.
"We have seen our fair share of expired food in fridges, but by the time we leave, we can always see the effect that simply having a clean house, fridge, closet or storage shed has on the client. They look happier and relieved. Their inevitable response is, 'I should have done this a lot sooner.'"

She advises people to tackle the most challenging problem first and work toward the easiest.

"I am an organized person by nature," Hagen admitted. "I love sorting, categorizing and merchandising. When I walk into a project, I look around, make a game plan. ... Sometimes we start at one end of the room and make our way to the other side. Other times, we take the largest items out of the picture, which reduces the overall mental picture of the task at hand. Then the smaller stuff is easier to manage."

Click here to read the entire article.

Redmond Reporter Article on The Conciergerie

Easing your burdens: The Conciergerie helps with your daily errands
By MARY STEVENS DECKER
Redmond Reporter Wednesday, April 23, 2008

The weekend arrives. You're finally free! Free to go home and ... do the laundry, mow the lawn, fix that leaky faucet, do all those exciting chores that have been piling up. Oh, what joy.

A new Redmond business, The Conciergerie, has been created to ease your burdens. Alyssa Hagen, personal concierge/proprietor, and her assistants are available on an hourly basis to take charge of your errands, yard work, pet care, house sitting, vacation planning or pretty much anything that's bogging you down.

Hagen, who graduated from Eastlake High School and majored in English at Seattle University, was formerly an administrative assistant at Microsoft. "I was doing marketing support for a large staff," she said. Much of her job involved running errands, planning events and tying up loose ends for others.

"In October, I came off a maternity leave and decided I wanted to give more personal service to help people make more of their free time. We all have those "To Do" lists that grow and grow, especially when you have kids. If you can off load some of that to a trusted personal assistant, you can spend more time on the things that really matter," she explained.

She lives in the Redmond Ridge area and her staff members are also locals with an eclectic array of skills. Among her unusual specialists is someone who delivers singing telegrams, "whether it's singing 'Happy Birthday' to your mom, or going to your boyfriend's office to sing 'Hit the Road, Jack,' when you want to break up," she commented, laughing.

More often, however, people want help with things like organizing a closet. "One gentleman called us and said, 'I want you to do as much ironing as you can, for two hours.' He was ecstatic! He had responded to an ad that said, 'What is it you're not looking forward to on your commute home?'" Hagen said.

Another request came from a frantic student at Columbia University who was running for the office of student body president. He wanted a campaign T-shirt but didn't have time to get one made. Hagen ran over to Redmond's Ben Franklin craft store, bought a shirt, ironed something onto it and got it back to him within 24 hours. He, too, was thrilled and sent her a fan e-mail, "Keep up the stunning work, can't wait until I think of another way for The Conciergerie to make my day!"

The usual charge for The Conciergerie's services is $35 an hour, or more for rush requests. Services (8 a.m.-7 p.m., Monday-Saturday) can generally be arranged with 24 hours' notice.
E-mail alyssa@TheConciergerieSeattle.com or call (425) 788-3192.