Going Green…trying to do our part!

With global warming, oil prices, melting ice caps and recycling headlines in our daily news, we couldn’t help but commit to finding ways that we could go green.

Cutting our consumption of gas isn’t an option but we have found a way to reduce the amount of paper and plastic consumption on our daily grocery shopping trips for clients.

We have decided to invest in reusable shopping bags that our team can use on each visit to the grocery store. We’re still offering to bag groceries in plastic or paper bags for clients who request them – for their personal use at home.

It’s a little step but we think that every step counts!

We’re interested in finding out strategies that you personally use or your company uses…how are you “going green”?

In a Rush?

In a Rush? Always feel like you’re in a hurry? Too much to do, not enough time? Most people we know would answer yes to all three of these questions. We think it’s one of the most widespread challenges of our time. This challenge is exactly the reason that we founded Fini Concierge – to provide an option for people to take advantage of, if and when they needed it, with the goal that our clients feel that they have more time and less to do.

We frequently read articles that touch on aspects of this phenomenon – too much technology, work-life balance, working parents, “having it all”, sleep deprivation, the culture of wanting it all, NOW!

I’m a firm believer that life is all about choices. The article “In a Rush? Learn to Ease Hurry Sickness” written by Maggie Jackson appearing in Sunday’s Boston Globe talks about just that…choosing to proactively combat the constant rush of life. Her article touches on the health effects that rushing has on a person. Many of us know too much about the mental and emotional effects that always trying to do too much can have, not to mention the toll on relationships with friends and families.

It’s not an easy life pattern to change but small steps can have a big impact on how you feel every day. Yoga, reading a book (for pleasure, not work!), meditation, locking your cell phone in a drawer for an hour each day or outsourcing…there are lots of choices to help slow down the pace of the internal race we’re running, even if for just a little while.

To read Maggie Jackson’s article, “In a Rush? Learn to Ease Hurry Sickness” click on the following link: “In a Rush? Learn to Ease Hurry Sickness”

What's the weirdest request you've ever gotten?

People always ask us at Fini Concierge, “What’s the weirdest request you’ve ever gotten?” We often struggle to find an answer because we honestly don’t find our client’s requests strange…for the most part they are just projects that come up in people’s everyday lives.

On the other hand, there are definitely projects that we wouldn’t have been able to imagine that we would have been tasked with.

Below is a list of the top 10 most common requested projects and a top 5 of projects that we wouldn’t have imagined.

10 Most Requested Projects:

• Dry Cleaning
• Groceries
• Car Service
• Hire home contractor i.e. plumber, electrician, handyman
• Book an airline or hotel reservation
• Organizing a room or closet
• Waiting for a home contractor i.e. cable tech, furniture deliveries, security company
• Gift ideas and purchasing i.e. birthdays, hostess, corporate gifts
• Peace of mind check in on homes while owners are out of town
• Coordinating home moves

5 Projects We Wouldn’t Have Imagined We’d Have The Chance to Work On:

• Purchasing a messenger pigeon for a client
• Meeting the top of a wedding cake that was shipped on a bus (with no passenger) and delivering it for a couple’s first wedding anniversary
• Providing player support to the Boston Lobster’s Professional Tennis Team
• Recruiting and hiring support for vacancies at client’s companies
• Leasing a car for a client