A personal assistant service assists you in managing your personal or professional life. An associate is available to take care of your endless to-do list, act as a liaison with vendors, oversee work done on your home, run those time-consuming errands, and handle all of the other tasks that you never seem to have enough time to do.
Potomac Concierge associates are available to assist you with your everyday tasks, as well as the out-of-the-ordinary tasks. Our corporate clients will find our services improve productivity and employee morale. The possibilities are unlimited.
When you schedule organization services in Washington, DC, Maryland, or Northern Virginia, our professional organizers will create completely customized solutions based on your needs and preferences.
Your home, office, or life! We will create exceptional professional organization solutions created specifically for you and your family. We have even organized a car!
All of our competent associates are committed to delivering high-end services with integrity, respect, and complete confidentiality. We are well known in Washington, DC and the surrounding areas for being non-judgmental and discreet. You will never see before and after pictures of your home on our website.
After we meet with you to discuss your project and develop a plan, you do not have to be present in the home in order for our professionals to effectively organize your belongings.
Your satisfaction is our top priority, and we will not pressure you to do anything you do not want to do. It can be hard saying good-bye to your things, but we’re big believers in the power of home organization and decluttering. Letting go of the items that no longer serve you is an empowering shift and important step. If your project feels intimidating or overwhelming, don’t hesitate to call in for professional help. Sometimes outside support is all you need in order to make lasting positive change.
We would meet with you to discuss the project and develop a plan. Once we understand the flow in your home, what you need accessible, and what you use frequently vs. occasionally, we can set up a system to organize and maintain order. After evaluating your space and lifestyle, we will create a personalized home organization system that will keep clutter out of your life. As a part of our decluttering service, our home organizers will help you decide what to keep, sell, donate, and discard. Once your personalized organization plan is complete, things should fall smoothly into place, and we are always available for scheduled maintenance visits.
Our team of experts is here to help coordinate all your donation and recycling needs. We know who takes what, who picks up from your home and who doesn’t, the fees involved, the prep work required, the best haul-away service providers, and the lead times that need to be built into your schedule.
If you want to sell a house quickly and get your asking price, consider professional staging. This might include rearranging and/or replacing furniture, artwork, bed linens, towels, and more. It sometimes involves modifications to enhance curb appeal, such as driveway repaving or new clay pots at the front door.
Everyone perceives a staged home in a better light: buyers see a move-in ready home and can better imagine their belongings there; building inspectors view it as well cared for; and appraisers may subconsciously attach a higher value to a home that shows well. HUD claims that staged homes sell for up to 17% more than their non-staged counterparts and the National Board of Realtors claims that 93% of staged homes sell within 33-42 days. Get a showcase price for your home, not a fixer upper one. We are happy and able to coordinate with realtors and stagers on your behalf to create the optimal showing.
When you arrive at your new home, your Potomac Concierge move management team can assist with unpacking your belongings. We go far beyond what you might expect of an unpacking service: we organize your belongings as we put them away, ensuring that their placement is optimally functional for your home. If you have engaged in our pre-move management services, this process is seamless as we will have already discussed where your belongings will go. With our help, you can enjoy an unpacked and organized home soon after you move in. You can expect to have your slippers at hand and coffee ready your first morning at your new home.
Of course! We are delighted to be a part of a team that helps make your home a home.
Moving can seem overwhelming. Packing and decluttering takes time—time you don’t necessarily have. Our move management services will take the pre-move process off your hands, letting you pay more attention to other aspects of your life. Our moving concierge can manage the packing process or coordinate your entire move—your services will be customized based on your needs. Our white-glove move management company has experience with local, national, and international moving, and there are no details we leave untouched.
We accept personal checks, certified checks, online bill payment, and credit cards (MasterCard, Visa, and American Express).
No, we will only charge your credit card if we receive your authorization to make a purchase on your behalf or process an invoice.
We have found that pay-as-you-go works well. Typically, when we start, a client has many needs that we take care of, and then we go into “maintenance mode.” Also, different people have different times of need. Thus, we charge for time spent and do not require monthly fees or memberships.
No, the client is responsible for paying all additional charges on top of the hourly rate.
Potomac Concierge will provide a detailed invoice of all charges. We will do our best to estimate any additional charges that may be required.
Potomac Concierge prides itself on our communication skills. We are extremely fortunate to have a wonderful client base who are generous with their praise and feedback, which is the best compliment and gauge of job performance.
While a client might not always be right, our policy is that they are never wrong. We do not consider a job complete until the client is satisfied.
Potomac Concierge works in teams of two. We select the lead concierge according to your needs, location, and relevant experience of our staff, and they have the backup of another associate. This ensures that someone familiar with your account is always available to help you if your lead person has a scheduling conflict. Owners Aida Middel and Libby Kinkead are always kept up to date to step in if necessary.
Yes, after decades of living in the metropolitan area, we have a number of trusted, vetted vendors on whom we rely.
Yes, we will ensure the work performed meets our mutually high standards.
We can communicate via phone, fax, text, email, and Google Sheets or Google Docs; however, we encourage email or written instructions.
Potomac Concierge is a local company with owners that are established in the community. We perform background checks and have a thorough vetting process. Additionally, we have a long-standing relationship with most of our staff. Your assigned associate will always be there to oversee any work performed by others.
We will do everything we can to assist, including facilitating at-home medical services like hearing tests, nurse’s aide visits, and podiatrist appointments provided by our trusted providers. We can also help with home maintenance tasks such as paying bills, scheduling HVAC tune-ups, keeping records of warranties and serial numbers, and more to ensure that your relative is taken care of.
Potomac Concierge was founded in 2005 by two women who realized that the demands of a career, family, and personal needs can be overwhelming. With their staff of specialists, they enjoy helping others find a balance in their lives.
No, we service the Greater Washington Metropolitan Area, including DC, Chevy Chase, McLean, Great Falls, and beyond. We will consider jobs that are out of the area on a case-by-case basis.
Absolutely!
No, we are responsible professionals and all dealings will be kept confidential. All associates sign confidentiality agreements.
Yes, we are still here to help ease your burden. We have implemented extended measures to further ensure the health and safety of our team and clients. Each job is reviewed thoroughly and a custom-made implementation plan is devised to address your family’s needs and priorities. If you are looking for peace of mind with your next home project during the pandemic, contact us.
Currently, we are executing many of our services virtually using technologies such as Zoom, Facetime, Dropbox, and more when we are able to. We strongly recommend virtual meetings but are able to make accommodations when this is not possible. During all in-person client appointments, members of our team will be wearing a mask and maintaining six feet of distance at all times, washing their hands frequently, and using alcohol-based sanitizer before entering your home. We will assess our health daily and cancel any upcoming appointments if we are exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms or have come into contact with a known COVID-19 case.
No, there will be no fee for last-minute appointment changes due to this illness.
Potomac Concierge has successfully completed the COVID-19 certificate course in Prevention and Safety Excellence for the National Association of Senior Move Managers.
Requests can be communicated through email, phone call, or a Google Doc or Sheet with an ongoing list. It’s simple! You add tasks, we take care of it and let you know when it’s completed via the communication channel you prefer.
There is no membership fee when you work with us. Billing is by the hour. There is a 2 to 3-hour minimum if your assistant is required to leave the office, then we bill by 15-minute increments. Virtual work is billed in 15-minute increments. You will always be emailed or mailed (whichever your preference) a detailed invoice every two weeks. You can pay online, by check or credit card.
At Potomac Concierge, our personal assistant team can offer:
Our personal assistant service assists you in managing your personal or professional life. An associate is available to take care of your endless to-do list, act as a liaison with vendors, oversee work done on your home, run those time-consuming errands, and handle all of the other tasks that you never seem to have enough time to do.
In choosing a good personal assistant, it’s important to look for:
When you choose Potomac Concierge, you can expect expert personal assistant services that will meet your precise needs. You need a team you can trust with all of your business and residential obligations – Potomac Concierge is the team you can count on.
Contact us online or call our team at (240) 200-4824 for experienced personal assistants.
As a general rule, you’ll want to reach out to a moving specialist about one or two weeks before your move.
We don’t recommend planning your move much earlier as circumstances could change, meaning you would have to reschedule with certain vendors. If you try to schedule your move later, you’ll risk rushing and adding excess pressure to what’s already an inherently stressful process.
Managing your move means coordinating and overseeing vendors as well as downsizing and organizing your current space to make unpacking and settling in as easy as possible.
Our move managers will work with you to inventory all your personal items, identify what needs to go, what needs to stay, what needs to be securely discarded, and label everything for easy and safe transportation to your new home.
Take the time to sit down and assess everything that is tied to your current residence before your move. As a starting point, you’ll want to transfer utilities like power, internet, and cable.
You should have your mail forwarded to your new address and prioritize updating your address for your bank, insurance, and employer. If you have other services like a newspaper delivery or the like, you should also update those.
When unpacking, it makes the most sense to retrieve and pack away items in order of importance to the day-to-day, barring situations where you need particular items earlier, such as a rug you intend to place under a piece of furniture.
Our move managers can label your boxes and help movers place them in the appropriate rooms, so you can find what you need or want quickly.
Parents often look forward to having the house to themselves when the last child finally takes off on their own. That is until they realize that the house feels empty without the kids rambling through it.
The right time to downsize will be up to you.
Many new empty nesters choose to downsize right away so they can begin to make new memories on their own. Others may choose to wait for a while, especially if the kids visit and want to stay at home.
No matter when you choose to downsize the home itself, you can choose to start eliminating items you no longer use at any time.
Downsizing is definitely worth it if you look at it in terms of your budget and the amount of work you have to put into caring for your home.
If it’s only the two of you, moving into a smaller home will save you money in many ways. Selling your larger home and purchasing a smaller one may offer you a tidy profit that you can invest in your retirement.
A smaller home will also take less money to heat/cool. There will be fewer maintenance costs as well, especially if you have a much smaller yard to take care of.
A good rule of thumb to follow when downsizing and eliminating things you no longer need is that you won’t even know that it’s gone if you haven’t used it in a year.
There will be many items you find that no longer serve a purpose. You can throw damaged or broken items in the trash. If an item is still usable, you can donate it to a charity or have a garage sale.
No matter how you choose to part with an item, it will be out of your way, and you will have much less to move when the time is right.
Organizing your closet is easy with the right process! We recommend that you:
The key to organizing your clothes is to figure out a system that works for you and your closet space. You can divide your clothes by season and then break them down by color and/or occasion.
Categorizing your clothes makes items you need easier to find, and your closet will be less cluttered.
Always try to hang your dresses and dress clothes to prevent wrinkling.
T-shirts, jeans, pants, blouses, and sweaters can be neatly folded if you have limited closet space. However, they can be hung just as easily if you don’t have dresser space.
Storing your out-of-season clothes in clear tubs is the key to easy access if you need to grab an item or two.
Depending on your closet space, you can stack them in your closet or place them underneath your bed.
The best way to declutter your closet is to:
After your initial cleanout, go through your closet every few months and repeat this process. It will be much easier after the first cleanout!
When you move a home or business, you want to transfer your utilities, internet, mail, and other services to your new home. Often, technicians give you a wide arrival window, meaning you have to leave work early or stay home all day waiting for them to arrive.
You schedule the appointments, and we will be there waiting for them. If they need any direction, we can give them precise instructions so you’ll have practically no gap in the services that make your home run like normal.
It’s easy to put off decluttering if you feel overwhelmed, but you can always start by tackling a small area.
Whether it’s your linen closet or junk drawer, start in an area where you don’t have emotional ties to your items. This will make it easier to objectively decide what to keep and what to get rid of.
You can work your way up to bigger areas, like your kitchen cabinets or garage, or belongings that hold sentimental value, like your kids’ baby clothes.
Better grocery shopping starts before you even drive to the store. Plan out your meals for the week and list items you need, then organize the list by aisle.
If you don’t want to go to the store, Potomac Concierge can do your grocery shopping. We’ll take inventory of your refrigerator, freezer, and pantry for items you’re almost out of and purchase food based on your specifications.
Having an assistant do your shopping for you will prevent unnecessary spending and free up the time you normally spend wandering the aisles.
Standby concierge services ensure that someone will be waiting at your property for utility or cable technicians to arrive to install or service equipment.
An appointment window may be one to six hours long. We wait for the technicians, so you don’t have to.
Start by identifying your top priorities and what you need to accomplish them, such as a certain amount of time or things you need from coworkers.
Potomac Concierge offers time and task management services to help you stay on top of important projects.
We can keep your office organized and handle small tasks, like scheduling appointments, and more time-intensive tasks, like creating a new file organization system.
Advanced planning and organizing are the keys to a successful estate sale. When planning for your sale, arrange the distribution of items you wish to keep among family members before you really get started.
Take an inventory of all items for your record and ease of sale. Grouping like items and displaying them in the rooms they would be used makes it easier for you and potential buyers to locate.
Research prices for similar items but be willing to negotiate if the right buyer appears, especially if they’re interested in multiple items.
Ideally, you want three to six weeks to set up an estate sale without rushing. Of course, this timeline can be crunched if you’re selling the home or otherwise need to move quickly; professional assistance can condense this timeline substantially.
Your first priority for an estate sale should be to identify what’s will be kept, gifted, donated, or discarded. From there, you can start organizing and pricing.
Pay attention to obvious big-ticket items like electronics and furniture but keep other valuable items in mind, such as:
Storing what you can digitally and minimizing the hard copies you keep at hand can go a long way toward making a filing system manageable.
For documents that you need hard copies of, a simple alphabetical filing system that is first sorted by category works better than anything else. You’ll never have to try to remember how you decided to file a particular piece of information away if all information is filed the same way.
All employees in a shared office need to contribute to a better-organized space for the best results. The goal should be to minimize distraction and frustration points as much as possible. That includes:
Handle what you can online for simplicity and set up automatic payments. Keep all other bills in one location, prioritizing those due soonest.
Set aside time every week on your calendar instead of managing bills daily or monthly. With this method, you can:
Maximizing productivity is about knowing your goals and minimizing impediments to effective workflows. Look for ways to streamline processes and prioritize your workload:
Every home remodeling project is different. Once we have our first meeting with you, we will be able to determine an accurate timeline for your home remodel project. At Potomac Concierge, we take the stress out of the equation, ensuring everything is finished in a timely fashion.
This process includes:
Potomac Concierge has many resources and can find contractors for you. They can find licensed and certified contractors for:
Yes, our team of professionals will clean and organize your home office, as well as your kitchen, pantry, appliances, and many other areas as well. We can also clean a variety of items that can be overlooked, like fish tanks and pet areas.
Disaster damage can take many forms ranging from broken windows to water damage. Our team of experts can make the necessary steps toward hiring and scheduling repair and help restore your home. We will also hire tree removal experts and generator maintenance specialists if necessary.
We hire professional movers skilled at packing, moving, and storing valuable items. All our contractors are fully insured and bonded to protect your valuables. When it comes to specific types of valuables, like fine pieces of art or antiques, we will make sure there are contractors on hand who specialize in the kind of items you have.
When organizing your home, we make the job look easy. Combining two households into one means a lot of duplicate items and possibly the need for a storage space until the items can be sold or otherwise removed.
Having a baby is a beautiful experience that you should be able to enjoy fully. A personal assistant from Potomac Concierge can take care of many household tasks that will allow you to get the rest you need as you recover from your child’s birth.
We can:
Many people are giving up their office space and working from home. Working remotely allows people to remain close to their families and, at the same time, take care of their work obligations as well. Our team of office organizers can help you maximize the potential of your workspace to ensure it is fully functional and able to meet your needs.
Even if you take a few days off, your business will still have to remain open. At Potomac Concierge, we have professional business managers who can take care of the daily operations of your business. They can ensure everything runs smoothly until you make it home from vacation.
Decluttering and cleaning are two different things. While cleaning removes dirt, dust, and other visible debris from your home or space, decluttering focuses more on organizing and deciding what to keep or give away.
An excellent start is by identifying and prioritizing the items in your kitchen. Take inventory of your items and consider whether they are genuinely needed or used regularly. For example, you can begin by considering giving away or tossing electrical appliances like coffee makers, slow cookers, or air fryers that have not been used in a while.
Consider enlisting the help of family members, friends, or professional services if needed; this is especially true if any items and appliances are challenging or heavy to move out.
When decluttering sentimental items, the key is to be as objective as possible. Ask yourself how much value is in that item. For example, is it something you might want to pass on to future generations? Can it be repurposed in some way? Is there a more functional alternative that would better suit your needs?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you may choose to keep the item; otherwise, consider donating or throwing it out. Remember that decluttering isn’t about getting rid of everything that’s not “perfect”; instead, the goal is to create more space and less clutter in your life.