Scrub my tub? Bids now open

Have domestic chores turned your life into drudgery? A new Web site has a solution: Outsource them.

The Web site, www.domystuff.com, allows people to auction off chores and other tasks.

"It solves two problems: 'don't have enough free time in my life,' and 'don't make enough money,' " says Darren Berkovitz, 23, a Californian who launched domystuff.com two months ago with three partners, all in their 20s.

Tasks are posted on the site by "employers" and bid on by "assistants." Anyone looking for help can limit bidding to those who live near their town or city. There is also a "global" section for jobs such as Web marketing or computer programming. Feedback similar to that on eBay, where possessions are sold, is posted by the employer about the assistant's performance.

Seth Meister, of Kelowna, B.C., posted a job on domystuff.com to have almost 3,000 family photos scanned.

"I have wanted to digitalize my photos for many years now," says the 38-year-old father of two. "Obviously I'm quite wary about sending these out to a stranger, but the truth is, if I don't send them out to someone I'll never do it myself."

Twelve people applied for the job, Meister says, and the average bid was about $750. Meister can choose any of the bidders or none.

Domystuff.com has impressed such experts as Ina Steiner, editor of AuctionBytes.com, a trade publication for online merchants.

"I think they're on to something," Steiner says. "There are tasks you just don't want to deal with. When I look at the listings, I see I could get somebody to weed my garden and mow my lawn."

Recently, The Wall Street Journal reported on Web-savvy Americans outsourcing tasks overseas to countries such as India, where they pay rock-bottom prices for services such as having a child tutored in math over the Internet.

At domystuff.com, most of the chores posted are domestic, Berkovitz says, such as mowing lawns or doing laundry.

Some of the more interesting tasks posted from around the country include people looking for someone to "promote an all-female band" or "find me a queen-size bed" or "translate Sumburu." One employer wants "someone who cleans and knows what they're doing."

When asked if he is worried about fraud or scams on the new Web site, Berkovitz compares domystuff.com to the Yellow Pages. "Ten years ago everyone used the Yellow Pages and you could still hire someone who did a terrible job," he says.

Domystuff.com has an escrow system to hold employer fees for release to assistants after the job is completed, he says.

The site gives employers a choice of hiring any bidder. Someone might hire a college student for $8 an hour or a lawn professional for $15 an hour. The fee for domystuff.com — which ranges from 7 percent to 10 percent of the price of the job — comes out of the money paid to the assistant hired for the job, Berkovitz says.

Berkovitz says domystuff.com began when he commented to a friend, "Wouldn't it be funny if we could outsource finding me a girlfriend." (He has not posted that task — yet.)