Have Allen key, will travel Freelance furniture assembler just one of many services available on TaskRabbit By: Gabrielle Piché Posted: 7:00 PM CST Monday, Jan. 3, 2022

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/01/2022 (1087 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In a time where home renovation is booming — hello, new gyms and workspaces — some have been searching for a set of hands to assemble furniture.

Maybe the picture instructions seem indecipherable. Maybe there’s no time to figure out that six-piece wardrobe.

That’s where people like Raini Bowers step in.

Bowers, 29, flits from house to house, constructing bookcases, bed frames and whatever his client needs. He’s mastered IKEA, Jysk and Wayfair products, timing himself to see how long a job takes.

“I’ve actually really come to enjoy it,” Bowers said.

He’s new to freelance furniture assembly. He’s a welder by trade and builds tools for a motorcoach manufacturer as a full-time job.

But, when the pandemic hit, he received temporary layoffs “here and there” where he’d be unemployed for weeks at a time.

He searched for a part-time position to help cover monthly expenses like rent. An advertisement for TaskRabbit popped up on Kijiji.

“I didn’t really think anything of it — I just thought it was interesting, so I applied,” Bowers said.

On TaskRabbit, approved freelancers offer day-to-day services, like cleaning, yard maintenance, assistance with moving, closet organization, running errands and, of course, furniture building.

Bowers underwent a criminal record check and soon found himself driving around Winnipeg with a tool set and booked calendar.

“Everyone respected the mask mandates and social distancing,” he said.

However, some customers pulled him in to tricky situations: in one instance, a loft bed above a desk and attached wardrobe was a pile of parts on the floor with no instructions.

“I basically just had to work from there,” Bowers said, adding he solved it — but the job took another part-day to finish, which wasn’t expected by either party.

TaskRabbit marked its Canadian launch in September of 2018 and began Manitoba operations in August of 2020. It wouldn’t provide its number of active “taskers” but said the amount jumped about 50 per cent nationally in 2021 compared to 2020.

Across Canada, TaskRabbit saw a 46 per cent spike in people requesting furniture assembly, which 58 per cent of Winnipeg’s taskers offer.

“Being confined at home encouraged people to begin looking at all of the home projects they had been putting off,” a TaskRabbit spokesperson wrote in a statement. “As COVID restrictions began to lift, Canadian clients have been eager to request tasker help.”

Although Bowers is back to full-time hours at work, he doesn’t plan to quit his side hustle.

“It’s nice to see, when you finish (a project), you can see the appreciation and how much (people) enjoy it,” he said. “I’ll definitely be sticking around.”

Even if it means booking his evenings and weekends. He takes about three to four gigs on average each week — which can include grocery runs and snow removal — and if he feels burnt out, he closes off his availability for a while.

The flexibility is partially what drew Lisa Rey, 29, to the website.

“I needed a job where if my boys were sick, I could just stay home,” the former educational assistant said.

Rey grew up on a farm in Treherne, Man., where she fixed machinery parts and did chores. She’s put those skills to use as a nearly full-time tasker, devoting most of her days to cleaning and snow removal.

She’s arrived at many dirty apartments with residents anxiously awaiting visits from their mothers.

“It’s been a lot of fun,” Rey said, adding she’s met folks from around the world and at different walks of life.

Taskers set their own rates. Rey typically charges $25 to $30 an hour, which is less than most cleaners, she said. She has also assembled furniture and helped clients purge their homes.

“It’s something new and different every day… it’s helped me to not be bored.” – Lisa Rey, tasker

“It’s something new and different every day,” she said. “It’s helped me to not be bored.”

This isn’t a long-term career for Rey. It’s kept her busy — she completed 70 jobs from July through November — but it’s a pandemic-era thing.

“Until my kids can start going to school with colds again, I think I have to be able to stay home pretty easy,” she said.

TaskRabbit’s year-over-year revenue skyrocketed 65 per cent globally, according to a spokesperson. They didn’t disclose the company’s profits. Earnings by Canadian freelancers on the site jumped 53 per cent, the spokesperson wrote.

Clients can rate freelancers on the website once a job is completed. The service is also available in Canadian cities like Vancouver and Toronto, in the United States and some European countries.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com