Feature: The Get It Done Guide's Services For Kids

Let’s face it: Life can be overwhelming. Who has the time to get the car fixed, spring clean like your grandmother, figure out how to properly install a car seat, plant a vegetable garden? Well, you can relax. All over town, pros are poised to help. We dug deep to find some of the best and most innovative personal services available. Set them to work, and all you'll have to do is cross things off that to-do list.


Baby Proofer
Even the most attentive parents can overlook potentially dangerous domestic corners where curious youngsters can wriggle their way into trouble. Owned by a pair of grandmothers, Sherri Albert and Janis Grusz, Kirkland-based Safety for Toddlers has been helping parents eliminate these threats since 1991. Their method involves room-by-room consultations identifying the hazards—such as electrical outlets and products in cabinets—and providing necessary safety products that parents can install. Safety for Toddlers 425.487.3460safety4toddlers.com; $62 for in-home consultation plus on-site visit cost, $110 –$185

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Kids’ Lunch Makers
Pressed for time (and what parent isn’t?), but still want to send a quality sack lunch to school with your kids? Fantazimo, an Edmonds-based food service, will deliver a fresh and healthy sack lunch (made by Gretchen’s Shoebox Express) to many public and private schools in the greater Seattle area. Interchangeable entrées—such as a barbecued chicken wrap and a turkey and Swiss sandwich—flanked by side dishes such as fruit cups, apple wedges or carrot sticks, are among the wide variety of menu items offered by Fantazimo. Just don’t blame them if your child still decides to trade it for a classmate’s Lunchable (some things never change). Fantazimo 866.824.9981; fantazimo.com $4.99–$5.43

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Diaper Service
Using a disposable diaper is easy—but is it good for the environment? Disposable diapers contain harmful toxins, take more than 200 years to decompose and have been linked to male infertility. Baby Diaper Service provides this info but, more importantly, it offers an alternative. For a monthly fee, the Seattle-based diaper rental service, in business since 1946, will make weekly deliveries of fresh cloth diapers to and pick up the soiled ones from your home. Baby Diaper Service 206.634.2229 seattlediaper.com From $67.67/four weeks

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College Prep Counselor
Kids—and parents—who have an eye on admission to a highly select college—turn to Robert Dannenhold, founder of Lake Union–based Collegeology for help in the application process. High school students start working with the Collegeology team early in their junior year with an advising package that includes guidance on researching colleges, visiting schools, writing college essays, completing applications and making final choices—all with an eye toward improving admission odds. Type A’s can jump-start prior to their junior year with counseling sessions that help them set academic goals, review planned classes and evaluate the best extracurricular activities or summer job opportunities.
Collegeology Lake Union, 927 N Northlake Way, Suite 300; 206.633.0443; collegeology.com
Advising package: $4,000; counseling session, $150/hour

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Child Car Seat Installer
Babies (and kids) are required to sit in car seats—but learning how to install those seats isn’t something they teach at the hospital. Oh, wait—yes, it is. Attain some peace of mind, in addition to gaining some safety, by taking a class taught by a certified child passenger safety expert at Seattle Children’s Hospital. You’ll learn the ins and outs of car seat installation—and your instructor will even help install individual seats personally. seattlechildren's Hospital 206.987.5999 seattlechildrens.org $30

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Lice Nit picker
So you’ve received the dreaded phone call from your child’s school—yes, he has head lice. Hours of nit-picking, boiling brushes and follow-up treatments will inevitably follow. If you don’t have the time (or just can’t stomach it), Nancy Gordon’s Mercer Island company, Lice Knowing You, will make a house call and, in an average of one and a half to three hours, her team will remove the lice with organic and 100 percent natural products, consult with you about how to keep the nits away and leave you with a cheat sheet of necessary information. Delousing services (vacuuming, washing sheets) are also available. Lice Knowing You206.910.3615 liceknowingyou.com $95/hour for lice removal $100/for first hour of cleaning, $75 for each additional hour (two-hour minimum)

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Originally published in March 2010

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