Bright Ideas: On Demand Service Apps Making Your Life Almost Too Easy
Apps are no longer just time suckers to fiddle with when you want to hide from real life by burying your face in your smart phone. As a matter of fact, there's a whole slew of apps that serve the exact opposite purpose: making your life easier and saving you time! With the advent of these handy, newfangled business models, you can "run" pretty much any errand, without doing any running at all. This is especially helpful for those of us who dwell in metropolitan cities, where simple tasks can become horribly complicated by traffic, parking and myriad other mobility woes of densely populated areas. Take a look at some of the best new apps you'll find in your app store that are rapidly expanding to help eliminate the stress of the day to day and keep your life running like a well oiled machine! 
Flowers are a timeless gift that can brighten even the most somber days. From birthdays to condolences, there's no gift that can convey quite as wide an array of sentiments. Send the most stylish seasonal flowers on the market with the Bloom That app. Bloom That offers its customers privileges traditional companies fall short on, including cutting down on selection time by presenting a limited selection of carefully curated blooms, tailored to elevated taste levels. The flowers you will choose from are nearly always sourced local/domestic, come tastefully wrapped in burlap and won't require your recipient to wait around for an 8-hour deliver window. 
We love our furry K-9 friends like we love our children, but walking the dog is the last thing any professional wants to think about during a busy day. With pets being left alone for extended hours on end, accidents are bound to happen; much to the chagrin of dog owners and landlords, alike. Alleviate Fido's bladder as well as the worry over your pet's day-long loneliness with Wag, the app that offers on demand dog walking services. Traditional dog walkers have been in play for quite some time, but Wag enhances the consumer's experience by taking your pet on a walk that you can track in real-time on your smart phone. You'll even get a report, straight from the dog-walker afterward!
Skip the laundromat and forget about standing in line at the dry cleaners. Washio is the nation's leading on-demand laundry and dry cleaning app, serving thousands of customers from coast to coast. Since launching in Los Angeles in 2013, Washio has expanded to now serve LA, San Francisco, Oakland, Boston, Chicago and Washington DC, with more cities coming soon. Washio counts Hollywood techies like Ashton Kutcher, Nas, Scooter Braun and Calvin Harris as investors as well as Silicon Valley venture capitalists. Washio recently launched the Washio Now! service, which provides truly on-demand pick-up service in as fast as 10 minutes and with 24-hour turnaround.
The days of circling the block looking for a parking spot are officially over. Now, you can employ Luxe Valet, a multi-faceted app that saves time and money by hiring a personal valet to park your car and then return it to you when you are ready to be on your way. CEO Curtis Lee says, "In addition to the time saving convenience, customers use us for safety purposes (not parking in a dark lot at night), for their children (hauling strollers and since Uber doesn't take baby seats) and for our additional services (wash your car, oil change, gas fillups, etc)." Skipping the parking garage, the gas station, the car wash and the mechanic all in on fell swoop? It looks like a few Saturdays just freed up on your calendar! 
It's time to make good on your New Year's resolution to work out and fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately), that just got a whole lot easier! Vint is an app that allows you to summon a personal trainer to come work you out, whenever and wherever. Customers can have a trainer meet them in their desired setting, such as gyms, parks, trails and studios, so workouts are convenient and fit the individual's lifestyle. Service is currently available in San Francisco, CA and recently expanded to Oakland the East Bay. Stay tuned for Vint to hit a market near you!
Anyone who has ever been to the post office around the holidays knows the horror of walking through the door, only to be ushered to the back of a line of folks waiting their turn to face a disgruntled employee. If you've ever experienced this, then you know it's an ordeal that can potentially kill an hour or more of your day and even kill your mood. Shyp makes you a promise, as boasted in the tagline, that you'll "Never go to the Post Office Again". Great! Simply take a photo of what needs shipped, input the destination address and within 20 minutes a courier will arrive to pick the item up. From there, it will be taken to their offsite packing and shipping facility where it will be custom boxed and shipped. All of this for just $5, plus the cost of shipping, which is price compared between all of the major carriers to ensure that you pay the lowest retail rate possible. 
It's 5 o'clock somewhere! Los Angeles and San Francisco are the first cities with access to Saucey, the on-demand alcohol platform that handles everything from download to delivery. A friendly, trained driver will promptly arrive at your door with your order. Saucey launched last May and now provides provides beer, wine, cocktails, and even bartenders. Prices are so competitive that some Saucey items are cheaper for them to be delivered than purchased at the corner liquor store. Added bonus: Former Jonas Brother boy-bander Nick Jonas is an investor and has been known to surprise customers by delivering their orders!
Non-App Honorable Mention:
Blue Apron isn't your average grocery delivery service. They've taken it a step further, making delicious home cooking easy and accessible by providing perfect recipe-specific portions of the highest quality ingredients. They are re-working the grocery supply chain by optioning farm-to-table goods and incorporating delicious seasonal items that are locally sourced. Step-by-step instructions (with photos!) ensure that customers are able to create the thoughtful recipes with no stress. Blue Apron is now delivering a whopping 2 million meals per month to subscribers across the country. The kicker? Ingredients are nearly 60% cheaper than trying to recreate the recipes with ingredients from local grocery stores. 
Original story found on FORBES by Sarah Boyd.