Outsourcing your life

Newsday reports:

Since the '90s, there has been a steady proliferation of businesses offering to run errands, fetch dry cleaning and prescriptions, wait at home for the phone technician or delivery person, organize garages and closets, play with the dog, shop for groceries, cook the week's meals and even provide a morning workout at home.

Such outsourcing of one segment of domestic life has paralleled the increase in two-career households -- a circumstance in which "you simultaneously get more income and traditional roles are no longer played to a certain extent," said Eric Abrahamson, a professor of management at Columbia University who, with David H. Freedman, is co-authoring "A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder. How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices and On-the-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place."

The division of labor grows and grows.