People often ask us what an Ayi actually does. The honest answer: more than you'd think, and probably exactly the thing you were dreading this week.
Every session starts with the basics. The Reset: laundry, start to finish, kitchen and living spaces cleared and wiped down. The Larder: fridge and pantry checks, meal prep, a restocking list so you're never caught out. The List: the errands and admin that keep a dozen mental tabs open. Those happen every visit, without exception.
But it's the specific, small, oddly memorable things our clients actually ask for that tell the real story. Here's a running list pulled straight from real requests:
From real clients, this week- Prepping a batch of potato salad for the weekend barbecue
- Vinted returns, packaged, labelled, and dropped at the post office
- Researching local dentists and booking the kids in
- Booking in the window cleaners
- Making cookie dough ahead of the school bake sale, rolled into a log so it's easy to slice and bake fresh
- Going through the kids' wardrobes, pulling out what doesn't fit anymore, and listing it on Vinted
- Cleaning up and selling old football boots before they're outgrown again
- Decorating the house for Christmas
- Sourcing, buying, and wrapping birthday presents
And then there's everything else that tends to pile up in a working household:
The everyday pile-up- Ironing and sorting school uniforms for the week ahead
- Picking up and dropping off dry cleaning
- Restocking the fridge and setting the table before guests arrive
- Renewing library books before the fines start
- Collecting prescriptions
- Coordinating a plumber, electrician, or handyman visit and being home for it
- Packing an overnight bag for a school trip or sleepover
- Booking the car in for its MOT or service
- Sorting the recycling and getting the bins out, every single week
- Setting up the spare room before visitors arrive
- Watering the plants and feeding the pets while you're away
If it's a task, not a feeling, chances are we can take it off your hands.
And then there's the stuff that doesn't fit neatly into a list at all: the 2am worry about the boiler service, the thing you remembered while brushing your teeth, the "I really must sort that" that's been sitting in your head for three weeks.
That's what the Home Playbook and your Running List are for. It's a shared, living document that holds everything about how your household runs: your preferences, your vendors, your routines, your gate code, how you like the laundry folded, what the kids will and won't eat. Add to it whenever something lands in your head. Your Ayi picks it up before the next session, so it's off your mind the moment you write it down.
If it lives in your brain, it's on our list.
Ayi: more time for what matters