Working at Homes

"Then they said, 'Oh my God what did I do?' "

Cogle takes over and often sells the mower, which otherwise would sit unused in a garage.

"It's one less thing to worry about," said Poole, 39, who is also pursuing an acting career. "It comes down to time versus money. We would rather work at the things we love or we enjoy and work into our budget the things we don't like to do or don't have time to do."

Poole's husband is managing partner of MobilTrak, which monitors radio-listening habits, and they find they have a different way of life than their parents did. Her own father, Poole said, did chores when he came home from work in the evening.

"My dad wouldn't pay to valet park. When we went to hotels, he carried the bags," she said. "Our generation is the opposite."

Robert E. Lang, director of the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech in Alexandria, looks at it this way: Houses in the suburbs have been growing larger -- Poole estimates hers is 8,000 square feet, for example -- and when they get up to 4,000 square feet, help is required.

"When you've got 4.5 bathrooms, it's amazing how many toilets break," Lang said. "It's that point where you've got nine or 10 rooms -- rooms that you forget the purpose for and you need that room cleaned."

And people aren't satisfied with sticking a shrub here and there. They want it to look like a magazine, and a professional is required.

"The larger the home," he said, "the greater the requirements."

As houses got larger, so did the work day. William Davey, a divorced father of three who lives in Springfield, spends an average of 65 hours a week working. A personal trainer comes to his house three days a week. He orders frozen prepared meals from the Schwan Food Co. and groceries delivered by Peapod by Giant. Geri Gribben of Errands-On-The-Run has waited at Davey's home for repairmen. And Davey has hired a personal chef to cook meals for his children when they visit.

"I need to have time with my children," he said.

Theodore Johnson, an engineer, recently paid Colossal Concierge and Personal Assistant Services $80 to wait for a water company employee to neutralize the well water at his Manassas home.

"It's a hassle for me to come home in the middle of the day and wait for somebody who might not show up," he said.

Fairchild, the college professor, understands such sentiments. He employs a personal organizer, Elaine Kraus, who has a master's degree in library science. She was planning to return to work when her son was 2 but didn't like the hours she was offered and began a cleaning service instead.

She discovered a knack for organizing closets, and that took her to personal organizing, which she has been doing since 1995. "People come into their houses, dump the paper, and they never have time to go back and deal with it," she said. "We're overwhelmed with the paper coming into our houses. My clients just cannot keep ahead of it."

Fairchild said Kraus has become a combination counselor, interior designer and confidant.

"We have three kids and two careers," he said. "She has organized our kitchen, she's helped us deal with paper." The kids have too many toys, he said, and Kraus rotates them, keeping them fresh and useful. She's the one who takes castoffs to the Salvation Army or the trash.

Her business is a good example, he said, of excess capital finding a willing and inventive worker.

"It's a good thing," Fairchild said.