We Deliver: Bringing The World to Your Dorm-step

You haven’t had dinner … or started that essay due tomorrow. You’ve sweat through another bundle of gym clothes – the more to add to your aromatic heap of dirty laundry. It’s happened to the best of us; we are busy messes. What to do when you’re most longing for a personal assistant?

Enter delivery services. Rhode Island has a host of companies that will bring the stuff of life to the door of your Benefit Street apartment, Narragansett frat house or otherwise-located grimy dorm room. Delivery is a privilege – it usually costs more in bucks and carbon emissions – but if you can indulge, here are some services to help you.

For Groceries

Veggie Box, Farm Fresh RI: Get a box of locally grown veggies once per week. Okay, it’s not quite doorstep delivery – choose from 20 pick-up locations around Rhode Island, including Bryant University and Providence College campuses. (Full disclosure: This writer works for Freedom Food Farm – local veggies are awesome). Sign up at farmfreshri.org/box 

Instacart: A personal shopper from Instacart can pick up and deliver your online-selected grocery store goods from places like Whole Foods, Petco, and CVS Pharmacy – sometimes within one hour. Pretty handy if you’re starting to cook dinner and realize you forgot to buy the pasta. Sign up at instacart.com

Peapod: Peapod is a grocery delivery service created for Stop & Shop. It’s more widely available in Rhode Island than Instacart. Order online, select a delivery time and get a week’s worth of groceries in your fridge. Sign up at peapod.com

Sun Basket: If you want a box of just the right ingredients with recipes to match delivered to your door, consider a meal delivery service. Sun Basket delivers selected organic-focused meals each week in recyclable packaging for your cooking pleasure. Sign up at sunbasket.com

For Dinner

Seamless and Grubhub: Order online from these websites and get food delivered from your favorite restaurants, including Meeting Street Café, UMelt and Spike’s Junkyard Dogs. Browse at seamless.com or grubhub.com

For Alcohol

Bottles Fine Wine: Bottles delivers their large selection of liquor, wine and beer all across Rhode Island. You must spend at least $20 if you’re in Providence and $75 if you’re outside of Providence. Just have an ID handy at the door. Order at bottlesfinewine.com/delivery or download the app at drizly.com

For Laundry

Dorm Mom: They will do your laundry, whether you’re a student or a working professional who continues to hate doing laundry after college. They also offer house, apartment and dorm cleaning services. See dormmom.com

Many RI universities have specific laundry service partnerships for students. Call your student services center to see if there’s a discounted option for you.

For Other Fun Items

Knead: Doughnuts to your door between 9:30am and 3pm Monday through Friday. Good for study parties or times when you can eat seven doughnuts by yourself, as there’s a $20 order minimum. Only for Providence-folk at the moment. See kneaddoughnuts.com

Harvest Cycle: Sign up for bike-powered compost collection in Providence. Collect food scraps from your kitchen and Harvest Cycle will come twice a month to take them away. Sign up at solchariots.wixsite.com/sol-chariots-pedicab/compost-pick-up

Medical Marijuana: Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center will deliver their full menu of weed products to medical marijuana patients across Rhode Island. Deliveries occur once per week for each customer. See the menu at greenleafcare.org

Magic: If you’re actually desperate for a personal assistant, pay by the hour to get one. Text any request to the Magic team and they will help you execute it – from buying a new computer to booking a vacation in Antarctica. If you can do it, they can do it for you. See getmagic.com/how

That’s all for now, folks! Keep an eye out for other delivery apps that are still percolating in San Francisco and New York, like the convenience store delivery app GoPuff or the 24-hour condom-delivery-by-bike-messenger service L.Condoms.