Gothamist

A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.

Gothamist

WNYC Listen Live

Donate

Arts & Entertainment

Single Ladies In The City, Meet Your Knight In Shining Tool Belt: Rent-A-Gent's Ian Zelesko

Jen Carlson

Published Feb 1, 2012

Modified Feb 1, 2012

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

Never miss a story

Email address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .

Jen Carlson

Published Feb 1, 2012

Modified Feb 1, 2012

FacebookTwitterRedditEmail

We rely on your support to make local news available to all

Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

Zelesko at work

One of the few downsides of being a single girl in the city is when you need an extra pair of hands to help you put together that IKEA thingamajig or hang some blinds. Just the other day this author had to turn to Twitter with a desperate plea for help in hanging up a pot rack (a winged plastic wall anchor was involved, it wasn't going to be easy). On that night, Twitter was sort of like our very own "The Secret," and a friend ended up coming over to help (and voila: success!) But what if Twitter failed us? WHAT THEN? Enter: Rent-A-Gent.

34-year-old single man Ian Zelesko is offering up his services to the women of New York. He'll paint your walls, help you move, install your air conditioner... and he'll even accompany you to a couples get together if you don't want to be The Single One (which sort of starts getting into Loverboy territory). You can check out his Tumblr for some documentation of is handy work, and this week we asked Zelesko some questions about his business, which, by the way, makes no money—he works only for Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. And even though his "business" revolves around single women, working up a sweat, and alcohol, he swears it never gets physical in that way... okay, maybe just that once.

Will you also do odd jobs for men if they contact you? I have turned down jobs for guys, it's not the intent of the service. I've also had to turn down jobs for women who had husbands that rather buy a case of beer than deal with IKEA furniture. It's not meant to be cheap labor.

Will you do a job for a girl with a boyfriend? Any boyfriend or husband worth his salt should be able to do this type of work, so I would probably turn it down if he was just lazy or couldn't be bothered by physical labor. Now if the job required two sets of hands (a big move or an installment, etc) I would probably help out.

Is there any request you'll have to turn down because of lack of knowledge/tools/etc? As you'll see from the blog, I've done a flat screen mount on a wall so that's fairly involved (that was a two man job so i brought a friend of mine). I generally won't mess around with electricity jobs, I am not that experienced and I don't want to short out an apartment building or anything. It's mostly assembly, moving, drilling, hanging, painting, driving rented vans, etc. I am by no means a contractor or anything, I am just crafty enough for most jobs in NYC.

What prompted you to start this? This all started when I helped some friends out with some jobs and they would take me out for beer as thanks. During one beer session we realized there are most likely a lot of women in NYC that need something like this. The insight was genius, so we decided, let's do it and see what happens. I work in advertising and love experimenting to see what takes off and what doesn't. It kind of took off a bit when i launched it and made some rounds on Twitter and Tumblr, but it never really seeded it beyond that, it was all word of mouth. The main issue to overcome is how to get people to feel comfortable employing me given all the sketchiness on Craigslist (enter the blog with the photos and the testimonials). There's a certain level of comfort and humor seeing all the jobs on the blog. I would say a majority of my jobs still come from some degree of friends-of-friends-of-friends.

You will eventually be flooded with requests, if you aren't already, what then? How will you choose which jobs to do? Like i said, I have a full time job and seeing as i get paid in beer I am obviously not in this for monetary reasons. For me, this is more of a fun social experiment based off a great insight. But as you can see I've had a good amount of work since the summer. If it really got going I would need to figure out how to manage/decide on the jobs or bring in some trusted/skilled friends to help out.

Tagged

handyman

Ian Zelesko

rent a gent

works for beer

Jen Carlson

Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations

MORE arts-entertainment

Ever wish you could get paid to walk through a stranger’s house? ‘The Scout’ is for you.

A new film focuses on the strange career of a location scout in New York City.

Sonia Rao

Published Sep 26, 2026

There are 100s of places to visit during Open House New York. Here's 5 of our favorites.

See the entire lineup for the weekend when the city opens its doors.

Hannah Frishberg

Arts & Entertainment

There are 100s of places to visit during Open House New York. Here's 5 of our favorites.

See the entire lineup for the weekend when the city opens its doors.

Hannah Frishberg

A massive MTA archive ended up in a Virginia warehouse. A Brooklyn man brought it home.

Hannah Frishberg

How a Harry Styles pop-up in the East Village led to a nearby bookstore owner's arrest

Sonia Rao

NYC’s creative workers are increasingly self-employed, report says

Hannah Frishberg

Never miss a story

Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.

Sign upEmail address

By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .