Resource optimization is becoming increasingly widespread in the 21st century and is often performed through outsourcing or dividing up various products or services. For example, why buy a car when you can use car sharing? Why install a bulky washing machine at home when you can go to a modern laundromat? In our new article, we will discuss which services in Portugal you can successfully perform using public services or outsourcing.
Why is it important?
One might ask: "Why do we need public services in Portugal?"
Here are some essential arguments:
- Saving money
After immigrating to Portugal, you will have to incur many heightened expenses. This includes not only the purchase of air tickets and the organization of the move but also visa costs, the purchase of new things, etc. It will take about 3,000 euros to purchase the most necessary furniture and electrical appliances in a rented apartment, which we wrote about in great detail in this article. If your budget is limited, then it is in your interest to optimize these costs by not buying those devices you can use as part of outsourcing.
- Simplicity and flexibility
Let's imagine you have 5-10 thousand euros to buy the necessary furniture, electrical appliances, etc. So why save in this case? If you don't need to save money, you may want to save time or your efforts.
Apartments in Portugal are rented for an average of one year, and you may have to leave your home after this time. Most likely, buying everything at once won't be the most rational decision if you don't have your own home. Yes, you can easily hire a transport company and bring your belongings to a new apartment, but expensive household appliances can be damaged when moving, and the services of loaders are pretty costly in Portugal.
In addition, you may realize that Portugal doesn't suit you in a year or two, and you want to return home or move to another country. In this regard, investing all the money in buying expensive furniture and electrical appliances at the initial stage of immigration is just unprofitable. Therefore, it is best to invest as little as possible by outsourcing many things.
- Ecology and responsible consumption
It is essential to understand your lifestyle and needs to make a knowledgeable choice when buying anything in Portugal. For example, if you drink coffee several times a day, it will be much more profitable for you to buy a coffee machine at home than to buy coffee in a cafe. This is a more convenient and economical option.
But if, for example, you live alone and use the washing machine only a few times a month, then what's the point of buying huge and expensive appliances for one wash per 2-3 weeks?
A good washing machine will cost around 600-1000 euros and needs a lot of space. Add the high cost of utilities in Portugal and think, how many decades will your investment in an expensive washing machine take to pay off?
In addition, if you are interested in environmental issues and conscious consumption, you will agree that there is no need to have a washing machine in every family. A couple of devices for the block of flats or several floors would be enough.
Outsourcing services in Portugal
Suppose you came to Portugal from a more developed country, where you could open the application at any time of the day or night and find rental cars available in a huge number within a radius of 1 kilometre from you, which you can use by paying everything in the application and opening the door with a mobile phone. Unfortunately, in that case, we want to disappoint you because progress in Portugal hasn't reached this level yet.
To give you an idea of how much Portugal lags behind other countries in terms of some services, let's say that the Uber taxi service first appeared in the country in 2013 in just a couple of large cities. And only by 2019 Uber cars begin to appear in medium-sized towns. So at the moment, there are no taxis or even Uber delivery in many small towns in the country.
Sure, in major cities like Lisbon and Porto, the situation is much better in terms of public services and innovation than in other parts of the country. For example, you can rent bicycles and scooters, car sharing, and many other benefits, so if it is essential for you to live in a place that has been most affected by progress in this area, then I would recommend these 2 cities.
In this article, we won't talk about specific services that operate only in Lisbon or Porto, but we will talk about those services that you can outsource in any city in Portugal.
Public laundries
The first and probably the most popular public service in the country is self-service laundromats, which are called "Lavandaria Self-Service" or just "Lavandaria" (from the port. "Laundry") in Portugal.
Feel free to navigate the above expressions in Portuguese into Google maps, and you will see that a massive number of laundromats are located within a radius of 1-2 kilometres from you.
You may also be surprised by how comfortable, clean and beautiful some laundromats are. You can see an example of such a place in the picture below.
All laundries have 2 types of machines:
- Machines marked "Lavar" (port. "wash") are ordinary washing machines;
- Machines marked "Secar" (port. "to dry") are machines for drying clothes.
So your clothes can not only be washed but also dried.
Many laundries are located inside supermarkets or shopping centers, which is even more convenient because you can put clothes there and shop at this time.
Some laundries are located right in the parking lots in front of the supermarket. For example, they include the REVOLUTION laundry chain, and an example of it you can see in the picture below.
In this picture, you can also see a specific example of prices - washing of 8 kg of laundry costs 4 euros and drying - costs 2. In most laundries, washing powder is included, and the machine will add it to your wash. Some laundries charge extra money for washing powder, but this information will be listed directly at the place where you go to wash your laundry.
From my personal experience, I will say the following: the washing process works just fine; I load clothes, choose the temperature, pay around 4 euros with coins or a card, and I have 30-40 minutes to shop in the supermarket while things are being washed.
But concerning drying, I don’t have a particularly positive experience because it is not clear how long it takes to dry clothes until completely dry. Once I loaded clothes for an hour (for that whole hour, I was just walking around in the store), and they were still wet, so I don’t see the point in this.
I dry my clothes at home with a dehumidifier, I wrote about this critical device here in this article, and overnight it completely dries all the washed clothes. Very convenient, and you don't need to spend several hours sitting in the laundry.
Services for printing papers
If you are a freelancer and work from home, you may need to print some documents from time to time.
It is hardly worth buying an expensive printer, cartridges, etc., because you can print papers at any kiosk or stationery store called "Papelaria". You can type this word in Google maps to see how many of these places are near you.
There are such stores in all cities of Portugal. There are also chain stores (for example, the STAPLES chain or the Note! chain, which is located next to the Continente supermarkets). A huge concentration of such stores with stationery can be observed near schools and universities. You can print, scan or photocopy papers in such places.
You can also use online services if you don't want to leave the house and don't need a printed document urgently. For example, this one or this one, although many private companies can be found on Google for "Imprimir online" ("print online"). Each company has its prices and delivery terms, so check the conditions on a specific website.
For example, you can look at the prices for black and white printing in STAPLES stores, where 1 page costs around 0.130 euros.
Car wash
There are a lot of self-service car washes in Portugal, for example, the Elefanteazul chain, whose car wash you can see in the picture below. In addition, you can search the maps for "Lavagem Automóvel Self-Service" to find businesses near you.
You must wash and vacuum your car in such self-service car washes, paying for the time by the minute.
Honestly, I have never used such a service because I always offered this task to “outsourcing”, to which I dedicated this article.
There are small garages at many gas stations in the country where they provide car washing services. For example, in the north of the country, to wash the car inside and out, as well as vacuum the interior, you need to pay around 8 euros in 2022. Very democratic price for an hour of quality work of car wash employees.
Sure, not all car washes provide quality service, so you will most likely have to visit several establishments to find high-quality service, but just know that there are a lot of such car washes in the country, and they are inexpensive.
Other public services in Portugal
Sure, there are many more services that can be outsourced in Portugal, as we have listed only the most popular of them above.
You can also use such services:
- Tailoring and repairing clothes (search on Google maps for the query "Arranjos de roupa" or "Costureira");
- Renting scooters (you can use this or this service, as well as search the maps for the query "Alugar Trotinete");
- Bicycle rental (you can use this service, as well as search the maps for the query "Alugar Bicicleta");
- Sports equipment rental, for example, you can rent a kayak or surfboard here;
- Renting a car in the usual way, through the offices of popular companies;
- Car sharing, for example, I found only this company in Lisbon, but there are probably many more (P.S. if you know other companies in other cities, please note in the comments).
- Cleaning the house, use popular in Portugal services of cleaning companies or private housekeepers (search for "Serviço de limpeza"). We wrote about this fact in our article about the mentality of the Portuguese. On average, they charge about 9 euros per hour for cleaning in the country, and the quality will depend on the individual. You may need to invite several housekeepers to find the one that suits you in all respects.
As you can see, Portugal has a lot of public facilities and services that can help you save money and time. Yes, perhaps this area in the country is 10 or even 20 years behind the more developed European countries, but many household tasks can be outsourced in Portugal in 2022.
Do you know other similar services that can make life easier for immigrants in Portugal? Be sure to note this in the comments, and we can make the complete picture together.
