Debating this weekend with friends at a Christmas Party if it is worth outsourcing chores around the house. For example, cleaning the house or shoveling the driveway. Should we pay someone else to do it? And is it worth it financially?
I think that it’s worth it in most cases, even when you are a salaried worker. However if you are an hourly worker, commission based, or own your own business it’s definitely worth the investment. That way you can focus on your business and increase your earnings while outsourcing for less money. This is of course making the assumption that you earn more hourly than you are paying to clean your house, shovel snow, wash your car, etc.
As the new year approaches I am again contemplating if we can afford a cleaning service. We used one in 2005 to 2006 and I adored it! It was $75/cleaning and for the 3-4 hours a week it saved me from vaccuming, cleaning bathrooms, dusting, etc. Though we are both salaried, my DH and I loved the freedom it gave us to not have to do a weekly cleaning. However, we used to have them come in during the week while we were at work and left our dog at home.
Now with two dogs, one of whom we could not leave at home while having strange people enter to clean, we’d have to pay at least $60 extra/cleaning for dog daycare. So I think around $150/cleaning + dropping the dogs off at daycare that makes the logistics a lot more painful. But I’m weakening and maybe we’ll start up again.
Do you think outsourcing is worth it? Do you outsource cleaning your house, car, etc? Or mowing/shoveling your yard? What do you pay for it?
13 responses so far ↓
1 dogatemyfinances // Dec 18, 2008 at 9:13 am
We put our dog in daycare a half-day and have the maid come once a week (total $75). We could probably scale this back to every other week. You could at least use once a month. The maid has been one of my better purchases.
2 Kristy // Dec 18, 2008 at 9:14 am
For us it is definitely worth it. I have someone come in every other week, not weekly though. We pay $80 for each visit and she is normally there for about 3 hours. She does just the basic stuff, vacuuming, dusting, bathrooms, etc. She does the baseboards and fans once a month and she will do extra (like clean the fridge) if I ask her. I love it!
3 savvy // Dec 18, 2008 at 9:18 am
Unless you’re getting paid to work 24/7, the fact that you can earn more hourly than you’re paying out is of no consequence.
We have someone come in and clean every few weeks. However, the time that I’m not spending cleaning would NOT be spent working so I’m not missing out on any income. I pay someone to clean because I’d rather use that four hours of my life doing something else.
4 Barb1954 // Dec 18, 2008 at 12:14 pm
savvy is correct. You can’t justify having someone clean your house by saying that you make more per hour than it costs to pay a cleaning service.
If one is organized, it really doesn’t take that long to clean a house. It doesn’t take that long to run a vacumn cleaner over your carpets (I swear by our Dyson “Animal”), Swiffer your wood floors, run a duster over hard surfaces, clean the kitchen and bath. I suggest checking out flylady.org for some sample routines.
As for shoveling, they usually don’t come when you want them to. If you can pay a neighbor kid to do it, okay, but otherwise most healthy adults can do it themselves. Of course, I may change my mind if the snowblower repair shop doesn’t get ours fixed ASAP. LOL!
I am really surprised that in this economic climate, with no one’s job or finances 100% secure, that you would be looking at ways to spend more money rather than ways to economize.
5 Angie // Dec 18, 2008 at 1:58 pm
I have never even considered hiring someone to clean. My husband and I both work, plus I run a part time freelance business from my home. I can still manage a few hours a week to clean my house, however. It doesn’t really take a lot. That being said, cleaning is one thing I do enjoy doing most of the time (except dishes – no dishwasher) and I don’t think I would trust someone else to come into my home and clean it.
I agree with Barb1954, I am really surprised that with this economic climate, people would be opting to pay others to do things they can do themselves.
6 savvy // Dec 18, 2008 at 3:40 pm
When it comes to unpleasant tasks, I value my free time more than I value money. You can always make more money but you can’t make more time.
7 LAL // Dec 18, 2008 at 4:17 pm
I won’t pay someone to shovel, it’s my exercise. But many other people will. I’m surprised! That and people have snowblowers! Granted because we have 3 healthy adults shoveling it’s A LOT faster than average. We shovel about 3x as quickly because we’re in decent shape all 3 of us and we have 3 shovels. But I can understand why someone in poor health, elderly would pay people. Our neighbors pay because they aren’t in shape (although it might help them get into better shape). It’s exhausting, and I’m expecting 12″+ tomorrow so that’ll be my arm exercises and back.
As for cleaning, I’m not sure. I haven’t decided anything, we’ve spent 2 years not spending the money. We’ve been pretty conscious about our spending and have definitely curbed it since prices of heating, food, gas all went up.
I doubt we’ll make any decision before mid-year. But it’s thoughts depending on how things work out. Lots can happen in the next 6 months.
My DH doesn’t clean anymore period. ZERO. I do it all. So it would be nice to have some help but he hasn’t got the time. Trust me, when he finishes his mba and we have extra money I’m definitely going to hire help. That extra $1k/month, yes can be used for savings but it can also be used for living.
8 Debtfree2009 // Dec 18, 2008 at 8:05 pm
I’m a SAHM so I ususally handle the housework. But we pay someone to do the yardwork. I live in the south so in the summer we have grass to cut and in the fall and winter we have leaves to rake. I pay $80 per month and the yard is cleaned twice. I would give up a lot of things before I give up my yard service.
9 fengshui // Dec 18, 2008 at 11:15 pm
I’ve been thinking about this A LOT lately. It is just my DH and I (plus 2 dogs and 2 cats) and I CAN’T KEEP UP. Every time I turn around there is a PILE of dishes in the sink, the bathroom is filthy, laundry EVERYWHERE, dust bunnies all over the hardwoods, you name it. My DH will load and unload the dishwasher, but he refuses to wash floors, clean the toilet, etc. He just outright refuses, and no amount of pleading, begging, bribing, etc will work. I’ve tried everything. We both work and go to school FT, so we’re busy, but still…. I want a pristine house, and it just won’t happen unless I get a cleaner. I also don’t want to spend my free Saturdays on my hands and knees cleaning the bathroom anymore….. but I just can’t bring myself to spend the money for a cleaner, so I’ll just continue to do all of the cleaning and then bitch about it. At least my DH does his own laundry…. if he didn’t, then I probably really would blow a gasket…..
10 fengshui // Dec 18, 2008 at 11:23 pm
When we bought our house, my parents gave us their old snowblower because they bought some big turbo one. I couldn’t imagine not having one. After last winter, where we had over 100 inches of snow, I couldn’t imagine shoveling all of that. I’d break my back. Especially the heavy stuff at the end of the driveway when the plow comes and plows it all back in AGAIN…..
11 LivingAlmostLarge // Dec 19, 2008 at 7:54 am
I believe we had almost 90 inches last year and we shoveled. Eh, good exercise, but with 3 people it’s faster. I’m guessing fengshui that you and your husband aren’t shoveling together? Just explaining how it’s faster with more people.
Me too about cleaning the house. I spend about 3-4 hours weekend cleaning the house. I also do 3-4 load of laundry a weekend and I fold and put everything away. My biggest rant is my DH used to clean but not anymore.
12 Jenna // Dec 19, 2008 at 8:46 am
I’m all for outsourcing… for other people. Why?
While I have at times worked the 9-5 office life, most of my life has been spent in freelancing all those jobs you mentioned. My mother runs a cleaning company – she’s thrilled folks don’t want to clean their own homes.
But for me, myself? I’ll happily take on a job for someone, but I doubt I’d ever – even with the money to do so – have some do them FOR me. I like maintaining my home and yard… and I know what goes into having it done. Having someone I don’t know all that well in my home while I’m away? Ah… no. I know things about people I’m always shocked by, and have no desire for a stranger to be seeing what kind of underwear I own!
13 fengshui // Dec 19, 2008 at 12:40 pm
DH and I don’t always shovel together. If he has to be to work early, I won’t get up at 5:30 am shovel. So, I’ll do it all when I get up. Or we wait until we are both there at night and do it together, but sometimes DH works very late, sometimes as late as 9:30 at night
As far as the cleaning, I don’t particularly like feeling like a slave to my own house on my “free day” off. I want to go out and be with my friends, or go somewhere fun, instead of lugging a cleaning kit around with rubber gloves on….. and quite honestly, part of the thing that burns me the most is that my DH refuses to clean. I can’t quite figure it out. He is part neanderthal, but not totally. He wants to do the “manly” things around the house like plumbing, snowblowing, etc. and that it “my job” is to cook and clean….. but yet he has no desire for me to be a SAHM. I’ve asked him, “what would you rather have, for me to be a 6 figure CEO or a wife and mother to your child”? His answer? “I want BOTH”…. So he wants me to be a high earning professional, but yet do ALL of the cooking, laundry, and cleaning. Where do I get to have a life somewhere in that mix? It just seems so unfair. So, if it prevents fights, I’ll just have someone come in a clean. And perhaps in that 2-3 hours per week, I can have some ME TIME, which you can’t put a price on……
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