A few years ago, at the recommendation of a co-worker, I read Tim Ferriss’s “The 4 Hour Work Week”. To be honest, I hated the book. I thought that he came off as pompous, rude, snobby and kind of douchey. Most of what he discussed could in no way, shape or form be applied to my life and my situation. Except for one idea. Outsourcing.
Quite frankly, I love the idea of outsourcing the unpleasant aspects of my life. I would love to be rid of the chores that I can’t stand so that I can focus on the things that I do love and want to cultivate. And, if I think about it, I already do outsource some things—haircuts, dog grooming, trash and recycling pick up, and car maintenance. I don’t mind paying for these services because they are convenient, make my life easier and honestly, no one wants me cutting his or her hair. Or working on a car.
The problem is that I want to outsource household chores. I’m not the most domestically inclined woman around. While I do enjoy some things like cooking and baking and child care and general errands, there are certain things I cannot stand. Those are the ones I would like to eliminate. But the cost for outsourcing those chores is way too expensive for my budget. Or is it? I decided to do a little research and come up with an amount that I would have to pay each month to outsource the 3 things I hate the most:
Laundry
Dane Cook once joked that the only way to completely have no laundry is to wash your clothes naked. Sadly, he’s right. Laundry is a cruel joke, especially when you have a child and dogs. I am forever stuck in a cycle of wash, dry, fold, put away. Repeat the next day. I think I spend a minimum of 10 hours a week doing laundry for my family (fortunately, my husband does his own laundry. This is a huge blessing). While I’m able to complete other tasks while the washer and dryer are running, it’s still annoying to be in the middle of a task only to have to stop to attend to the laundry. Not to mention that I hate the whole laundry process. So I wondered what it would cost to have someone do my laundry for me.
I looked around and there are services that will wash and fold my clothes. Here’s the info on the cheapest company I found: $1.25 a pound with a minimum of 10. That’s just for your standard wash, dry, fold that is supposedly done according to my explicit directions. They claim to have no extra fees, including delivery. Let’s assume I have 25 pounds of laundry per week. That’s a minimum cost of $125 per month. However, they don’t say how long it would take to complete the service, and I have to schlep my clothes to the place and pick them up.
The verdict? Not worth it. I’m not really saving any time by having to drive back and forth to the place, it’s expensive compared to doing it myself and I’m basically a slave to their time frame.
Cleaning
I’ll admit it. I’m a terrible housekeeper. My house would never be deemed uninhabitable as I insist that beds are made, bathrooms are tidy and there are no dirty dishes all over the house. However, I’m lazy with dusting and vacuuming, my kitchen floors don’t gleam, toys are usually all over my living room and laundry is usually everywhere (see above about how I hate laundry). My husband and I do the best we can but my house never looks quite clean enough. I would love to have one of those houses that sparkle. But with me in charge, it’s not going to happen.
Enter a cleaning service. These are pros whose job it is to make my house sparkle in that commercial, TV show way. I did use a cleaning service last year, just prior to Thanksgiving, in order to get my house respectable enough to have company. That service cost $220 for 2 hours but I figured it was expensive due to the fact that it was an initial, deep cleaning. If I remember correctly, it was approximately $100 per week for regular home maintenance, based on the size of my house and what would need to be done. Let’s say I have the service come 2 times per month. That’s roughly $200 and I would have to stay home (I have extreme paranoia issues and can’t stand when people I don’t know are left unattended in my home).
The verdict? It’s a possibility. I loathe cleaning and I’m not good at. Additionally, a cleaning service would free up time for me to work on my blog or other projects.
Food shopping
There is nothing that makes me more anxious than the thought of a supermarket on a Saturday or Sunday morning. The small aisles, the shopping cart collisions, the wrath at the deli counter, the agony at the register. It all makes me grimace with displeasure. Unfortunately, this is the one chore per week that I cannot put off (have I mentioned that I purposefully have 3 weeks of clothes and underwear so that I can go that long without doing laundry?). I’d send my husband but he loves supermarkets like I love MAC and I fear for our budget. So each week, armed with my budget, my list and my body armor, I trudge to the supermarket for what is the worst hour and half of my week. And every week that I’m there, I wish there was a way to avoid this horror.
I have learned that there is! Apparently, my grocery store has a service where I can order my food online and then a refrigerated truck will deliver the groceries right to my front door! This is fantastic! After the first delivery, which is free, there is a delivery charge which is based on the amount of food ordered (<$150 has one set of fees, >$150 has another) and the time frame in which the food is delivered. However, like the cable companies, your food has a delivery window and the delivery charge is based on the window you pick. Let’s say I pick the 4 hour delivery window. That would run me $3.95, for a total of $103.95 each week.
The verdict? I’d give it a try for free. Although I am freaked out by the thought of someone else handling my groceries, it might be worth it to avoid having the headache of food shopping. Besides, while I’m waiting, I can always do laundry or clean!
Do you outsource any household chores? What value do you get from it (besides time)?
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[…] it has to get done. I can’t afford to hire staff (believe me, I’ve looked into it) so that leaves only me to do all the work. An in addition to the fact that I not only can’t […]
I don’t outsource anything currently, but I’ve always thought about it for the cleaning. I really hate cleaning, and I’m not so great at doing it myself. I think someday I’ll definitely be able to justify the ~$200 monthly cost.
I’m also pretty uncomfortable with people coming into my home, even though I don’t own anything all that valuable.
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Even though I have nothing valuable, it still makes me nervous. I think if I could figure out a way to be home and be productive, I’d do it. But then there’s the feeling of awkwardness while I’m in my house and someone else is cleaning it.
I still may consider it down the road.
I would love to spend the $200 per month on cleaning but I have too many other priorities right now. We do a really good job when we do clean (every two weeks or so) but it gets pretty grimy in between, and frankly we don’t enjoy the task. I enjoy a lot of the other household stuff that I do, like cutting the grass, but cleaning is something I’d happily give up!
We have the same cycle. It’s utterly disappointing, especially when we clean the house and I feel like it’s dirty one hour afterwards!
I am totally pro outsourcing chores or things I don’t like doing, or am not good at. I am actually writing up a post about how I pay a service to wash and fold my laundry. Fortunately for me, I drop it off on their “Tuesday Special” for $0.75 a lb 10 pound min. And I only do it one or twice a month, since I don’t have much laundry (single women ftw!). It costs about $15 a month to outsource my laundry.
I would LOVE to get my groceries delivered since I hate going grocery shopping. I’m happy that I can survive without much food so my shopping only takes about 20 minutes. It’s not too bad I guess.
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If it would cost me $15 a month, I’d totally do it. I think if I lived in a city I’d do it, too. But in the suburbs where I live, it’s way less expensive to do it myself. Which makes me sad. When I was shopping for just me, grocery shopping took about 1/2 hour, including driving to and from the supermarket. With a family and less options for supermarkets, it’s a minimum of an hour just in the store. Not how I like to spend my weekend mornings.
My parents have had a cleaning service for a long time, and they only come twice a month and it’s about $180 for the month. Totally worth it in my opinion. And I SO plan on getting this when we have our own house.
I love grocery shopping and I’m always on the lookout for sales and such, so I don’t think outsourcing my grocery shopping would work for me.
When I have kids, I also hope to hire a housekeeper to help cook and clean. I honestly don’t know how working moms do it, because I barely have enough time for myself now as it is, I can’t imagine having kids too.
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As a working mom, I can tell you that it is hard to find time to do everything. I don’t mind cooking at all and cleaning the kitchen doesn’t bother me. It’s the rest of the house that’s a pain! My parents had a cleaning service up until about 2 years ago and I know they found huge value in it. I may start to rethink my position on this.
I read the 4 Hour Work Week too and I actually really enjoyed it. Probably because I was at a point in my life where I was trying to teach myself how to do everything for my website myself and it had never occurred to me to hire someone lol. I definitely outsource some things for my website because there are just things I don’t have time to teach myself anymore and things I’m just not good at.
As far as laundry, cleaning & grocery shopping I can’t really justify the cost. Since it’s just me, the laundry can be done relatively quickly in 3 loads. I don’t enjoy cleaning but I’ve got it down to about 2 hours a week so I figure I can handle that. I try to do my grocery shopping at off times so I avoid crowds and that is a huge help!
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When it was just me and I only had one job and I was living in a small apartment, I didn’t mind it as much. Now that I have multiple jobs, a house and pets and a child, it’s a lot more work. I’d rather teach myself skills or write or read or spend time with my family than clean. Although my daughter loves laundry so we work on that together.
I used to outsource mowing the lawn, but then C lost his job, and we bought a better mower. Now, I think I’d keep the mowing (it can be rather zen) but what I really want to outsource is the putting away for laundry. I love my w/d, so I don’t mind doing the laundry, but then it comes back upstairs in bins and just sits there. I HATE putting laundry away (but I like it when everything is where it belongs and easily found). The rest I can manage for myself. I just want someone to come in and hang the clothes up for me
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Putting the laundry away is actually the part I hate the least. The worst? Folding.
Our current lawn is so small that it takes my husband about 15 minutes to mow the front and the back. And he enjoys it so I won’t take it away from him.
Not in the market for outsourcing right now. I can definitely see the upside, especially if you have a busy professional schedule that pays enough to justify the equation.
Hunter – Financially Consumed recently posted…Car Buyer Factors – Reader Poll
Those are good points, Hunter. I think I can justify the professional schedule stuff but it’s more a matter of I just hate to do these chores. I can make the time to do them…I just don’t want to!
We outsource cleaning – $60 every 2 weeks and Jacqui is WAY better at it then we ever were. We also have our lawn mowed, edged, and weeded for $25 every 2 weeks for 9 months of the year. I would seriously consider outsourcing our laundry, but it would need to be a to-the-door delivery system or it wouldn’t be worth it to me. Online, I outsource tons…pretty much, I only write posts for BFS and How I Make Money Blogging and run my advertising business. Everything else is outsourced, lol.
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Well, you know that I outsource some online stuff 😉
I’m terrible at cleaning. If we lived closer to each other, I’d probably hire your person. $60 is not a bad price!
At my insistence, we outsource housecleaning with a nice lady who comes by every 2 weeks. We also exploit child labor at every opportunity… at least that’s what our kids say about their chores. Whiners.
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