Outsourcing chores by hiring a cleaning service or personal assistant might sound like the kind of splurge that a recession-era budget would quickly eliminate. But outsourcing certain household tasks can end up saving so much time and energy that the cost is well worth it -- as long as you use your newly freed-up time wisely.
Jen Smith, author of the Millionaire Mommy Next Door blog, says her housecleaner and personal assistant, who takes care of bills and balancing the household checking accounts, makes it possible for her to run her multiple businesses, which include financial coaching, writing and managing Web content, while leaving her plenty of time to spend with her daughter. She and her husband also rely on Supper Solutions, a company that helps families prepare their meals for the week, for easy dinnertime prep.
"The point of outsourcing is that you can accomplish more, without kissing your free time goodbye. . . . Because we outsource, we make money and have more free time," says Smith, who is based in Colorado.
Entrepreneur Erica Douglass, 27, pays a personal assistant about $500 a month, which frees up almost 40 hours a month for her to put toward growing her business. The assistant, whom Douglass found through Craigslist, handles her laundry, writes thank-you notes and does the dishes, among other chores. "By having a personal assistant do things like my laundry, I can more effectively use my own time to help both myself and other people," explains Douglass.
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Hiring domestic help is nothing new; in fact, it was more common a century ago. The Census Bureau reports that there were 1.4 million domestic servants in 1900 who helped with cleaning, cooking, child care and other responsibilities, explains Mignon Duffy, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell. The most recent estimates put the number of nannies and housekeepers closer to 660,000, which is a steep decline from 100 years ago. Duffy's research suggests that the number of domestic workers is on the rise, perhaps driven partly by income inequality in cities.
Another factor: the growing number of women working and earning more, which makes it more necessary, and affordable, for families to hire domestic help. After all, if you're working 40 hours a week, it's hard to find an additional 17, which is the average number of hours spent by married women per week on housework, according to the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research.
Sanjiv Gupta, associate professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, has found that women with higher earnings spend less time on housework, perhaps because they are more likely to hire domestic help. It's possible, Gupta says, that women with higher earnings "place a higher value on their time," so spending time on housework is less appealing.
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In addition to helping people earn more money, outsourcing domestic work allows people to enjoy their free time more. "People are spending more money on outsourcing lawn care services, but then at the same time, they are spending more on do-it-yourself gardening projects," says Craig Lair, assistant professor of sociology at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania. In his research, Lair has also come across companies, such as Send Out Cards and That's Gratitude, that offer to write thank-you notes for busy people.
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