Last week, I started the discussion about outsourcing starting with a bit of how businesses do it, and then segueing into the opportunities for outsourcing in our personal lives. Erica’s Outsourcing Life post discussed a mix of things she outsourced, video editing, bookkeeping, cooking, to a mixed set of emotional responses from readers.
Today I’d like to look at the things my wife and I have outsourced, first, cleaning the house. This is one chore my wife and I agreed we didn’t want to do ourselves. We both work, and are busy most weekends with various functions with our daughter, and chose to buy back the time we’d have to spend cleaning.
I’m not so big on gardening, so the grass gets cut and I save the time every Saturday along with the maintenance of yet another piece of equipment that will need replacing. Snow plowing falls into the same category. The guy that plows for us has a truck with a full sized plow blade and can do in 10 minutes for $25 what it would take me a few hours to do with a snow thrower.
For some people, paying others to doing anything they can do themselves is to be avoided. Some feel it’s a waste of money, some are just uncomfortable hiring anyone to do any type of labor for them. The question for me is where do they draw the line? Isn’t it a bit disingenuous to have no issue going out to restaurants yet be critical of people who hire a personal chef ? Would the personal chef be better off unemployed? For me, the cooking isn’t something I’d wish to outsource. Give me enough money and I’d be taking cooking classes and have the time to cook more, not less. Give me even more money, and I’d outsource driving. I’d put all that windshield time to better use.
If money weren’t the issue, what would you outsource?
Joe
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February 26th, 2010 at 6:39 am
cool.
Agree with you on this one. almost everything is being outsourced now.
I wouldnt wanna try outsourcing simple task though if I can do it on my own. Unless im running a big company, i would outsource my business to Asia to cost cut.lol. ^_^
February 26th, 2010 at 9:02 am
If money was no object, you can be sure I would outsource everything I could. I’d have a secretary who would make sure all my bills got paid, someone to clean my house, a gardener, and a driver. I’m sure I could think of more, but those would be the first priorities.
February 26th, 2010 at 11:49 am
Have you seen Engineer Your Finances article on “Which way are you Outsourcing. Kind of a need analysis.
And after reading your article I think that I am finally going to hire that cleaning lady. I just need her 2x month to help out. I think it’ll be worth the charge.
February 26th, 2010 at 12:00 pm
What a great article, I appreciate that link.
Our people come every other week, and yes, we tidy up, get things out of the way, but even so, they are worth every cent to save us that time.
February 27th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
I would outsource housekeeping. I really dislike cleaning the house. Other chores (laundry, cooking, etc.) I don’t mind so much.
March 15th, 2010 at 9:53 am
[...] that! But is there some other aspect of your bookkeeping business you could outsource? How about cleaning? You may feel that with a very small office, it doesn't take that long to do it yourself, but you [...]