I have hired a house cleaner twice. The first time was a lady whi was referred to me. She was very nice but she used extremely harsh chemicals that I didn’t like around my pets and she ended up burning my floors with a steam cleaner so that was the end of that.
I found another one who was HORRIBLE. She was just awful. Tried to talk to me the entire time she was there. Made me super uncomfortable.
I work a lot of hours an have a really busy life. I want some more help but I don’t think I’m going to get it with a house cleaner. I just don’t trust one enough.
Is there anything else you outsource or can outsource to make your life easier/less stressful? Or just ways to make things more efficient if not outsourcing it.
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How about food? Even if you can’t go as far as hiring a private chef, grocery delivery or a meal prep service could be worth it.
I’ve seen people hiring professional organizers instead of just cleaners too and that seems great.
Food if you can find a delivery service you like. Laundry
A professional organizer. Life changer! Helped me (39f, single, no kids & live alone) figure out how to use my small space efficiently, get rid of clutter (or hide what I couldn’t toss), which, in turn, helps my place stay cleaner for longer periods of time. I now only hire a cleaning person occasionally & get a “deep clean” 2x per year.
Yardwork, groceries, childcare, and pet care all come to mind, especially if you’re working outside of the home for long hours most days.
Groceries. I use instacart and pick up my groceries. The amount of time saved is amazing, plus I can shop when I’m home on my time, and can check my pantry/fridge/freezer to see what I actually need. Add the fact that I don’t impulse buy food, and it’s also saved me lots of money.
ETA: My local grocery store has “in store prices” on instacart. I checked. They only ding you for $.05 per bag.
Groceries. Laundry. Meal prep like factor or places like Clean Eatz. Dog walker.
Depending on your job. And responsibilities, virtual personal assistant can be useful in taking care of all those little virtual research things, appointment making, etc.
I know someone who has hired more than one ad hoc assistant to take care of various things, some of them were parents who didn’t have a full-time job earning income outside of the home, some werr grad students. Examples, cleaning that’s beyond the scope of a house cleaner (fridge, cleaning, dishes, laundry), food preparation, returns of packages ordered online, helping clear out a storage unit.
I do micro tech related outsourcing. Robot to clean my floors. Hue light bulbs set to routines. Smart plugs and my robot to voice control them. I looked into automatic blinds but I rent so I scrapped the idea.
Groceries or meal preps… laundry…
Honestly, sometimes a part time personal assistant can be handy. They can filter out the cleaning / babysitting / other work hire applicants, schedule grocery pick ups and delivery, research things (like getting a better deal on your insurance etc etc).
If you treat them well, they’ll look for many ways to make your life easier
Everything?
Cooking, childcare, petcare, driving, cleaning yardwork, snow clearing, etc.
I’d say the only things you couldn’t are aspects of your job and fitness? Like you can pay for a personal trainer, but you can’t pay someone to get fit for you. I wish!
I have a house cleaner and it’s life saving.
Other things you can outsource that I have no personal experience with is:
I’ve got a friend who sends her laundry out to be washed and folded. It’s a couple dollars a pound and she says it’s totally worth it to her to have all of it done and easy to put away with so little effort.
As a person who lives between multiple baskets of clean and dirty clothes that never all make it back to the drawers and closets…. I approve!
Also: i used to get paid by a friend to do the boring parts of her cooking and load and unload her dishwasher.
I came once a week and peeled + minced the garlic and ginger, chopped the onions, potatoes, brussel sprouts, carrots, zucchini, etc. and washed and cored the strawberries. They are Indian so it was a lot of veg. Usually about an hour or two of food prep. Sometimes I would also make muffins or banana bread so they would have them for snacks and breakfasts. But when she wanted to cook the rest of the week she could just scoop what she needed from the containers into the pot for sauces and curries.
If there was time left, I would clean the kitchen or wipe out the inside of the fridge too.