If you hire someone to do your chores, are you lazy?
Posted
Sep 02 2008, 02:14 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Consider this argument: If you hire someone to clean your home, iron your clothes or do your laundry, you're probably being lazy.
You may argue that you're saving money because, after all, doesn't time equal money? Not always, says blogger Dorian Wales at The Personal Financier. "I believe many of us overvalue our spare time," he writes. " ... The main motivator behind outsourcing chores is probably laziness."
We can see his point. Putting a dollar value on all of your time is a useless concept -- unless you'd be working and earning money if you weren't doing something else. But who, other than enterprising entrepreneurs, works every waking hour of every day?
But many people use that concept to justify spending money to have someone else perform basic maintenance, starting with that most basic of chores -- feeding your face. In fact, many people think those expenditures are essential.
Dorian argues that outsourcing chores is a money drain in two ways:
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The average cost of each spare hour you gain by hiring out is $20. (Read his post to see the math.)
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The free time you gain is probably spent on -- spending money. "What do people do with so much spare time?" he asks. "My answer (and that of the western civilization as a whole): Shopping!"
Unless you have a large family (although you could consider that more people to help with chores), you're probably frittering away your spare time. The alternative: Take care of your own mess, he says. You might even enjoy it. "I just finished cleaning my house," Dorian writes. "I try my best to thoroughly clean it at least once a week. There's something about starting the weekend with a fresh, clean home which I greatly enjoy."
