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Why it pays to hire help at home

If you thought household help was only for the rich, think again. Here's a case for outsourcing time-consuming chores -- or ones you simply hate.

by Jennifer Mulrean for MSN - Click here for full article

When Kathy Fitzgerald Sherman decided to stay home with her first child, she thought she’d pursue her lifelong dream of writing. Five years and another baby later, she realized the endless piles of laundry, diaper changes and general household upkeep were leaving little time, let alone inspiration, for the writing career she’d imagined.

So, she analyzed how she was spending her time -- and found that she was putting a whopping 35 hours a week into housework. That was in addition to the three hours of cleaning by a paid weekly service. Sherman decided she'd had enough. She hired a housekeeper for 20 hours a week to cook, clean, grocery shop and do laundry. So what did she do with all her newfound time? She spent it with her family, wrote dozens of articles and a book on hiring home help called, "A Housekeeper is Cheaper Than a Divorce: Why You Can Afford to Hire Help and How to Get It." She also enrolled in law school.

These days, domestic help isn't only for the rich. Nor is it restricted to typical household chores such as cooking and cleaning. If you're one of the time-squeezed masses, it's worth it to consider paying someone else to walk your dog, mow the lawn -- even buy gifts or balance your checkbook.

Why the time crunch?
The proliferation of single-parent and dual-income households in the last 25 years makes the time squeeze even more acute. Thirty years ago, many households often had one person who was fully available for chores. Today, more of us have to squeeze those daily tasks around our work lives. "We're overworked compared to other workers around the world," says Kathleen Gerson, a sociology professor at New York University.

This time squeeze may feel like a uniquely modern American problem, but "outsourcing" household chores started with industrialization, when we began paying other people for things like our clothing and food. "The idea of hiring someone to help us with our housework is just an extension of this," Gerson says.

What's your time worth?
Now that you know hiring help is part of the Natural Evolution of Civilization, you also might be relieved to hear it can make good financial sense -- as well as a boost to your mental health.

It's the old money-time tradeoff. Lawyers, accountants and other workers who bill clients on an hourly basis can often easily make a slam-dunk case for hiring help. Their hourly billable rates often far exceed the cost of housekeeping services, for example.

But anyone can get a better idea of what their time is worth by using the MSN Money Time Value calculator. Simply plug in your income along with information on your tax rate, work-related costs and time spent at work, and you get an idea of how much your time is worth on an hourly basis.

Hiring a worker who has special skills or training, for example, might make sense even when it costs more than what a strict dollar-value of your time may suggest. Think of the added value: Perhaps a lawn service can whip through your yard in two hours, doing what it would take you three times as long to get done on the weekend. If doing your taxes is a painful, drawn-out ordeal with the potential for costly errors, paying an account or tax service may be a better use of your resources.

What chores should you outsource?
To get started, Sherman recommends looking at your list of tasks not just with the question of how much it would cost to pay someone to do it for you, but also with these three questions in mind:

What do I most hate doing?
For Sherman, this was grocery shopping, which she says she hates with a passion. Think about what you loathe and tack it onto someone else's to-do list. If picking up dry cleaning, returning library books and waiting in line at the post office is sucking up prime-time weekend hours, it may pay you to hire an errand service for an hour a week.

What requires the least amount of decision-making?
A simple rule to keep in mind here is that the greater the discretion required of the hired help, the greater the cost will likely be. Mundane, repetitive tasks tend to cost less to outsource. Think window washing, ironing and pulling weeds.

What are the most time-consuming tasks?
Home-organization experts say these chores tend to eat up the most time: meal preparation, housecleaning, shopping for groceries and household supplies, washing dishes and laundry (including ironing and mending clothes). Of course, this can vary greatly from family to family; but those with children will probably have greater time costs for laundry and anything to do with feeding and meals.

Where to find help and how much it costs?
Plenty of services are springing up to help you offload these tasks, whether you pay for them a la carte or go for an all-in-one plan from a concierge service. You even can pay someone to wait for the plumber when you need to be at work.

Costs of not hiring help
Dollars-and-cents comparisons aren't the only way to evaluate your situation. What may be less obvious are the costs of forgoing help -- costs to your health, relationships and time.

Sherman's view is that shouldering all your own household chores can cost you more than you realize -- for example, in time with your children, time exercising and time working on your marriage. All of these have significant emotional and spiritual costs, though at the extreme end (as with divorce), they can also be costly to your wallet if left unattended.