Recently I have been thinking more and more about hiring a cleaning service. Several of my coworkers discuss how it is some of the best money they spend each month, yet I can't seem to get myself to pull the trigger.  From what they tell me, for about $15/hour a local cleaning service will dust, mop, vaccuum, clean the bathroom and more.  Oh, and did I mention I hate cleaning the bathroom?

Currently there is only two of us so it's not too difficult to manage the cleaning and we usually tackle it each weekend by dividing things up.  I'll take the living room, my wife will take the kitchen, and so on.  With work and grad school though, it makes it even more difficult to justify using precious free time on tasks such as cleaning.

I think it would be incredible to walk in my front door and not have to worry about what needs to be cleaned and instead use that time in a much more meaningful way.  The time that would be freed up could be used to spend more quality time with my wife, or in productive ways that could help us.  Whether it be reading about ways we can improve our budget or researching our retirement investments to make sure they still make sense, the extra time would be fantastic to have.

It's daunting when I consider how much time I spend washing dishes each week, managing my laundry, and generally straightening things up.  The weekend is often when the heavy lifting takes place, such as mowing the lawn and cleaning the floors.  I often wonder what I could be doing with this time, however, and whether it's time to get a service so we can get out there and enjoy life more.

Cleaning takes away time that could be spent taking walks, enjoying vacations, visiting with friends and who knows what else.  The question is whether it's realistic or sustainable to pay for a cleaning service to begin with, especially since there is currently just two of us in the house.

When I stop to consider how a cleaning service would fit in our budget, I think about the other services we pay for.  Cable and internet are among these services and I struggle with paying for these almost essential (these days) services.  Although I would be truly happy to get rid of cable!  What it comes down to is how much value you will get for freeing up that extra time. Based on the $15/hour estimate, I would expect on average to pay for about five hours every two weeks.  That means a not-so-small $75 every two weeks or $150 a month that would hit the budget.

What would you do with the extra hours? I know I would catch up on some long overdue reading, stock research, and much needed exercise for starters.  Would I stick to using this time effectively?  I have to hope it wouldn't just be spent watching tv and instead would be spent on some quality family time or a productive alternative.

A big question is whether it's worth the $15/hour to begin with.  I believe it is worth $15/hour to free up my time, but only if it's spent improving BuildMyBudget or in some similarly productive fashion.  If I'm spending the extra ten hours a month watching tv, then I have completely missed the mark.  What I like to use as a benchmark when considering adding on a service is my hourly wage at work, which can provide some perspective on how much my time might be worth.

Perhaps most important, however, is what else we could do with that $150/month.  That adds up to $1800 a year!  With that, we could go on a nice cruise or road trip, build a nice garden or plant some trees in the yard, or even supplement our retirement savings.  When you consider how much this $1800 could turn into over a period of 30 years at 6% interest ($142,304.74!), it's not such an easy decision.  Add to that we may use the extra time to take some salsa lessons or go out on an extra date night and it becomes more difficult to figure how much money we're losing.

Of course, if you can't afford a cleaning service than it's probably a pointless debate. Fortunately, we carefully manage our budget and can afford such a service.  For those that cannot, however, I've found the best way to accomplish the cleaning is to clean together.  At the very least, the family can share the load and often times some loud music can help the time pass fairly quickly.

As my family continues to grow, it's an even more difficult decision which will require much thought.  Similarly, I have to decide if I should outsource any of our lawn care.  How much is my time really worth and will I ever reach a point where I will regret not freeing up time that I could spend with family and friends?  I hope the answer becomes clearer very soon.

Thoughts, doubts?  Are you experiencing a similar internal debate?

Keep Budgeting!

Chris

BuildMyBudget.com