Why Consider Outsourcing Household Chores to Reclaim Your Time?

The idea of outsourcing household chores to reclaim your time is something more of us should be thinking about. It’s got nothing to do with being lazy. Rather, I’ve realized it’s about reducing stress and making us happier people. Think of it as buying back your valuable time. If you outsource at least some of your chores, you’ll have more time to spend with family and friends and do what you really enjoy doing. 

The fact is that we all have limited time, and household chores can consume a lot of it. Cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, yard work, and home maintenance all need to be done, but that doesn’t mean you’ve got to do it all yourself. Also, if you need extra time to earn money, outsourcing tiresome tasks could be the answer. Just be sure you are able to earn more in the time you save than it costs. 

Now, here’s another thought. Farming out chores like housekeeping can result in happier relationships and reduce family friction. I love that thought, and it makes perfect sense to me. Better still, Harvard Business School research shows this to be true, and there’s a simple explanation: When outsourcing reclaims hours, it potentially gives couples more quality time together. It also cuts down on the tension and pressures that inevitably come with housekeeping and related chores.

So, what is an hour of your time worth? That’s a very important question. 

Identify Your Reasons to Outsource Household Chores

There’s no universal reason to outsource your household chores. We all have different challenges and needs. 

Before you decide which tasks to outsource, it makes sense to identify what you’d actually like someone else to do for you. Not a family member; rather, someone you’d be willing to pay to do the job. Only you will know. 

Possible reasons could be:

• You are exhausted from doing so much yourself, and you need help.
• The overload is causing conflict at home. 
• You don’t have the freedom to spend quality time with your children, spouse, partner, or friends. 
• You’re finding you don’t have time to stay healthy by eating right or exercising. 
• To hand off something you hate doing. This could be anything from food prep, laundry, or house cleaning to yard work or maintenance, even grocery shopping.
• Because chores are eating into time that you could spend earning money.

If you enjoy household chores, you may think there’s no reason to stop doing them. Even so, if you don’t have enough time to do other things that really matter, that’s a good enough reason. 

Start by asking yourself the question: Do I love it or hate it, and what’s it costing me?

Assess Which Household Chores Are Worth Outsourcing

All of this has got me thinking about the top chores that may be worth outsourcing. 

I keep going back to house cleaning, because I know it eats into my time, all the time. It’s an essential function, and somebody has to do it. In our house it’s mostly me, and the problem is that if I don’t get it done, everyone in our house suffers. Having pets doesn’t help, especially for family members who suffer from allergies (and I’m one of them).  

The reality is that interior cleaning is highly repetitive. It has to be done regularly to keep the house tidy. The good news is that this makes it one of the easiest household chores to hand over to someone else. Furthermore, there are loads of options, from cleaning companies and franchises to platforms like Homeaglow that enable us to book verified cleaners online. Homeaglow is ideal for routine cleaning, but it can also be flexible. You can sign up for regular standard cleaning, but if you want a deep clean now and then, no problem. It’ll cost a little more, but you’ve got the option. 

Maintenance tasks are potentially good to outsource because they often require specialized skills and equipment. Yard work is another possibility, with similar requirements of specific skills and equipment, especially if you or someone else in the family doesn’t have the knowledge or a green thumb.

I do acknowledge there’s a trade-off between saving valuable time and having to pay someone to do the job. But there’s also the advantage of literally buying your time back to reduce the tension and pressure that the Harvard research found chores can create in life. 

What Not to Outsource

It’s true that not all chores should necessarily be outsourced. For instance, many people have machines to do their own laundry in their home. Sorting and reorganizing cupboards and drawers that contain personal items is another chore that I wouldn’t outsource, as this heavily relies on personal preference. 

Grocery shopping is also very personal for many people, and I certainly wouldn’t let someone else decide what to buy for me. But if travelling to stores is an issue, there are numerous online options, many of which don’t even attract a delivery fee if you spend above the minimum purchase threshold.

What Does the Research Say?

I wanted to know what other people think. I also wanted to find out how much time other people spend doing household chores. So, I did some digging.

I found a 2025 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) survey that states food prep and cleanup (0.71 hours), followed by interior cleaning (0.33 hours), top the list of how much time people spend doing things every day. On average, people spend 0.56 hours on housework in general, but they only spend 0.19 hours on garden and lawn care and 0.17 hours on laundry and household management. 

The Pew Research Center used data from a U.S. Census Bureau survey to find out how men and women spend their time. Unsurprisingly, they found that housework ranks second after sleeping and eating, which we obviously don’t have a choice but to continue doing. However, we don’t have to do our own housework. We can outsource it.

Time Spent vs. How You Spend It

The time we spend on certain chores doesn’t dictate what we outsource. 

Looking at the BLS stats, you might think food prep and cleanup are the obvious chores to outsource. But the amount of time spent isn’t the only consideration. You have to consider how that time is being spent and if you mind it, or if it doesn’t particularly bother you.

For example, you (like me) might not feel that cooking is a chore because it’s such an important part of daily life. But food prep, together with cleanup, takes up most of our time. And it’s got everything to do with cooking. We’ve all got to eat, but we don’t have to outsource what’s involved. To lessen the pressure, we can get take-out from time to time and eat out when we choose. And a cleaning service like Homeaglow can wash our dishes and do basic cleanup.   

What’s important is not only how much time you want to save but also why you want to reclaim that time, if at all. 

Decision Time 

Right now, it’s important for me to lessen the pressure on myself to do all the cleaning. What’s important for you? 

There’s no doubt that outsourcing household chores will reclaim at least some of your time. But how does the cost of outsourcing weigh up against the time you’re going to save? Only you can make that decision for yourself.