Daily life is filled with a seemingly never-ending list of chores and errands that need to be completed in order to make your household run smoothly. Unfortunately, this eats into your quality time with family and friends. The time deficit also makes it difficult for people to do important things for themselves such as committing to a regular exercise routine. Chronic stress is well-known as being linked to the leading causes of death, and it’s also responsible for at least 75 percent of American doctor visits. The good news is that there are many tasks you can outsource in order to free up some of your precious time and improve your quality of life.
1. Online Grocery Shopping
The average person spends at least 41 minutes in the grocery store during each shopping trip. This doesn’t count the associated driving time, nor does it calculate in loading and unloading your vehicle. Additionally, grocery stores have a tendency to be busy, which adds to the overall stress of the experience. Fortunately, many grocers have begun offering online shopping and curbside pickup services that dramatically reduce shopping times.
As an added bonus, selecting everything online makes it easier to stay within your budget and avoid impulse purchases. You simply put items into your virtual shopping cart and a store employee will do the actual shopping, bagging and car loading for you.
2. Home Repairs
Most people seek out a contractor for major home repairs, but what about smaller home improvement projects? Although you may be completely capable of meeting the demands of these tasks, it’s also wise to consider whether or not they are the best way to spend an entire weekend. Instead of skipping family time, turn to a home repair website or app instead. For example, Smith enables homeowners to quickly and easily receive bids from local contractors for projects of all sizes.
This type of service is especially helpful because when contractors know they’re bidding against each other, they’re more likely to give you the best possible price. Using a website instead of calling contractors is also a great way to reduce the total amount of time you spend on the project.
3. Family Caregiver Services
An astounding 43.5 million Americans serve as a family caregiver in addition to their normal daily tasks. This puts a massive emotional and time drain on these individuals, but it’s also a crucial aspect of keeping ill family members safe. Many people fill this role because they can’t afford to hire full-time care. It can also be very comforting for the person who is sick to be assisted by someone they know. However, one of the most important things a family caregiver can do for everyone involved is to give themselves some respite care at least once a week by utilizing professional family caregiver services or getting another family member involved.
4. Monthly Subscription Boxes
Do you enjoy trying new recipes but feel overwhelmed by the time involved in collecting them and gathering the necessary ingredients? Monthly subscription boxes may be the perfect way to keep your creative spark alive in the kitchen without taking an exorbitant amount of time and energy. Services such as Blue Apron put all of the components together for you and send them to your door once a week. You can also experience exotic fare without leaving home with Try the World, which sends food and other items from a different country each month.
5. Laundry Services
Laundry is something that never, ever ends, and it takes a lot of time to sort everything, wash and dry it, fold it and put it away. This becomes even worse if you have to lug your laundry to a shared laundry room or laundromat. You incur the cost of using coin operated machines or of paying for water and maintenance to your own machines. Additionally, there’s the expense of detergent and fabric softener.
However, there is an alternative to this large time suck: hire a per-the-pound laundry service. These services start at an average of only .93 per pound, and this typically includes sorting, washing, drying and folding. For a slight upcharge, you may even be able to get your laundry picked up and delivered.
6. Use a Lawn Care Company
The typical American spends 70 hours a year on lawn care, which comes out to more than 1.3 hours a week. There are so many other things you could do with that time that would be more emotionally fulfilling. Weekly lawn care services start at only $35, so you need to ask yourself how much your time – especially your free time – is worth. If you have the extra money and don’t take pleasure in doing lawn care, it makes perfect sense to outsource this stressful task and do something more enjoyable instead.
7. House Cleaning Services
Is your house always dusty and cluttered because you don’t have time to deal with it? Or perhaps you spend more than five hours per week keeping everything clean, but you’d rather spend that time at the park with your kids or enjoying a date night with your spouse. Well, the good news is that this is definitely possible by hiring a house cleaner. These services can range drastically in price depending on a wide variety of factors, but the average single family home pays $130 per clean. To put this into perspective, the hourly rate is usually around $25, so you’ll be getting a clean home and recover several hours weekly to attend to personal matters.
As you can see, there are numerous ways that you can free up some of your time without neglecting any of your weekly chores. The cost of these services is often much more in line with what your time is worth than you may have otherwise thought. In fact, most online grocery shopping services charge $5 or less, and that’s definitely worth avoiding the hassle and lost time associated with doing the shopping in-store. There are also several apps available that will help you better manage everything from spring cleaning to assigning cleaning duties to each family member.
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