MP with her son

I work about 60 hours a week, and I just made an executive decision about my home life:

I refuse to clean my house.

My husband and I have been squabbling over outsourcing for years: laundry, housecleaning, lawn care. For him, it’s about money. For me, it’s about time.

The details change, but the logic is the same: He argues that the $120 per month we’d spend on housecleaning ($1,440 a year!) could be spent, say, on a vacation.

He understands my point—that paying people to do certain chores buys back our time. But for me it’s more: using outside services is an investment in my quality of life.

My job consumes so much time, that any hour I can take back—to spend with my son, watch Downton Abbey, call a friend—is worth almost any price.

I’m not likely to hire an elite child-care service or hire someone to pack for my next business trip. Yet.

But I’m thrilled to know that the rise of niche concierge services means there’s lots of help out there, if I need it.

Hey, many hands make light work, as my mom used to say.

Farm it out. How do you spend money to buy quality of life?