I only hire for special projects like cleaning (i.e. degreasing) the kitchen cabinet doors. I have limited mobility but I try to do the regular day to day myself.

Housekeeper weekly, pool cleaning weekly in season, gardening, snow removal and outdoor window washing.

Lugging cumbersome stuff. Taking a retired chaise lounge downstairs to the dumpster. Carrying computer monitors or hard drives to the recycle place. Having someone organize my garage. I hire a Task Rabbit.

Routine cleaning (dusting, vacuuming, bathrooms) is done by our housekeeper once a week. Also the garden and pool are done by an outside service and window washing as needed. I've started relying more heavily on professional electricians and plumbers than I used to in the old days, but everything else in the realm of minor repairs, I do myself.

We have a cleaning lady once per week, lawn service once per week, gardener once per month, window and gutter cleaning once or twice per year, snow removal as needed. I guess we don't do anything.

we have a house cleaning once every two weeks,we have snow removal, we have window and gutter cleanning twice per year, and we are thinking this year to get help with the gardening

we live in a large home on 3/4 acres of land and many many years ago we decided it was well worth hiring cleaners who come once in two weeks ( now that the kids are grown and gone, weekly before that), the gardener comes weekly as well. Since both my husband I worked full time it really made weekends better, we still cook daily, do all our laundry and keep the home picked up and neat. I also hire help if I am having a large group for dinner ( often entertain 20 or 30) since that also makes it more enjoyable. Windows are cleaned inside and out once a year.

We live in a 6000 square foot home on an acre of land. I take care of my parents. I babysit our 4 grandchildren. We have someone clean weekly and windows washed monthly. We are now looking for gardening help as I can no longer do it. I also suffer from fibromyalgia and arthritis. I still clean daily. Love to wash and iron. Cook every Sunday for our family of 14 but if I could find someone who would cook Italian like my mom did i would hire in a second! I hate cooking.

Mowing the lawn. I live by myself on 1/2 acre and having this chore done for me helps a lot!

gardener twice a month ,housekeeping twice a week , pool guy comes three times a week ,then i have a guy who changes bulbs and fix small things every now and then

Cleaning is a refreshing chore for some. However, I find it incredibly boring and some times quite frustrating. I have someone come once a month for a few hours and do it all in one go. I find the expense 100% worth it.

Because I am a full time caretaker for my husband I have a housekeeper once a week and yard service every other week. Without their help I couldn't keep up. I do all the shopping and cooking, laundry etc. so I am busy from morning until night.

I don't need someone to clean my house, wash my clothes or cook my food. My husband and I both do what needs to be done inside and outdoors. That's just plain laziness. I can understand help if you're debilitated or a senior, but as long as you're well enough and fit enough, why in the heck do you need help? My mom and dad raised 3 of us and no one was hired to help do a darn thing unless it was something that needed a professional. Electrician or plumber and even then, if my dad could do it, it would get done. My husband and I have careers but I simply don't want someone else in my house in my things.

We have a landscaper and a pool guy. The cost of the pool guy isn't much more than the cost of the chemicals per month. Even if I felt confident in my pool chemistry, he would still be worth it, just to let someone else make sure it's balanced and okay.

It's not laziness to have outside help, for heavens sake! My husband is a super busy professional and I don't want him spending his free time doing menial chores around the house. We have both worked very hard and have earned our choice to hire help for whatever we want. We both enjoy our hobbies in our free time, we don't spend it cleaning. Plus, I won't let him climb up on a ladder anymore. Have too many friends who have seriously injured themselves from falls.Sorry, life is too short to spend it mowing, cleaning, painting etc.

Because I find housework boring and a drain on my time and energy, we have a once a week cleaning lady (not a service) who takes care of changing bed linens, bathrooms, floors, dusting, etc. I try to have everything picked up for her so she can use her time well because the house is 3000 sq. ft. with lots of tile to mop. I take care of the major occasional chores like dusting blinds and floor boards, wiping down cabinets, etc., and I handle cooking and laundry. My husband enjoys taking care of the yard and does that chore, but since he is getting older, the one acre yard soon will require some help. We have a lawn service that fertilizes and sprays for weeds as needed; it's actually cheaper than doing it ourselves. When it comes to our lake house, we don't have any type of help, but somehow the housework there isn't such drudgery. The cleaning lady frees me to do more volunteer work and spend more time with my children and grandchildren.

Agreed, life is too short to spend doing all the drudgery of housework. I am an artist, enjoy spending my free time Plein Air painting and volunteering at a women's auxiliary that supports emotionally disturbed children.

I have an every other week cleaning couple and we have our lawn mowed. The lawn man will also plant seasonal flowers in our small front area.

We have outsourced a lot: yard work, pool and pond maintenance, house cleaning twice a week, and laundry. We still do all our own childcare, shopping, cooking and dog/cat care and tend the veggie garden.

We have the lawn mowed and trimmed, much of the year it is extremely hot and humid here. We do the housework. We both work long hours, and hired different cleaning services and individuals for years, treated them very well with snacks, generous Christmas gifts, etc. They all started out good and then slacked off. We set "traps" like powder in the tubs and pepper on the kitchen floor; found after a while they were all apparently just vacuuming the carpets and then watching TV. Too bad we did not have security cameras back then. They also stole and broke stuff. Now we spend that money to treat ourselves after cleaning our own house.

My wonderful husband gave me the most thoughtful, perfect anniversary gift 3 years ago - he hired a housekeeper to come every other week. She cleans the floors and bathrooms, and dusts (which I HATE to do). And as a bonus to him, it's an ongoing gift, so he never has to come up with what to get me for our anniversary!

I have a housekeeper who comes in every 2 weeks - which is great because I get sick of doing the same thing over and over and over. I hire someone to clean my gutters - cheaper than the hospital bill after I fall off the ladder. I do all my own gardening but will hire help if I want to add in a new bed or take out something large and unruly. I hire a guy to sharpen my mower blades every 2 weeks. I hire an irrigation guy to fix sprinklers as needed (I have water - irrigate off lake for free). I hire out to fix my computer. I hire a dog-runner (I can walk and throw a ball but he likes to run) twice a week. On occasions I hire a part time handy man who I discovered is less expensive (and argues less) than having a full time husband.

Our household service professionals include a weekly landscape crew, weekly dog waste removal, Monday through Friday daily housekeeping (8 hours per day), twice annual window washing, annual gutter cleaning, three times annually tree service, and monthly pest control (mosquitoes). It is quite a household.

I have a cleaner three times a week and gardeners once a week. The house is large and my hourly rate is 25 time theirs. It makes no sense at all for me to do the cleaning and gardening when I could be working.

Even though it's regularly cleaned and tidied (she also changes the bed linen, does the laundry, keeps on top of things that might need replacing such as light bulbs, toilet rolls etc) the children can still have the place looking like a bomb site within 15 minutes of arriving home from school!

My Newfoundland dog destroys my home within 15 minutes of the housekeeper leaving for the evening. If it is a rainy day there is no point! I also bring in a professional organizer and a junk removal crew to help me out with my resident hoarder.

Interesting data - majority of people hire a house cleaner at least twice a month - so if anyone is looking to start own business, residential cleaning seems to be a sure way to profit (provided you can do a good job and be honest and reliable)

We hired cleaners, on and off, and I also noticed they start slacking, if left to themselves. I think it's time to find yet another person - or maybe just start a biz myself?..

Our wonderful gardeners are here once a week...our inside/outside window cleaner visits us every 3 months; we are sprayed inside and out for creepy crawlies every 4 to 5 weeks; hubby cleans the tile and laminate floors, runs the Dyson over the carpet. Nice rewards after many years of working hard and doing everything yourself!

Hubby does nearly all the grocery shopping and cooking,
small pottage and tiny flower garden planting, watering of all our houseplants
and gardens, finances, minor fix-it jobs, removes most of trash, takes care of
the cars and does anything that he sees needs doing, plus he helps me.

I do nearly all the daily laundry, picking up and cleaning,
home decorating, outdoor and houseplant container planting, pruning, washing
siding and minor diy. I clean the cabinets, closets, basement, garage, porch
and patio and work on the family genealogy. Plus I help my better half.

We share responsibility for everything else including seasonal
decorating and entertaining. We have smaller groups now – a dozen or so, more
than that and we get help or resort to potlucks.

We hire a weekly housekeeper who washes windows, lawn
service to mow, fertilize and spray for weeds, seasonal garden guy to
plant garden in spring, cleans it up in
the fall, hauls the large Christmas tree and
puts it in the stand. We also hire a lawn boy, snow removal guy, water
system guy, contractor/handyman, computer geek, rug cleaner, heavy lifter, large
tree trimmer and removal, plumber and tall ladder man. We take out ironing and
dry cleaning.

DH and I never liked people mucking around our home either,
but we had to get used to it and some less than perfect work when we no longer could
take care of everything. Now, we thank heaven for our muck abouts and take as
good care of them as we can with salaries, gifts and caring. We used to take great
pride in doing nearly all of the work ourselves, but we are aging and not so
gracefully. Bit by bit we have to hire more and more, but we love our home and still
enjoy caring for it as much as we can.

However, when we were some younger we had a little help with
the cleaning and fall yard cleanup and planting hundreds of tulips etc. I
wouldn’t call that lazy, because I did all the rest of our home’s work kept
track and did 50+ hours of volunteer work per week – much of it involving other’s
children and my DH worked far more hours than that. We were awakened by many parent’s
phone calls, about the community’s kids, a third of the nights of the week. We
would both be exhausted by the interrupted sleep, but we still got up to work
the following day and loved it. Please, don’t judge others unless you have
walked in their shoes and don’t try to make us feel badly about the way we have
lived our lives, because it won’t work.

We still enjoy and love life and love all of you for the
good “clean” lives you lead. Chuckle!

I hire a chimney sweep once a year.

Have ride mower, snowblower and vacuum. Guess who does it all!

A housekeeper every two weeks and some help with the yard a couple times a year.

Marylise- I love to cook but hate to clean. Wanna swap? Lol if have no problem cooking for 14 people each week!

Just lawn care. It wouldn't do any good to hire someone to clean our house. I'd just go behind them and "tidy" up. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

My husband and I WANT to do it all ourselves, so we do.

Except, my brother and his '57 Chevy pickup and plow attached, lives right down the road, and plows our driveway when it snows

Pool and yard is hired out, the rest we do ourselves. I force my kids to help. ;) They have to learn somehow!

We do it all....I don't like people in my house. There may come a day when we have to hire a gardener just when we go on long trips, but that's it!

shars55, I HATE having people in my house! Honestly, there are some things I've been procrastinating about BIG time for that very reason. The gardeners are fine...many times they're here when I'm gone. Painters and other people inside the house are a whole different story. We hired a crew to remove wallpaper awhile back, and I hated having 4 men in the house for 4 days. It was a CRAZY amount of wallpaper...much too overwhelming a job for us to take on. It would have taken us 4 months!

Deb D....sure! Where do you live?

Chloebud....I'm with you! I only have workers here when we have absolutely no choice.

I like the idea of keeping the economy going. I hire outside help. They help me and I help them! I'm less stressed that way!

I completely agree Patti. I believe that those who are fortunate enough to be able to afford domestic staff should try to find them. We all believe in maximum employment, don't we?

I've lived abroad and had staff in countries where that is the philosophy.

I actually have found I prefer a simpler life. More importantly, I think I have no business hiring someone unless I can both pay them a living wage, and obey all laws. In SE Asia, I could easily; in the US, it is more of a concern.

However, I also don't entertain like I used to...my choice. So now I do most everything and call in pinch-hitters for deep cleaning or clearing of plants in the yard, for example.

I had similar experiences in South Africa and Mexico with domestic staff. I've always made sure that my employment practices were up to the legal and cultural standard. I think that individuals are intelligent enough to determine where they want to work. In South Africa, in particular, I found that employing domestic staff is something that helps the disadvantaged obtain skills, make connections, and put food on the table. I think most would agree that employment alongside education are the most important factors in achieving social and economic mobility. In the U.S., I pay typically about $15-20 per hour for housekeeping. Crews are more costly, but they do things more quickly and with less care. For crews, I'm usually paying about $120-140 for a 4,000 square foot home plus basic laundry. The U.S. is definitely more expensive, but there are many people who are in need of employment as well.

You have made some very good points.

We do, or don't do, everything ourselves.

Have a reliable (& honest) couple who change bed linens, vacuum & mop every 2 weeks for 1 & 1/4 hr. $70 each time. Have a pool guy for our 40' pool. Have a lawn guy who mows & trims our 160' of hedges every week. That's $440 a month. We do everything else. (My husband even trims our 54 palm trees every 6 months.)

I travel extensively in my work so every other week we have a housekeeper and off weeks we clean. Our very trusted housekeeper has been with us forever and often stays with our son when the hubby and I need a weekend by ourselves to reconnect. We have a pool guy and gardener for our main residence too....

Both vacation homes have low maintenance yards which helps tremendously with the upkeep - as we are not there full time, big jobs are completed by the same handyman whom we have built a relationship with through the years.

ME , MYSELF AND i ..... ITS ALL SUZY S FAULT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rAiii4LA3k

I outsource everything I can. Currently, I'm trying to find a service that curbs my trash bins on trash day, any recommendations?

How much do you need done