When is it worth hiring a cleaner?

When the price per hour of the service is below what your own hour is worth to you. Eight hours of cleaning a month at a $200 quote is $25 an hour — a clear win for anyone whose time, honestly valued, runs higher, and a bad deal if it doesn't.

How do I decide whether to outsource a chore?

Price your side of it: hours × what your hour is worth, scaled by how much you dislike the task, plus supplies. Compare with the quote over a year. If delegating wins by hundreds of dollars, book it; if it's close, keep the chore.

What does an hour of my time cost?

A quick estimate is monthly take-home divided by about 170 hours. A more honest number counts commute and unpaid overtime — an effective hourly value calculator gives the true figure to use in delegate-or-do decisions.

Delegate or Do It Yourself Calculator — Price the Chore

The chore takes, monthly

A pro would charge, monthly

Your hour is worth

How do you feel about the chore?

Add what applies to you:

A month of the chore

The decision, line by line

Where the answer flips

The yearly gain from delegating, at every value of your hour. Below zero — do it yourself; above — delegate. The dot is you; the crossing is your break-even rate. Hover to explore.

Delegating well

How we calculate

What is included

Doing it yourself costs your hours (priced at your rate, scaled by how much you dislike the work) plus the supplies you buy for it. Delegating costs the quote. The verdict compares the two over a year; if you turn on “you’d use the time to earn”, freed hours are priced at that earning rate instead of the feeling-scaled one.

What is estimated or left out

Quality is assumed equal — a bad pro costs more than they save, a great one does it better than you. Finding and managing the pro takes a little time at the start (an hour or two, then minutes). And the feeling dial is honest but crude: some chores are secretly meditation, some are secretly fights with the vacuum. Adjust it until the verdict feels true.

The formula, in plain words

your cost of doing it = hours × your rate × feeling (0.5–1.5) + supplies
gain from delegating  = your cost of doing it − the quote
break-even rate = the hourly value where the gain is exactly zero

Common questions

Isn’t paying for chores just for rich people?: It is arithmetic, not status. A $25/h cleaner freeing hours you value at $35 is profit at any income — while a $60/h service against a $20/h budget is a luxury, also at any income. The point of the page is knowing which one is happening.
What should I delegate first?: The chore you hate most that costs the least to hand off — usually cleaning ($25–50/h) and lawn care ($30–60/h). Hated + cheap = the biggest gain per dollar. Loved chores stay yours at any price; that is what the feeling dial is for.
But the freed time just becomes couch time…: Rest is not zero — it is what makes the paid hours possible. But if you want the strict version, turn on “you’d use the time to earn” only when it is literally true, and the page will hold you to it.