It turns out, love may benefit from a little less labor. Couples who spend money on time-saving services \u2014 like getting takeout, hiring a house cleaner or calling a dog walker \u2014 report greater relationship satisfaction, especially during stressful periods, says Ashley Whillans, a behavioral scientist and professor at Harvard Business School.<\/p>\n
Whillans studies the \u201ctradeoffs people make between time and money.\u201d \u201cWhen you spend money to save time \u2014 hiring an accountant, a babysitter, a cleaner \u2014 you feel more control over your life,\u201d she said. \u201cThat sense of autonomy boosts well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not everyone can afford to outsource bigger household chores. But Whillans says even a little bit can help. She advises couples to take a \u201ctime audit\u201d \u2014 examining how they spend their hours and what small changes could reclaim even a few moments. \u201cPeople underestimate how much these choices matter,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not about luxury \u2014 it\u2019s about freeing up time to connect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whillans\u2019 team tracked busy, dual-income couples \u2014 partners working full-time who often report feeling time-starved \u2014 and found consistent patterns. In one six-week diary study, couples who made \u201ctime-saving purchases\u201d on a given day were happier and more satisfied with their relationships. Simply outsourcing chores isn\u2019t a magic fix, however. \u201cIt\u2019s about being intentional with the time you get back \u2014 using it to spend quality time together, to reconnect,\u201d Whillans said. \u201cThink of that half-hour not as an opportunity to send more emails, but as a chance to spend time with your partner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Targol Hasankhani, a Chicago-based marriage and family therapist, stressed that while outsourcing domestic labor can ease daily stress, it doesn\u2019t replace communication. Juggling careers and kids takes a toll on families, and housework often is fraught with resentments over who is doing it. \u201cIf conflict around chores is rooted in something deeper \u2014 like inequity or not feeling heard \u2014 hiring a cleaner won\u2019t solve that,\u201d she said. Couples must dig deeper to address problems with many layers. \u201cIt opens up time and space, but couples still have to know how to show up for each other in that space,\u201d Hasankhani said.<\/p>\n
Casey Mulligan Walsh, 71, a former speech pathologist and author in upstate New York, said the best part about hiring a house cleaner once a week was that it freed up time for her and her husband to spend together. \u201cMy favorite day of the week was coming home to a clean house,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019d go get coffee together instead of arguing about who should vacuum.\u201d Getting started on delegating household tasks isn\u2019t easy for some couples, Whillans said. Besides the cost, \u201cit takes time to find someone and coordinate \u2014 but the long-term payoff is real.\u201d<\/p>\n
For one Colorado couple, outsourcing started as an act of love. \u201cWhen I started dating, my now-husband noticed how hard I was working \u2014 at my job, at home and as a single mom,\u201d said Melissa Jones, a 45-year-old teacher in Pueblo. His Valentine\u2019s Day gift? A deep house cleaning. \u201cIt was truly amazing,\u201d Jones said. \u201cAfter that, I kept it up on my own for years. When my husband and I moved in together, we decided to continue.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019re able to make memories with each other, our kids and our families instead of spending weekends scrubbing floors,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In Miami, Elizabeth Willard, 59, runs The Pickled Beet, a culinary service preparing customized meals. \u201cMost of the people I cook for are trying to invest in their health but don\u2019t have the time,\u201d she said, noting that families often juggle mixed dietary needs. \u201cSometimes the husband\u2019s a carnivore and the wife\u2019s vegetarian, one child\u2019s celiac. They\u2019re exhausted trying to make everyone happy.\u201d Her clients, often families with children and two working parents, are \u201cnot fighting over what\u2019s for dinner. It\u2019s one less daily decision.\u201d Whether ordering a pizza, paying a teenager to mow the lawn, or calling a car service to save 20 minutes, the outcome can be the same: buying back time can buy peace.<\/p>\n
In conclusion, spending money on time-saving services can have a positive impact on relationships. By outsourcing household chores and other tasks, couples can free up time to spend together and improve their overall satisfaction with their relationship. While it may not be a solution for every problem, it can certainly help to reduce stress and increase quality time together.<\/p>\n
A: Examples include hiring a house cleaner, calling a dog walker, getting takeout, and using a meal delivery service.<\/p>\n
A: Couples can start by taking a \u201ctime audit\u201d to identify areas where they can save time, and then look into services that can help them do so.<\/p>\n
A: No, outsourcing household tasks can be beneficial for couples of all income levels, even if it\u2019s just hiring a teenager to mow the lawn or ordering takeout occasionally.<\/p>\n
A: No, outsourcing household tasks is not a replacement for communication in a relationship. Couples still need to communicate effectively to address underlying issues and work together as a team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Introduction to Time-Saving Services It turns out, love may benefit from a little less labor. Couples who spend money on time-saving services \u2014 like getting takeout, hiring a house cleaner or calling a dog walker \u2014 report greater relationship satisfaction, especially during stressful periods, says Ashley Whillans, a behavioral scientist and professor at Harvard Business […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-26767","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-wellness"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/3cc4883\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/5769x3029+0+409\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fab%2F74%2Fa018fd5944e185e7180b9ba150c5%2F0c5f11e9842d47dfa1fbd20d48858d3e.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26767"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26767"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26770,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26767\/revisions\/26770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}