Too often we talk ourselves out of hiring a house cleaner when in reality the price is more than worth the time we save!

127 hours. Beyond being the name of a James Franco movie, this is also the amount of time that the average American spends cleaning their home every year. That breaks down to over three traditional work weeks or more than two hours per week. In many households the cleaning burden isn’t split down the middle either meaning that one member of the family is spending hours each and every week cleaning up after the entire family. Not only is this unfair, but it also puts stress on relationships and can lead to resentment amongst family members.

Instead of developing a household cleaning calendar or rehashing the same arguments every few weeks about who was supposed to clean what, try hiring a professional house cleaner. Having your home cleaned every 2-4 weeks can essentially eliminate house cleaning from your to-do list at a cost that’s likely much less than you’d expect (if the Lyft that saves you 15 minutes on the bus is worth $10 then 3-5 hours less of chores is worth quite a bit).

Most people recognize all of this value that a house cleaner can provide, they simply feel guilty about paying to have someone else clean up after them because they are capable of doing it themselves. We get it because we’ve been there too. However, we believe that it’s time to change your perspective. You’re not paying someone to take care of a household task that you should be doing yourself. You’re paying somebody because they are a professional and can save you time that’s more than worth the price of their cleaning service. Think about all of the times in life when you are willing to pay extra to save small increments of time here and there. Now extrapolate the numbers to 120+ hours of not cleaning your home. Pretty compelling, right? Just in case you’re still feeling a little guilty about pulling the trigger on a house cleaner, here are a few more reasons not to feel guilty:

 Top 3 Reasons Not to Feel Guilty About Hiring a House Cleaner

1. You Can’t Do It All: In spite of what your Instagram feed would like you to believe, it’s simply not possible to work 10 hours, spend 6 hours with your family, hit the gym for 2 hours, sleep 8 hours, connect with friends for an hour, make it to that networking event for 30 minutes and have even 15 minutes of me-time to reflect on the day. Why? Because that’s 27.5 hours and I only got to a fraction of your to-do list. There’s a limited amount of time in the day so spending a little each month to lessen your to-do list is something that everyone in your life will welcome.
2. Time is Happiness: You often here that time is money, but did you know that time is happiness. More specifically, a recent study from PNAS found that the only way money can be used to buy happiness is when we use it to buy more free time. Cleaning is one of the best applications of these findings as you can take back 120+ hours every year at a very reasonable cost.
3. You Aren’t a Professional: While pretty much everyone has mastered the basics of house cleaning by the time they reach adulthood, there is still a considerable skills gap between professional house cleaners and us amateurs. Not only do they work more quickly but they clean more thoroughly and pay greater attention to small details like using the proper cleaning supplies and disinfectants. This is important because investing in a house cleaner can be beneficial to the health of both your family and your home. Regular professional cleanings reduce the germs in your home as the professionals are less likely to miss spots or gloss over key areas with weaker all-purpose cleaners. Since they know exactly how to clean each and every surface your home itself will also benefit as their careful care will preserve your fixtures for years to come.

When you think about it, there are a million reasons to book a professional cleaner and very few legitimate reasons to feel guilty about it. Few investments are able to buy you as much free time as a house cleaner and at the end of the day, isn’t more free time what we’re all looking for?