Outsourcing the house cleaning or gardening can make anyone’s life a little bit easier.

For parents though, coming home to a clean and tidy home can turn even the worst day into the best.

Juggling a career, raising a family and seeing friends doesn’t leave us with much spare time and unfortunately sacrifices need to be made.

Taking time for yourself is something that you should never sacrifice

So, regardless of whether you’re on maternity leave, back at work or a full-time stay at home mum, outsourcing can help you shift your energy to where it’s needed most.

Where do you start?

Listing all the jobs that you dislike is a good place to start but also think about some of your more time consuming tasks too.

Prioritise the essential

Once you have your list, it’s important to prioritise the essential and non-essential jobs. This will ensure that you tick off the most important tasks first, which are probably the most stressful, allowing time in the future to tackle the rest, such as re-painting the house.

Now that you’ve prioritised your list, make a note of which tasks you’ll need to get done regularly, for example, house cleaning and gardening. It might not work with your budget to get help on a weekly basis however alternative timings, such as fortnightly, monthly or seasonally might work for you.

What can you get help with?

1. Home Cleaning

It’s the most obvious and probably the biggest household task that you have to do weekly. However you can get help with more than your usual house cleaning. Think about specific tasks, for example, window washing, ironing or even polishing the silverware.

2. Moving House

If you’ve moved house, you’ll know how much of a mission moving can be. There’s so much that has to be done, such as sorting things, picking up boxes, packing and unpacking items. It can take months and months, which is usually stressful and unsettling for the family.

So that you don’t take it on all by yourself, get as much help as you can, even if it’s just to help number boxes or put aside things for a garage sale. You’re sanity (and back) will thank you for it.

3. Work Admin Tasks

If you’re running a business the simple admin tasks can take the longest and take your focus away from where it’s needed most. It could be getting help for a day with data entry or perhaps longer with more specialised work to be done; for example, accounting or website help.

4. Grocery Shopping

Grocery shopping with the kids can be the stuff of nightmares, as Sunday shopping is in general. If you don’t enjoy it, there are many options to outsourcing it, either online or giving someone else the shopping list.

5. Kid Tasks

Buying presents, getting back-to-school items and making costumes are all things that need to be done, but that doesn’t mean that you have to do them. There are plenty of people that are able to purchase a stockpile of presents for kids parties, buy the back-to-school stuff or make the children's book week costumes.

What to do with your free time?

Now that you’ve taken all these things off your plate, it’s time to take a minute to think about what you enjoy.

Is it reading a good book, indulging in a massage or having more time to play with the kids? Whatever it is it doesn’t matter, as long as you take some time to enjoy yourself.

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Recommended Reading: How to start practicing self care

Recommended Reading: Tips to balance work and family

Recommended Reading: 4 ways to a better work life balance

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This article was originally written by Katie, a blogger, digital marketing specialist and community manager for Airtasker, a community-based marketplace. People post and receive offers for tasks from Airtasker in Australia. Katie is a great cook and also enjoys interior design. Living next to the beach, she's always there (on weekends) swimming or catching up with friends.

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