To ask if you’re a higher earner, what do you outsource to give you more time?

We have a cleaner and a gardener. If I could find someone local to take on ironing I would. Online food shopping and a gousto delivery every week which takes care of meal planning.

Cleaner

Recommend buying a robot hoover
You can also turn it on via your mobile phone remotely

God, we outsource as much as humanly possible. So.....

Cleaner
Gardener
Mobile car valet
Eat out most days and Marks & Spencer's convenience food for when we don't
Window cleaner (does inside too)
Local handyman for DIY jobs
Private GP services

Money doesn't ever buy happiness but it does buy you a massive amount of convenience.

I was going to say maybe cleaner/housekeeper for more hours or even several times a week to keep everything running smoothly and take care of laundry, ironing and some of the daily tasks.

Sorry I didn’t say I pay my friend! £15ph and she comes 2 x a week while her parents have the children and if any problems with childcare etc I don’t mind.

I agree

I was going to say exactly this, thank you @CagneyAndLazy

we hardly do life admin because we've automated so much of our bill payments via online banking. Council Tax, utilities, car tax, insurance (do a market scan once a year which doesn't take much time), credit cards (pay off in full each month), which just leave food to buy each week,

Cleaner every week. Mine changes sheets and irons too.
Online shop, sometimes food boxes.

😂too late....

Cleaner once a week. We sometimes send the ironing out if it piles up. We have a gardener come in a few times a year. A lot of handyman / bigger DIY type jobs.

Sex.

To be honest, once people start listing things like "insurance" and "booking school parents' evening" as 'life admin' it does become laughable bollocks because they're talking about things that take a few minutes once (or so) per year. That's why people sometimes roll their eyes at 'life admin'.

(OP listed extensive accountancy stuff under life admin which is totally different level of admin and obviously much more time consuming than 10 mins looking for car insurance every 12 months.)

Cleaner, dog walker, ironing, food shop delivery, hello fresh or the like / healthy food prep companies

I don't think there's much else left besides what everyone has said.

The basic things to outsource are cleaning, shopping, gardening, oddjobs around the house (DIY, pool maintenance, etc), cooking, PA for errands and other life admin, driver or taxis. That's most things covered. It's really not rocket science.

Look at what you need to do and hire someone to do it - it could be as and when needed or on retainer basis.

If I could afford a cleaner who would also change the beds and stay as long as needed to clear the ironing pile each week I would definitely do it. If they’d do name labels and sew badges on Scout uniform that would be fabulous!

A gardener - again flexible hours so just a mow of the lawn most weeks but other seasonal jobs as and when needed including hedge trimming and planting some fruit and veg

Car cleaning on a regular basis

personal shopper

obviously in your line of work an accountant to help with the tax returns.

I have none of these and am unlikely to ever be able to afford them either.

we do have our shopping delivered and that’s great in terms of meal planning and reducing waste while saving time.

Oh, and I'd hire in staff to help me do things that I could do but find difficult. E.g. my cat was asthmatic and had to be taught to use an inhaler, so I could have paid a catsitter to come and teach her.

Or hire a childminder or babysitter purely to push the pram 2h. Or to teach the baby to take a bottle the way they do in nursery.

Basically things I CAN do with patience but they can do with ease.

My wishlist is:

Cleaner 3h PW
Housekeeper 2h PW (3 days after cleaner to do light touch up plus laundry, batch cooking and ironing etc)
Gardener 2h per fortnight
PA 2h per fortnight (one of those semi-virtual ones who can get authorised to do bill switching etc)
Handyman 2h per month

Highish earner now, but when I was earning a lot more and working away a lot I did the following:

Upped the hours I paid for cleaning, so that they could also change beds, do a bit more of the deeper cleaning on rotation (e.g. dusting on top of picture frames and wardrobes, cleaning windows, cleaning under the sofa etc.) and do a little ironing too (mostly bed linen).

Sent some laundry out - mostly work wear, such as shirts. The local dry cleaners would collect, launder, iron and return at a time that worked for us.

Gardening. I don't have a large garden so I really only needed the hedges and a bit of weeding/tidying/pruning. Think it was a monthly visit, but perhaps it was fortnightly.

Exterior house maintenance. I'm pretty handy and enjoy DIY but I just didn't have the time or the inclination to do the jobs I didn't enjoy. So a couple of times a year I had a maintenance person come and do outside jobs such as clearing the gutters, pressure washing the patio and paths, repainting lintels etc. Saved me time at the weekends.

Groceries: shopped online and arranged delivery. Ditto for milk, juice, eggs etc. from the local milkman. Got subscriptions for wine, cat food, and cleaning products.

Car washing and vaccing. Again, I'd usually do this myself (I do it myself now!) but I'd get mt car washed and vacced once a fortnight.

Beauty treatments: mani, pedi, brows, lashes, waxing. Basically allowed me to look put together without a lot of effort. I also find treatments relaxing so it was a a great way to wind down.

Cat sitting: if I knew no one would be home til very late (or at home at all) I have a wonderful cat sitter who'd pop in to feed the cats and clean their trays etc.

Remember that highly paid jobs can be stressful and involve stupid hours so some of this is as much about self care as it is caring for your home. Outsourcing some of this work was invaluable as it allowed me to spend my limited free time doing things I enjoyed rather than the things I don't. It's a privilege, and everyone is different, but just prioritise outsourcing the jobs you enjoy the least and/or which are the most time consuming.

Not necessarily, a quick google shows a number of businesses that provide the service virtually

i use my kettler window cleaning machine and it’s amazing!!

I use a personal shopper for clothes shopping - Circle of style - and they are on WhatsApp which makes it super easy

Cleaning.

I wanted to outsource laundry and ironing but as it’s just the 3 of us it’s just as much faff sorting it as it is doing it myself so DH does it.

We eat out regularly at least once a week.

DH does the garden/bins/physical work like deep cleaning. I do the cooking/bed and bath times/ other life admin.