A New Way to Decide Whether to DIY or Hire Someone
Ah, the great “do-it-yourself or hire someone else to do it?” debate (also known as “time or money?”).
Well, I’m ready to chime in…
I have a notoriously dirty car. Not the kind with all lots of trash in it, just the kind with lots of dog hair, food crumbs and dust. I told a co-worker that I needed to take it to the car wash, vacuum it out and clean the dash/windows, and his response was, “When my car gets that bad, I just take it to the place down the street and have it detailed.”
Me, being a girl who doesn’t even like pumping quarters into the car wash, found this a little ridiculous. Even though car detailing supposedly “only” costs about $20, I can do it myself for $7 or less (I think $7 is expensive for a car wash, but this one has free vacuums and I usually end up paying less than I would if I had to keep pumping quarters in for the wash and vacuum - I’m pretty slow!).
For some reason, I was thinking about this today (maybe it was the sight of all that hair and crumbs around my stick shift?), and something occurred to me. If my co-worker offered me $20 to clean out his car, would I do it? I think I would!
If I would be willing to do the job if someone else paid me to do it, then I shouldn’t hire someone else to do it for me.
Now, onto the question we do not speak of: If someone paid me $2,992 to paint their house, would I do it? If so, should I be hiring someone to paint mine? Of course, another relevant question would be: If someone paid me to paint their house, would I feel qualified to do it?
I’d like to think I’d pass on that “opportunity.”
Photo Credit: Do-It-Yourself by iamPatrick, used under Creative Commons licensing.
