If you had 8 extra hours this week, what would you do?
For busy parents, dual-career couples, and solo professionals, cleaning isn’t a hobby—it’s a time tax. And if you’re comparing cleaning services in Malta, the choice to outsource shouldn’t be a vibe check; it should be a calculation. This post gives you a simple audit, a plug-and-play formula, and three realistic cases so you can decide—numerically—whether professional cleaning pays for itself.
1. The Audit: Where the Time Actually Goes
Forget “I think it takes an hour.” Use this one-week, no-excuses inventory. Round to the nearest 5 minutes. Most households land between 6 and 10 hours of cleaning-related tasks every week:
- Daily kitchen reset (dishes, counters): 15 min × 7 = 105 min
- Bathroom quick wipe (5×/wk): 10 min × 5 = 50 min
- Weekly bathroom deep clean: 45 min
- Vacuum & mop (weekly): 60 min
- Laundry (2 loads, active time): 60 min
- Tidying/clutter reset (daily): 10 min × 7 = 70 min
- Dusting (weekly): 30 min
- Bedding change (weekly): 30 min
Total: 450 minutes ≈ 7.5 hours/week.
Apartments with fewer rooms trend toward ~6 hours; family homes with pets and kids often exceed 9–10 hours.
A weekly or bi-weekly professional service targets the heavy blocks (bathrooms, floors, dusting, kitchen deep work, bedding rotation). You simply maintain the short daily “resets.” The result: 6–10 hours back, reliably, every single week.
2. The Formula: Put a Price on Your Time
We’ll value your time the way businesses do. Use these simple formulas to calculate the real value of outsourcing.
- Hourly Value = 2,000Annual Salary (approximate working hours per year)
- Monthly Time Value = (Hours Saved per Week×4.3)×Hourly Value
- Monthly ROI = Monthly Time Value−Monthly Cleaning Cost
Why this works: It normalizes for different incomes, schedules, and local pricing. If you’re shopping for cleaning services in Malta, plug in the going hourly rate for a recurring service and your realistic hours saved.
3. Three Cases (So You Can Sanity-Check Your Own)
These are illustrative examples. Use your own numbers for the real decision.
A) The Parent
- Annual Salary: €40,000 → €20/h
- Hours Saved: 8 h/wk → 34.4 h/mo
- Monthly Time Value: 34.4×€20=€688
- Service Cost: 3 h/wk at €18/h → ~€232/month
- Monthly ROI: €688 − €232 = €456 of value (more sleep, real weekends, and fewer chore-related arguments).
B) The Dual-Career Couple
- Effective Hourly Value (conservative): €30/h
- Hours Saved: 10 h/wk → 43 h/mo
- Monthly Time Value: 43×€30=€1,290
- Service Cost: 4 h/wk at €18/h → ~€310/month
- Monthly ROI: €1,290 − €310 = €980 (plus invaluable calendar sanity).
C) The WFH Consultant
- Billable Rate: €75/h
- Hours Saved: 6 h/wk → 25.8 h/mo
- Monthly Time Value: 25.8×€75=€1,935
- Service Cost: 2.5 h/wk at €18/h → ~€194/month
- Monthly ROI: €1,935 − €194 = €1,741 (one extra client call covers the entire cleaning budget for the month).
4. The Hybrid Plan: Outsource the Deep, Keep the Light
This is the most efficient way to maximize your return on investment.
Outsource (Recurring Service):
- Bathrooms (deep clean)
- Floors (vacuuming and mopping)
- Dusting all surfaces
- Kitchen deep work (stovetop, exterior cabinets, sink)
- Bedding/linen rotation
- Monthly add-ons: inside oven/fridge, windows, baseboards.
DIY (10–15 minutes/day):
- Quick kitchen wipe-downs
- Loading/unloading the dishwasher
- Daily clutter resets
- Laundry management
This split captures most of the hours back while keeping your spending predictable. If you’re weighing cleaning services in Malta, ask providers to center their plan on these high-leverage tasks.
5. FAQs People Actually Ask Before They Outsource
“What if my place is already pretty tidy?”
Great—your hours saved might be closer to 6 than 10. Run the numbers. Even 6 hours at an hourly value of €25/h is €645/month of time (6×4.3×€25). If a weekly clean costs ~€232/month, the spread still strongly favors outsourcing.
“Isn’t it cheaper to just batch all my chores on Sunday?”
You’ll “save” money but pay for it in attention. The cognitive cost of a 4-hour Sunday cleaning block often bleeds into the rest of your weekend. The hybrid model converts one giant wall of chores into small, manageable resets, protecting your mental bandwidth.
“Will a bi-weekly clean work for me?”
Absolutely. For a bi-weekly cadence, have the cleaner double down on floors and bathrooms during each visit. You can keep the home fresh with short daily resets and a quick 30-minute mid-week vacuum if needed. Many households in Malta find a bi-weekly service saves them a solid 6–8 hours a week.
6. Your Next Steps: Run Your Number, Then Act
- Do the audit. Be brutally honest about how many minutes you spend on chores weekly.
- Run the formula. If your Monthly ROI is positive, outsource your top 3 time-sinking tasks for the next 90 days.
- Book in minutes. When you’re ready to try a vetted professional in Malta, you can book via Rozie—a fast, transparent way to schedule and manage recurring cleans with quality controls built for busy households.
If the math says yes, it isn’t an indulgence—it’s an optimization. Time is a currency. Spend it where it buys you the most life.
