Some of us are proud DIYers, and are loathe to ask someone else for help (I’m looking at all of my fellow oldest children of Boomer parents).

That said, we have come to realize there are some tasks that are absolutely best left to the professionals, extra cash be damned.

Here are a few of those things.

No more silent resentment.

If you live with someone else, a housecleaner.

Unless one of you loves cleaning so much it’s like a hobby, it will reduce stress and friction among those you live with.

Even if there aren’t outright fights, in my experience, often there is silent resentment from the person who does most of the cleaning. And there is almost always one person who does most of the cleaning.

If you dispute this and think it’s perfectly 50/50 with your partner or roommate, then it’s the other person.

We’re too old for that.

Movers.

After a certain age, beer and food isn’t enough to help move everything from one home to another.

Treat yourself.

Massages.

This is my favorite treat yo self activity. I live with chronic pain so a massage is heavenly.. edit: vice

Hard agree.

Cleaning your septic tank out.

Not a waste of money.

Maids. I rent and my landlord starting charging us 50$ for a maid service every other week.

A lot of friends try telling me it’s a waste of money but their house is normally dirtier than mine and they have a cleaning day.

A lot of plumbing nonsense.

Really a lot of plumbing jobs in general. But yeah… anything involving septic I’m glad that there are people out there willing.

In hindsight I would have gladly just paid a plumber to replace all the nonsense that was going on with my 25 year old kitchen sink. By the time I was done, I could have punched a kitten or two.

It won’t look right.

Drywall work. especially mud and tape. Professionals make it look like sorcery. I make it look like 2 weeks of

Mud\sand\mud\sand\mud\6pack\sand\whiskey\screwit\paint.

You can’t do it.

Anything that involves crawling under the house. Or on the roof.

How much is your time worth?

Really anything that you value your own time too much to do. Almost everything we buy is us paying someone else to do that thing for us.

This is how I look at it. We have someone clean our pool every week, do our landscaping once-a-month, and a cleaning service come monthly as well. I can do all those things, but it would take me most of a weekend day per month to do it all. I value my time way more than I value my money.

Of course I’m extremely privileged to be able to afford all of that. Not everyone is able to do so, and I wasn’t until somewhat recently, but as I get older I value my free time so much more than I used to.

It’s not simple.

Replacing the spring on the garage door.

That can be lethal if you don’t know what you’re doing.

In equal measure.

Cleaning rain gutters a couple times a year.

Making tamales.

Don’t you feel badly about it either.

Everything you hate or suck at.

This person has been there.

Kids birthday party.

You’re f**king nuts if you want 15 five year olds at your house f**king s*%t up.

See you at the trampoline park.

You don’t get paid enough.

Dog nails and anal gland expression.

My dog had a bad experience once and now he won’t let anyone get close to his nails.

His feet are fine but once you go for nails all hell breaks loose.

Save time and money and just call them.

Pest control and exterminator service.

Seriously. It’s dangerous.

Cutting down trees.

I’m too old to go climbing up a huge oak tree with a chainsaw.

It can be a disaster.

Landscaping. My god, I hate pulling weeds and trimming an overgrown garden.

With my allergies and sensitive skin, it’s even more of a disaster.

A terrible idea, really.

Surgery.

So say we all.

Haircut.

Tried once in covid beginning. And yeah its better if someone else does it.

Don’t rope your family into it, either.

Roofing

My dad retired a couple years ago and he had a list of things he wanted to accomplish, a new roof was one of those things. I love him to death but he is one of those guys who never wants to spend money on something he can do himself. But by himself he thought I was going to take off work for a week and my cousin and uncle were going to take off work to help him take off the old shingles and put in the new ones. It ended up taking like 2 weeks to finish, in the heat, and I was like just pay a company the money and this could taken a crew of professionals, a day maybe 2.

I mean, I don’t even work construction or anything I am freaking librarian I didn’t know how to shingle a roof and my cousin is an accountant. It sucked, if I ever have a house I need to replace a roof on it will absolutely be worth the money to pay a pro.

Tell me any of these are wrong.

You can’t. Because they’re not.