We do it for free: how much does housework cost?

The development of technology has almost completely freed men from some of the responsibilities that used to be an integral part of everyday life and housekeeping. Coming home from work, he does not need to run to chop wood, cut hay, draw water from a well, plow sown fields, or hunt for game so that he has something to eat for dinner. And it’s not every day that a man hammers nails, installs partitions and lays bricks on walls. We can say that in the modern world, men are freed from many responsibilities that were previously purely their prerogative.

What about women? Well, it's not that simple here. Even if she works, no one cancels household chores, some of which need to be done daily. And from century to century these tasks do not diminish. A woman must still keep the house clean and tidy, cook almost every day, wash/iron/move the floor/fight dust, raise children, and also remain a sexual partner and a good conversationalist.

A woman comes home from work and must stand at the stove and cook dinner for the family. You also need to check your children’s homework and help with their completion. Then wash the dishes, do quick cleaning, prepare your family for tomorrow: iron your spouse’s shirt, check the cleanliness of his suit, do the same for younger family members. A man comes home from work and rests, this is his free time.

Perhaps it’s not for nothing that they say that being a housewife is a thankless task. Judge for yourself: there is no salary, no vacation, housework never ends.And at the same time, some women often hear a rather offensive phrase addressed to them: “Why are you tired, you sit at home all day and do nothing!” Of course, when order and cleanliness are constantly maintained, this is not noticeable. Meanwhile, managing everyday life and keeping the house clean is a colossal work that is sometimes not appreciated even with a kind word.

Let's calculate how much a man saves whose wife is “unemployed and fully supported” by doing all the household chores. For evaluation, let’s take the optimal period—a month.

Cooking

We will not be considering the person who can only be trusted with slicing bread and cutting meat. For comparison, let’s take a cook with the fourth category. It is this indicator that allows him to prepare complex salads and stuffed dishes, various soups and jellied jellies, as well as baked goods, sculpt dumplings and dumplings. Such luxury will cost a family an average of 2,500 rubles a day! And he still won’t wash the dishes after himself and clean the kitchen. The price includes only cooking. By the way, this amount also does not include payment for products.

Perhaps there is no need to talk about the higher ranks - the fifth and sixth - they allow the cook to create new recipes and write technological maps for them; such masters know how to prepare medicinal, dietary and gourmet dishes.

It turns out that you will have to shell out 75,000 rubles a month for a personal chef (for cooking alone!).

Purchase of products

The task is also not easy.But if you want to hire a special person for this, so as not to wander around supermarkets, avoid queues, and not carry heavy loads, then such a service costs on average 1,000 rubles for one trip to the store.

Let's assume that you don't need to buy every day, but about once every two days. In total, we receive 15,000 rubles per month for the service.

Ironing

Let's not talk about washing: the advent of automatic washing machines freed women from the obligation to scrub their clothes in soapy water - although this is a huge relief.

But what does the price list say about such a service?

• shirts - ₽600 for 1 hour of work;
• bed linen - ₽150 for 1 set;
• other clothes - ₽400 per hour.

So, let’s calculate expenses for the month:

• We iron shirts once a week - 2,400 rubles.
• Bed linen - twice a month, if it is changed according to the rules (once every 10 days). But here you need to take into account the number of family members. If this is a married couple, then it turns out that two sets of bed linen are ironed per month - 300 rubles. A family with children starts from ₽600 per month, subject to one child.
• As for the rest of the clothes, the woman, one way or another, irons them once a week at least (when there is a baby in the house, the amount increases several times). Even if we take this minimum value, it turns out that you need to set aside 1,600 rubles per month for basic ironing.

What happens? You can generally take the minimum amount, but even then You will have to pay at least 5,000 rubles for the ironing service.

Quick cleaning

The price of express cleaning depends on many indicators: the degree of contamination, the area of ​​the apartment/house, the list of specific tasks. But let's calculate the standard list. This includes:

• dry and wet cleaning of floor coverings;
• removal of household waste;
• removing dust from equipment and wardrobe items;
• care of mirror and glass surfaces;
• cleaning and disinfection of plumbing fixtures.

This is not a minimum list of tasks, but usually in cleaning services it is limited to this. Such maintenance cleaning will cost on average 2,500 rubles at a time. Now let's do the math. Let a woman not do everything every day and at once, but, taking into account many factors, per month the family budget will lose an average of 10,000 rubles - the amount is only approximate.

spring-cleaning

This includes all the tasks described above, as well as additional ones. They often differ between cleaning companies. The price may include:

• ceiling washing;
• cleaning lighting fixtures - chandeliers, floor lamps, sconces, lamps;
• wiping tiles or panels in the bathroom, toilet rooms or kitchen;
• furniture polishing;
• upholstery cleaning;
• make the bed;
• wash the window sills;
• cleaning of heating radiators;
• maintenance of doors and trim;
• remove traces of tape, paint, plaster and much more.

The list of tasks, as already mentioned, may change. But in almost all cleaning companies the price for the service is the same - on average 5,000 rubles at a time.

Yes, a woman does not do general cleaning every day, but once a month for sure. Total - 5,000 rubles.

Window cleaning

It is worth saying that window cleaning is a seasonal task. Hardly anyone does it every month. This is usually done in the spring, as soon as it gets warm, and in the fall, before the first frost. But we will not exclude this responsibility of a woman from the list, and we will even take the minimum estimate.

If you want to hire a person to wash, you will have to pay an average of 400 rubles for one window. And this often happens without cleaning the mosquito nets! Any apartment has at least two windows - at least! We get 800 rubles.

Nanny

Here I would really not like to devalue the role of a man in raising children. Often, dads also devote quite a lot of time to their babies: they don’t sleep at night, bathe the babies, go to meetings at school/kindergarten and for walks with the kids, help with homework, prepare breakfasts (while mom is sleeping), and much, much more. .

But when a man claims that raising children is exclusively a woman’s responsibility, then look at how much a nanny’s service is valued:

• The minimum cost is 250 rubles per hour. Usually this only involves taking the child to school/kindergarten and picking him up. Perhaps keep him occupied a little with games when his parents are late from work.
• If you need someone who will feed your baby extra, help him with his homework, and put him to bed during the day - from 500 rubles per hour.
• Live-in nanny (when almost all responsibilities for caring for and educating a child fall on a stranger) - from ₽45,000 per month.
• Tutor in various subjects - 500 rubles per hour.

We will not calculate the cost of the service and include it in the list. Prices are for general information only. Of course, any mother does not at all relate to raising children in the context of “duty,” but if a man constantly accuses a woman of idleness, then you can quickly sketch out the cost of a nanny’s services.

Conclusion

Such simple calculations tell us that if a woman housewife really sat with her hands folded all day long, she would have to hire a team of assistants. And this would cost on average no more or less - 110,000 rubles per month.

By the way, small duties that a woman also performs from time to time are not taken into account here: washing the refrigerator, maintaining the family budget, sorting things in the closet, paying and calculating utility costs, caring for sick family members (nurse service!) and much, much more. other.