The Hidden Cost of Domestic Work in Canada

The reality of household chores in Canada is often overlooked by newcomers. The time spent on chores such as washing dishes and laundry can add up to months of lost potential income. However, investing in tools such as dishwashers and robots can free up your time and drastically improve your quality of life.

The Harsh Reality of Daily Household Chores Can Be Far More Daunting Than Anticipated If Left Unmanaged [image from laterjay. 2023]

For both immigrants and Canadians alike, domestic help is usually not an option. If you move to Canada, you’ll quickly learn that you’ll have to take care of your own household chores. Many people don’t realize how much work is involved in keeping a home clean until they have to do it themselves.

Imagine, if you don’t take out the garbage, it will pile up in your house. If you don’t wash your dishes, they will just sit there, dirty. You have to take care of everything on your own, and if you neglect these tasks, they’ll just keep piling up.

It’s important to recognize that moving to Canada with unrealistic expectations about domestic work will only lead to frustration and difficulty.

The Shocking Truth About Household Chores in Canada

Time use: Total work burden, unpaid work, and leisure

While some people believe that everyone should do their own work, the truth is that most people have other things they’d rather be doing than cleaning their homes every day. For example, washing dishes alone takes at least 30 minutes twice a day, which adds up to cleaning dishes for one hour every single day. That’s 365 hours in a year, or 15.2 full days or 45.6 working days.

When you consider all the other household chores that need to be done, such as laundry and vacuuming, they easily take up to 2 hours every day, which means spending 30.4 days or 91.2 working days every year doing these tasks.

In other words, you will be losing 3 months of potential income every year by spending so much time on household chores and if you maintain the same living standard for the next 12 years, then that will amount to one whole year just doing repetitive household chores and three years of lost potential income.

It’s madness losing so much time doing mundane repetitive tasks especially when there are alternatives available.

Living in Canada: Balancing Work and Household Chores

From Domestic Slavery to Freedom: Invest in Household Tools [image from cottonbro studio. 2023]

Doing household chores are repetitive and energy-draining and this needs to be managed like any other issue with the right tools and mindset. You don’t need to feel apologetic if these tasks leave you exhausted.

To solve this problem permanently, you first need to accept the reality of the situation and adjust to Canadian living standards. Look for an apartment that already has a dishwasher and washing machine installed in the unit itself, and also invest in a robot that can vacuum and mop your floors.

These small investments will dramatically improve your quality of life and free up your time to pursue activities that you actually enjoy.

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