06/17/2026
I recently bought a few new outdoor chairs for an area of the yard I’ve been sprucing up.
At checkout, there was an option to pay someone a whopping $150 to put them together for me.
The chairs weren’t much more than that.
It made me laugh, but it also got me thinking.
It feels like more and more of life is being outsourced these days. Food delivery. Food prep. Grocery shopping. Laundry. Lawn care. House cleaning. Furniture assembly. Need something? There’s probably an app for it.
And to be clear, I’m not saying any of these things are wrong. There are absolutely times when outsourcing makes sense.
But I do wonder what we’re losing touch with.
Are we losing some of the satisfaction that comes from doing things ourselves? From learning a new skill, figuring something out, getting our hands dirty, caring for our belinhinhs, or simply stepping back and saying, “I accomplished that.”
A few weeks ago, my husband and I spread 100 bags of mulch around the yard. Could I have hired someone? Sure. Would it have been faster? Definitely.
But there was something rewarding about looking at it afterward knowing we had done it ourselves.
Maybe the goal isn’t always to save time. Maybe some things are worth doing simply because they connect us to our lives a little more. Maybe it’s time to insource a smidge more.
Curious… what do you think we’re gaining from all this convenience? And what might we be losing?