Have you checked to see if your city has a bulk pickup/disposal service? Talked with the sanitation workers on your route? Or priced out renting a UHaul?

Bulk pickup will take carpet in four foot rolls, three a week. They won't take any construction materials like paneling, drop ceilings, tile, etc. We certainly could rent a small trailer and get rid of it all. I had just thought it would be simpler to have someone haul it away as I hate having to put these burdens on my wife, but after hearing the price we will definitely be doing it ourselves.

Often small jobs can be almost as expensive as larger jobs because there nothing to cover the overhead.

Think about an electrician ... it costs like $100 just for them to walk in the door and then after that the cost will depend on how much you have for them to do, but that $100 is there whether their rewiring the house or installing one light.

Now looking at the jobs you listed:

Lawn service ... when we had a lawn service (we just mow our own lot now), I think it was $60-70 or so for them to come every 2 weeks and mow our builder's acre ... and the neighbor paid the same for his 2 acres. It was incredibly hard to find a service that didn't include spring/fall clean up, though ... I think they only were willing to do just mowing for that price because they could do both lots at once.

Disposal ... theykre often expensive, and you're probably paying for an eighth of a truck whether you're filling that much or not because that's the minimum for them coming out (see electrician comparison). Since disposal is only $30, why not just take it yourself (rent a pick-up from home depot for an hour is probably still cheaper), or as elunia suggested, see if there's a town pick up?

Handyman ... you've got time/labor, materials (which have gone way up as of late), and and/or disposal, which circles back to the previous point ...

If you don't like the prices, you can always get more bids or do it yourself ... especially with the lawn, it's such a small amount of grass, you could just get a push mower and be done in no time, probably with better results.

@BlueberryBundtcake - 6a/5b MA I have a pretty severe visual impairment, or I would just do all these things myself. I have time, and I know how, so it's a little frustrating to pay so much. The house doesn't need anything major; aside from some tiling (which I may well do myself), it's all minor plumbing and electrical work and things like that. It's just very difficult to do even the easy stuff if you can barely see what you're doing. All the same, I have less of an issue paying an actual tradesman a higher sum than paying unskilled laborers to haul junk. I think we will just rent a truck or trailer and haul the construction materials ourselves. I'm just always looking to save my wife the extra work.

I do mow the lawn myself, but I can't see what I'm doing, and it'd be great to be able to hire it out. Our yard is quite small and $90 per mow seemed high. You mentioned around $60 for an acre or two, but our yard is more like 0.05/acre. Still, it takes me at least an hour and a half, because I have to be so slow and careful; my wife can do it in considerably less time.

I do want to be fair to people for their time and labor. All the same, I did find these prices rather surprising.

Definitely get more quotes for the lawn service. we pay $90/week for a much, much larger yard in a HCOL town (NY Metro area). Look to see which companies are cutting lawns on your‘s and neighboring streets. We also used our lawn service to replace some sections of wooden fencing that were storm damaged. it was significantly cheaper than the fencing company.

Supply and demand. many people do not want to work since the pandemic. Costs for gas are up, product costs are all up, fewer people to perform the work all equal the end user paying more.

@millworkman I had wondered if that was a part of it. I know some people can make more by being unemployed and don't always have other considerations like career advancement or college debt.

Sadly it's not like my salary is increasing at all to keep up with rising costs due to shortages/inflation. I guess I will just do all I can myself as best as I can.

Agree with millworkman. Surely you’ve heard that many people don’t want to work these days? That fast food/retailers are begging for help? That McDonald’s will pay $15/hour for an unskilled hamburger flipper?

It’s the old supply-and-demand problem: if supply is low, cost is high.

I'm sure that must be a large part of the problem. Certainly the majority of the people/businesses to which I made inquiries never even responded, so I assume they're probably all busy enough already and short staffed. I've had terrible luck getting people out to do estimates, and then the few I've gotten have been ridiculously high. I guess I won't continue to waste my time with it if this is the norm right now.

Is there a local high schooler that would mow your lawn for $30?

Not when he would have to get dirty and not when the market is paying $90.

Quentin-

Do you have your own lawn mower and weed trimmer?

We have a neighbor that has our son mow every now and again. She pays him $20, the last time she had him trim and bag things up and haul it away (husband helped b/c son is 14 and can't drive), he got $35 I think. I bet if you ask around, post on FB, if you have that, you'll get some ideas of who to ask for some of these things. My husband worked construction years ago, so he's contacted people he knows when we've needed concrete, and for $20 bucks or whatever, they'll run by our house and give us some of the left over from a job. Done that w/sand and other things as well. Never know who you might know who would be willing to help out for a smaller amount, or help you for help w/something else in return etc.

$90 to cut your grass is a lot, but does he pull up in a $70K truck pulling a 10K trailer with a $16K commercial mower on it? Do you pay his health insurance, self employment tax, liability insurance, workers comp insurance and contribute to his retirement account and vacation account? Well technically you are in the $90 bill and wouldn't compare this to your own wages where your employer pays some or all of your health insurance and all the other expenses and benefits to keep you on the payroll. $90 is a fair price and I'll leave it at that.

@Gerry If we knew of one we would definitely ask. I did post on Nextdoor several times asking about this, but only got recommendations for lawn care companies that never responded. A friendly neighbor lady has suggested her sons numerous times, but she's much more eager for them to do it than they are and we've never managed to get them over. :)

@loobab Thanks for the long and detailed comment. I do have my own lawn mower and weed trimmer. I mow our lawn myself, it's just hard for me, as I mentioned earlier. I have a small amount of very poor vision in one eye, and I can really only see things very close to my face. I can't see enough to tell which grass is mowed and which isn't so I just go in a methodical pattern, as best I can. I go over everything multiple times to make sure there aren't missed patches, but it wastes a great deal of time. Our yard hasn't gotten a weed trim in a while because that's a lot harder. There's a lot I can still do it just takes me many times longer than it would take someone with normal vision. But with labor costs this high I guess I'm doomed to painstakingly plodding through all these jobs myself. I will just keep doing the best I can.

Sadly our church is forty minutes away or I'd have an easier time finding teenagers for odd jobs. With gas prices this insane certainly no one wants to drive far for small jobs.

I understand that many people are being de-incentivized to work, with all the stimulus and unemployment money coming in. As for myself, I could be sitting at home playing the piano and reading and collecting disability because of my blindness, but I'm not. I worked hard to get where I am, and I'm still working hard, and it's very frustrating to see this happening.

Well, try a closer church for high school kids, there is no religious requirement for employees, is there?

And try the local high schools, too. If it makes you feel better, you can try the parochial schools, although that doesn't necessarily ensure a harder working or more honest teen.

I think it will be good for everyone.

You will get the work done, and you will be helping the teen too, and teaching him a skill and work ethic, and giving him his first taste of the working world, and how a boss ethically and responsibly and kindly treats a young employee/trainee.

And you are doing it from your vantage point, that of a professional, not someone who has only ever worked as a burger joint manager, for example.

It's a big responsibility for you to take on a youngster like that that goes way beyond getting your yard done.

You are training them up in their attitude towards work and even their attitude towards adults and superiors that may stay with them for the rest of their lives and teaching them lessons they may never get from their parents.

It is a marvelous opportunity for you, and with no children in your home now, it will be good for you and your wife and I'm not talking about the lawn now.

It isn't good the way our society separates the generations.

@Joseph Corlett, LLC I'm largely with you on this one, though I'm sorry to have unwittingly spawned an acrimonious discussion.

It would be great if my salary would increase with inflation, but that's just not going to happen. That kind of thing honestly seems to only work in the lower eschalons of employment where people could care less about the particular job they have, don't mind employment gaps, and aren't concerned with career advancement. Most of the people in my circles care a lot about keeping their jobs for reasons other than just the salary, so they don't have as much leverage. It's also true that there's been an unnecessary glut of college degrees, when many people could be better employed in the trades, so there's a lot more candidates after a job like mine, which makes it hard to make a lot of money. My first job after all those years of college and grad school paid a 35k salary, but hey, we made it, and I gained experience and got a better job eventually. I'm not unwilling to pay people a fair price for their labor, but it is hard to see the demands for more from people who haven't invested this kind of time and money and hard work in training in any particular skill.

Thanks, @loobab. I could certainly check with churches nearby. I am occasionally hired to play the organ at a church a few blocks from us and I could check with them, though churches that like the organ aren't always the ones full of teenagers. I do have kids of my own, but they're a toddler and newborn so more work than help at present. :)

I completely agree with you that it's not good the way our society separates generations. I'm 32, though, so not a whole lot older, but I'd be really glad to work alongside them. I technically have a lot of useful skills, just not the eyesight to be able to execute them well, so it could be a great combination.

Thanks, @kevin9408. I have also owned a small business on the side until fairly recently (thanks to Covid among other things) and I will admit it isn't easy. Small businesses have it pretty hard in this environment and I realize that employers have a lot of expenses with taxes and insurance, etc. But those of us who did a great deal of post secondary education and collect a salary from an employer have a lot of expenses to consider as well. Possibly more, I think. There are the years and years of education in which you can't be employed full time (and internships which are almost slave labor and very competitive); there's the exorbitant cost of higher education, and for many people debt that they are saddled with for years; it's overall a huge investment of time and money and hard work, so people tend to expect to see a bit of a pay off from it.

All jobs require some combination of skills, tools, physical abilities and intellectual aptitude. Just because the skills were learned in a classroom does not automatically make them more valuable than those learned on a construction site.  Many people have fallen for the need to get a degree propaganda and so there is an oversupply of degreed candidates for some jobs. For example, the famous "teacher shortage" only applies to certain specialties while some openings have many candidates for each position. I don't know anyone who truly wants to hire unskilled labor when you expand skill set to include knowing how to lift, carry, move, be pleasant,  clean, work in a team,etc.

OP:  you make the point that you have acquired a good education and high skills, but that so have many others of your generation, and therefore it's hard to make money.  There are not that many people who actually want to do the kind of unskilled jobs you are describing:  scarcity has its own value independent of education or skill levels, and these days, the people doing those entry level jobs know it.  You can't blame them for charging what the market will bear. That's capitalism.

Quentin- Did you belong to a fraternity when you were in college? If so, and you live near a college, they might take you on as their "project." Fraternities and sororities always take on do-gooder projects and you do have a significant area of need. Even in the years ahead , say you want to go on a man-to-man trip with your son fishing or the like, with your diminished vision that is a problem. But if you are paired up with the local fraternity, that would be just the thing, and good for you and your kids.

Another option would be for you to check out the resources available from the local Guild for the Blind, and if it applies, the RP Society or whichever applies to you.

But If the educated job holder learned the skills of the unskilled custodian and cleaned up after himself he should then receive the highest reward in pay.

Just because you can do something doesn't mean you create value by doing it. Suppose the OP is the best custodian on the planet, that still doesn't mean he should be working as a custodian, or in fact dedicating any time to custodial work. So long as he has a comparative advantage at his job then he should do that job.

I never cut my own grass and rarely do my own auto repair work. While both are skills that my father insisted I develop, I would much rather be in my woodshop making something instead of doing those things, being in my woodshop is both more profitable and more enjoyable for me. There is no circumstance where doing those things is more profitable (in both time and money) than being in my woodshop.

Maybe with a mower or a truck you could start a business making much more then you're making now, who knows.

Well as the OP mentions being visually impaired, I suspect the insurance is going to wipe out a lot of the profits from his truck driving business.

I get customers who try to figure out how much money I'm making which is absolutely none of their business. They ask for material and labor prices broken down. I decline. If they ask again, they get the boot. Nothing but trouble.

@loobab Thanks for the kind suggestions. I hadn't really thought about fraternities but we are quite close to a college. I'm happy to pay for work. I'm thankful to still have a decent job and steady income.

I haven't heard of either the Guild for the blind or the RP society, and googling didn't turn up much. I have gotten training from state services, though, if that's what you mean, and it's been very helpful.

@bry911 I don't want other people to make less. I just don't want to pay so much! $250 to haul a pick up load of junk to the landfill just seemed a bit excessive. We're pretty pinched at the moment too. Anyhow, we'll figure out a way to do it ourselves, along with all the other things. I don't at all mind hard physical labor, or getting dirty, I just can't do some things and don't want my wife to have to.

I guess I did kind of sound like I thought I was owed something for all my education. Which, sort of. :) It's hard not to after all that work and expense. But I took the 35k job and we made it work, and now with a slightly better salary we're even more thankful for the extra. We're used to being thrifty and having lots of money isn't one of my goals in life. I just want to provide for the needs of my family and make things easier on my wife, while not being wasteful. I suppose I could move jobs to make more money, but it doesn't look good to move jobs often when first starting out, not to mention that it would be necessary to relocate. Some jobs you can do anywhere, and it's easy to find similar jobs in the same location. Others not so much. So there are a lot of considerations.

@kevin9408 I could buy a truck but I couldn't drive it so my business wouldn't get very far. I can't drive and I've never been able to. It's great that you are able to do all those things yourself. That's how my dad is. He worked on our vehicles himself, repaired things around the house, and if there was something he didn't know how to do he learned, and then taught us. With eleven kids there was plenty of unskilled labor available. :) Anyway, I appreciate the suggestions, and I'm sure they were well meant, they're just not really things I can do myself for the most part. I do still cut my own grass, unfortunately. I know how to do a lot of minor remodeling, plumbing, electrical, tiling, drywall, etc. It's just challenging for me.

I don't have as many options as some people but I've always tried to have several different streams of income. I do try to make the best use of my spare time to make extra money with the things I am actually skilled in, which are mostly music related.

I certainly don't have a gym membership haha. I don't watch television. I'm honestly not sure how people have the time for that anyway.

I'm with Bry on this. I want to do what I can to save money, because things are a little tight right now, but there are many other things that my time is better spent on than mowing the lawn. Playing the piano, spending time with my kids, etc. Especially given the ridiculous amount of time it takes me to do these small jobs.

Quentin- those societies may be able to give you referrals for people that can help you at a good rate, or even donate their services.

Sometimes people have or have had relatives with similar disabilities and are happy to help out with whatever their abilities are, and notify the respective societies.

Can you trade music lessons for grass cutting and snow shoveling?

I really appreciate all the helpful comments. I suppose the answer to my question is that my expectations are way off and not these prices.

I didn't mean to denigrate those performing that type of work, and certainly not those who are skilled professionals in the trades. We've had a lot of success with small businesses in our area for refinishing the floors and installing carpets and the like, who have been knowledgeable, professional, did a great job, and were well worth the money. Even if they're a little more expensive we'd rather support them than the big box stores anyway. We do the best we can, within our budget constraints. As far as things like hauling construction materials and doing yard work where the cost might not be worth it, I've gotten some good ideas on here for cheaper options to look into, and I appreciate it.

Can you find a neighborhood group on Facebook to get some more options and offers for these jobs? I use it often for referrals and look for local people to do jobs as often as possible usually locals want to have a good reputation where they live so they may not gauge or do a poor job. (Not always)

I didn't mean to denigrate those performing that type of work, and certainly not those who are skilled professionals in the trades.

@Quentin Parker - I don't think you did this. I think you have a faulty assumption, you seem to believe that your pay is correct and so you are comparing their pay relative to yours. However, if you compared both your pay to outside factors, you would likely find that your pay is just as problematic as their pay.

I switched over from the dark side of the corporate world, I wasn't actually on the operations side so my direct bonuses were not based on wage suppression but I had a lot of friends in operations and a significant portion of their option awards were based on how they performed against labor goals. The managers could get options worth two or three times their annual salaries if they could keep wages low enough. The company just decided that one person was worth an extra few hundred thousand every year if he could keep all the people below him at $20,000 below what they were worth.

Quentin: you've mentioned multiple times that you don't want to "burden" your wife with manual labor. Why not? If it's needed to support the household and family, both of you should be willing to pitch in. Both genders are capable of doing physical work, of gleaning enjoyment from building things (or tearing them out), and of learning and becoming good at just about anything. Why rob her of that? And why rob your children of the chance to see both of you working on whatever needs to be done?

You're a millennial; I would have expected less traditional gender role assumptions from someone your age.

Or perhaps your wife is resistant to the idea of manual labor? And you're trying to keep her happy? If I was capable of doing a task much more efficiently than my husband, I would happily volunteer for it, even if it wasn't my favorite chore. That's what marriage is all about.

Thanks, @Melanie Chambersi. We've tried Nextdoor, but I hadn't considered using Facebook groups.

Thanks, @weedyacres. I didn't really expect to be told it wasn't a good thing to try to take burdens from my wife, but I think I know what you meant. We actually do work together and have a lot of fun with it. But she just gave birth. I'd rather she not have to haul heavy carpets and paneling and tile.

We're perhaps unusual, but we're very traditional. My wife worked until I was done school and our first child was born and now she's a stay at home mom. This house has been our project together. She's done a lot of work on the house alongside me and she works very hard. She does a lot, but especially all the visually detailed work, like painting. My wife is a very sweet girl who takes on a lot of extra responsibilities with a good attitude; I like to do my best to make things a little easier for her when I can. She's got her hands full with our young kids, hospitality, all the driving, etc. Really a lot falls on her. I have many personal reasons for wanting to take some of these jobs off her plate; I certainly don't want to depend on her for everything.

In your last paragraph you mentioned being willing to happily volunteer for even a job that wasn't your favorite if it would help out your husband because that's what marriage is all about. I think that's great. That's basically what I'm trying to do for my wife in this instance.

I said: if I was capable of doing a task much more efficiently than my husband, I would happily volunteer for it

That's why I don't understand why you would mow the lawn if she can do it in half the time. It's just not efficient. It would make more sense to me if you played with the kids while she mowed the lawn, or did something that wasn't painstaking for you because of your blindness. I don't want to jump into giving unsolicited marital advice or anything, you guys do you.

I've got no problem with, and don't look down on SAHM by any means. Parenting is real work. But extending the traditional gender stereotypes to anything dirty or manual just doesn't seem to make sense in your situation.

And absolutely she shouldn't be doing heavy lifting soon after childbirth!

I disagree with weedyacres. In my line of work I see a lot of people with lots of problems that can really mess with their head.

Women tend to rush out and want to fix and smother/mother.

The men that do best with their disabilities are the ones that stay "men," as much as they can for as long as they can, however they define that, and relationships that work are the ones where the women that recognize this.

Now that's not easy, depending on the problem/disability.

As parents, we know how tempting it is to rush in and take over when we can do something in 5 minutes our child is struggling with for an hour.

But we want our child to gain a sense of self-worth, independence and even puissance by mastering whatever themselves.

A fortiori for a man to do it by themselves. (Unless they want help.)

Men are different than women.

Women will take a job, and ask for help and make a social occasion out of it, they don't care how much longer it will take.

Not a man!

Your lot may be small, the projects may be minor in your view, but they have overhead of materials, equipment ,insurance, state mandated expenses, etc…themselves and then need to make a living. I’ve found reliable people are invaluable and will go out of their way for me down the road if I don’t treat them like they should work for pennies.

@Anne Duke Thanks! We've definitely found that to be true in many instances, as well.

Thank you, @loobab. I wasn't going to say anything because it's a bit personal, but you have captured much of what I was thinking.

My wife can do nearly everything of that nature more efficiently than I can, but I can't just let her do everything. There's nothing inherently unfeminine in manual labor. But there is something very emasculating in sitting by while my wife does all the hard, dirty work. That would not only be unfair to her but would probably destroy her respect for me and would certainly destroy my self respect.

I appreciate this comment a lot, and I've been glad for the many helpful suggestions on this thread.