Brits spend an average of 6 days a year cleaning their homes, which is also their least favourite household chore, according to new research from Audley Villages.
On average, UK adults spend two hours cleaning, six times a month, adding up to a hefty 144 hours per year.
When it comes to household chores, 14% of UK adults also stated that weeding and sweeping leaves in the garden was their least favourite activity. On average, they are reluctantly spending an average of four and a half hours a month doing tedious gardening admin, equating to more than two whole days per year.
The research* revealed that Brits are spending time doing other mundane tasks, including:
- Booking and liaising with tradespeople – 2 days
- Looking after the exterior of their property – 3 days
- Mowing the lawn – 2 days
Time On Your Side
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The research coincides with the launch of Audley Village’s ‘Time On Your Side’ calculator, a tool to calculate just how much time people are losing to upkeeping their homes.
It could reveal that people are wasting precious days over the year doing tasks that they don’t enjoy.
For example, over a third (36%) of respondents said they would like to spend more time with family and friends if they didn’t have to do as many chores and 32% would use the time to take more holidays. Over a tenth (13%) would also use the time to volunteer, and 13% would like to try writing a book.
Paul Morgan, Managing Director at Audley Group, commented:
”It’s eye-opening that so many people are spending time doing tasks that they don’t enjoy. While it’s unsurprising that household chores can be time-consuming and mundane, the findings suggest that people are using their spare time upkeeping their property when the hours could be better spent elsewhere. When reaching retirement, it could be transformative to downsize, especially to a retirement village where the mundanity of home maintenance is taken away. Retirement should be a time to enjoy doing the things you love and exploring passions and interests, rather than spending endless hours on household chores.”
*Methodology: The research was carried out by Censuswide to a base of 2000 UK adults in November 2021.
