New research from Mintel confirms that officially Britain spends an average of four hours 40 minutes a week cleaning the home at a cost of £1.06 billion to the nation.
While the average Brit spends in excess of four hours and a half hours cleaning their home each week, when it comes to cleaning, the division of labour between men and women still varies greatly. Indeed, men spend on average 3 hours 53 minutes cleaning, versus women, who spend as much as 5 hours 25 minutes, in excess of an hour and a half more than men.
And while one in ten (9%) men spend less than an hour a week cleaning the house, just one in twenty (5%) women do the same. Meanwhile, at the other end of the scale – a quarter (25%) of women spend in excess of 7 hours or more cleaning the home on a weekly basis which compares to 15% of men.
And when it comes to pulling in help from the kids, only a small proportion (20%) of adult children (those aged 18 and over) living at their parents’ home make a contribution to cleaning the home, with younger children doing even less cleaning (11%).
Last year, the household cleaning market was worth £1.06 billion, which equates to annual spending of £39.89 per household, an additional 1.1 million homes by 2018 means the market has the potential to increase in value by £42 million.
The vast majority (84%) of people agree that a clean and well-cared-for home leaves a positive impression on others and paying attention to unseen things such as germs or allergens is also a high priority (74%) in terms of maintaining a healthy home. Almost a quarter (73%) of Brits say that cleaning the home is a good way to stay healthy.
While most people think cleaning the home is important, the majority still think that household chores are thankless tasks (63%), suggesting that although they get personal satisfaction from cleaning their home, they might also feel that their efforts are unappreciated. And as many as 41% of Brits agree they tend to put off house cleaning chores as long as they can.
For more info visit www.mintel.com
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