Summer is well underway and that means pool parties, ice cream and fun in the sun. It also means doing not-so-fun things like mowing the lawn, fixing the AC, cleaning the pool and clearing out the garage. This got us thinking: how many hours a year do Americans spend on chores and how far will chore-doing Americans go to to get out of their least favorite household responsibilities?
We partnered with Onepoll to conduct a survey of 2,000 Americans who live with a partner, split evenly between men and women, to help answer these questions.
Love & Housework
We found that chores can put a major strain on the relationship: 80% of chore-doing respondents have disagreements about the housework – and a fifth of those say they disagree often. The most common disagreements were found to be when to do housework (53%), how to do it (50%) and who should do it (48%).
We were surprised to see that the majority of chore-doing Americans have given their partner one of these excuses to get out of doing housework: Pretended to be sick, did a bad job on purpose or lied about a work task they need to do instead.
Household responsibilities can be a huge time suck, and when you consider that 61% of chore-doing respondents admitted to having to reclean their home again after a partner did, it’s easy to see why people might be looking to professionals to handle the housework. In fact, we recently saw a spike in Americans outsourcing cleaning.
Yelp’s Home Services category makes it easy for users to outsource chores and household tasks with the tap of a finger, allowing for more time with their significant other, and less time fighting about who’s going to fix that leaky faucet.
Chore Time
It’s not just the work itself that can create issues in relationships, but also the time commitment involved in keeping a house clean.
Between scrubbing the bathroom, weeding the yard and doing laundry, Americans are working overtime: The average chore-doing respondent can spend up to 690 hours a year on housework! This comes out to a little over 13 hours per week. With respondents estimating their time to be worth an average of $64, those who do their own chores are spending over $44,000 worth of their own time on housework, per year.
The survey found that outsourcing chores is one way to minimize the pressure of maintaining a house or apartment. Turning to the professionals for help has given respondents and their partners more time in the day (47%), allowed them to do more fun things (46%), and eased some of their stress (42%).
Our research found that the biggest barrier to outsourcing household chores surprisingly was not the cost, but the difficulty of finding the right person for the job. Yelp’s Request a Quote feature lets you compare costs for up to 10 businesses, to find the best match for your lifestyle and needs. The best part? By outsourcing tasks around the house, you not only give yourself time back to do something fun with your partner, but you have the added benefit of coming home to a space that you love.
Let us know what your most hated chores are, and which household responsibilities you outsource, on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram @yelp.
