How Clean Are Your Household Habits?

How Clean Are Your Household Habits?

We all know housework can be mundane, but we were keen to find out a little more about Americans cleaning habits!

We conducted a survey of more than 4,000 Americans to discover the housework they preferred doing, how often they were really doing them, and what they like to listen to whilst carrying out the tasks.

Looking at which household tasks were most popular, we asked participants to choose their favourite tasks. Any tasks which received less 1% or less of the votes were marked as the least popular. 

house cleaning statistics graph

The most-liked housework tasks are:

  1. Vacuuming – 47%
  2. Doing the dishes – 28%
  3. Dusting – 13%
  4. Changing the sheets – 8%
  5. Mopping the floor – 4%

The least-liked housework tasks are:

  1. Cleaning the oven – 0.20%
  2. Cleaning the toilet – 0.40%
  3. Cleaning the kitchen – 0.76%
  4. Taking out the trash – 0.94%
  5. Doing the laundry – 1%

When participants were asked how often they carry out household tasks, 67% of those questioned only wash their towels once a month, yikes! We also found nearly half (49%) have never cleaned their trash can and a large amount (78%) of Americans clean their toilet once a month, whilst only 5% clean it weekly. 

Now we come to the music…who doesn’t enjoy a motivational song whilst trying to get through the long list of housework? Our research found that 84% of those surveyed listen to music whilst carrying out music. There’s no feeling quite like belting out your favourite song. In fact, it’s scientifically proven that music can release happy endorphins into our brain, and in turn making us more motivated and productive (1). 

Most of us have different music for different moods, whether it’s the hyped up playlist for our workout, or the mellow love songs we listen to whilst relaxing on a Sunday, and it seems Gloria Gaynor is the top choice for the housework! 

For our research we also analyzed over 100 spotify playlists with the word ‘Housework’ in the title to see which songs were featured most often. 

The Top 20 Most Popular Housework Songs on Spotify:

  1. I Will Survive – Gloria Gaynor
  2. Young Hearts Run Free – Candi Station 
  3. Murder On The Dance Floor – Sophie Ellis Bexter
  4. Spinning Around – Kylie Minogue
  5. No Scrubs – TLC
  6. That Don’t Impress Me Much – Shania Twain
  7. Superstar – Jamelia
  8. September – Earth, Wind & Fire
  9. Club Tropicana – Wham!
  10. Toxic – Britney Spears
  11. Girls Just Want To Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper
  12. Hey Ya! – Outkast
  13. Livin’ la Vida Loca – Ricky Martin
  14. It Wasn’t Me – Shaggy, Rik Rok
  15. It’s Raining Men – The Weather Girls
  16. Umbrella – Rihanna
  17. Say My Name – Destiny’s Child
  18. Love on top – Beyonce 
  19. Footloose – Kenny Loggins
  20. The Best – Tina Turner

We hope people enjoyed reading about the study! 

Fair Use Statement

We grant permission to use the images and data found on this page freely. When doing so, we ask that you kindly attribute the creators by linking to this page so your readers can learn more about the project and its methodology.

Sources
(1) New York Times
(2) OrioleBW commissioned survey of 4,000 Americans between January 1st 2021 and February 14th 2021
(3) Header image from Home Depot