New research from GoCompare reveals the household chores that UK householders hate the most

Cleaning the oven, ironing and defrosting the freezer are the top three most hated household tasks, according to new research by GoCompare.

Commissioned by GoCompare Home Insurance, the survey asked over 2000 Brits about their least favourite household chore and found that the top ten most dreaded duties around the house are:

The survey also asked people how often they carry out each task, which revealed that more than a quarter (26%) of people vacuum their carpets and floors daily, 18% say their bathrooms and floors get the once over every day, and 14% dust every day of the week.

The survey also revealed that 8% of 18 to 24 year olds are changing their bedsheets daily – despite the recommended frequency that you should change your bedsheets once a fortnight. In fact, this age group proved to be one of the most disciplined when it came to daily cleaning tasks with 10% saying they clean behind radiators daily, 24% clean the floors every day and a further 15% hoover the sofa daily (including removing the cushions).

However, other chores such as defrosting the freezer (59%), cleaning behind radiators (48%) and cleaning the oven (41%) were all carried out less than once a month in UK homes. And a further 13% of people employ a cleaner to keep their homes ship shape and help with the household chores.

Hannah Isitt, from GoCompare Home Insurance, said on the findings: “It’s always interesting to see how people feel about their household chores – and how often they do them. Some people enjoy the ironing, where others might postpone or even avoid these tasks altogether.

“Household chores have become big business in recent years, with influencers such as Clean Mama, Mrs Hinch and Marie Condo pulling in hundreds of thousands of followers across social media and providing new ways to make cleaning more entertaining and enjoyable.

“Being house proud when it comes to cleanliness is one thing but it’s also important to think about maintaining your house longer term – so those tasks such as cleaning the gutters, weeding and cleaning windows can help to prevent your house from other types of damage. If you leave your house to fall into disrepair, it could mean that insurance claims are invalidated if you then need to make a claim.

“If you can’t prove that you have properly maintained your home and looked after it, your claim could be rejected. That’s why, as boring as some of these chores are, they are important when it comes to home insurance to prove that you have looked after your house and property (contents or house) properly.”

For more information on home maintenance and how this can impact home insurance, visit: https://www.gocompare.com/home-insurance/guide/home-maintenance/. 

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For further information please contact:

Lynsey Walden or Kath Chadwick at Gocompare on lynsey.walden@gocompare.com or kathryn.chadwick@gocompare.com.

Keep up-to-date with GoCompare on Twitter; @GoCompare

Notes to editors

^*On January 14^th to 17th an online survey of 2,048 randomly selected Great British adults was executed by Maru/Blue. For comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size has an estimated margin of error (which measures sampling variability) of +/- 2.1%. The results have been weighted by age, gender, region and social grade to match the population, according to Census data. This is to ensure the sample is representative of the entire adult population of Great Britain. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.

About GoCompare

GoCompare is a comparison website that enables people to compare the costs and features of a wide variety of insurance policies, financial products and energy tariffs.

It does not charge people to use its services and does not accept advertising or sponsored listings, so all product comparisons are unbiased. GoCompare makes its money through fees paid by the providers of products that appear on its various comparison services when a customer buys through the site.

When it launched in 2006, it was the first comparison site to focus on displaying policy details rather than just listing prices, with the aim of helping people to make better-informed decisions when buying their insurance. It is this approach to comparing products that secured the company an invitation to join the British Insurance Brokers’ Association (BIBA) in 2008, and it is still the only comparison site to be a member of this organisation.

GoCompare has remained dedicated to helping people choose the most appropriate products rather than just the cheapest and works with Defaqto, the independent financial researcher, to integrate additional policy information into a number of its insurance comparison services. This allows people to compare up to an extra 30 features of cover.

GoCompare is part of Future Plc and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

More information can be found here www.gocompare.com or here https://www.futureplc.com/brands/.