Home sweep home: Average American spends 300 hours a year cleaning

NEW YORK — Americans are scrubbing away the days, spending nearly 300 hours a year cleaning their homes, according to sweeping new research. A survey of 2,000 adults explored their cleaning habits and found that the average person spends over five hours a week scrubbing, washing, and dusting their home.

In fact, cleaning is one of the activities that take up a good chunk of their week (39%), along with watching TV (52%) and working (32%). If your sink or hamper is full to the brim, you’re probably not alone: half of Americans admit to falling behind in cleaning their home at least sometimes (52%).

Conducted by OnePoll in partnership with Maid Brigade, the survey also finds that while some find cleaning to be fun, a third of respondents admit to disliking this chore (32%). Forty-five percent of those surveyed find the burden of cleaning lies solely on them in their household.

Not only are they doing it alone, but one in four have even showed up late to an event or left early because they needed to prioritize cleaning their home. Similarly, 26 percent have missed out on events like going out for drinks with friends (39%), spending time with family (35%), and attending their child’s sports game or recital (22%) because they needed to clean instead.

With the holidays right around the corner, Americans are not getting a break. More than half of those surveyed anticipate having guests at their homes during the holiday season (55%), leading most of these respondents to clean more frequently during this time of year (78%).

On average, people would start cleaning three days before they have guests over for the holidays, while one in seven would start cleaning at least a week in advance. It’s no surprise, then, why a third of those surveyed admit that they dislike hosting others for events at their home (36%).

Nearly three in five feel tired by the end of prepping for visitors (58%) and most of these respondents say this tiredness makes it difficult to have a good time and make memories with their guests (59%).

Instead of occupying their time cleaning during the holiday season, Americans want to spend time relaxing (53%), watching movies (45%), and spending time with their loved ones (40%).

“Life’s best moments are often found in the company of our loved ones,” says spokesperson T.J. Liles, vice president of marketing at Maid Brigade, in a statement. “We believe this to our core. Cleaning your home isn’t a reason to forego the chance to create lasting memories with the people who matter most.”

Is all of the prep worth it? More than half of those surveyed have received comments on the cleanliness of their home when hosting others (57%).

While most remarks have been positive (88%), one in nine admit that they’ve gotten at least some negative comments. However, they’re not the only ones — 44 percent say loved ones have also shared that their guests commented about the cleanliness of their home.

Knowing how it feels to be the one in charge, 39 percent of respondents claim that they show up early to an event they’re not hosting to help the host clean. Surprisingly, a quarter of Americans expect guests to show up early to do the same (26%).

If it were up to hosts, however, cleaning is the top task they’d eliminate when preparing to have others in their home (26%). Half of the respondents would be interested in having help with cleaning from a professional if it would help free up their time.

“Professional cleaning helps to free up time for people to have fun building memories with friends and family rather than focusing on the dreaded task of cleaning up before and after events,” says spokesperson Raychel Leong-Sullins, president of Maid Brigade. “We all deserve to enjoy the holiday season completely.”

Survey methodology:

This random double-opt-in survey of 2,000 general population Americans was commissioned by Maid Brigade between October 3 and October 12, 2023. It was conducted by market research company OnePoll, whose team members are members of the Market Research Society and have corporate membership to the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR).