According to a survey conducted by The Soap and Detergent Association (SDA), housework can cause major friction with both married couples and unmarried couples living together. Take a look at the SDA survey results. You’ll find out who cleans better, what pushes your partner’s cleaning buttons, and other statistics you may or may not want to know…
Who is Really Doing all the Cleaning?
Women claim they do 79% of the cleaning in their households
Men, have acknowledged that they are responsible
for only 35% of the cleaning in their households
Clean and Mean: Couples Clash Over Cleaning
46% of couples who live together argue about cleaning
27% of these couples argue about who should do the cleaning
24% argue about how often the cleaning should be done
17% argue about the best way to clean
Kids Contribute to the Craziness…
Maybe it’s all those toys taking their toll on household order. According to the survey, 55% of couples with children at home fight about cleaning, compared to 38% of couples who don’t.
Task by Task- Who’s the Better Cleaner?
Four times as many women as men claim they do the laundry better than their partners
Women claim they clean the bathroom and kitchen better than their male partners
Men feel they’ve got vacuuming under control. 22% of men say they vacuum better than their partners, and 14% believe they do a better job of washing dishes
Bottom line: 25% of men say they can’t clean better than their mate, no matter what the task
Your Partner’s Cleaning Shortcomings: What Pushes Your Buttons?
Almost 2/3 of individuals surveyed felt their partner’s cleaning abilities were below average
51% of people say that not cleaning often enough is their partner’s biggest shortcoming
41% of people believe that their partners vacuum around things instead of moving them
Almost 50% of women and 24% of men complained about their partners leaving a mess behind in the kitchen
About 50% of women and 16% of men were unhappy with the way their partners cleaned or didn’t clean the bathroom
Honest Evaluations of the Opposite Sex:
On a cleaning scale of 1-5, with 5 being “extremely well” and
1 being “extremely poor,”
55% of men gave their mate as a 5 out of 5
The women gave their partners a 3 out of 5
When evaluating themselves, men averaged a 3.7,
while women rated themselves an average of 4.1
Improving With Age:
59% of couples ages 18 to 24 claimed to have arguments about cleaning
Of those couples age 55+, only 34% admitted to arguing about cleaning
Individuals in the 55+ age group were most likely to view their own cleaning skills as equal to their mate’s cleaning skills.
“The 1999 SDA National Cleaning Survey, which included interviews with a national sample of 573 adult Americans, married or living as married, 18 years and older, was conducted by Opinion Research Corporation International."
