Americans Hate This Household Chore The Most, Study Finds

If you loathe that day of the week when you have to clean the toilet, don’t worry, you’re not alone. The rest of America feels the same way as you.

In a study by real estate company Lombardo Homes, some 1,070 respondents between the ages 18 and 79 said that their most hated chore is cleaning and sanitizing bathrooms. No surprise there, seeing as how icky and time-consuming the task is. 

Not-so-fun-fact: Did you know that the toilet isn’t the dirtiest spot in the bathroom? You’ll find twice as many germs on the floor, and over 21 times as many bacteria on the faucet. Even worse, while the toilet might contain some 300 particles of bacteria, your toothbrush could have more than 200,000 particles.

Other most-hated chores include washing the dishes, doing laundry, cleaning the fridge, yardwork, sweeping the floors, dusting, cleaning the kitchen, picking up clutter, and taking out the trash.

The study also asked respondents how often they did those dreaded chores. 85 percent of them said that they have procrastinated doing housework. 25 percent said that they only allot an hour or two on chores in an average week, while in contrast, 4 percent said they spend more than 10 hours on chores per week.

Interestingly, about 1 in 10 Americans said that they have tried bribing a partner or roommate to do the chores for them. The top five of these chores that get handed off are: taking out the trash, washing dishes, yardwork, changing air filters on a furnace or air-conditioner, and once again, cleaning bathrooms.

As always, try to inject some fun into your tasks so your chores won’t become, well, a chore. You could listen to music or a podcast, add a timer so you’ll stick to a deadline, use aromatherapy as an olfactory distraction, and reward yourself with some comfort food or a Netflix binge (or both) after you’re done.

The study also sheds light on housework divided between genders, how singles do chores before a date comes over, and which chores people do while doing WFH. You can check out the full study here.