COLUMBUS, Ohio, April 21 (UPI) -- Nearly half of U.S. adults say they will spend four hours or less on this year's spring cleaning, and 18 percent will spend one hour, a survey indicates.
The Stanley Steemer Spring Cleaning survey indicated 74 percent said they can name at least one less-than-enjoyable task they would rather do than spring cleaning; 8 percent said they would prefer 48 hours of sleep deprivation and 9 percent said they preferred the physical pain of a root canal rather than do spring cleaning.
The national survey, conducted by Kelton, found 7 percent Americans procrastinated to the point their annual cleaning occurred in summer, fall or even winter -- outside the traditional March through May spring cleaning window.
"Dirt hurts your investment, threatens the health of your family and pets and impacts the value of your home," Justin Bates, president of Stanley Steemer, said in a statement. "Home health is like dental health ... we recommend the routine, regular cleaning Americans do on their own be combined with a professional deep cleaning every six months to remove dirt, dust mites and other pollutants from carpets and upholstered furniture to minimize allergic reactions."
Seventy-nine percent of Americans describe their childhood home they grew up in as clean or extremely clean, but only 36 percent could say the same of their own home.
Cleaning is not without rewards -- 47 percent found cash when cleaning and 27 percent found lost jewelry.
No further survey details were provided.
