Half of us still give our homes a spring clean
It's an age-old tradition, but millions of people in the UK still roll up their sleeves, don their rubber gloves and give their home a big clean in the spring, according to research for thinkmoney.
The research found that 49% of us - 24.6 million - take care of those household chores we all love to hate once spring arrives.
Top of the list of chores is cleaning windows - with 78% of spring cleaners carrying out this particular task. This is closely followed by 'de-cluttering' (68%) - finding unwanted or unused items to sell or give away. And just under 68% will be moving furniture to clean out all the grime that builds up over the year.
Spring clean chores – Task Percentage
Cleaning windows 78%
De-cluttering 68%
Moving furniture to clean underneath/behind 68%
Emptying kitchen cabinets to clean them 65%
Washing skirting boards/paintwork 64%
Emptying cupboards to clean them 64%
Cleaning on top of kitchen cabinets 55%
Taking down curtains to clean them 43%
Changing from winter to summer bedding 42%
Cleaning behind appliances 40%
Shampooing carpets 23%
Beating rugs 17%
Other 1%
Ian Williams of thinkmoney said: "It may seem old-fashioned in this day and age, but it seems that many of us still welcome the longer days and warmer temperatures by giving our homes a much-needed spring clean.
"We'd urge everyone to take the opportunity to give their finances a 'spring clean' at this time of year, too. In particular, it's always good to try and find areas in which you can cut back, or to see what benefits you might be entitled to.
"A good budget should be at the centre of your plans - and that's what we're all about. The thinkmoney Personal Account helps people to budget by setting aside money for bills every time you get paid, so you'll always know how much you can afford to spend."
OnePoll carried out online interviews on 2nd May 2013 using a nationally representative sample of 2,000 people. Figures were extrapolated to fit ONS predictions of a UK population of 50,371,000 in 2013.