- Majority of British homeowners feel pressured to impress guests with their home at Christmas (55%)
- Fear of judgement from friends and family cited as the biggest cause of pressure (50%)
- In the last five years, 53% of homeowners have hired help in preparation for Christmas
British homeowners are set to spend a staggering £1.5bn preparing their home for Christmas guests as more than half (55%) admit they feel pressure to get their home looking perfect during the festive period.
A nationwide survey conducted by one of the UK’s leading directory of trade experts, Checkatrade, discovered the number one reason was a fear of judgement from friends and family (50%) followed by a need to impress people (34%). Interestingly, 1 in 10 people felt social media has added to the pressure to have a perfect home.
The research discovered that the average amount people spend getting their home Christmas-ready is £110, putting the total potential spend this year in the region of £1.5bn2.
The primary concern for homeowners is ensuring the house is sparkling from top to bottom, with almost half deep cleaning the house (49%), a third washing the windows inside and out (32%) and over a quarter cleaning the carpets (27%).
It’s not just the cleaning jobs that fill up the to-do lists however; astonishingly 10% of homeowners have fitted a new kitchen in the run-up to Christmas, while almost 1 in 5 (17%) have redecorated the living room.
Busy Brits are relying on professionals to ensure jobs are done properly, including oven cleaning (8%) in preparation for the turkey and chimney sweeping (8%) in preparation for cosy log fires – or perhaps another visitor at Christmas. This is backed up by Checkatrade’s own website traffic, which shows searches for chimney sweeping and oven cleaning increasing by 26% and 24%3 respectively from October 2019 to November 2019.
Mike Fairman, CEO at Checkatrade, commented: “It’s no surprise that homeowners are busy getting Christmas ready – but it’s a case of them decking the halls with paint and flooring, rather than boughs of holly. With so many Brits looking to spruce up their homes in the run up to Christmas, a time where we usually fill them with expensive gifts and decorations, it’s important to ensure that you’re only letting reputable, vetted and monitored trade experts in to your home, to ensure you aren’t missing out on a very Merry Christmas.”
Checkatrade is the UK’s leading directory of trade experts, working across a huge breath of industries from cleaning to architecture. If you’re looking to speak to a trade expert about getting your home ready for Christmas visit https://www.checkatrade.com/