Houseproud Scots take 12 hours to spring clean

There may be no need to step on the treadmill this spring after Scottish Gas published new research looking at how much energy people will put into their spring cleaning ritual.

On average Glaswegians spend 13 hours on the spring clean.

The energy provider found that the annual spring clean takes half a day (12 hours) in Scotland – one hour longer than the average UK figure.

This vigorous workout will result in homeowners in Scotland burning up an average of 627 calories.

This is more than 1 hour of hiking and even more than the average 10k run.

The research, conducted on a sample 2000 homeowners in February, found that Scotland remains a house-proud nation, with nearly two thirds of the population undertaking a spring clean.

Glasgow, the tidiest Scottish city in the study, spends over 13 hours on the yearly clean-up, more than double that of the quickest cleaners in Oxford, who spend just over 5 hours.

Scotland’s biggest city was behind Cardiff and Southampton in terms of time spent spring cleaning. Meticulous homeowners in Norwich topped the list, spending on average 15 hours on the seasonal clear-out.


Jacqueline Stewart, Scottish Gas smart energy expert commented: “The annual spring clean is a national tradition and our findings show that we well and truly live up to our reputation of being a house proud nation.”

Top five spring cleaning calorie burners:

Hoovering - 39 minutes - 126 calories

Scrubbing the oven - 34 minutes - 108 calories

Polishing - 32 minutes - 100 calories

Mopping - 23 minutes - 73 calories

Washing clothes - 58 minutes - 66 calories

There is no longer a gender difference when it comes to tackling cleaning, with both men and woman sharing the load this year.
Nationally the average clean will consume £0.57p worth of energy per person.