Study Reveals How Long Brits Spend On Christmas DIY

• UK adults spend an average of 9 hours and 24 minutes on DIY to get their homes ready for Christmas – and they’re heading to their local shops to stock up on products.

Forget hanging up tinsel and putting the star on top of the Christmas tree; when it comes to the festive period, the average UK adult spends 9 hours and 24 minutes on chores and DIY to get their homes ready for hosting and celebrating – and they’re heading to DIY stores, homeware retailers and supermarkets to stock up on products, according to new research.

The most popular jobs to do to prepare for Christmas, include deep cleaning the house (33%), decluttering (28%), fixing broken items (15%), decorating or touching up paint work in at least one room (13%) and hanging up non-festive decorative items, such as mirrors or pictures (10%). Other jobs include buying new storage solutions (9%), putting up shoe racks or coat racks (7%), buying and installing new entertainment systems (6%) and buying new beds or products for sleep (6%).

Although house proud Brits are keen to impress their guests, not everyone is confident with carrying out basic DIY jobs. Nearly a quarter (24%) said they aren’t confident hanging up a mirror or picture and almost a half (46.3%) aren’t confident at hanging up entertainment devices, such as TVs or speakers. 

When it comes to concerns around basic DIY, over two- fifths (44%) said they don’t like drilling or making holes in the wall, over a third (35%) said they would like to do more DIY but they’re anxious about ruining their property, and 34% said they worry the products they use to hang items on the wall aren’t strong enough.

Richard Davies, Home Improvement Shopper Marketing Lead at 3M, said: “The lead up to Christmas is a busy time for people to carry out home improvement jobs, but there’s millions of people who lack the confidence, know-how and skills to do a lot of DIY tasks.

"That’s why we’re always looking at ways to make things as easy as possible for people. For example, our 3M CLAW™ Heavyweight Hanging Solution makes it easy to hang up items like pictures and mirrors. Designed to push straight into the plasterboard or drywall, with no measuring, drills or screwdrivers required, the specially engineered hardened steel 3M CLAW™ locks securely into drywall, with the range of hangers proven to hold up to 30KG.”

The research showed that 22% of adults would go to a DIY store to buy innovative products to help them hang pictures and mirrors up without tools, 21% would buy from an online retailer, 10% would head to a homeware retailer, 9% would go to a value retailer, and 7% would buy from a supermarket.

The most popular reasons for choosing a particular retailer to buy products for their home improvements and DIY jobs were cost and value (56%), ease and convenience (48%), expertise and knowledge of the staff (23%) and the fact that they’re already shopping there for other items for the home already (22%).

Richard Davies, Home Improvement Shopper Marketing Lead at 3M, added: “There’s a huge opportunity for retailers – whether supermarkets, value retailers or DIY stores – to upsell to consumers during this busy shopping period. People aren’t just putting up festive decorations and stocking up on gifts and food, they’re also carrying out basic home improvement tasks. 
Anything retailers can do to make things as easy as possible for consumers will help them boost sales. For example, place DIY and home décor items near to
Christmas decorations, and make sure easy to use, innovative products such as the 3M CLAW™ and Command™ range are placed near items like mirrors and pictures.”

The market research was carried out by 3M and surveyed 2000 UK adults. For more information, go to: https://www.3m.co.uk/3M/en_GB/home-improvement-eu/claw-hanging-solution/

Source : 3M

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