How Clean are Brits?
Just how clean are Brits?
First of all, have you ever used the internet to discover how to clean something?
Search data is a great way to learn about what questions are lurking in the mind of Brits and unsurprisingly, there were some unusual ones. Using the number of average monthly searches we were able to discover exactly what Brits can’t clean. We grouped these into three main categories.
- Hygiene
- General Household
- Laundry
If you want to learn and explore what questions were most popular or what funny and intriguing questions Brits are asking, then read on!
1,800 Brits a month are looking for the correct way to clean their ears, which means that yearly, this number jumps up to 21,600. More than half of the UK population use cotton buds to clean their ears, even though they’re not supposed to. The NHS actually recommends that you don’t try to clean your ears unless there is a build-up of wax, and in which case they recommend visiting a GP. This means that there are 21,600 searches a year for how to clean something we’re not supposed to clean.
A slightly more surprising question was ‘after quitting smoking how to clean lungs?’ which has nearly 5000 searches a year. A further 2,400 Brits are searching for ‘how to clean lungs?’ a year. Interestingly, lungs are self-cleaning organs that will begin to heal themselves once they are no longer exposed to pollutants. Why are Brits obsessed with cleaning bodily functions that don’t need cleaning?
2,400 Brits a year are also looking for ‘how to clean out bowels quickly?’. Whilst it is actually possible to help encourage the cleansing of this self-cleaning function, we’re slightly alarmed by the urgency.
The data also revealed whether males or females have the highest monthly searches for how to clean their genitals. ‘How to clean your penis?’ receives more than 75% more searches than ‘how to clean your vagina?’.
The majority of ‘how to clean’ searches naturally fell under the household category. Surprisingly ‘how to clean silver’ was top and not just by a little. With an average of 9,700 searches a month, why don’t nearly 10,000 Brits know how to clean silver?
6,100 Brits don’t know how to clean an oven? which is unnerving seen as dirt and grime can affect the efficiency of ovens, which can then cause food to undercook. It’s very unlikely that they’re cleaning them every month, which means that 73,200 Brits a year that are wondering how to clean their oven.
After our previous survey revealed that 3.8% of Brits wash their bedsheets every year, we’re not shocked that 56,400 Brits a year are looking at ways they can clean their mattress. Whether all 56,400 went through with the clean – we’ll never know.
How to clean washing machine receives 12,700 searches a month. This is the equivalent to 152,400 Brits a year searching for how to clean their washing machine. Whilst it is recommended to run a service wash once a month to prevent mould and bacteria growth, it’s surprising that there are 108% more Brits looking for ways to clean their washing machine than their oven.
The majority of high searched laundry related questions were actually related to ways of cleaning different types of shoes rather than clothes. Although, 8,400 Brits are looking for ways to dry clean at home.
