New research from Direct Line Home Insurance has found that bathroom battles are wreaking havoc on relationships, with over 800,000 Brits admitting that they have contributed to a split or the end of a friendship.
Of the 40 million Brits who live with other people, a third (33%) admit to having had a disagreement over the bathroom with their cohabitees.
Of the 13 million adults who have had a disagreement over the use of a bathroom, the most common trigger was the state in which it was left after use (40 %), while leaving the toilet seat up (29%) was the second biggest reason for arguments. Oddly, a lot more women (33%) than men (24%) admitted to having had a disagreement over the toilet seat, suggesting that some men are unaware of having had an argument. The third most common reason for disputes was someone spending excessively long in the bathroom, cited by 23% of those who had been in a dispute.
It is perhaps unsurprising that so many arguments are caused by bathrooms given that more than 15 million people (30%) share a bathroom with at least three other people. More than two million people (4%) say things are even more crowded, claiming to share a bathroom with five or more people.
The average Brit spends around two hours a week in the bathroom, amounting to over four days a year and over eight months across a lifetime. This dramatically rises for the two and a half million Brits (5%) who claim to shower several times a day. At the other end of the scale, two million Brits claim that their entire bathroom routine takes less than five minutes (including showering and brushing teeth).
Across the country, two million people admit to washing fewer than three times a week, less than half the national average of 6.4 times a week. There was also a clear gender divide in the country’s bathing habits, with men twice as likely as women to shower less often than the national average, making them sound like ‘rare rinsers’.
Brighton came out as Britain’s ‘cleanest city’, with three fifths (63%) of those surveyed showering every day. Bristol, in contrast, came bottom with nine per cent of Bristolians washing fewer than three times a week.
