That can't be true. Have you seen my house?!

My husband was raised to do his own cooking and cleaning, so he does plenty of household cleaning. He vacuums, does the dishes, makes dinner, ect.

I am lazy about cleaning, until everything is dirty or I can't find something or I'm having company, I just let clutter build up, till I moved in with him. Then him being disapproving that I didn't clean very often made me clean more ofter than I would if I was single again living in a tiny studio.

But I do notice that when it comes to cleaning a room, like the kitchen or bathroom, I'm a detailed cleaner and will spend hours making it sparkly brand spankin new clean, while he prefers surface clean. Like wipe the countertop, not scrub. Sweep the floor, not mop. So it's more like if I'm going to clean, it's going to be perfect clean, Monk clean, if he cleans it's how does it look from 5 feet away and hide the stuff you can't find a place for, where I'd prefer to just throw more stuff away.

When you are by yourself, there is just not as much of a mess. Two people generate more trash, more shoes under the coffee table, more dishes in the sink.

I bet single women eat less too. Let's face it. Marital bliss has its advantages, but tidiness isn't one of them. I have always thought that if these Other People would just go away, my house would be much cleaner!

In my experience, there's simply a lot less that needs to be cleaned up when I'm living alone. I'd say it take 1/3 as much time to keep my house presentable when I'm the only on messing it up.

What a bizarre misinterpretation of the facts: A cohabitating woman does five hours more work than a single one, a cohabitating man does two hours LESS than a single one.

So, obviously, the cohabitating woman has more work because she is doing at least part of his job, too. It's living with a slob that makes her work more, not living single that makes her a slob. Duh!

That is very true; I hate how this article and the BBC article (particularly in the headlines) seem to shift focus to the single women of this survey, when first off, men are proven to already be more slothful in general, and then reduce drastically upon cohabitating with anyone, particularly women.

I say this as someone who has not seen the floor in my bedroom in weeks, but still.

There are two single gals in my building and I've been asked to water plants/pick up mail when they're away on business. Both their apartments are FILTHY. Even when they're going out of town, they leave dirty dishes in the sink! One girl had grapes covered in fruit flies. Truly disgusting. I had to restrain myself from scrubbing both places down (thought they might find me rude).

Of course, I was raised by a mother who took the same laisez-faire attitude toward housework (she basically stopped after her divorce(s)), so I've always been a compulsive cleaner, so maybe I'm just finicky. But those flies were gross.

umm .... perhaps men are "more slothful" because they know women will clean up after them?

i do not think that men are biologically programmed to be lazy or dirty. it is truly a case of socialization.

Demonstrates to me that single women are neat freaks instead of slobs since this is a mere 5 hour difference and a whole extra human being's skill set less. When approached from that angle (the extra help that is) married and coupled women are the ones that look like slobs. And i mean no offense - i just don't think the survey portrayed any woman in good light. The fact remains that when you're living alone ALL housework relies on you. When you're copulated the work can quicker be divided. I'm also going to go on a whim and assume that those coupled women gave their men the harder-to-do household tasks whereas single women don't have that luxury.

On the flip side, i'm assuming single men have it easier if they can handle the harder-to-do chores of domestic work as is the situation i've noticed with men. Lastly i'd like to ask what is it that the domesticated, coupled up women do in the survey? That fact was conspiciously missing, at least from TCF's post. This would really determine a more accurate survey. If they were married mothers at home then they have more time to devote to domestic chores. The majority of single women that i know (and i am one) have placed themselves in more demanding careers and just simply don't have as much time to devote to their domestic pursuits. I mean I'd love to have a spotless, shining kitchen sink 24-7 but after coming home from a 9-10 hour workday and devoting myself to freelance projects and masters' applications the first thing i want to do is eat and then relax on a workday. Cleaning sinks just isn't gonna pay my bills!

Well, for one thing, this study was done in Britain;however, I wouldn't be surprised if there were similar results here.

I was disappointmed that this article was so short. It did propose a theory that single women were able to get in touch with their inner slobs, so to speak, because there were no witnesses. I'm sure this theory has some basis in reality.

However, what about the obvious fact that two people make much more of a mess than one person?

A single person might be more likely to clean up after every little mess, rather than wait until it takes hours to clean. There's more laundry with two people, and just a whole lot more domestic activity, which obviously takes more time to declutter.

Anyone else in this mindset?

I agree that having another presence in your domicile might increase the time you spend cleaning. But, another likely explanation is that women tend to pick up after their significant others such that single women clean less and single men clean more.