Canadian Women On Doing Laundry
When it comes to hand washing delicate garments, 34% of Canadian women say they never do it! Three in ten (31%) say they hand wash their delicate garments once a week or more, 21% do it once a month or every 2-3 weeks, and 13% do it once every 2-3 months or less.
There are a few things that could make doing laundry easier. Nearly half (46%) of Canadian women say "a machine that has a good fabric care/stain removal system" would make doing laundry easier, 34% say "a machine that allows you to do larger loads," 26% say "a machine with faster cycles," while 4% don't think any of these machines would make doing laundry easier.
Most (81%) Canadian women read and understand fabric care labels on clothing. One in ten (9%) say they "read them but ignore them," 5% "read them but don't understand them," while 6% "don't read them at all."
When buying a new appliance, 46% of Canadian women look for an "Energuide sticker indicating the kilowatts used per year," 30% say "I rely on the salesperson to advise me on energy efficient features," 26% look for "special cycles that use less energy," 18% look for the "Energy Star designation," while 5% don't look for any of the aforementioned energy-efficient features when buying a new appliance.
These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/Whirlpool Canada poll conducted between March 2nd and March 7th, 2004. For the telephone survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1106 adult Canadian women was interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 2.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult female Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual adult female Canadian population according to the 2001 Census data.
One-third (33%) of Canadian women say "doing laundry" is the most important household task in their home, second only to "cleaning the house" (54%). Nearly one in ten (7%) say "weeding/planting the garden," 1% say "mowing the lawn," 1% say "washing the car," and 3% don't think any of these are important (the remaining 1% doesn't know).
In addition, Canadian women estimate that they spend a mean average of 5.6 hours a week doing laundry, that is sorting, washing, drying, folding, and putting clothes away.
- Canadian women residing in the Atlantic region (8.5) spend significantly more time doing laundry than others: British Columbia (5.0), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (5.1), Quebec (5.2), Ontario (5.5), and Alberta (6.4).
- More than once a week: 11%
- About once a week: 20%
- About once every 2-3 weeks: 9%
- About once a month: 12%
- About once every 2-3 months: 3%
- Less often: 10%
- Don't know: 1%
Most (81%) Canadian women read and understand fabric care labels on clothing. One in ten (9%) say they "read them but ignore them," 5% "read them but don't understand them," while 6% "don't read them at all."
When buying a new appliance, 46% of Canadian women look for an "Energuide sticker indicating the kilowatts used per year," 30% say "I rely on the salesperson to advise me on energy efficient features," 26% look for "special cycles that use less energy," 18% look for the "Energy Star designation," while 5% don't look for any of the aforementioned energy-efficient features when buying a new appliance. The remaining 2% doesn't know.
Please open the attached PDF to view the factum and detailed tables.
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For more information on this news release, please contact:
Jordan Levitin
Senior Vice-President
(416) 445-1804
