Living Rooms are the Heart of the Home

Living rooms have become the heart of the home.

Our living situations have changed significantly since March 2020 and the time we’ve spent at home has risen dramatically. We have conducted research into which rooms saw the biggest increase in use during lockdown in order to determine which spaces should sit at the top of the list for your next refurbishment.

Patterns of behaviour around the home were analysed by comparing data from before the pandemic and during the pandemic.

According to pre-pandemic data, we typically spent just over half of each day in our homes, spending an average of 13 hours and 54 minutes indoors. However, since March 2020 (when we first went into lockdown) this has increased by 56%, to an average of 21 hours and 37 minutes.

This infographic compares the time spent in our homes from before the pandemic and during and includes the various rooms in the house we spend the most time in and the daily activities that take place there.

 

Which room do we spend most our time in?

The living room has become the heart of the home, as our time spent there increased 135% during the Covid-19 pandemic, escalating from 2 hours 56 minutes to 6 hours 53 minutes. The average time watching TV also took a sharp increase (26%), as during lockdown we spent an extra 30 minutes watching TV per day on average.

Lockdown left us with little to do outside of the house, therefore many households looked to improve their culinary skills, meaning it was no surprise that the time spent in our kitchens increased by 92% too. Prior to lockdown, we only spent an average of 1 hour 47 minutes in the kitchen each day; but this increased to 3 hours 25 minutes when we had to prepare almost every meal at home.

The bedroom is another room we’ve also spent more time in, going from 8 hours 21 minutes to 10 hours 33 minutes. This correlates with an increase in time spent sleeping and resting; pre pandemic we spent an average of 7 hours 59 minutes sleeping and resting, whereas during lockdown we extended this to 8 hours 34 minutes. If lockdown was one thing, it sure was tiring!

Noticeably, the only room that saw a reduction in activity during the pandemic was the bathroom, as time spent reduced by 2%. As people worked from home and had no social gatherings to attend, time spent pampering and getting ready to go out decreased by 5%.

 

Household tasks rise but we still make time for relaxing

Inevitably with people spending most of their days in their home, it soon becomes a bit of a mess. Therefore, it is no surprise that daily cleaning time increased by 36% and washing was also more prevalent during this period.

Away from household duties, people still managed to get their rest in including napping and watching TV, but time spent reading also increased by 26%.

 

Where are we working?

Of course, one of the biggest lifestyle changes has been working from home, with the average person spending 6 hours 22 minutes doing this daily compared to just 13 minutes pre pandemic.

 However, we’ve not all been working from the same room; some people used their living room, some their kitchen, others spend their working day in the spare room that has been converted into a home office. This may explain why the average time spent in the spare room increased by 1 hour 36 minutes. Home working may have also contributed to the additional hours spent in other rooms.

Kirsty Oakes, Head of Product and Marketing from Hammonds said:

“The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown everyone’s house buying and renovation plans up in the air, with priorities changing in line with how home life has completely altered. We have spent far more time in our homes, so the focus needs to be on those shared living spaces that have played such a huge part of our daily lives.

“Kitchen and living spaces were never so important and need to be constructed carefully, and with precision, to deliver the best possible results.”