The hours spent on household tasks is no small matter. Reinvested, it’s the equivalent time taken to learn to become a ski instructor (125 hours), pick-up a new language (600 hours), be good enough to play drums in a band (500 hours) or even get a PADI Open Water Diver certificate (24 hours)*.
McCarthy & Stone teams are freeing homeowners from the burden of everyday tasks as they tackle almost 10,000 hours each month - or 120,000 hours a year**. From communal garden management to in-apartment cleaning, preparing meals and laundry, the support is designed to empower homeowners’ independence, so they can focus on enjoying what matters most to them.
The most dreaded of the chores are the most commonplace - cleaning (36%) and ironing (31%), and if they were taken off the daily agenda, a quarter of over 55s (22%) would spend more time with family, or explore new places and travel (20%). While hobbies like hiking (29%), catching up on TV (28%) and crafting (13%) would also be picked-up more readily.
Having time to learn something new is also on wish lists. 1 in 10 are keen to learn a new language, 23% want to spend more time in the garden, and 18% would take up meditation, yoga or Feng Shui. 22% would also take the time to simply ‘be’.
Chrissy Fice, Marketing Director at McCarthy & Stone, said:
“McCarthy & Stone is focused on creating ‘homes’ and communities for people to enjoy. As part of this, we’ve increased the scale of our in-apartment services that can help with everyday tasks and household chores. This allows people to spend more time doing what they love - whether that’s staying active, socialising or discovering new passions. By taking care of the day-to-day demands of running a home, we’re giving homeowners more freedom to enjoy a more fulfilling and independent later life.”
The UK’s top ten time-stealing chores
Research conducted by OnePoll between 7th to 9th April 2026, among a nationally representative sample of 1,000 UK adults aged 55+.
*Hourly breakdown of new skills learnt is an average taken from a language learning app and qualifying bodies for PADI, etc.
**The estimated 2,400 hours per month is based on internal McCarthy & Stone data relating to the average number of hours spent by on-site teams supporting homeowners with day-to-day tasks across a Retirement Living PLUS development. Weekly figures have been scaled to reflect a monthly and yearly total for illustrative purposes.
Discover our lifestyle support services
McCarthy & Stone – the UK’s leading developer and manager of retirement communities – provides on-site maintenance teams that handle homeowners’ everyday household tasks.
By giving back 6 hours per month per homeowner, or 2,400 hours in total**, homeowners are free to enjoy their retirement in the way that matter most to them.
