Honey Doesn't List: Recent Study Shows Married Women Waiting a Long Time for Husbands to Complete Household Jobs

TREVOSE, Pa., May 13 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent survey sponsored by Mighty Putty(TM), a powerful household epoxy, revealed the reality of Honey-Do lists in American households. While 94% of married women surveyed maintain a Honey-Do list, respondents revealed that 78% of the tasks on these lists remain unfinished for some period of time.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080513/NETU003 )

Over one-third (37%) of women surveyed indicated that tasks stay on their list of unfinished household projects for weeks; another 25% said tasks linger for months; and 16% said it takes years for jobs to be checked off. (See Figure A.)

71% of women surveyed were likely to have between one and nine tasks on their Honey-Do list at any given time. While women ages 25-35 were more likely to indicate there were 10 to 15 tasks on their list, more experienced wives (ages 56-67) were more likely to have fewer than 5 tasks listed. Comments from respondents indicated that reducing the number of tasks or "requesting" the completion of one task at a time helped move projects along.

Tasks most likely to linger on the list for over six months included cleaning and organizing the attic/garage (40%), painting (39%) and repairs of wall cracks, drywall and dings (23%). When a task lingers on the Honey-Do list, 44% of women indicated they would typically end up doing the job themselves. Others let tasks remain undone indefinitely (20%) or called a professional after a few days (4%), a few weeks (13%), a few months (17%) or a few years (2%). One respondent simply gave up, saying, "After years of it...he now lives in Texas and I live in Kansas!"

"Not surprisingly, many of the Honey-Do tasks involve basic household repair. This study showed that many of the Honey-Do tasks that go undone could be easily addressed with Mighty Putty," said Bill McAlister for Mighty Putty. "Whether that helps husbands look good by handling their wives' requests or lets women save themselves disappointment by addressing tasks themselves, having a few sticks of Mighty Putty on hand may help keep the household together in more ways than one."

Mighty Putty commissioned the research firm Market Reader Pro to execute this study of over 300 married American women ages 25 -- 65 in order to document the nature of common home projects that go undone.

Mighty Putty is a powerful bonding epoxy stick that can be molded to any shape and applied to metal, glass, PVC, wood, wall board, ceramics, tile, and concrete for a durable bond. For more information, please visit www.mightyputty.com.