BY PAM LOBLEY

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Every four years, humans get an extra day. CLR Cleaners (www.clrbrands.com) wanted to know if Americans would like to spend that day cleaning. So they did a survey, and one of the things they found was that American adults spend 13 hours a week cleaning. That’s 673 hours a year.

Then why is my house such a mess?

Actually, the women spend about 15 hours a week cleaning, and the men only spend about 10, so the average is 13. This will give new fuel to the usual post-feminist “I work outside the home and still have to do more of the housework!” fire. But, if I may, I need to give a shout out to the husbands.

My husband might clean less than I do inside the house, but outside, he does it all. He probably spends 10-15 hours a week doing yard work during every season that is not winter. How about fixing stuff? He rewires lamps, paints rooms, moves heavy furniture, hangs pictures, etc. OK, so he leaves his tools lying around. That annoys me. But when the disposal clogs up all I have to do is say, “Honey …?” and he fixes it right up. He looks handsome doing it, too.

But back to cleaning. If he is cleaning 10 hours a week, and I am cleaning 15, then that is 25 hours a week. Our house should be a darn showplace! Instead we look like an episode of “Hoarders, the Busy Family Edition.”

The survey revealed that even with an extra day in this leap year, nobody wants to use that time to clean the house. Shocking!

CLR Cleaners polled men and women about what they would like to spend their extra day doing, and here are the results:

Women's Top Five preferred ways to spend Leap Day:

70% Spending time with family

40% Shopping spree

38% Spending the day at a spa

31% Having sex

24% Partying with friends

Men's Top Five preferred ways to spend Leap Day:

63% Spending time with family

60% Having sex

37% Partying with friends

29% Attending a sporting event or concert

26% Working out

Well, it’s nice we both put family first.