Neurotic? At least the chores won’t be a worry

IF you are the neurotic type, there are few things too small to fret over. But at least life’s worriers can rest assured they are on top of the vacuuming.

A study has found the most neurotic people spend up to 41 minutes a day longer on household chores than those who are emotionally stable. They devote an hour and 29 minutes to housework, based on a study of more than 1,300 volunteers.

This equates to almost ten-and-a-half hours a week, with women – who, according to the study, are more likely to be neurotic and do more housework – exceeding this.

Julia Rohrer, from the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, led the research on how different personality types spend their time, which concluded that neurotic individuals may just be more negatively affected by clutter.

She said: ‘One possible interpretation is that emotionally instable people require a more tidy environment to feel good, so they might spend more time cleaning.

‘But in our study, we only looked at time spent on chores, so one could also imagine that people who are less emotionally stable are less efficient... and thus need more time to achieve the same results.’

Researchers tracked 1,364 individuals to see how their time was spent over 5,456 days. They were put in five personality categories based on a questionnaire which assessed their level of neuroticism.

Those who the study judged to be least emotionally stable spent 24 more minutes a day on housework than people judged to be of average stability. They spent 41 more minutes a day on chores than the 10% most stable, which Dr Rohrer – whose research paper, was published in the journal Collabra – speculated may be because those who struggle with their nerves find cleaning and tidying soothing.