The charts illustrate the percentage of households with three different electrical appliances and the number of hours spent on housework per week between 1920 and 2019.
Overall, there was a significant increase in the ownership of all three electrical appliances. At the same time, the amount of time spent on housework decreased drastically over the period.
Regarding the spesific ownership of appliance, refrigerator ownership showed the most significant increase, jumping from nearly 0% in 1920 to over 50% in 1940, and reaching 90% by 1960. Similarly, vacuum cleaners rose steadily from 30% at the start of the period to 70% in 1960. While refrigerators reached 100% ownership by 1980, vacuum cleaners followed and reached the same peak in 2000. In contrast, washing machines were the most popular appliances in 1920 with 40% ownership, however, their ownership grew more gradually than the others, reaching 70% in 1980 and only slightly exceeding that figure by 2019.
As these appliances become common, the time spent on housework dropped sharply. In 1920, household spent 50 hours per week on chores, but this figure fell to 20 hours in 1960. By 2019, the time spent on housework had declined to approximately 10 hours per week.