Are we… weird compared to the rest of the world when it comes to how we live? A new report aims to find out as we wait for IKEA NZ to finally be a thing.
We’re all patiently (ok, fine, not that patiently) waiting for IKEA to finally land on our shores next year (check out this previous story to find out what to expect!) but in the meantime, the Swedish flatpack giants have already started to make headway into the Kiwi market, and have whizzed up a Life at Home report for New Zealand that really exposes just how uniquely we live compared to the rest of the world.
Visiting 500 Kiwi homes across the motu, IKEA wanted to understand just how Kiwis live before opening their huge Sylvia Park store, and there were some surprising findings that displayed the quirks and characteristics that make us, well, us.
Read on for some fascinating insights:
Home is where the heart is:
59% of us say that home is our favourite place to be (amen to that)
All hail the… garage?
93% of us have carpeted garages – and this is a VERY unique quirk of Kiwis. Broadly, storage is a big problem for our little houses, so garages have become multi-functional and operate as gyms, storage facilities, side-hustle HQ’s and laundries. In fact, the IKEA team were a little bemused as to where the cars actually go, because most of us aren’t using our garages to store them! Instead, we treat our garages as an extension of our home.
Our entryways are crap
Because of the *weather* and general lack of space, 88% of us have cluttered entryways – filled with shoes, most of all (omg did they come into my house?!). We tend to take our shoes and coats off at the door, but then have nowhere to put them. Things like bags, coats, shoes, prams, sports bags and key are just kind of dumped haphazardly – but we’re also annoyed by this and want more clever storage solutions (luckily we know a guy!?).
All we want is a nice kitchen
It’s the heart of a Kiwi home, but 48% of us experience kitchen storage issues, and a kitchen reno is at the top of the list for heaps of us. Apparently, we love a small appliance much more than the rest of the world – think Soda Streams, coffee machines, blenders and of course, our beloved kettles – but again, we have limited space to store or display them. Coffee machines are our most beloved appliance (in a shock to no one).
We have more side hustles happening
In terms of side hustles, we have more than the global average of 32%, with 43% of us wanting our homes to help us save or earn money. We’re big in the Airbnb space, as well as converting downstairs or extra rooms to granny flats and renting them out, as well as subdividing our land.
We love to grow our own…
… Fruit and vegetables, obviously. According to the report 35% of us are doing it (who are these people, and why do I struggle to keep the supermarket basil pot alive for more than two days!?). We value being more self-sufficient with food and energy more than the rest of the world.
We also love a tchotchke
I mean, this could be a hangover from the baby boomers who covered literally every surface of their homes with trinkets, but we bloody love decorative objects being on display. 31% of us say displaying their personality is a top driver of their sense of belonging at home.
Our most important room in the house…
Is, to no-one’s surprise, the living room. It was the most frequently mentioned favourite spot in the Kiwi home in the report, with 46% saying that being with loved ones is the main driver of being comfy at home. We tend to think of bedrooms as just for sleep, rather than another space to relax in, and our love of the outdoors is also evident, with many of us saying we’d love to maximise space outside as much as possible.
We’re frustrated
Tell me about it – among our biggest pet peeves is storage, with 88% of us struggling with everyday storage, 44% struggling with kitchen storage, 37% having issues with bathroom storage and 31% not having enough space in the bedroom. We also want to make our homes more personal, but we don’t know how (I blame our fondness for white and grey and ‘resale values’).
Other Kiwi quirks:
Hilariously, we’re singing and dancing more in our homes by ourselves than the rest of the world, dryers are more common but 56% of us prefer to air dry our clothes (fine when it’s not an Auckland winter). On that, the IKEA team noted that we dry our clothes, well, everywhere, with air dryers set up in all areas of the home, including the spare room, which, apparently, pretty much all of us are using as a dumping ground (that’s reassuring). Also, our favourite piece of furniture? The couch!