The sun is donning its hat, children’s excited voices can be heard across the country and we are planning how to make the best of this glorious weather.

But those voices are confined to back gardens and those plans, which previously would have been focused on days out, have switched to sprucing up our homes.

While the current Covid-19 lockdown measures are obviously limiting our movements, we are taking advantage of the restrictions – and finally getting round to those household jobs we might previously have been putting off.

In our latest article exploring Google Trends, the Quickfire Digital team reveals the desire to give our own personal space an upgrade.

The five-year volumes for the search term ‘diy’ show a large spike since March 22nd and there is no sign of any let-up in interest in performing our own home improvements.

Brushing up on our painting skills

When it comes to DIY, painting is one of the areas we clearly feel confident in handling ourselves as our search for paint and paint brushes continues to rise to a five-year high.

Our search behaviour points to how we shop for paint and how marketing has adjusted our attitudes – ‘kitchen paint’ and ‘bathroom paint’ leading the way as we feel the need to make use of these room-specific products. How long before providers bring a ‘living room paint’ product to the market?

When it comes to what’s in for 2020, the evidence shows that we’re intent on going…green.

However, while we seek to freshen up our kitchens and bathrooms, searches for room-specific paint are dwarfed by the sudden, huge increase in fence paint.

Clearly, the enforced increase in the time spent in our own gardens has caused us to consider how to make them look as appealing as possible.

And we are conscious of our houses being as attractive as possible to those passers-by out for their daily exercise with searches for ‘front door paint’ and ‘window paint’ also hitting five-year highs.

While painting is an area we obviously feel comfortable with, some bigger jobs just aren’t on our minds right now with interest in new bathrooms dropping to a five-year low.

The extra time at home is providing opportunities for improvements we otherwise might not have considered and our search behaviour is highlighting some of these.

Keep the pressure on

Concrete slabs which have collected dirt and dust over the years seem set for a long overdue clean-up with interest in ‘pressure washer’ spiking since March 22nd.

Some of those back-garden slabs look likely to be removed though with searches for decking rising to a five-year high.

We want to make the best use of our outdoor space and evidence suggests that we are looking at new inclusions to gardens.

Easter chicks and bunnies

Keeping chickens might not be possible for a number of us but the increased interest in chicken coops suggests that some of us might be considering new members to the household.

And it’s not just chickens. Perhaps parents are finally relenting and caving in to those requests for a rabbit.

As previously highlighted the current situation has driven a new-found interest in growing our own fruit and veg – and we clearly need somewhere to grow some of those plants, hence the surge in searches for greenhouses.

And at the end of a hard day’s work we need to treat ourselves with some fine outdoor cuisine, the recent interest in barbecues outstripping search volumes of last summer.

Summary

We’ve all been there: thinking about those jobs round the house that need doing but always finding excuses to avoid them. Now, there are no excuses and our search behaviour suggests that we are finally turning our attention to getting them sorted.

We’re happy painting but we also seem keen to invest in a pressure washer, some decking or a new greenhouse.

And at Quickfire we’d love to pop round and help paint your fence but social distancing sadly means we’ll have to leave that for another day…