Pearls of wisdom

To obtain our data, we conducted a survey of 500 Millennials (people born between 1977 and 1995) and Gen Zers (people born between 1996 and 2015), and 500 Baby Boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964) and Gen Xers people born between 1965 and 1976). 

We asked a series of questions to find out which skills our respondents would like to improve on, as well as which skills these different generations think are the most important.  We also asked each age group what they’d like to learn from the other generations, and where our respondents go for pearls of wisdom on how to do DIY and home repairs for themselves. 

Check out this blog to find out more.

Although some respondents admitted they would like to improve practical skills such as cooking, sewing and finance management, as well as social skills like communication, the majority of Gen Zers and Millennials said they’d like to enhance their DIY and home repair skills. 

In fact, over half (59.4%) of these respondents answered that they’d like to improve their DIY skills, while 58% said they’d like to improve their home repair skills, showing that these younger age groups are definitely interested in becoming more clued up when it comes to carrying out tasks around the home.

Finance management and communication skills came out on top as being the most important, with 24.2% of our Gen X and Baby Boomer respondents choosing each of these options, while cooking skills came in next with 15.6%. Just 13.6% of our older generation respondents said that they think DIY is the most important skill to have, while 11.6% chose home repairs. 

So, while the majority of our younger respondents said they’d like to improve their DIY and home repair skills, the majority of our older respondents don’t actually consider these to be the most important skills, showing a huge difference in what matters most across these different generations. Further to this, we asked our respondents where they learn how to do home repairs. 

For pearls of wisdom for all things DIY, the majority of respondents from both generations said that they learn from their parents or grandparents, with 67% of Gen Xers and Baby Boomers, and 47% of Gen Zers and Millennials choosing this option.  

If our respondents aren't asking their family members for help, they’re watching videos instead. 41.4% of our older respondents and 31.6% of our younger respondents picked this option as their preferred way of learning how to carry out DIY and repair tasks at home.