Yorkshire and (house) proud

City dwellers in Yorkshire are among the most house proud in Britain, a survey has revealed.

Around two thirds of people across the country believe their home is very clean and tidy, with more than one in five UK homeowners (22 per cent) carrying out a deep clean at least once a fortnight.

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But Sheffield tops the house proud stakes behind outright winner Norwich, in the survey carried out by ScS.

People go to a number of lengths to ensure their house looks as good as it can, with a quarter vacuuming their floors every day, almost a third (32 per cent) owning matching plates, mugs and cutlery, one in five (19 per cent) regularly purchasing expensive candles, and 40 per cent admitting they enjoy plumping up their cushions.

The house-proud traits don’t stop there. Over a third (34 per cent) of those surveyed said they had a colour scheme in their home. Twenty per cent of UK homeowners own a formal dinner set or special set of mugs, and one in 10 (10 per cent) admitted to making fresh coffee to improve the smell of their home.

Norwich folk awarded themselves an average rating of 7.3 out of 10, when asked how house proud they are. Sheffield and Gloucester also both rated themselves above seven. Portsmouth was the least house-proud city, scoring just 5.9 out of 10.

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The top ten most house-proud cities in the UK as revealed by the survey are:

NorwichSheffieldGloucesterYorkNewcastleLeicesterChelmsfordCambridgeSouthamptonCardiff

The study also revealed that Brits are very protective of new items of furniture, in particular sofas, with 45 per cent of those surveyed admitting to tension about letting people sit on a new couch for a few months after purchase, with nearly one in ten admitting they would always feel uncomfortable letting people use their sofa.

Furthermore, 36 per cent of Brits do not allow pets on their sofa, along with pens (27 per cent), dinner (21 per cent) and feet (18 per cent). A third of those surveyed said they would not allow people to sit on the arm rests of a sofa.

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Although Brits may appear very house proud, when it comes to preparing our homes for visitors, the stats say otherwise. Research revealed 15 per cent of UK homeowners admit to not changing sheets in the spare bedroom before having someone stay, and one in ten regularly give guests dirty towels.

One in five hosts admitted to serving food they have dropped on the floor! The biggest grumble among hosts is guests getting dirty footprints on the floor or carpet and putting their feet up on their sofa or coffee table.

Simon Nicholson, furniture buying director, at ScS, said: “We were interested to find out how house-proud UK homeowners are, in particular looking at attitudes towards pets around the home, cleaning and preparing for guests, as well as our sofa habits.

“We’re impressed to see that the UK holds such high sofa standards, with feet and pets on seating seen as a big no-no. Although we were slightly shocked to hear about some of the nation’s guest etiquette confessions, on the whole it seems as a nation we love nothing more than plumping our cushions and investing valuable time in the look, feel and upkeep of our homes.”