New research has revealed that the UK is a nation of domestic gods and goddesses, with nearly one if four (38%) homeowners claiming to be very house-proud.

The survey, which was carried out by furniture and flooring expert, ScS, polled the nation to find out just how house-proud we are, revealing two thirds of Brits believe their home is very clean and tidy, with more than one in five UK homeowners (22%) carrying out a deep clean at least once a fortnight.

Brits 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%) owning matching plates, mugs and cutlery, one in five (19%) regularly purchasing expensive candles, and 40% admitting they enjoy plumping up their cushions.

The house-proud traits don’t stop there. Over a third (34%) of those surveyed said they had a colour scheme in their home, 20% of UK homeowners own a formal dinner set or special set of mugs, and one in 10 (10%) admitted to making fresh coffee to improve the smell of their home.

Norwich is the city which claims to be the most house proud, with the East Anglian city giving 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 7. Portsmouth was the least house-proud city, scoring just 5.9 out of 10.

The top ten most house-proud cities in the UK are:

1. Norwich

2. Sheffield

3. Gloucester

4. York

5. Newcastle

6. Leicester

7. Chelmsford

8. Cambridge

9. Southampton

10. Cardiff

The study also revealed that Brits are very protective over new items of furniture, in particular sofas, with 45% of those surveyed saying they wouldn’t feel relaxed about letting people sit on a new couch for at least a few months after they purchased it, with nearly one in ten (9%) admitting they would always feel uncomfortable letting people on their sofa.

Furthermore, 36% of Brits do not allow pets on their sofa, with pens (27%), dinner (21%) and feet (18%) also no goes. A third of those surveyed said they would not allow people to sit on the arm rests of a sofa.

Although Brits may appear very house proud, when it comes to preparing our homes for visitors, the stats say otherwise. Research revealed 15% 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 also admitted to serving food they have dropped on the floor, however 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.

Commenting on the findings, 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.”