75% of UK families annoy each other in the kitchen
The Most Annoying Kitchen Habits in the UK
The kitchen is the heart of the home and one of the most-used rooms in any household. But, considering the food preparation, dirty dishes and bacteria lurking around, it makes you wonder: how clean is the average kitchen? To find out, Magnet polled 2,000 UK residents to uncover what the nation’s good and bad habits are when it comes to preparing our meals, and the biggest pet peeves about the kitchen between couples, friends and families.
The research by Magnet revealed that 1 in 4 are irritated by something in the kitchen. Of the most annoying kitchen habits, leaving dirty dishes piled up in the sink was named as the most irritating – the biggest pet peeve for a quarter of the UK. Coming in second was not wiping counter tops down after use, also with 25% saying this is the most annoying habit that their partners, family members or housemates have.
| Dishes piling up in the sink | 1 |
| Don’t wipe the worktop after use | 2 |
| Fail to wash dishes properly, leaving them dirty/greasy | 3 |
| Clog the kitchen sink with food and never clean it out | 4 |
| Leave rotten/out of date food inside cupboards/fridge | 5 |
| Forget to wash the dishes/hardly do the washing up themselves | 6 |
| Don’t clean the kitchen themselves | 7 |
| Causing a mess in the kitchen while cooking or preparing food | 8 |
| No bad kitchen habits would annoy me the most | 9 |
| Don’t take the rubbish out themselves | 10 |
How the UK Fairs With Family and Housemates
The research also suggests that behaviours change depending on whose kitchen they’re in. For instance, people are twice as likely to wash the dishes, clean the hob and help clean the kitchen at a partners’, friends’, or family members’ house than in their own home.
For couples and families, causing a mess in the kitchen is the biggest pet peeve (15% and 12% respectively). Meanwhile, for flatmates, not being offered help to clean the kitchen really grinds their gears (9%). Never washing the dishes annoys couples (12%) and families (10%) more than it does flatmates (8%), yet it’s no surprise that leaving rotten food in the fridge and causing mess in the kitchen rank within the Top 5 most annoying habits of those living in shared accommodation (8%).