SO, how often do you do yours? A new survey has revealed most of us are not washing our bedding anything like enough, while hundreds and thousands of us have never washed it at all.

Well, this is a real meat and potatoes issue!

It’s not life and death granted, but it is a good conversational topic – although if you are among the one per cent – equating to around 700,000 of the population – who have never washed your sheets and duvet cover, it wouldn’t be advisable to bring that up in any chat.

What’s it all about?

Online influencer and TV presenter Stacey Solomon kick-started the debate last month after revealing she washes her bedding once a month to shocked newly-single Hits Radio host James Barr, who clearly wasn’t as frequent with his own laundry due to the level of surprise expressed. Now a new survey has revealed that in fact, most Brits (38%) wash their bedding once every two weeks.

However?

The study has also revealed a third (34%) of Brits are also leaving it at least a month before washing their bed sheets, but this is four times longer than recommended as experts say it should be done weekly.

But some are just not on board at all?

One in five (20%) of Brits have never washed their duvet or pillows before, while just under half (47%) of UK pet owners are leaving it at least twice as long as recommended, before washing their bedding even as their four-legged friends sleep with them on the bed. In all, the survey found more than 23 million Brits are leaving it longer than recommended to wash their bed sheets.

What was the survey for anyway?

Carried out for home appliance firm AEG, the poll of 2000 UK residents aimed to see how much the UK knows about laundry, with some respondents – 1% – saying they wash every six months, while 4% wash more than twice a week. The experts recommend bed sheets, pillowcases and duvet covers should be washed weekly, while a duvet should be washed twice a year and pillows once every four months. Harriette Jarman, AEG’s product laundry manager’s top tip? “It’s always best to keep the pillow in its pillowcase and use a gentle wash cycle with a low temp – try to wash pillows in pairs to balance the load.”

What else did the survey find?

The other question that caught out most – with only 38% knowing the answer – was what goes in each detergent drawer. Did you know that the compartment on the left is the main wash compartment used in every cycle, while the one on the right is for pre-washing really dirty clothes and the third, smallest compartment, is for fabric conditioner - 70% of men and 55% of women had no idea. Ms Jarman said: "This is one of the fundamental parts of a washing machine, yet clearly the majority of Brits have no idea what actually goes in each drawer.”

Best go get some laundry done?

Around 59% of Brits "can't correctly identify basic clothes washing symbols", while "across the board, women correctly identified washing symbols more than men”. On average across all three symbols, an extra 8% of women correctly identified the washing symbols than men did. The biggest disparity was with the iron icon where 42% of men failed to correctly identify this compared to just 31% of women”. What this means for sexism in society, one cannot surmise, but excuse me while I go change my bedding.