Our most irritating worry is...have I locked the door?
DID I lock the door? Do I have my phone? Do I have my keys? These are the top three of the paranoid worries which routinely drive Britons mad.
Almost 90 per cent of people spend their days wondering if they have turned things off, picked up crucial items or locked up properly as they left home.
Other niggling worries include: Have I paid the bills? Did I turn off the light? Did I turn off my hair straighteners?
Once a worry sets in, it can be hard to shake off.
A poll has found that 55 per cent of people admit that a nagging thought is all they can think about until it can be resolved.
And eight in 10 adults, polled by home improvement window specialist Independent Network, have actually gone back home just to put their mind at ease.
A spokesman said: “From wondering if we’ve left a window open to questioning if the lights are still on, there are many niggling questions we ask ourselves each day. Once you have that thought, even if you are certain you did it, it can be hard to forget about it completely until you can go and check.
“For some, it gets so bad they have to drive home to make sure their door is locked or the window is closed, so they can concentrate on the rest of their day.
“But many of these little jobs could cause trouble if we did forget to do them, leaving our home at risk, so it’s easy to see why they can play on our minds and lead to a worrying day.”
The study found that wondering if we locked the front door is the most common worry. This is followed by, Have I got my phone? and Do I have my keys?
Worrying about what to have for dinner is also at the forefront of the nation’s minds.
Meanwhile, four in 10 people have been so worried they have left something open, unlocked, or turned on, they have called a neighbour to check for them.
And almost one in four has left a spare key with someone so they can get in to their home to make sure things are shut and turned off when they are too far away to check for themselves.
A third have even left work in the middle of the day, or used their lunch break, to go home to put their mind at rest.
However, when one person went home to check they had turned the hob off, they found a fire engine outside and a house full of smoke – confirming they had in fact left the hob on.
A quarter of those polled, via OnePoll, have gone home to find they have left a window open while almost one in five has gone back to their car to find they had left it unlocked.
While most niggling worries usually prove to be unfounded, 90 per cent of people are glad to have gone back home to check.
Four in 10 said they would feel anxious all day if they were unable to go home and check.