Women take up two thirds of home

...so men are forced into their sheds

THE battle of the sexes has been won – and it’s women who can claim a major territorial victory.

On average, women’s belongings take up twice as much space in the home as men’s, forcing their husbands or boyfriends to store their stuff in the garden shed.

Men have to manage with just three drawers in the bedroom on average. And one in seven has been granted just the one drawer.

Even so, women are likely to throw out their partner’s belongings before their own. Around one in six has confessed to secretly binning items that they thought were ‘tat’ or clothes they decided didn’t suit their other halves.

Glaswegian women are the worst offenders, with just under a third saying they had ditched their men’s possessions in the past.

In total, 18 per cent of men have been forced to resort to the garden shed for storage. One man who took part in a new study – Nick, 33, from Bristol – said: ‘Of the storage space we have at home, I have three drawers and my fiancee Jodie has the remaining 11. Our wardrobe is about even but she has some really odd things that are being kept for the future. One drawer has an original Game Boy that she wants to keep. I also found one boxing glove from when she went to the gym.’

Newlywed Digby Taylor, 23, said: ‘I have to keep all my clothes in the spare room because there’s no space in our bedroom as my wife’s clothes take up all the space. She has a huge cupboard just for jumpers.’

Tidiness guru Sarit Sela said: ‘Relationships are all about compromises. Women’s shopping habits might be different to men’s and so women might need more space.

‘Having said that, sharing a household means both sides should be happy with your spaces.’

Almost 80 per cent of the nearly 2,000 couples quizzed have rowed over storage space, while six per cent of women have even considered breaking up because their partner is too untidy. Plymouth men are the messiest in the country, followed by those from Oxford.

A spokesman for Anglian Home Improvements, which carried out the study, said: ‘It’s probably time we had a bit of a declutter.’