According to a survey by Hotpoint, published this week, the kitchen – rather than the bedroom – is the source of most marital discord. Not only is it the busiest room of the house, it’s also the most stressful, with 85 per cent of women revealing that the kitchen habits of their men annoy them.

The 1,427 mothers surveyed said they were most irked by their partners making a mess while cooking, leaving pots and pans in the sink and perishable food out of the fridge, not taking the bin out or eating the last “treat” from the fridge.

Susannah Holloway, Hotpoint’s brand director, commented: “The kitchen is the heart of the home – where we bond, do our homework, entertain, feed ourselves and communicate – so we're not surprised our research found that tensions are rising here, especially in light of the recent credit crunch.”

I don’t think it’s anything to do with the credit crunch; rather it’s the way in which traditional gender roles have overlapped and become muddled. Not so many years ago, a husband rarely set foot in the kitchen – unless it was to sit at the table and eat a meal his wife had cooked. Wives cooked, cleaned and washed up, while their men folk put their feet up after a hard day at the office.

Nowadays, or so we are told, “metro-sexual” men are all but elbowing their partners out of the way in their rush to concoct Jamie Oliver recipes, whip up a loaf of ciabatta in the bread maker and load the dishwasher with military-like precision.

Except that most aren’t, are they? A sizeable chunk of blokes still sit in front of the TV, beer in hand, while their other halves – who have also been at work all day – knock up the tea while sorting out the washing. The few who do venture in largely pay lip service to New Man-ism: chopping some vegetables, rinsing a few dishes under the tap but getting distracted halfway through or cooking a meal using every pan, utensil and work surface available.

I might sound a little flippant, but there’s a serious point to be made here: my experience shows that a lot of relationships are ruined by metaphorical molehills rather than mountains, and clashes in the kitchen (as well as elsewhere in the home) can escalate into marital meltdown if allowed to get out of hand. So if your relationship can’t stand the heat, my advice is that one of you gets out of the kitchen.

On the basis that too many cooks spoil the broth (along with Gordon Ramsay’s latest consommé), it might be a good idea to decide that, from now on, only one of you will be the main cook and bottle washer. Households in which each partner has defined roles often work better than those where everyone mucks in with everything.

If you know that your role is the put a hot meal on the table every night, then you’re less likely to feel resentful that your spouse hasn’t done his fair share in the kitchen this week. In turn, if your partner doesn’t feel pressured into helping to put the crockery away, they won’t run the risk of being taken to task for putting things in the wrong place.

In short, if your marriage is falling apart because of domestic wrangling over who does what in the home, sit down together and draw up a list of jobs and responsibilities for each of you. That way, while you are flicking through recipe books, your spouse is tackling the weeds in the back garden. And when you are cleaning the cars at the weekend, your other half is doing the ironing.

There is much to be said for sharing the chores, but sometimes the old fashioned ways are best: PC or not, it may be far healthier for the relationship to preside over your own dominions of interest or expertise and then snuggle up together on the sofa when the day’s work is done.