Kim Woodburn & Aggie McKenzie will answer your questions on our Good Housekeeping message board.
Date: Wednesday Aug 19th
Time: 12 noon

According to a new survey by Plenty looking into the nation's cleaning habits and attitudes, a quarter of men in the UK (24.3%) and one in six women (15.19%) would pass up a night of passion if their home was in a bit of a mess.

The research by Plenty also shows that most of us (75.02%) are guilty of judging others based on the state their home. Over a third of respondents (34.2%) actually admitted that they have been turned off a potential partner after noticing their lack of home cleanliness.

According to the survey results, it's not just women who are using the state of one's home as a character yardstick. Men are actually twice as likely to snoop in their friends' or partner's spare room or cupboards to see what mess they may be hiding (10.5 % of men vs. 4.09% of women) and are also more likely to gossip about the state of others' homes once they've left (12.69% vs. 10.7%).

The research is supported by Kim Woodburn and Aggie MacKenzie, tying in with Plenty's sponsorship of the new series of Channel 4's How Clean Is Your House?

Aggie was born in Rothiemurchus, near Aviemore, Scotland. Aggie and her three sisters were taught the art of cleaning by their mother, who deployed a dizzying array of remedies for spots and stains.

Aggie studied in Aberdeen, and spent two years working for MI6, leaving to pursue a career in women's magazines, eventually ending up at Good Housekeeping as associate editor in charge of the Good Housekeeping Institute, testing the latest consumer appliances, developing and testing recipes and investigating new cleaning products and gadgets.

In 2002 Aggie was invited to take a screen test alongside a housekeeper called Kim. A few months later `How Clean Is Your House?' was born and Aggie and Kim became the nation's dream cleaning team.

Ask Aggie, a collection of solutions to hundreds of cleaning questions, was published in July by Penguin and shot to number 1 in the Home and Garden chart on Amazon. Aggie also writes a weekly column for the Saturday Times Magazine and a monthly column in Good Housekeeping.

Kim was born in Eastney, near Portsmouth. She first noticed the joy of cleaning while watching her fastidious grandmother who cleaned schools for a living, soaking clothes, scrubbing the step and polishing like crazy. Kim's first job after leaving school at 15 was in a high-class fashion shop, ironing the clothes that would be displayed in the window.

She took up her first live-in cleaning job after moving to Liverpool, cleaning from morning till night. A variety of jobs followed: at a toy factory, a holiday camp, as a beautician, a social worker and even a model in a clothes catalogue. Kim also started knitting, and founded a handmade knitwear company. In 1983 Kim made her television debut modelling her range of knitwear on Pebble Mill At One with Jeff Banks. It was 20 years before television would rediscover Kim Woodburn,

This year Kim and Aggie will once again be back on our screens in August in the 6th series of How Clean Is Your House?

Their book How Clean Is Your House? was published in 2003 and became a best-seller. It won an Award at the prestigious British Book Awards. In 2004 they published a book, Too Posh to Wash to accompany their television series. This was then followed in 2006 by another book, Cleaning Bible.

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