Time for a reality check? We reveal why your house might actually be smaller than you think

We've all been there, struggling to squeeze all our belongings into a new home – that you swear looked bigger when you viewed it. It's unsurprising, as it turns out, over half of Brits don't know their own house size.

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Research by Barclays has revealed 57 per cent of homeowners don't know the size of their own home, in square foot or square metres. What's more, 25 per cent don't even know what a square foot or square metre is.

This is a recipe for disaster when it comes to moving all your belongings into a new house. One in five homeowners has admitted to struggling to fit all their things into a property.

All we can say is thank Wilko/Dunelm/IKEA for clever storage solutions.

We can only imagine the drama that comes with blindly guessing the size of a new sofa. An issue that many of those surveyed admit to having, with a quarter saying they've had to return furniture that didn't fit.

However, it is unsurprising that we are all struggling to fit things into our homes with a significant number of brits overestimating the average size of a UK property. When asked, most people believed a typical three-bedroom home to be 40 per cent larger than it actually was.

It seems that many of us are in serious need of a reality check when it comes to house hunting for a bigger home. Barclays found that although a third of respondents believed the size of a house to be more important than location, 69 per cent don't look at the floor plan.

'As more of us look for properties online, it's interesting to see how, as a nation, we're struggling to judge how much space there is,' explains Hannah Bernard, head of mortgages at Barclays. 'It's important to think about whether you need more space in a new property or if you can simply extend your home to suit your needs.'

If you do choose to move, avoid being caught out looking for an even larger house in a few years time by giving the floor plan a proper look. It is also a good idea to take a tape measure when looking round a house so you have a clear idea of the actual available space.

Related: This is EXACTLY how much storage space you get in new-build homes - and it might shock you!

Do you know how big your home actually is?