Strong value growth in sales of carpet cleaning products and furniture polishes show that consumers are willing to spend more money on products that help to protect and maintain household items that are expensive to replace.

So says Mintel, which today releases new research showing that the total household cleaning market is now worth an impressive £1bn.

"Carpet cleaners have been a star performer in the household cleaning products market," comments Mintel's senior household care analyst, Richard Caines. "Sales of carpet and upholstery cleaners did well between 2010 and 2011, boosted by product innovation seen from some major brands and an effort to look after carpets as opposed to buying new floorcoverings."

Within the overall household cleaning market, value sales in the household polishes and specialist cleaning products sector grew by 3% to £171m between 2010 and 2011. Carpet and upholstery cleaners grew from £21m to £23m between 2010 and 2011, but furniture polish has shown the greatest growth.

It increased 45% between 2006 and 2011, growing from £22m to £32m over the period. Half of Brits use furniture polish at least once a week.

Drain care has also experienced a surge in sales over the past five years, up 17% from £24m to £28m.

However, floor polishes have suffered, sales shrinking 33% over the same period from £12m to £8m. Mintel puts the decline down to the fact that only a small minority have real wood floors.

Meanwhile, Mintel found that cleaning the windows and the oven top the list of least-loved tasks, with 27% of Britain's households admitting their windows hardly ever get cleaned and 23% saying they rarely clean their oven.

Despite that, three-quarters of those surveyed said they really cared about their house being clean.