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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

AIBU to ask things you have in house that are not low maintenance

342 replies

Newdonewhugh · 09/10/2020 11:25

Hi

I’m building a house and I really want it to be as low maintenance as possible. Can you talk to me about things that have made your home life easier and things that are a nightmare.

Some examples:

A friend told me not to get a handless kitchen as the scoop bits to open the doors are always filthy.

Another thing I want to talk about are these new black taps? Will they save me from the grind of constantly filthy, finger marked stainless steel or will they just be covered in limescale instead?

What about a shower screen? They drive me insane. Shall I just build a wall instead I f shower screen?

Robot hoovers.... are they worth it?

Please help me live a life where I can sit down and relax on a sofa one day.

OP posts:
VanGoghsDog · 09/10/2020 22:02

One of the things I would really like is an antifog mirror in the bathroom

I have that, it's fabulous. Warm reflection!

JocastaElastic · 09/10/2020 22:02

Instead of kitchen cupboards or drawers for your plates, cups, glasses, cutlery, and pots and pans, invest in a wall of dishwashers. You can wash things in the dishwasher then leave them there until they’re needed. That way you’ll never have to unload the dishwasher to put things away in cupboards. Yay!

Shizzlestix · 09/10/2020 22:06

No to butler sinks! Mine is wrecked.
Yes to groove free kitchen units. Gloss is good, just wipes down.
Amtico flooring (LG is even cheaper, yes the ones who make TVs)
Plastic covered table or tiles or lots of varnish, easy wipe clean.
Re worktops, I have the fake wood from B&Q, but I sourced extra long pieces to avoid joins except on corners. Having joins is a nightmare for rolling pastry/cleaning and I’m lazy!

SilenceOfThePrams · 09/10/2020 22:10

Low maintenance Haves - rhinofloor (cushioned vinyl). People think it’s wood but it’s much lower maintenance.

Giant fridge and freezer in a bank With food cupboards so putting shopping away easy.

Folding table which gets folded away when not in use so can’t accumulate mountains of crap.

Folding chairs as spare dining chairs so they don’t take up space.

Induction hob and microwave without a turntable. Non turntable microwave is a complete game changer. So so so much easier to clean! And big rectangular dishes for in it so you can defrost or reheat lasagne etc. But mainly, the cleaning. So easy!

Sealed floor in the bathroom with a drain in it. Extra long shower hose so can use it to blast basin and floor corners.

Floor to ceiling storage whoever we can squeeze it in.

Want - 2 dishwasher drawers instead of my dishwasher. One on, one being loaded.

Bank of sockets in a cupboard for charging. Was supposed to have this but electrician forgot.

Utility room/mud room. Somewhere to shed boots and wet coats with a big old butler sink to rinse off walking boots etc and where the washing machine lives too.

Porch. With shelves and hooks and a catchy thing for the post and a separate door before the front door so I could lock the front and leave that one open for parcels etc.

A cupboard in the hall big enough for school bags and sports kit and swimming kit as well as coats and jackets and everything else. Saw an amazing set up once where there were separate hooks for each day of the week; PE kit and swim stuff were stored on the appropriate hooks, as were Cub uniforms and ballet stuff and everything else - just got hung on the appropriate hook after washing and you could see at a glance if it were missing. More than 5 minutes before it was needed. Life goals.

Naticus · 09/10/2020 22:13

Sorry haven't rtft

Mermaid boards in bathroom instead of tiles.

Also cupboards big enough to store ironing board (and somewhere for the iron) and vacuum cleaner, mop, broom etc...

Have seen this mentioned in first few posts, plug sockets as many as you can!!

LtGreggs · 09/10/2020 22:18

Glossy kitchen units = wipe clean. We have had cream plain gloss doors in 3 houses over 25 years and they do not date.

Anti-fog bathroom mirror

Move North to soft water - makes life lots easier (may not be very practical suggestion!)

Key box outside - no more getting locked out etc

Carpets from stairs upwards, hard moppable flooring downstairs.

MrsFezziwig · 09/10/2020 22:41

Radiators collect dust, you can't paint behind them and they make the room look cluttered.

Why would you want to paint behind a radiator? Confused

Other than two feature radiators, all my radiators are painted the same colour as the walls they are mounted on so they don’t make the rooms look cluttered at all.

I have an anti fog bathroom mirror, which works brilliantly as long as I remember to switch it on before having a shower...

A tiny light in my bathroom niche is activated by a motion sensor so if you need to go in the middle of the night you aren’t woken up dazzled by a bank of spotlights.

2bazookas · 09/10/2020 22:41

When you're wiring;

Lots of power sockets in the kitchen and study.office.

In the living room, I prefer a variety of table and floor lamps, and I like them wired to one circuit so they can all be turned on from one switch by the door.

In the bedroom, I like a bedside light for every sleeper, The bedside sshould be wired so that it can be turned on and off from both the doorway,AND in bed, on a wall switch mounted just above the bedside table

In the kitchen, I much prefer drawers to cupboards. Deep drawers are great for pans, plates etc.
My best ever kitchen had stainless steel food prep area and a walk-in pantry with shelves on three sides.

Bathroom; I  like a  bidet and  a LARGE walk in shower  where the  (powerful)  shower can be activated before  I enter, No nasty blast of cold water.   Heated  ladder towel rail.

His and hers basins are the work of the devil. Save the space for a bidet.
I could not be faffed with a roomba (friend has one, slow and pesky) but I do appreciate having two vacuum cleaners, one lives upstairs and one downstairs.

Utility room; as well as tumble drier I like an oldfashioned ceiling rack ( so useful for stuff that can't be tumble dried, like wetsuits, linen, silk and wool) . An ideal utility room would be big enough to leave the ironing board up and ready

I like the front door to be under a recessed overhang or large porch so that arrivals are sheltered from rain (while finding my keys) and deliveries can be left dry.

Every home needs a shelved airing cupboard to store bedlinen and towels

pearpickingporky84 · 10/10/2020 07:30

Get a BEAM vacuum system, we had one in our first house and couldn’t live without it now, they’re hard to retrofit but easy to put in when building a house, low maintenance and it means we don’t have to store a Hoover/lug it about the house!
Also don’t forget to get a side sink in the kitchen, we almost did but a colleague who had made that mistake mentioned it and we changed our kitchen order!

Halfwreckedbykids · 10/10/2020 07:47

I ve recently bought 4 plastic laundry baskets for my hot press (airing cupboard)
I have double sheets in one, double duvets and pillow cases in another and same for the king sizes.
My heart was broken trying to make beds before.
Best 10 i ever spent....sorry its more organisation than house but brings me great joy.
I also label the sheets when i get them so i can tell whats what....
Only recently started....only took me 50 years to cop on

Halfwreckedbykids · 10/10/2020 08:01

Oh yes doors on my wardrobes...i had open until recently in my walk in and a pita...

OhioOhioOhio · 10/10/2020 08:41

No cupboard door handles with ledges for dirt to sit on.

JulesJules · 10/10/2020 08:56

No tiles in the kitchen - I've got coloured glass on the wall instead, avoids grotty grout issues. Speckly granite worktops with upstands. Proper kitchen door handles, not inset or press to open. Cupboards up to the ceiling, or boxed in at the top. No open shelves in the kitchen.

JulesJules · 10/10/2020 08:59

Oh and drawers for plates and pans, much easier than cupboards - also (this was accidental but has worked out really well) have the dishwasher next to the plate and pans drawers. I can unload the dishwasher straight into the drawers.

Tummelthecat · 10/10/2020 09:42

Having just put in a new kitchen, I have to confess that the thing that gives me most pleasure is - drumroll - the rubbish bucket that is concealed in the line of units. Looks good, and you can just wipe the worktop, pull out the bin and wipe all the crumbs in, and shut it all in. It is a thing of beauty, a joy forever and my little heart is content.

TeaAndStrumpets · 10/10/2020 10:30

halfwrecked that is a great idea, I wish I'd thought of it when the DC were at home.

I am pretty slow on the uptake, though. Recently I bought a posh double fitted sheet and it has a label on one end which says "top or bottom". Lightbulb moment! It would take literally minutes to label all the short ends of my sheets with a ribbon tag or some such. Perhaps others already do this? I always put the wrong end on first, and if DH helps we each guess wrong!

Maybe I have to do it wrong for 50 years first.....married 49 years so far Grin

RandomMess · 10/10/2020 10:41

With bedding although there are spares we work on the principal of washing, drying and putting them back on in the same day!!! Spares all packed away but rarely come out!

OhTheRoses · 10/10/2020 10:55

Yes to coloured glass in the kitchen
Yes to anti-fog mirror
Yes to heating app
Yes to having some plugs 75 cm above skirting (old and bad back)
Boot room
Utility room
My ovens are waist height and adjacent, again due to bad back
Complete waste of time - a half oven !

TeaAndStrumpets · 10/10/2020 11:43

Agree roses half ovens are useless. I use mine to store baking trays.

On the subject of ovens, does anyone use one of the fancy steam ones? I have a lovely stainless electric steamer which gets cleaned in the dishwasher. Do the steam ovens do anything my steamer won't? It holds a chicken so is massive. I fancy an uncluttered worktop but hate cleaning ovens!

OhTheRoses · 10/10/2020 11:48

I have a marvellous lady who comes to clean the ovens twice a year Grin

goldierocks · 10/10/2020 12:13

I've recently refurbished my home. One thing I'm really pleased with are the integral blinds in my kitchen bi-fold doors.

Because the blinds are sealed inside the glass, they never get dusty/dirty. Can still use them like normal blinds too.

Also another vote for USB sockets. I had double sockets put under my dressing table so I don't have to faff between my hair dryer and straightners; both stay plugged in. Definitely a time-saver.

lazylinguist · 10/10/2020 12:17

My shower screen is fine, but we have very soft water. My suggestion is splashbacks instead of tiles in the kitchen - no grouting to get dirty. Kind of wish we'd had shower panels instead of tiles for the same reason.

TeaAndStrumpets · 10/10/2020 12:18

Yes that could solve the problem roses Smile

MrsWooster · 10/10/2020 12:19

Loads of sockets
Walk in pantry, fully shelves
robot vac
Porch/mud room/utility room
Outside door mats or some transition zone between muddy outside/clean outside/ mucky inside (utility etc)/clean inside.

WhoPutThatThere · 10/10/2020 12:58

loving all these tips!

if you're having a patio, consider porcelain tiles. sounds poncey but they're super hard wearing, good value, and also don't stain/absorb oil like stone does. you can literally chuck bleach/viakal whatever you like at them to clean them too. my kitchen floor is also porcelain wood effect tiles with dark grout. super easy to keep clean, and doesn't show the dirt much. look at www.porcelainsuperstore.com (i have no vested interest in them but i've bought loads of tiles from them and they're great)

have a walk in shower. mine has a fixed glass panel which i do need to clean with white vinegar every so often but it doesn't get orange mould in that my other shower with a door that closes does. having it open allows it to dry quickly and not stay damp (closed door keeps the moisture in) plus no hinges on doors/sliding opening which just get mould and limescale all in the nooks and crannies.

agree on get as much built in storage and as many sockets as possible.
i LOVE my kettle tap.
pan drawers and hidden bin (mine has a foot lever that you press and it pops out for when you have dirty hands) in the kitchen.
I wish i had a walk in pantry
i also have matt cupboards in the kitchen and they show EVERY greasy finger mark and water dribble.

underfloor heating in kitchen and bathrooms. no radiators frees up space and also don't gather dust.
have backlit mirrors in the bathroom. super flattering.

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