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

[Newdonewhugh]

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.

Robot hoover is great but does have a few flaws, won't always reach the corners, has difficulty on some darker carpets, obv doesn't do stairs. Needs maintenance.

That said I love mine but do need to run a "normal" hoover every now and then.

Whatever sockets you think then double it! I had a bank of 6 in living room for tv and not enough!

@Newdonewhugh a bit of bleach removes the tea stains.

Don’t have small children or pets.

Make sure you have a lot of storage stuff.

Here’s an idea of some of the ridiculous things I’ve done in my current house..

White smeg hob- you should only buy one of these if you’ve been really bad and deserve lifelong punishment.

Matt white shower tiles- purple shampoo and hair dye stain them! In fact, just looking at them stains them.

Eggshell paint skirting boards. Might aswell have put Velcro on them.

I could go on and on and on...

A walk-in pantry. You can immediately see what you have.

Definitely a self-cleaning oven is a winner. I have a double SC Neff and it's fab. If you have space for two separate ones, why not.

No point in even bothering with a small dishwasher IMO, waste of time and money.

I'd definitely never again buy a granite composite sink. Mine is light cream and my God, I have to be so careful not to stain it it's unreal (maybe it's the food I cook though ). Many people recommended it to me over a porcelain butler and I think that was the wrong choice. My mum on the other hand has a bespoke dark granite composite sink and it's fantastic.

Never go a mix of light and dark carpets, every piece of fluff will be visible on the dark ones.

Never paint your wooden stairs white, especially with pets. I have recently stayed in a house with a beautiful white staircase... Only it was the biggest nightmare to keep clean I've ever seen.

I'd also pay attention to splashback areas, I have lovely tiles in the kitchen, but in the utility for some reason I went with stainless steel. It goes with the room, but a total nightmare to keep tidy. Never again!

Reading others' suggestions with interest, as I'm just ahead of the second renovation in my life, if the house sale/purchase goes well!

Ok so things to avoid:

• Avoid matte sinks or baths - always look grubby
• Avoid any kitchen sink except brushed stainless steel
• Avoid anything black or very dark in bathroom/kitchen if you have hard water
• Avoid wood floor or worktop in kitchen. Especially oiled wood floor, ongoing maintenance required
• Avoid big glass doors if you have DC who will leave fingerprints everywhere
• Avoid glass shower screen if you have hard water (we use a squeegee to avoid build up of limescale as I love the glass screen look)
• Freestanding bath is hard to clean around, especially the Victorian style ones. Built in much easier
• Same for older style loos. Modern wall hung is best for cleaning
• Avoid things like panelling as they attract dust. Any unnecessary horizontal surfaces will do this
• Avoid curtains or blinds in the kitchen as they will need washing regularly
• Avoid open shelves in the kitchen as they tend to look a mess and the items will collect dust and grease
• Take kitchen cabinets all the way to the ceiling, or box in above them
• Avoid white grout, and use grout sealer. Use bigger tiles for fewer grout lines
• Avoid pale floors, try to use mid colour flooring with a slight pattern in it. Avoid pale carpet unless you will be strictly shoes off (and even then, it gathers fluff from socks)
• Avoid a plain pale worksurface, something with a bit of pattern/marking is a lot more forgiving
• Avoid a kitchen style with ledges (eg shaker), flat fronted is better
• As you are building from scratch you might even be able to avoid skirting boards and architraves which also collect dust, have a look at flush skirting boards and shadow gap skirting for ideas.
• Induction hob not gas. So much easier to clean
• Gas fireplace rather than real
• Avoid a painted kitchen, it will chip easily whatever they tell you

Things you want

• Use washable paint, none of the chalky type stuff. Consider using eggshell especially in bathrooms and kitchen and hallway.
• Build in a doormat by front door and any side door. Possibly garden door too. We even have a doormat by the cat flap 😁
• Storage storage storage. And then more storage. Drawers are way better than cupboards for most things. Remember to include storage for bulky items like suitcases.
• A porch or boot room for leaving wet and grubby stuff is really useful.
• Utility room, not just as a place for laundry but for all the “misc” household stuff and for things you need accessible but want out of sight.
• Wall lights by the bed instead of bedside table lights, neater and frees up space on bedside table (only if your layout will not change)

have two master switches by the front door so that when you go out you can easily turn off all the lights rather than walking round. Fantastic!

I've got a matt black sink & tap in the kitchen and stainless steel in the utility, both fitted about a year ago. Very hard water. Both obviously need cleaning, but I wouldn't say either is worse for marks.

I love my new shaker kitchen, but I have to agree with the comments on grooves, never had one before and the dust on the ledge surprised me.

Design rubbish and recycling spaces into your rooms.

Don't have

• kids or animals (I've got both). If you do have animals plan for eating and food bowl spaces.

Do haves

• robovac. I love the look of the self emptying irooba one, but it's £700. I got an eufy a month or so ago and love it.
• lots of sockets, some inside cupboards etc can be really helpful.
• storage!! Think about everything in your life and where you will store it room by room, then add extra!

I know bleach gets the tea off but actually that’s just made up my mind that the butler sink is a no.
I cannot tolerate this life of hovering round with a bleach cloth all the time. You bleach it and then two seconds later some bastard has dropped something all over it again. I can’t go on like this! 😂
Absolutely certain I’m going for one of these recess’s ones as it will catch my eye less.

Also having had two supposedly superb cordless hoovers, I've switched back to the traditional one - they're so much more powerful. Just to consider if you are planning to have carpet in multiple rooms.

Our house has a Husky. Absolutely nothing low maintenance about her....

• Dishwasher elevated from the floor level
• Think about location of light switches and which way your door opens.

I love my robot hoover (it's a eufy, was about £200ish with a discount code, works better than my upright hoover) - we're considering getting one for upstairs too. We also got the eufy doorbell which I really like, but having been WFH is a little bit of a waste at the moment!

The other indulgence we got is solar powered blinds. We have a skylight which has one in, it was so good we've added them to the bedroom and going to add them to the living room. Press a button and the blinds are up/down and feels like being in a fancy hotel (I may have in fact nicked this idea from a fancy hotel).

Lots of sockets. We went mad on sockets when options time came round on out new build. Including in the garage.

Outdoor tap at the front and back of the house - front for cleaning the car, back for watering the garden. Also a hot outside tap for washing car/filling a paddling pool/hosing down the dog (if I ever persuade DH!)

Oh also, oven at eye level! Absolutely essential now!

@Rewis

What are these raised dishwashers you speak of? We have a commercial dishwasher at work that’s raised with a removable tray and I love it! Which is amazing since emptying a dishwasher is my least favourite job in the world. I’d get one if it didn’t wash so rubbish!

All the place rewired but also have two master switches by the front door so that when you go out you can easily turn off all the lights rather than walking round.

That is genius! I never knew you could do that

Dogs. Glossy black doors. Mirrored furniture. White furniture.

I have wood flooring everywhere with rugs/runners, cant stand carpets but I am a lazy cow who prefers a quick sweep and mop, some people feel wood flooring is too cold. Kallax storage units for bits. Organised hidden mess is great. Pull out storage under the kitchen cupboards are handy, any TVs I have are mounted to the wall (another unpopular choice) but it frees up so much space and imo makes everything look neater, rather than big tv stands.

Dishwasher raised off the floor. Have a deep drawer underneath it. Don't have to bend down to fill and empty it.

Obviously some things I said are more furniture wise. But agree about the scoop handles. They get so grubby. Tiles are a fucker to keep looking fresh so would avoid them.

Flush skirting boards etc. I’ve looked into all these options but my architect tells me “good luck with finding a plasterer round here that can do that”

Cupboard cupboards and more cupboards! Houses nowadays don't have any - my parents bought a big 4 bed house and they have 1 cupboard - in the bedroom (so more a wardrobe) - we have a smaller 4 bed house and we have NONE. Bloody Vacuum, floor mops, dustpan and brush etc - drive me nuts! Get the wall cupboards in the kitchen to ceiling level if possible - otherwise they get covered in greasy crap and are a a nightmare to clean.

Ooh - I think you can get plastic covers for skirting boards so they are white but can be really easily wiped down and not repainted all the time.

Worktops- my friend has granite and it always looks lime scaley? They look a bit cold to me and I find some of the patterns on them a bit naff.

Wood - I’d ruin it.

I currently have an arctic white worktop- idiot.

Flood it with something like Cat5e cabling. Home networking without the hassle of slow wifi

This is me! I hate housework and when I was younger everything was for its look. Now I look and judge how much I would be required to clean before purchasing.

I have popper kitchen cupboards as I dislike extra work wiping down handles. I have a high quality induction stove as I dislike dismantling a gas stove each day to clean. I have continuous flooring where possible so dust can't settle in ridges and a automatic vacuum won't get stuck.

I only have big drawers in my kitchen as they hold so much more than my old cupboards = Less clutter on surfaces and less cleaning. Anything in the house that's put away doesn't need cleaning! Lots and lots of storage is important.

I like the ceramic moulded sinks as they are easy to wipe in the bathroom, do away with any gaps at the end of cupboards they are dust traps.

Make sure your extraction unit has click out filters that fit in the dish washer.

Vertical blinds gather less dust

Click off loo seats can be put in the shower for an easy clean.

Vertical radiators collect less dust in a bathroom.

Vent for tumble drier and I put mine in a handle-less utility cupboard so the lint is contained. My big stream generator iron lives on a pull out flat drawer in the next cupboard and the ironing board flaps down. All neat, quick and no clutter. But it did take some planning with the type of cupboards we bought.

I have panels surrounding my stove vas they are easy to wipe as there is no grout. Looks modern and minimalist too.

Brushed finish on fittings shows less marks.

The other thing to consider is having a hidden powered charging port for a hand held vacuum cleaner upstairs and one downstairs. You really need two.

We have a large kitchen unit with hidden recycling bins and main rubbish bin inside.

I also got my builder to lower my kitchen window to the same height as my worktop so my work surface goes right back. I find this easier to clean than a window sill. It's less cluttered and lets more light in too.

Outside try for finishes that can be easily jetwashed or brushed.

Gone are my days of a traditional cottage. I just want an easy life now!