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.

We matched all our paint from Farrow and Ball colours which we like, into Dulux which is x 10 more hardwearing, and in some cases wipe clean. Go to a Dulux decorator centre if you can... they match better than wickes etc.

Also don't have a gloss kitchen... oh the fingerprints/smears.....

Have (at least) 2 dishwashers!

Instead of - dishwasher - cupboard - use - dishwasher.

You have - dishwasher - use - dishwasher.

Basically just have dishwashers instead of cupboards 😂

I have
Matt, very large bathroom tiles with a grey grout in a greyish brownish marbleish effect I have cleaned them roughly 5 times in 4 years 😂

Solid steel bath

Matt flat handless kitchen cupboards so easy to clean

Kardean flooring in kitchen never looks dirty even though I have dogs and kids

Washable paint everywhere! I spray it and get the steam mop out for all those grubby finger marks

No white floors in bathroom or anywhere!

Huge bathroom sink with built in drawers awesome for hiding stuff

Washable sofa covers, buy a spare set when buying the sofa so you dont have to wait for it to dry

More sockets than you'll ever think you'll need we have at least 6/8 in every bedroom and living areas

We also got a boiler with a back tank so you can have wash Mac, dishwasher put taps on etc no loss of power in shower 😀

Outside socket! For hoovering car blowing up paddling pools etc cutting hedges grass

Places for Stuff. Things like your jumper that you’ve worn but doesn’t need washed, the post (unopened, opened but needs something doing with it, etc etc), car keys, muddy shoes, wet coats...

Outside covered drying place. Somewhere you can leave coats to dry, washing to dry, big bulky wet things (wetsuits, ski’s, assorted crap etc), put muddy boots and change into crocs that you can slip off at the door..... I would really like that!

Hallway/porch/back door flooring that doesn’t have grout. I hate ours, it’s such a mud-magnet and always looks gritty.

Use your kitchen worktop material for kitchen window ledges. Easy to wipe, can put mugs / wine / plants down without the yellows rings you get with wood.
Few panes of glass - I find the corners and edges a bugger to clean, would much rather have one big pane of glass (sorry owners of Crittal windows...).

One of the very best things in our new fitted kitchen is the bin drawer. It has a bin for each of general rubbish , recycling and for food waste , which is collected separately where we live . It's brilliant with no bin in the kitchen to trip over .

@Jaxhog

Big matt white tiles in bathrooms. No fingerprints and they always look clean.

Definitely lots of sockets. There are never enough. And put them higher than the skirting board.

Interesting one thanks am going out tomorrow to buy bathroom tiles!

Smooth handles on kitchen/bathroom cupboards etc.

We have just moved and have ones with sticky out bits- like this. Get ones like the second photo.

I am sick of doing housework, cooking, pottering etc with my phone in my pocket and headphones in, only to catch them on a door handle and have the earbuds ripped out, phone thrown to the floor.

They catch on my clothes as I go past too. Something that had never even occurred to me until I started living with the buggers.

A water softener. No limescale issues whatsoever, and much less soap/detergent/cleaners needed than previously. Gentler on skin and hair, even if it's not as good as naturally soft water.

Also, a water softener that uses blocks of salt, as they are much easier to manage than loose pellets.

When I renovated my flat 20+ years ago, the electrician kept saying why do you need so many sockets? Never enough.
The office I am working in currently appears to have a black corian worktop - always looks smeary, it's ghastly.
I once had freestanding kitchen units - nightmare to keep clean underneath.

My cat is probably the most high maintenance thing in the home- but she's worth it. 😃

In the bathroom, have a radiator AND a heated towel rail. I've only got one, and I have to choose between warm towels or a warm room

Heated towel poles. Oh I love my heated towel poles . They take up next to no space, remain switched on all year round (except when we go away for a week or longer) are independent of the central heating, use very little energy, and our towels are always warm and dry. I hate it when the towel rail is out of reach of the shower - you end up with having to choose between dripping your chilly way across the bathroom to reach the warm towel, or re-hanging the towel next to the shower so it's cold by the time you use it. My towel poles are positioned within arm's reach of the shower

Storage options - loft, basement, garage, under stairs, whole spare rooms. Just as much storage space as you can

I would second two bins inside a cupboard.

I have acrylic wall panels in my bathroom and they're so easy to keep clean. www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/orion-white-arctic-sparkle-2400x1000x10mm-pvc-shower-wall-panel

No tiles, no grout and they don't stain. You could do a three sided shower cubicle with them and just have a glass door. I love them.

Mine are white with a bit of sparkle and they make my very small bathroom look lots bigger.

A few things I have appreciated are grey grout for bathrooms so any early mould doesn't show up, I love a shower screen but I use one of those Karcher window cleaner things to suck up all the water in the morning, no limescale that way. Agree on sockets and always have ones with USB ports too. We have networked the house so we can hard wire any devices which don't perform well when connected on Wi-Fi. We have radiators and have a drainage tap for the system and a piece of pipe to pop on to drain water straight into the outside drain for maintenance. Plastic radiator pipes so when you repaint you just unhook the Radiator and lie it on the floor. No disconnecting to do. Power sockets in wardrobes for hair dryer/straighteners as easy to access and keep hidden. Agree with PP about sockets in a utility cupboard to charge items. I fancy adding a laptop sized, fireproof safe hidden into the house build somewhere. I really don't have valuables to speak of though!

I can’t believe no one has said isolation valves on every tap and toilet as it is so much easier to be able to turn off each item than shut down the whole water system if you have a leak or need a repair.
Thermostats on each radiator and or multi zoned heating.
A walk in larder
A utility room with enough storage space for things like ironing boards, carpet cleaners, steam mops and the like.
If you have a garden then water butts on your guttering and a brown water recycling system.
A system like gobidet on your toilets(it is like a sprinkler system for your bum)

A kitchen tap with a hose, like the catering ones. Makes it super easy to rinse big awkward pans.

we just bought this one for our new house, we bought it on a whim in the store and now i'm regretting reading the reviews so maybe dont get that one!!!

Weve had ones with a button that switchs it from tap, to spray but found the buttons break really easily which is why we got this, as the tap and spray part are separate.

www.diy.com/departments/cooke-lewis-bilbrough-black-kitchen-side-lever-spring-neck-mixer-tap/1583484_BQ.prd

Posted to soon I had shower panels never ever again. They never look clean. We are getting them taken out on Tues and having some nice big tiles x

Wish I had heated towel poles!! Our bathroom is also cold due to lack of radiator, only a towel rail 😱

Have an upstairs washing machine - that is where most clothes and bedding are that need washing. Admittedly I never hang anything out on a line in the garden, so do not traipse downstairs with stuff to hang out - everything is done upstairs. You need a spin dryer with a really good spin speed, so stuff comes out damp rather than wet, also somewhere to hang things up to finish drying (less ironing that way). An airing cupboard is important imo.though I don't have one now.

If you have the space and the cash, two dishwashers - plates etc. are always in one of them when not being used, so saves on cupboard space as well as constantly unloading dishwasher and putting away in cupboards, only to get them out again..

I dreamed last night that I was buying a friend's house but in the dream it was huge and had rooms I've dreamed about before but forgotten. I planned a marvellous kitchen. then woke up gutted!
In my house I miss USB sockets, sockets on the landing- there are none at all- weirdo woman who lived here before and have a useless long thin extension....

No white grout ANYWHERE

Children!!!

Sensor light in the larder, linen cupboards & garage, usually you are carrying something into or out of those rooms so no faffing with light switches! The garage has a normal light too if going to be out there for a while.
Our cupboard with the fuse board in has a sensor light that's also an emergency light, has proven very useful when something has tripped a circuit; no balancing torches/phones or trying to get a 3yr old to hold them without blinding you while trying to see what's going on!
Can you tell OH in an electrician?!