Are some houses harder to keep clean?

[Perlosa]

We have just moved out of the house we spent 20 years living in. To keep that house clean it required a ridiculous level of effort. I'm not joking we literally had to scrub the word work - especially door frames - every couple of weeks or there would be little light brown splashes everywhere. I hypothesize the gloss had something to do with it? Could be way off. The house was built in the 70s and had "that" look.

We've now moved into a new build, similar size and I probably do 1/15th of the cleaning. A quick swipe with a duster and that's it! Am I crazy? My life has literally changed.

Btw I'm m not talking about anything to do with clutter levels.

I live in a new build and the amount of dust is ridiculous. I don't find it any easier to keep clean but then I do have 2 dogs and live directly opposite a farm though.

I live in an 80s house and I have to dust every 2 days and vacuum the he kitchen floor 4 x per day.

Before that I lived in an 18 century house and didn’t lift a finger as the cleaner came once a fortnight and it stayed pristine for 10/11 days afterwards.

I was recently thinking about this, so I'm intrigued by this thread! My house is about 15 years old, 3 story townhouse and I feel like I'm cleaning constantly. I have a 2 year old who certainly doesn't help matters but I clean a lot and feel like the general surfaces, bannisters, skirting boards etc always need wiping. I feel like it's exacerbated in mine by the way the light comes in, it seems to throw a spot light on any dust. But yes, definitely one of the more laborious houses I've lived in.

Our previous house was a 1950’s and it was a dust magnet, I could have dusted daily and it still wouldn’t have looked like I had.

This house was circa 1980, barely get any dust at all (plenty of dog hair)

I find certain fixtures, fittings and paint finishes were harder to keep clean.
For example any wood that has annoying grooves is a swine to keep clean and doesn't get fully clean unless I'm at it with a toothbrush.
I much prefer simple skirting boards and door frames without lots of dust traps.

I've found the houses I've lived in that needed most cleaning were the ones near busy, main roads. Always having to wash paintwork, windows, curtains and so on.

Well definitely, yes, for all sorts of reasons. Our last house had a v old, enormous open fireplace which we used pretty much every day.. my god, the dust...
DH mentioned putting a log burner (hardly any ash/dust by comparison) here in our new house. No. Fucking. Way.

Our house has lots of natural light coming in and we can see every spec of dust.
Our old house was dark so we probably just couldn’t see it.

Oh I love this thread! My house is SO hard to keep clean. It’s mopped and swept every single day ( often swept again in evening) and by the next day it is FILTHY the floors. Does anyone else get this ?! Dust in one day and earth from outside I presume from kids or cats walking inside ( live in countryside) if anyone has tips on stopping this please share as makes me feel a bit 😜 perhaps we need a vaccine and not just sweep and mop?!

• sorry typo, vaccum!

I think location makes a big difference too - we live by the sea and our windows are never clean 😂 when we lived further inland we never had that problem.

Rural. Victorian house. Given up trying to rid of the landing window resident spider, she seems happy there.
@Intriguedbythis oh god yes, floors are a nightmare they always look dirty except for the fifteen minutes immediately after I’ve cleaned them.

The brown splashes sound like damp/mould.

Carpets in my opinion need constant upkeep. We have no carpets whatsoever, didn't show much dust and very quick to hoover (about every 2 weeks and we have 2 cats and a dog!).

200+ year old cottage here and the dust downstairs is incredible! Upstairs, however, it stays clean (my bathroom is downstairs so I only go upstairs to go to bed/fetch something). Cleaning the tiled floors is horrific; hoover, mop, sweep - turn around it it's covered with bits again. I do put a lot of it down to having a dog though, she sheds hair and dust, puts nose-prints on the windows and mud on the floors throughout.

@Intriguedbythis i have the same problem. When we renovated our house, I put in hardwood floors throughout and all I do is vacuum and mop. The hall and stairs are just maddening! I'm thinking of putting a rug down in the hallway to see if that offsets the dust at all. It makes me really fed up.

Definitely! Our house has very old light coloured laminate downstairs. You can see every speck of dust, every crumb and every cat hair. If someone walks around barefoot, you can see their footprints. Is someone splashes water on the floor and walks in it, even worse!!

I could hoover and mop the floor twice a day every day and it would still look dirty.

I hate it and can’t wait for a new floor!!

Many years ago I lived in a house that my neighbour described as being 'built of rubbish but really warm and easy to keep clean'. The strange thing was it didn't get dusty. And was really warm in the winter. It was some sort of prototype kit house, built off site and erected quickly. Really odd!

I think its more person than house dependent

Size of house obviously makes a difference

But I wouldnt be wasting time cleaning wood work

Yes this place we are renting has 80s high gloss cream decor everywhere plus cheap laminate floor . Permanently grubby.

Yep. I used to live in a new build, was so easy to clean, now in a 70s house and it’s really hard to keep clean. I regret the move because of that alone

We’re in a Victorian terrace which stays surface level clean - doesn’t need much hoovering/dusting - but ALWAYS seems to need big jobs doing like damp springing out of nowhere!

Our 1880s house is an absolute dust magnet. I don’t know if it’s because we live in farmland (probably) but particularly the downstairs, stays dust free for about 5 minutes!

Still wouldn’t swap her. She’s a lovely grand old lady with her own character even though she eats money like no one’s business! 😂

There was a victorian hall of residence at university that was always filthy. It wasn't just normal student generated dirt. Even after the cleaners had just been there'd be a fine tilth of dust on the floor.

Our 1930s semi is middle I think. I find the dust levels manageable with dusting weekly, but if I don’t give the place a good scrub at least once a week, it feels filthy. Having said that, it isn’t totally difficult to maintain with a good routine. We have tiles in our kitchen which don’t show up dirt or dust, but I do hoover at least once daily. The wood laminate however in our hallway is a nightmare; it shows up every single hair or crumb or bit of grass and our robot hoover is going more than not! I’d never get that mid-brown coloured wooden floor ever again!