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.

Glad its not just me.

We ended up buying a professional grade hoover+mop in the old house because of the effort required to keep it presentable.

The "cottage" we're in now is on a queit-ish country lane backing onto a field and some woods. A quick dust with Mr Sheen plus a hoover with the wireless dyson makes the house looks more than presentable.

Would never have cut it in the 70s house. What a gift!

Our current house is 1950s ex-council stock (so really sturdy and great in a lot of ways) and is the most difficult house to keep clean that I've ever known. Constantly dusty, the high ceilings seem to be cobweb central no matter how many times I clear them, and the floor seems to breed grime. I spend so much more time cleaning than I've ever done, and it never bloody looks clean for more than a couple of hours!

My 1903 terrace used 'black mortar' made partly out of coal dust. We had a new damp course put in and were cleaning black dust from surfaces for a couple of years.

Yes! That was the same issue I had in the old house. I could scrub away ALL day and the next day it would honestly look like I hadn't touched it. Just not the case here. Think the finishings and floors just don't attract muck.

@Perlosa I suspect the little brown splashes were sap seeping out from knots. You can buy knotting solution (shellac) that would have sealed them forever with a couple of coats.

I think it depends on ventilation as well. Our rental is all open plan with no extractor fan or cooker hood and opening windows only does so much.

We're in a new build but opposite is woodland so pollen constantly blows in and dust from more building a mile down the road. The dust just gathers on the wooden blinds but I can't not open windows 🤷‍♀️

It's odd, isn't it? Our current house is so much easier to keep clean than our old flat, even though the decor is much older. It takes me half the time to clean my two bathrooms here and they look so much better than the one in our old flat.

I think there is a combo notion of things

1. pollution- do not underestimate this. I have lived on busy roads, not so busy roads and now a rural cul de sac. I have lived in rural area and close to industry. I massively reduce dusting when in non polluted areas
2. number of people and their ages: I live on my own now, 1 major clean per month, don’t dust between, rarely vacuum anywhere in between other than kitchen and dining room etc. When I had 1 husband and 2 small kids I was doing way more, when kids were teenagers it was relentless and constant.
3. summer vs winter :more dust and dirt comes through windows in warmer months along with insects etc
4. new builds/renovations: I reckon it takes around 2 years for insects like spiders to inhabit a house properly. You get 2 years of cob web free living only 🤣
5. Type of paint is also the key thing here. The issue is more that many people use entirely water based pants now for decorating. They are crap for washing especially on woodwork. They have much poorer resistance to absorbing dirt into the paint . I came into my new home and started washing grimy paint only to find I was washing most of it off. Terrible stuff. I had to re paint all the woodwork (11 doors etc) with oil based gloss - now it’s a breeze to keep clean. Yeh, I know it isn’t as good for the environment, but nor is wasting water and washing paint pigments down the sink each month where paint is not wash proof.

@Whiteroomjoy any more advice on paint, very useful!

Should have said plase share sorry @Whiteroomjoy

My old house (ex 1970s council) was a lot easier to keep clean than this one (built 17 years ago)

The dust is a big problem, and doesn’t matter how often you clean it doesn’t stay clean looking for long tbh. I initially thought the amount of dust was the cats but we had the cats at our old place.

The only difference is we are close to masses of fields, woodlands, a farm and train tracks here and have an access road at the front.

Whereas at the old house we had none of those.

Yes, lived in a terrace built for mill workers, thick stone walls, typical 2 up 2 down, that house fought back when you tried to clean it. Bought a brand new, new build, life was revolutionised overnight. And we brought the hairy dog who shed with us!!

My mum and i live in similar age houses but hers has higher ceilings. Hers does not get dusty, mine is hard to keep on top of. The only difference is that we always have windows open. It drives me mad.