Moving to townhouse. Any tips?

[mrsoutnumbered]

I'm moving from a small 2 up 2 down terraced house to a 3 storey townhouse next month and my mind is boggling at how I'm going to keep it clean! And how my routine is going to change!

I'll have a kitchen, utility room, toilet and patio garden on ground floor, living room, bathroom and bedroom 1 on middle, and bedroom 2 and bedroom 3 with en suite on top floor.

I like TOMM and will probably give it a go but am wondering what other townhouse residents do.

Please share your tips!

I live in a townhouse with a very similar layout! I love it, but admit going up 2 flights of stairs can be hard work. My biggest tip is invest in more than one hoover because it drives me bonkers lugging a hoover up and down the stairs every day!

I agree with @Baylis get a 2nd Hoover - cordless preferably !! You'll go mad otherwise.

(We have 2 dyson handheld ones) means that I'm not forever moving all the attachments from one floor to another - has changed my life.

Thanks! I do have a cordless Shark which is very lightweight. So that may or may not be enough...

1. Never ever EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER go up or downstairs without carrying something.

1. Plan things to be where you need them. Don’t keep plasters in the top floor ensuite if the place DC are most likely to fall over is outside, for example.

1. Stash cleaning stuff everywhere. You will never clean the top floor if it starts with a trip downstairs for a duster.

1. Vacuum downstairs every day if any of you are at home during the day. You will then track much less dirt upstairs which saves on the upstairs cleaning.

1. Tidy/finish rooms as you leave them in the morning. So when you leave your bedroom in the morning is when you have turned down bedcovers, collected empty cups, etc.. because you are unlikely to go up there especially to do that later. And do that for DC too or get them to do their own rooms.

1. See 1.

(I’m assuming from your username you have DC... if not then relax it’ll be easy 😂)

@JudgeRulesNutterButter 😂😂😂 thank you! I do quite a lot of those tips anyway, so it's good to know.

I remember when I moved into this house from a flat I was constantly up and down the stairs.

Best tip on how to keep a townhouse clean: don't live in a townhouse.

Just kidding, other suggestions are really good. Laundry can become really quite a pain depending on what floors the bedrooms/utility rooms are on, I tend to do ironing upstairs so it can immediately be put away without making 1000 trips up and down stairs. On the plus side it will keep you fit!!!!

Lots - lots - of implements. At least two hoovers.

I also have a sort of 'entrepôt' set up on the middle floor. (a large and mostly empty bookcase) because whatever you tell yourself beforehand, you are going to possibly make unnecessary journeys up and down those stairs. The bookcase holds things to be taken up or taken down so that (in theory) you won't make too many wasted journeys. I couldn't be doing without it.

Definitely yes to a cordless hoover. When you buy a multipack of toilet roll, have spares on every floor where there's a toilet. Keep pens on every floor.

Store things like bedding and towels on the floors where you use them.

Keep all jackets, hats, scarves, gloves, bags and shoes on the ground floor if you can. It's a pain if you're about to leave the house and you realise your scarf is in your bedroom two floors up.

Store your iron and board on the floor you'll do your ironing and have extra hangers with them, particularly if it's not on a floor where the bedroom is.

Buy multiple cleaning products and store on each floor. Have a laundry basket on every floor you have a bedroom (if you don't have one in every bedroom).

Invest in zoned heating if you're able to - we have a separate heating system on the top floor which is almost always turned off.

Oh, and with your living room being on the 1st floor, become one of those annoying 'shoes off please' households. My friends have just about forgiven me for that!

Is it a new build? Get sockets put in cupboards for your multiple cordless hoovers.

Smart lightbulbs so if you spot a light left on the top floor when you leave the house you don't have to go up two flights to turn it off.

Spare chargers/cables for phones/tablets etc. So you have them on each floor and no-one has to steal one from one room and take it to another floor.

Replacing sockets with ones with USB ports (or getting extension cables with USB ports) is also handy for charging things without needing to find a laptop to plug it in.

I live in a 3 storey house and it's really not a big deal. We have 4 toilets and all everyone says is about all the cleaning. But we haven't found this. They get less messy as only 1 person is using them compared to our terrace house when 4 of us would all be using the same bathroom.

Thank you for all the tips!!

I'll confess to having a bit of a 'thing' for vacuum cleaners - so having more than one is no hardship for me. The stairs generally need more attention than anywhere else - I've no idea why but they seem to collect dust and particles. Definitely acquire a hand held so that you can do those if nothing else.......

cozietoesie love that bookcase idea!

I guess it depends on the layout of your house - works well for me, though.

Yea I do have a hallway with room for a piece of furniture on the middle floor! Great idea thanks!!

I'm so excited. I can't wait to get in there! So fed up with my galley kitchen!

Where I live new townhouses are being built with the utility room on the same floor as the one with most bedrooms (usual format is basement used as rec room and sometimes a room with massive washer/dryer for duvets and bedding; ground floor is kitchen and cloakroom and living room; next floor is master with bathroom and guest room/library with en suite; top floor with two beds, two shower rooms and utility room between). Just a small boot room downstairs.

It’s genius. Why trek all your clothes and towels and sheet downstairs to wash, then trek them back up again. This way, only washing powders etc have to be carried upstairs once in a while.

But plums what about pegging out??? Sounds very American to me...

Bingo!

I recall reading a US magazine, once, many moons ago. There was a fascinating article - for insight - about 'Household Economy Tips'. Fairly high up was a bolded heading along the lines of 'Have you considered drying washing outside?'

I think in the US it can be tricky drying outside in some states. Where my dad lives is extremely hot and humid and I'd imagine the washing would turn into cardboard if they were hung outside.

It surely depends when you take it in? And on eg ironing? I'm just flabbergasted by the attitude of some who will use scarce electricity to dry laundry when they could easily use outside conditions. Forbye they might have to sacrifice some time. (The acquaintance who had originally bought the magazine would no more have dried other than in a drier than she would have spread the laundry on her wings while she flew. She was more concerned that I didn't fold my towels in 'thirds' than anything else. We had some very heavy conversations about that. )

I remember being horrified at how commonplace tumble dryers are here when I first moved here. But I live in NYC, in an apartment - no line to peg on, and frankly if I had a house I wouldn’t dry outside for the traffic fumes. It’s difficult to describe if you haven’t been here; there are some incredibly densely populated areas where outdoor space is at such a premium that you wouldn’t use any for line drying when you could use it as an outdoor living space. Even ridiculously expensive townhouses would barely have enough room to set out a BBQ and table/chairs for 4.

That said, I absolutely do not understand why, in the suburbs (which in the UK people would call rural areas, land is so abundant), people don’t hang their washing out. It’s scandalous. My in-laws have literally acres of land, but they still don’t hang their washing out because the by-laws of their development prohibit it . Apparently it would bring down the tone of the neighborhood!

I love how this thread had degenerated into The Shocking Drying Habits of Americans.
Sorry OP!!!

That's okay I don't mind a little detour! 😂