Designing a house that is easy to clean/maintain

[EJC85]

Hello all,

what choices would you make/suggest for an easy to clean/maintain house, in particular kitchens and bathrooms?

magimedi - regarding the worktops, I've read about that before! It's funny cos I have a black (stone effect laminate - high gloss too!) laminate worktop now and I find it disguises the dirt well .

I am open to look at different colours - possibly something with some sort of speckles?

Good idea about the bins! Will try to integrate that too, thanks!

Black worktop will look fabulous. Don't have a bin! I keep a roll of biodegradable nappy sacks in the cupboard under the sink and all waste goes into one of those and into the outside bin. No bins to wash out and no chance of any spills/smells.

I have a bin similar to this one & I honestly think it is one of the best things I ever did. One bin is for mucky waste, one for recycling & one holds cleaning stuff

Nice one magimedi

bouncydog no bins to clean now that's a dream!

Polished plaster in the bathrooms, easy to clean!

Oh selfishcrab cool! Will look into that, thanks!

We really haven't had bins inside for many years. We have 2 bins for recycling outside together with the one for stuff that can't be recycled (food scraps/black plastic/cellophane etc). I can't stand bins so definitely do not want them in the house!

Am very surprised at this 'bin development' - not had one, but surely if something misses the bin, then it is much more difficult to clean inside a cupboard, than moving it to the side and having open access to the floor ?
I can't understand how you can use a kitchen and not have a bin at all though - how does that work? What do you do when you tear the top off a packet, or sweep breadcrumbs off the surface, or eat the last cake out the packet? Surely you don't want to be padding outside with every snippet of cellophane ?

Anyone with high (to the ceiling) kitchen cabinets do you use the full height (if so what for?)

Yes, we do. Top shelf is mainly for stuff we don't use very often - eg I have a 'naice' set of matching mugs that in my mind are used for "proper guests" - they are on the top shelf of the mug cupboard, along with a couple of little milk jugs. In another one I've got various baking things I rarely use, like my Christmas cake board, my Christmas cake tin, some shaped cookie cutters, etc. In another I've got a couple of glass water jugs we don't use that often. In another I've got the breadmaker.