Could we start a 'low maintenance home' lessons learned thread?

[Oncemoreuntothebeach]

Our new home needs so much doing to it, new kitchen, new bathroom, insulation, new radiators. I work some silly hours sometimes, so I thought I'd use the renovations as an opportunity to introduce some things that would make life a bit easier.

What I've gleaned from the clever MNers on this board so far is:

•Don't have wooden worktops in your kitchen, far too much maintenance/faff to the keep them looking nice.
•Make sure that your toilet is wall mounted, far easier to clean the floor, but make sure you have easy access to the plumbing if something goes wrong.
•Make sure your kitchen cupboard fronts are flat, it'll mean less nooks and crannies for dust to gather in, and make sure your kitchen cupboards go right up to the ceiling too, so the tops of the cupboards don't become dust traps.

However, I'm sure there's loads more I could be doing to make my life easier! What are your favourite things about your home that make it less of a pain to keep tidy and functioning?

Yes - don't do tiles in the bathroom. Use shower wall instead. No grout and no mould, super easy to install and keep clean!!

Can someone explain the logic of the two dishwashers to me? I am just about to configure my kitchen so that would be SO helpful if I understood it.

What are people’s thoughts about qooker taps?

My helpful hint is: imagine your house as if you could never have a cleaner (which we don’t) so EVERY surface will have to be cleaned by you personally forever. Obviously in real life DH/kids will share the load, but in this scenario YOU will clean it.

Thinking like this helped me choose worksurface (honed silestone NOT dark polished granite which is inherited and shows up every speck of dust and requires wiped and polished every single day), kitchen cupboards (reclaimed solid wooden kitchen, wood really doesn’t show grime), natural floor that won’t show dirt (NOT polished tiles!), colours of paint that are muted, a scrubbable oak table that looks better with age… basically there are so many surface options to choose from, when you get down to your favourite 3, think ‘which one will show least dirt/fingerprints’

Also robovacs!

We have one of these www.argos.co.uk/product/2026604?clickPR=plp:4:46 and another has one of these www.dunelm.com/product/large-black-step-stool-1000152738

That each bedroom does NOT have to have an en-suite bathroom. A family bathroom and one ensuite plus a downstairs loo is 3 less loos to clean in a 4 bed house. You won't all need the bathroom at the same time.

@Sparklingblah I have seen 2 dishwashers mentioned on here many times, and I've never got it either. If it's almost full and I know I'll need to fill it soon I'll put it on? If I had 2 there's just more chance of me being slack and letting things build up.

I very rarely have stuff waiting to go in the dishwasher.

Many Australian bathrooms barely have enough room to turn around in but you still get a few inches of bench and under sink cupboards.

And verandas. Even if its only a few metres square. So useful.

If you are adding niches in the shower for soap, shampoo etc, have them at the end furthest away from the shower head so you don’t have to continually remove water that has flooded them or worry about leaks.

I’ve added a narrow kitchen larder unit in a bathroom cupboard to store towels, spare toiletries, cleaning materials etc. A cupboard would be useful on its own but the pull out larder makes it all much more accessible.

In any future kitchen, I’d have an Appliance Garage with Tambour doors, and I’d be looking at the best way to place sockets so I can use them on an island. I’ve got them under the counter but often have trailing wires and I wonder if a pop up thing might be better.

When you design your kitchen, have cupboards for crockery, cutlery etc nearby. I have an island that essentially creates a galley (just wide enough for a cupboard door and dishwasher door to be open at the same time) and I can virtually unload all of the dishwasher from one spot. I would love 2 dishwashers though.

If you have a boiler in your utility room, don’t box in the pipework (could use a shade of some description to disguise it if you don’t like the look of bare pipes) and you won’t have to install a radiator in the room. Take advantage and dry laundry here on a pulley airer.

Echoing PP about a big sink in the utility. Try to find one at least 60cm wide if you can so that you can soak oven shelves. I have a stainless steel catering unit.

If you are repositioning doors, try to leave enough recess for a bookcase, cupboard or console table to fit behind. Normally it’s dead space but if you have 30cm you can have extra storage.

Always overspec your radiators. I used every calculator and got wildly varying BTU results. I used the highest figure and even then the room radiators have to work very hard to stay at temperature (never more than 21c). I found it very difficult to get vertical radiators with high capacity.

My 2 dishwasher dream!

I can use dishes and load dishwasher 1 and then run it. And then use the clean dishes direct from dishwasher 1. When I have made them dirty, they are put in dishwasher 2. I run dishwasher 2 and use the clean dishes from dishwasher 2 and when the dishes are dirty, they go into dishwasher 1…

It is my fantasy. 😉

Go for robust surfaces that don't need special delicate cleaning. Chrome taps, stainless steel sink, mid brown carpets, LVT type floors in wet areas, quartz or laminate worktops, matt or timber cupboard doors. There is a reason all these never go out of fashion.

I don't get handle-less doors. 1. you have a crumb ledge. 2. if there is a knob or handle, then people put their fingerprints on that, not the door. Don't let efforts to be sleek and shiny outweigh practicality.

Tiled floors - the grout will get dirty and be a PITA to clean. Tiled splashbacks you might just keep on top of it.

Paint your rooms in off the shelf/Dulux colours and keep the leftover paint for touch-ups.

Have space in bathroom to store the cleaning materials close to hand.

Get dispensers, fill with chosen product and throw the empty bottle away. Store any bulk buys in a box, under the bed, in a cupboard wherever you have space.

I continued the line of the cupboards to the ceiling it looks so much more pleasing and stops dust / junk being collected there.
don’t forget that the house is for living in. Some things I have are not low maintenance but they make me happy every day so I don’t care when I have to clean them. equally it is not a mausoleum so I don’t need to save everything on display, just what makes me happy!

Great thread!

We've avoided shiny after bad experiences in rental. Definite no to chrome light switches! Also avoid for cupboard doors. And door handles.

Simple skirting boards with one slightly sloping top surface, so not quite horizontal. Much easier to dust.

Larder full height kitchen cupboard can fit so much in.

Definitely one big larder cupboard - as big as a single wardrobe - for 90% of food storage.
We have a separate shallow cupboard for herbs and spices and cake decorations, because the jars are so small they don't suit the big cupboard.
We also have a separate 'treats' cupboard so you are not laying eyes on the chocolate biscuits every time you open the larder to get a meal ready.

Yes definitely. But beware of weird and unusual bulbs that are a pain to source for replacements.

Marie Kondo would definitely disapprove of Great Aunt Alice's gravy boat.

If you know you are never going to use it, the only reason for keeping it is that you are sentimental about it. In which case, put it on display like an ornament where you can appreciate it frequently. If you don't want to do that, then get rid of it.

I agree with the decluttering. Saves me tons of time in tidying and cleaning.

Blanket boxes/ trunks.

Have a huge one in the bay window in our bedroom- houses all the bedding for the whole house (a king, 2 doubles and a single) including throws/ seasonal items.

A large wicker one in the bay in the living room - houses all board-games and boxed jigsaws.

Look lovely with a nice blanket on and a few cushions and work as extra seating.

Or feel free to keep it... seeing as well, you know, it's yours and you clearly want to 🙄

Quite happy keeping my sentimental things stored away. I can look at them if I want to and even if I don't, I like to know I can!

Don’t do the fitted doormat thing! Our current rented house has this and it’s SO annoying - we can’t just buy a new doormat, someone would have to actively fit the bloody thing.

We also have a separate 'treats' cupboard so you are not laying eyes on the chocolate biscuits every time you open the larder to get a meal ready.

Ohhhh I need to do this!

Hedgehog usually with fitted doormats they’re not stuck down, just dropped into a hole. So you just need to get a new doormat cut to fit the hole (various places online will do this). Is yours actually stuck down?

I cut my own, it's easy enough. Just used a Stanley blade and cut round the original.

Yes it’s stuck down. And frankly it looks horrible. I just wouldn’t recommend this really.

We had fitted doormat at our old house and it was great. No more doormats moving and ending up in the wrong place and looked a lot tidier. We just used to hoover it and it looked fine.

Have just bought one for our new house!