10 ways to reduce the cleaning in your home

Housework, does anyone really enjoy it? Sure, there are those rumoured tidy freaks, those who can’t wait to strap on a pair of yellow gloves, but these are surely myths. Because if there’s one thing we know, it’s that everyone wants to do less cleaning when it comes to their home.

If you agree and are considering a renovation, extension, or conversion, then make sure you make note of these chore busting designs you can add to your home. Courtesy of our housework loathing architects!

Recess your doormat

Doormats are your first line of defence when it comes to dirt getting inside your home. For this reason, it’s worthwhile investing in this humble area.

For the best results, we recommend installing a recessed doormat. These will sit level with your floor, trapping more dirt and always sitting ready for the latest guest to step through the door.

Doormats come in a range of colours, so those interior design conscious can match it to the rest of their home - you could even add a stainless-steel or brass trim for extra flair. Your matt should be removable, so you can shake it out at least once a week for a clean. Sorry, not all chores can be avoided!

Floor finishes

Light floors have a bad habit off showing up scuffs, marks and other blemishes. Therefore, it’s good to be wary about adding this shade of floor to areas that see a lot of action. Hallways are a good example but kitchens can likewise be similar culprits, especially if your family is prone to running in and out of the garden.

However, if your heart is set on a light coloured floor or you need one to bring extra light to a dark area, there are options. Choose a finish that brings movement to your floor, this will help cover up some of your footwear sins. Choose flooring with plenty of grain or a speckling effect, with timber you could even go with a heavily brushed finish for the same effect.

Tiles are your friend

In your kitchen and especially in your bathroom, tiles are going to be your cleaning friend. Both rooms are guilty of being key culprits in grime, so rather than strain yourself to clean painted walls (which are both harder to clean and get dirtier quicker) make life easier by investing in tiles.

Using a wet cloth, tiles are easy to clean and can be done in a matter of minutes as part of your weekly routine. They’ll also stand the test of time too.

Wall-hung bathroom fittings

The bathroom still troubling you? If you want to make cleaning this room a little easier, consider installing suspended fittings. By this, we mean a toilet and sink which don’t connect to the ground.

Hanging key fittings above the ground will allow you to mop without having to get into the nooks around bases. Making not only your life easier but the room a lot more sanitary, as you avoid water (and maybe mould) from pooling there.

Storage, storage, and more storage

If you hate cleaning then good storage is going to be your friend. You might think you’ve squeezed in as much as you can but think again! There are now ingenious ways of adding EVEN MORE hidden stores to your home.

Consider these areas…

Under your stairs
Within the steps of your stairs
Under flooring
Recessed into your walls

Check out these storage articles from our team.

Avoid open-shelving

However, if you want to minimise the amount of dusting required, we advise on avoiding open-shelves. Though they provide a great way to display your items, they rely on you not only stylishly organising your knick-knacks, you’ll also need to wipe them down each week.

If this doesn’t sound worth it to you, hide away your things with some easy to wipe down doors. You can still personalise your space but leave that to bigger items, such as artwork on the walls or even plants.

Don’t put ornate beauty over practicality

We all want a beautiful home but if you hate cleaning you’ll need to think about how you achieve this.

Ornate skirting boards or intricate lighting can all look amazing but complex shapes are very hard to clean. Ideally, you want to keep the majority of your space as sets of straight forward lines and smooth surfaces. Features you can clean in one swift motion that doesn’t require you fiddling with awkward gaps or finicky corners. The last thing you want is to have to get a toothbrush out in order to get rid of grime.

Let tech do the work

Do you love a gadget? Then this is the advice you’re going to want to hear.

So much of our time can be lost to cleaning appliances when many modern products now do all that heavy lifting for us. If you have the money to burn, consider exchanging your old oven for a self-cleaning model. This will save you from hours of back-breaking work and make you feel as if you live in the future.

Now if only the whole house could self-clean…

Get strategic with your bins

This is a basic tip and won’t require a massive budget - bin placement. Simply considering where you place your bins can help stop you and those in your house from letting slight inconvenience from creating mess.

This will pay off the most in the kitchen, where it’s easy to throw an onion skin to the side or leave out packaging while you’re in the middle of making a big meal. By having your bin placed near where you chop and make a mess, you make it that much easier to tidy as you go.

Pick your paint carefully

When you do go for paint in rooms such as the kitchen or bathroom, make sure you’re picking the kind which will stand the test of time.

Hardwearing paint, such as the oil-based variety, should allow you to easily wipe down your walls without causing damage to the paint job.

Want to unlock your home’s potential? Whether you’re a housework hater or a neat freak, our team can help design spaces perfectly tailored to you. Learn how to grow a home around you by booking a free consultation with our team.