Did you know you can design your home to make it easier to keep clean and tidy? Of course, you can design your garden to make it easier to maintain, but many people don’t tend to realise that their home can follow the same principle. But as long as you’ve got some time on your hands and the willingness to rearrange a little, you can more or less banish dust and grime from your walls and floor forever!
And with that in mind, here are some great design choices to keep in mind if you’re sick and tired of your family messing up your carefully crafted interior decor! The more you’re able to change about your current interior layout, the less time you’ll have to spend cleaning over the weekends.
Seal Your Floor
Sealing your floor isn’t always necessary, but when you’re working with tiles and/or hardwood flooring, rather than laminate or carpet, it’s often forgotten about during the initial interior design fluster. The more natural the material is, a.k.a., the more porous it can be, the more likely it is to need sealing.
Have you got stone tile flooring anywhere in your home? Maybe some hardwood that’s been there since the house was first constructed? It’s time to get a mop and bucket out and give the area a good back and forth, at least three or four times. Change the water when it goes too dark, and use gentle cleansers to ensure you don’t add to the damage. Once you’re done with this job, look into calling out a professional to seal the surface for you to ensure you never have to undertake a job like this again!
Avoid Light Coloured Furnishings
Light coloured furnishings are probably the bane of your life, seeing as you’ve got a young and/or messy family to take care of! As such, it might be worth your sanity to throw out any light furnishings you’ve got, or at least move them to a room where neither the kids nor the dog can get to them. In doing so you save yourself a stain-free life moving forward, and have the exciting chance to go shopping for some more cushions and upholstery materials.
While you’re out there, only look into materials that are either easy to clean (such as leather or a polymer), or are dark enough to hide common stains. These will usually include bean or spaghetti juice, red wine, mud and grass, and even ink and paint from the kids’ craft box. Dark greys, reds, and blues will work wonders here, and even look good when paired with bright or light walls.
Don’t Hang Any Curtains
Curtains are usually made of quite porous fabric, like cotton or linen, and that can make them reliable dust and dirt traps. And not only are they far more likely to pick up normal household grime, but they’re going to be laden with pet fur and other dander the longer they go without being washed! But taking them down to be washed can be an ordeal as well – they’re often too big to go in the washing machine and/or have to be done by hand, and if you really splashed out, they might even need to be sent down the dry cleaner.
So why hang up curtains at all? They look nice, yes, but they’re far more trouble than they’re worth! Instead it’s a good idea to rely on shades and blinds; they’re easier to clean, are easier to customise to your needs, and are just as nice to look at when they’re hung properly. Be sure to get in touch with a company like Universal Shutters if you’re sick and tired of having to wipe down your curtains, especially if you’ve got two or more dogs in the house!
Make Your Storage Obvious
The storage solutions in your home need to be a lot more obvious. Why? Because they’re there to be used! You need them to be close by and easy to access in order to use them, and to ensure you’re never just checking things in a drawer and forgetting all about them.
Of course you don’t have to stick a couple of boxes in the middle of the living room, but you slide them under the sofa, or stick them under the coffee table. You can even use this as an excuse to set up more shelves or bookcases around the home; the more you can actively see and use your storage, the more likely it’ll be neat, tidy, and prevent clutter from building up.
Use Glossy Paint
Glossy paint wins over matte paint any day of the week, thanks to just how easy it is to wipe off of. If something gets flicked onto your walls, say a bit of food or some poster paint, a gloss will actually prevent it from seeping into the wall itself and give you some time to run and grab a cloth. On the other hand, a matte paint will let it seep in and collect in the more porous surface, and that’ll do your interior design no favours at all.
Of course, not everyone loves a glossy look in their homes, and we don’t blame you! But if you fall into this camp, you can still get covers for your walls that look good such as liner wallpapers and/or feature wall items that’ll help prevent stains. If there’s a protective layer in the way, you won’t be spending time scrubbing the paint itself, and you can simply replace the cheaper cover or item.
Well Designed Homes Are Cleaner!
If you want to make your home easier to clean, make sure you invest in some smart design choices. All you need is a bit of preparation beforehand to pull it off, and if you keep the above ideas in mind, all you need to do is head to the shop and grab the items in question!
Disclosure: This is a featured post.