It’s nice to have all the pretty things at home, but if you can’t keep it nice, clean, and tidy, your lovely home won’t be lovely for long. In most cases, some of your design choices can make a home harder to clean. To help you keep your home looking great, here are 5 design choices for an easier-to-clean home.

Photo by: Kaizen Architecture

1. Consider smooth surfaces

Textured and porous surfaces. They look awesome. And just as awesome. But really? They’re dirt traps and sinks. Whether they be walls, countertops, flooring, or what have you, textured surfaces have tiny crooks and crannies that dirt and dust love so much. And porous ones? These tend to be permanent homes to the first thing you spill onto them. 

On the flip side, smooth, non-porous surfaces are ridiculously easy to clean, often only needing a wipe to make it shine. There’s nothing to stick to so dirt and spills can’t make themselves at home. They are like the Jennifer Lopez of surfaces – they hardly age over time. 

Photo by : Lim Ai Tiong (LATO) Architects/Design

2. Use large tiles

Sure, small tiles make rooms look bigger. But they also increase your workload too. Why? There’s so much more grout involved. Guess what loves grout? That’s right – mold. This is especially true around bathrooms and kitchens, the most humid and moist parts of your home.

Save yourself the work and use larger tiles. The larger you go, the less grout to deal with. That said, don’t go too large when it comes to bathrooms – grout helps to make floors less slippery. 

If you really HAVE to have tiny tiles, for goodness sake, don’t use white grout. Do yourself a favour and get tinted ones. And keep the place well-ventilated. That way, you keep mold from growing and, if they do grow, you don’t have to see them. Even then, that’s no excuse for not cleaning them regularly unless you want to turn your home into a giant biohazard. 

Photo by : Koze

3. Have less glass

Nothing says sophisticated like glass… right before all the dust, watermarks, and soap scum build up. Glass is notoriously difficult to maintain – they require near daily attention if you want them to look even remotely clean. 

Any sort of negligence on your part will be evident. To make it worse, if you leave it long enough, they’re REALLY hard to clean off. The recommendation? Aside from windows, use glass sparingly around the house, the smaller the panels you have, the less glaringly obvious your neglect will be. 

Photo by : Carpenters

4. Reduce flat surfaces

Just like desperate singles, dust eventually just want to settle down. And down is often whatever flat surface happens to be under it. More so in a home than outdoors simply because there’s less air moving around inside the house. You could just vacuum it up, but that’s just more work. Reduce places where dust can settle. 

Think about:

• building or buying shallower bookshelves. Large shelves usually tend to have lots of unused space i.e. ideal for dust.
• opting for closed shelving. Open shelving is an invitation for dust to settle on everything that’s uncovered. 
• increasing ventilation and air circulation. This has the effect of simply blow dust out of the home before it can settle.

Photo by : Cheng Yi Interior Design

5. Include ample storage

Clutter is any homeowners greatest enemy – it makes it exponentially harder to clean a home. Often it’s a sign that you don’t have enough storage at hand. But don’t just have storage in one room. Have storage in every room so that things that belong in that room stays there. Stuff without a home tend to wander around the house. 

Easy peasy cleaning

Home maintenance has never been fun and will be. For most of us. Either way, don’t make it more difficult and painful than you have to. Design a dream home that isn’t just beautiful but also a dream to clean.

Banner Photo by: Art Of Integrity Studio

Posted on 14 April 2023

Kenny Tan, 

SIXiDES Editorial Team