What Makes a Convenient Low- Maintenance Home You Can Enjoy Instead of Maintain

Home maintenance takes a lot of time and money to do right, and more and more families are opting to save their hard-earned time and money for experiences or relaxation instead of more work. When thinking of how to design your home for it to be comfortable, convenient, and low-maintenance, you’ll be happy to know that there are indeed ways to do just that. The other good news here is that most of the materials you can use to build a low maintenance home aren’t prohibitive so far as cost is concerned. 

Ultimately, it all comes down to making careful, calculated choices in appliances, furniture, and material options, aimed to increase your home’s durability and make maintenance procedures easy. From furniture to fixtures, there are a bunch of different details that come together to make a low maintenance home. Designing a home for easy maintenance means focusing on those details inside and out to make more time and money for kicking your feet up, traveling, and having fun. 

Low Maintenance Home Furniture 

Admittedly, furniture is not going to have as much of an effect on your maintenance budget as your home’s cladding or structure for instance; but it is still an area where you can make day-to-day maintenance much simpler. By making the right choices, you can make it easier to keep your furniture in good shape since you won’t need to clean it as frequently, and most maintenance will be quite simple.

Darker-Colored Furniture 

Synthetic upholstery is quite durable and can stand up to a lot of abuse without damage.

Put simply, darker colored furniture in your renovated living room will require less cleaning than lighter-colored furniture. Lighter-colored furniture stains quickly and easily, and removing marks from a white sofa takes more time and effort. This is especially important to consider if you plan to have pets inside or have kids. Anything from a small piece of lint to a large wine stain will stick out like a sore thumb on light-colored upholstery. 

By contrast, darker-colored furniture can actually conceal staining. This essentially means that keeping it looking clean is much less labor-intensive since you won’t have to do it as often. Pair darker colors with casters for heavy items, and plastic covers for couches and armchairs, and you’ll have a furniture layout that is long-lasting and very easy to take care of — ideal for a low-maintenance home that’s both stylish and practical.

Easy-to-Clean Materials

Depending on where you live, you might have to deal with more dust or humidity. This will naturally translate into more cleaning time. Additionally, places with lots of foot traffic like a living room or kitchen in a family home are going to get dirty much faster than other parts of the home. In light of this, it makes sense to choose upholstery fabrics for these areas for an easy-to-clean design. 

Leather is a popular candidate for easiest to clean material because it is durable but also looks very nice. To top it off, it’s quite easy to clean and most stains will come right off with a damp cloth and some soap. Darker leather is also stain-resistant. Microfiber composite materials are another candidate thanks to their durability and ease of cleaning. Synthetics require almost no maintenance unlike leather, which can require some conditioning from time to time. 

Minimal Decor 

Minimal decorative items greatly reduce the time needed to keep flat surfaces such as counters and tables clean.

This principle especially applies to flat surfaces such as dining tables, end tables, natural stone kitchen countertops, shelving, cabinets, display cases, and the like. Decor can add some extra flair and individuality to any space, but you’ll want to keep it to an absolute minimum if you want a low-maintenance house.

Imagine having to move twenty or thirty different little decorative items just so that you can dust off the end tables in your living room. That will get inconvenient fast, especially if you’re planning to clean the area on a regular basis. In fact, excessive decor can actually dissuade you from dusting because of the extra steps involved. By contrast, a minimalist decor approach streamlines the entire process so that dusting is just a five-minute affair. 

Simple Design 

As a rule, the easiest furniture to clean is also very simply designed. This means it is smooth, curved, and lacking lots of nooks and crannies. Think of a modern curvy couch or a Swedish-style table with curved edges and legs. 

This kind of furniture allows you to easily dust off all surfaces without spending lots of time to clean hard to reach areas. By contrast, more complex furniture such as the highly ornamented stuff made in the Victorian style is going to be harder to clean thoroughly. Less complexity in your furniture design also means there are fewer things that can break.   

Easy Maintenance Home Appliances 

The appliances you install into your home will also affect how easy your home is to keep maintained. Savvy remodelers know that choosing durable and easy-to-clean appliances in the kitchen and elsewhere will save you lots of time, headache, and expense. This often means that the best appliances aren’t going to be the ones with the lowest price.  

Your Cooktop And Oven 

Induction stovetops require no maintenance and can be cleaned with a quick wipe.

If you want low-maintenance living, install an induction-type cooktop range. These flat glass ranges are completely sealed, meaning you only have to wipe off the glass surface to keep them clean. No more having to take apart burners, clean them, dry them, and put them back together. 

Since they have a relatively simple design, induction ranges have very little in them that can go wrong. As such, they are pretty reliable. A self-cleaning oven is another must as it will burn any stains to ash, making cleaning effortless. 

Smart Fridge 

A no-frost fridge is absolutely essential in this modern day and age because they require little to no attention, making them an excellent choice for maintenance-free houses. Since they don’t produce any frost, they do not need to be defrosted. This allows you to skip the lengthy process of unplugging your fridge, taking everything out of it, and then putting everything back when the ice has melted away. 

Choose Stainless Steel 

Stainless steel is an ideal material for backsplashes and kitchen appliances thanks to its durability.

Most appliances from washing machines to microwaves come with a stainless steel finish, and this is for good reason. Not only is this a highly durable material, but it is also very good at resisting dirt and finger marks. Even if stains do appear on your stainless steel appliances they are very easy to wipe off thanks to the stainless finish. We especially recommend choosing stainless steel for your high-touch appliances such as dishwashers, toasters, or blenders. 

Practical Design 

A smaller home will be both more practical and more economical when it comes to cleaning and maintenance.

Low-maintenance homes are those that are designed smartly for easy upkeep. While not everyone is a building design expert, there are still a few simple choices you can make to build an easy maintenance home. 

A Smaller Home 

Whether you’re building your own dream residence or buying a new home, it’s best to think small if you want something with easy maintenance. A small, low-maintenance home will be a lot easier to keep clean and in good shape simply because there would be a lot less to take care of. Smaller maintenance-free houses will also save you big bucks — an important consideration when making a big purchase like this. 

Long-Lasting Materials Inside and Out 

Metal roofing is far more durable than terracotta tile, especially in places with regular stormy weather.

When it comes to low-maintenance exterior building materials, consider switching out any wood for vinyl. Wood is a beautiful and sustainable material, but it doesn’t last long and requires constant maintenance to prevent the risk of rot. Vinyl or composites can give you the same look without any of the hassle. You should also opt for a metal roof over, let’s say, a clay tile one for the same reasons. 

On the interior of the home, you should emphasize maintenance-free materials such as natural stone for custom countertops, sturdy tile or sheet flooring, quality custom cabinetry, and LED lighting. All of these materials make for a much more durable home interior that can stand up to the abuse of a busy family life.

Easy-Clean Design 

There are also a few ways you can design your home’s interior to make cleaning easier. For example, stretching your cabinetry so that they reach the ceiling reduces cleaning time since you won’t have to dust off the top of your cabinets. 

Alongside low-maintenance countertops, installing an undermount sink also makes things easier since this means the sink has no lip to get in the way when you’re sweeping crumbs into the sink. On a more general note, recessed lighting is another easy-maintenance element since you won’t have to dust a complex chandelier or fix a complex light housing.