It’s a busy life, being a parent. I’m always doing something, whether it’s working, cleaning or spending time with my family. I’m sure you’re familiar with the feeling that there aren’t enough hours in the day! You just can’t get everything done, and if you then you don’t get time to sit down and relax. One of the ways to solve this is to make your home as low maintenance as possible. You can still decorate and make it look beautiful, but you won’t have to clean, garden or do any DIY as often. Try my best tips for a low maintenance home to get a bit more time to yourself.
Easily Cleaned Floors
When you live in a full house, carpets aren’t the best things to have. Kids, pets and muddy shoes walking through the house can leave a mess. And you don’t want to spend half your time on the floor trying to scrub a stain out of the carpet – I know this from painful experience! It’s much better to have bare floors that you can wash clean. Get out a brush or the hoover to sweep up first, and then mop and perhaps even polish. A steam mop makes it even easier to clean your floors, although you have to make sure wooden floors are treated first.
Energy-saving Light Bulbs
Changing a light bulb should be quite easy, but it can turn into a hassle. It’s especially annoying if you can’t reach the light without assistance. You have to get out a ladder, and then it can be fiddly to put in a new bulb. Trying to do it in the dark is even more difficult! If you find you have to change bulbs too often, you should look into more efficient ones. LED bulbs will last a long time and can give you plenty of light. Get something like an Any Lamp – GU10 LED, and you’ll find that you save money on your bills and on new bulbs.
Wipeable and Washable Surfaces
Children often have sticky hands, even when they haven’t been near anything sticky. And there are always everyday spills and stains to worry about around the house. If you want to protect everything from wine, dog drool and orange juice, choose wipeable surfaces. It’s much easier to clean up a spill on a glass coffee table than on a fabric sofa. Leather or faux leather is often a good choice for your soft furnishings, so they’re still comfortable but easily wiped. If they can’t be wiped, you should be able to put them in the washing machine. For example, seat covers or cushions should be easily washed.
Low-maintenance Garden
Some people love to garden, but others would rather not do any more than necessary. If you want a garden that’s easy to look after, it’s all about what you plant. You might choose not to plant anything at all, but you can also get plants that don’t need a lot of attention. However, if you’ve bought a house with a garden that needs a lot of work, you need to decide if you’re up for maintaining it, or do you get rid of the bulbs and plants? I want to like gardening but at the moment, I just find it so dull, and relentless!
You don’t have to spend all your spare time cleaning, tidying and gardening. Redesign your home and you can cut down on the work you need to do.
Rebecca x
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I’d be lost without my steam mop! We only have carpet in our bedroom and on the stairs / landing, so everywhere else needs it constantly! 🙂 #HomeEtc
We have too many carpets – when we have some spare cash I want to replace with wooden floors!
Some good points there Rebecca. We have a glass coffee table and wooden floors – so easy to clean! on the other hand we have a garden packed with plants that need attention.
#HomeEtc
Thanks Fionnuala – we have leather sofas and I think they’re a must with little ones!
I’m a big fan of delegating the cleaning to MOH. Thankfully he’s good at it – perhaps I should g.et him a steam mop ?! #homeetc
so lucky! my OH is never in enough to do any really as he commutes to London and works long hours – I should get him involved at the weekends!!
All good advice. I would love to be without our yukky carpets and you’re right get a sofa with removable covers. Until you have children you never really understand how utterly mesy they are. #HomeEtc
completely agree. No matter what anyone says, you don’t really realise until you actually have kids!
Great ideas and anything that makes it easier is good in my book! Thanks for sharing – top tips 🙂 Jess xx
#HomeEtc
Amen to fewer carpets, we inherited one in our living room from the previous owners and I can’t wait to get rid of it!! Great tips x #HomeEtc
Great recommendations. I have recently started cleaning a lot with water and vinegar. It works for almost every hard surface. I run around the house with the spray bottle and wash clothes and clean everything I see from windows to counters to mirrors.
Oh gosh — I’m SO with you!! We have a carpet in our dining room — which doubles up as a hallway — and I’m SICK of people tramping through with their shoes on!!! I cannot WAIT til we can afford to replace the carpet with floorboards!! 🙂 That will cut my work in half! Thanks so much for linking up with us! 🙂 #HomeEtc