Easy Clean House Tips

We are building our third house now and trying to make it as easy to clean as possible!

Any tips on finishes appreciated!

So far we have chosen

Matt porcelain tiles in a latte colour (hides the dirt)
Shower over bath for less cleaning
Simple round thumb knobs for the cupboards
Smooth minimalist style tapware (Methven Amio)
Wall hung toilets and vanities

What else can we do?

Paint the garage floor it prevents dust in the garage which gets walked into the house

I'm wondering the same thing! I'm planning on having the largest tile I can afford in the bathroom as that equals less grout. Also planning on having the tiles and grout sealed. There is also a glass sealer than can be applied to shower screens to make them easier to clean.

What about Laminex's bath/wet range. Seriously, it's a laminate in your shower. No grout!

charcoal grout?

i think for the external concrete we are going with exposed aggregate, not sure if this is going all the way in to the garage, so if not will definitely consider painting the concrete in there!

definitely going for 600x600 throughout including in the bathrooms and up the walls!
http://www.stoneworld.com.au/v2/porcela ... lane-latte
that is the tile we have chosen for the floor and will use the ivory colour up most walls in the bathroom. the pic doesn't really do it justice, it has a subtle metallic sheen

and definitely +1 to dark grout!! charcoal is the BEST!!

we tried that shower seal stuff in our house now and well lets just say it did very little...it was called vitro seal or vitro glaze or something. I think we just got scammed by the shower screen installer!

oh yes the other thing we are getting is a hand shower instead of a rail shower

and the floorplan we have designed so that the public area (entry/kitchen/living/dining) can be vacuumed all in one go (currently I have to unplug the vacuum 3 times to do the whole house!)

what else?

I've never heard of this? Does it look good??

Other things we plan on doing:

Having a walk in shower so we only have one glass panel to clean and minimum joints/seals.
Making sure the basins are easy to clean
Maybe having wall mounted tapware above the bathroom basins to prevent having to take the handles off to clean the orangey stuff that forms
Having timber floors in hallways, living areas etc. I hate when carpet gets dirty!
Not having those tiny accent tiles anywhere. They look great but I hate the thought of all that grout!
Making sure there are sufficient powerpoints in hallways etc for ease of vacuuming

Yep us too, our shower in the ensuite has 3 walls and only 1 side with glass! The other thing I am considering and am not sure if it's possible is using a glass splashback on the shower walls instead of tiles?

Basins we are looking for smooth no corners - half decided on "moments" by Ideal Standard

Lucky we have no need for carpet in Darwin so fully tiled!

Looking for wall mounted tapware but haven't found any that I like yet...lol

No idea what the laminate looks like - I've only seen it on the website

I was going to suggest glass on your shower walls instead of tiles, I saw it on our splashback suppliers brochure & it would be a dream to keep clean I reckon.

Ducted vacuum system? they are so much easier than dragging a vacuum around the house, we are building a huge house & we still only need 3 outlets throughout the house & the bag on the system we are using apparently only needs emptying approx once a year.

Use a gloss finish paint on your skirtings, doors & architraves as it is a lot easier to wet dust that the flat finish paint. On that note, window architrave things are much easier to dust than plasterboard.

How about a no shoes in the house rule? we are doing that in our new home as we are having solid timber & don't want grit etc causing damage, imagine all the dirt that would get left at the door.

Great tips Broom I would love all glass shower have to settle for single
pane [wis] Broom what is brand and model of your vac system?

pattycake4, the system we are getting is "Valet" we've done some looking around & this one seems one of the best around, also one of the most expensive but only came in at just over $2000 including installation, can't remember all the gadgets included but I know it does have a couple of different vacuum heads, one has a soft, fluffy detachable thing for our timber & I guess the normal carpet one.

Also since the vacuum system is on the garage wall we are also having a car care kit, the hose plugs direct into the system itself & has a few different attachments to vacuum the seats etc. Hoping DH will enjoy cleaning my car more often with that one

Sorry, Pattycake4 the model we are getting is V2SC.

Thanks Broom,that is the same one that I've been looking at

And that's the one we just signed a variation for too!!! Great minds!!

Nice one! you'll have yours way before me so I look forward to you telling me how amazing it is

Oh yeah I had one more "clean house" idea re the skirtings, get the plain profile skirtings instead of the fancy ones with grooves etc, the plain ones are so much easier to clean, I've lived with both & I hated the fancy ones!

Now you got me thinking, in my two previous houses I had plain easy
to clean.Friend has fancy ones said they are easy to clean,I have my
doubts.Im with small builder so can change with no cost.

We have these and they are super easy to clean. I go around with the brushy bit on the vacuum and they come up nice and new and it's a quick easy wipe with a wet cloth if needed. No grooves!

Wish I'd seen this earlier - never even thought of that benefit before!

I too found that when I had the plain profile skirtings I was able to just use the nozzle of the vacuum to gently clean the tops & I would clean them once a fortnight. When I had the fancy skirtings I had to crawl on my hands & knees with a damp cloth to dust them. They only got done when they were so dusty I could no longer stand looking at them