15 Ways to Design an Easy-Clean Home

sharivars After recently completing a renovation may I add something to be wary of... Trim, millwork (bead board , etc), and built- ins. I love the aesthetic of the craftsman details we've added to our house, but omg, it's a dusting nightmare. Take something as simple as a window ... My old ones had one level surface around the glass, meaning one quick swipe to dust, but our new ones have these stair step like tiers, which translates to 4 levels of dust collections. Sounds silly but it adds up.
On a happier note we relocated our stackable laundry to a closet in the master bath and I will second the authors opinion --love it! Even with children in the house, this arrangement makes this chore so much more likely to get completed.

lizoregon There are some great ideas here. We have wood laminate in our home. My dear husband went to a janitorial supply store and bought extra wide mop heads so it doesn't take him as long to clean. :-)

One thing I do have to say though. If you think it's OK to allow your children to draw on your walls and eat on your living room furniture, please do not bring them to my house! My walls don't have special paint and my upholstery isn't stain-resistant.

Please parents! You have a responsibility to your children to train them to take care of things and not just let them run wild. They will be much happier if you set limits and they will be welcome anywhere. Kids can have fun and not be destructive.

amaebi519 I also like the tip of using textiles made for outdoor use, even inside the house. Think rugs, cushions/pillows, curtains (was surprised they made these!), etc. They tend to be stain-resistant and washable, and are made so nicely now that they look perfectly at home indoors.

I'm also a fan of things that come with an authentic (or authentic-looking) patina - we like our furniture to look like it has a past, and new scuffs, etc. look intentional. And since I hate vacuuming, I like the idea of having a dustbuster (hidden but easy-access) on each floor!

myfanwyb Laundry chutes are against fire code in some places. We actually have to close ours off before we sell our home.

They can act as a chimney to sleeping areas for a laundry room fire or any fire on that level. Find out before you build and even if allowed and at a minimum; put in a smoke detector near the base.

L R Living on the Australian coastline means that the journey from the car to the laundry is generally covered in dirt or sand so in my new house I've planned the laundry to be in between the garage and the powder room (with shower). Grouping these rooms together will get rid of a LOT of sweeping.
The walk in linen upstairs is directly above the laundry, so the laundry chute is perfectly placed. And the linen room upstairs is next to the main bathroom, so dirty towels and muddy clothes lying around will (hopefully) be a thing of the past!

hollywoodland Great ideas! I would add that houses with fewer rooms, whatever their size, are much easier to clean. I moved from a 1925 3 bedroom with lots of small rooms to a boxy 1937 with two large bedrooms and large living room. Although my current house is bigger, its lack of family room and open floor plan have made a huge difference in my cleaning time and effort.

joless I would add, keep things off the floors as much as possible. This makes sweeping or hoovering so much easier. Floating shelving, or furniture with simple legs (no bars or cross pieces) mean you can get in between more easily.

And we always make sure our kitchen units go to the ceiling so we don't end up with that greasy messy shelf above them.

ginnybalf My favorite subject. No to cleaning, yes to wine and houzzing. Top tips - back to wall, or wall hung toilets, under counter basins and wall mounted taps for bathrooms, no bevilles on the kitchen cabinets, bins in the kitchen that can be accessed from outside ( so you don't have to drag garbage bags through the house). Storage near the front door to stop the "drop" of bags shoes and jackets. And of course the best tip - get a cleaner!

midmodfan Very interesting suggestions! I can only emphasize the storage aspect. We recently downsized from a two story plus basement home to a much smaller bungalow and therefore added walls of floor-to-ceiling closets. No clutter = easy cleaning. I wish we had a central vacuum system, but that was over our budget.

olldbobbi Another tip for an easy clean home is to keep as many things off the countertops as possible. Countertops should have only what's absolutely necessary, i.e.a coffeemaker, microwave, and small appliances that are too heavy to lift up and down, like a stand mixer. Also, your toaster if you use it everyday, or any other small appliance like it.

In my bathroom there are only 3 items on the countertop; soap, lotion and a small air freshener. This way, I don't have to move items from here to there and back again to clean. Decorative items should be limited to walls or a small shelf.

olldbobbi Pangaea - If you could do several ideabooks on storage, please do them! Storage is always a challenge!

JAN MOYER Okay, I am sort of laughing. Dirt is dirt. Dust is dust. When a client tells me a thing in a light color will "get dirtier faster" I say "no, the dust and dirt are clueless as to what color your stuff is, and thus have no preference because the are clueless.....just because you can't see the dirt, does not mean it isn't there"
Spot and stain removal is different than cleaning. I have seen leather sofas that appear immaculate, until you lift a seat cushion to discover eight markers, a pound of popcorn, hair both human and dog, hair barrettes, cookie crumbs, and the cordless phone missing for two weeks. Pointing this out to a client- the same client who has a cleaning service- usually gets me a stunned mouth agape response.
Wall to wall carpet of any type will get filthiest fastest in your bedroom and closet, BECAUSE of your bare feet. Bare feet are death to carpet. Your feet leave oils behind which then attract dust, which is tramped on, which translates into the grungy traffic pattern that appears in the carpet. Wear slippers, clean socks, or shoes. All are better for your carpet than bare feet. If you have a dog... all bets are off, as their coats have oils, and do the exact same thing your bare feet do, wherever they lie. You need only ask a carpet salesman, as I "see" you shaking your head.
In the end, dirt goes everywhere. The dust you find is you and yours, literally. Ninety percent of it is human skin debris! As to cleaning, there is no avoiding it, but it is easier for certain when you limit the clutter, the angst of too many decorative items ESPECIALLY on kitchen counter surfaces.
In the end, "thoroughly cleaning" is a process of looking for the dirt, finding it, and ridding your home of it. So ...how often, how well, and all that, depends on how much you want to find! Picking up, tidying up clutter, obvious spills and stains removal is a different thing entirely, and simply makes it easier to do the thorough cleaning.

Ferah Tanatar_Soner re. the comments about less rooms = less cleaning. My opinion is that the wider spaces you have, the easier it is to clean. Our previous (rental) flat was the same square metres as our current (rental) with 2 bedrooms instead of the current 3 bedrooms. This translates intotrying to fit in the same furniture in smaller areas - resulting in having to move around more, pushing and shoving furniture around to try to get some place clear. But ok; that's not the only difference: previous flat had built-in cabinetry everywhere! oh the joy of being able to put something in its place, with a place for everything... after 1.5 years in our current place even my very, VERY domestically challenged husband is saying that our own house must definitely have built-in cabinetry! hahaha !!

Donald I'd add that if you clean a little every day then you don't end up with one day of the week where you try to clean everything. Much easier for me to find 15 minutes to dust versus setting aside two hours to tackle everything.

gemhouse My dream house would have a central room that is a shared walk in closet, connected to both the bathrooms and the laundry. No clothes to no bedroom ever again!! Everyone in their family has hanging, folding and shoe space, and a cubicle curtain for modesty. Must have a chute to the laundry and a returns cupboard for clean folding from the laundry.

patricia beharry This is an innocent question and not a critique. Why buy a beautiful sofa and/or chairs and cover them with slip covers. Do you take the slipcovers off when company comes?

JAN MOYER Patricia,
Custom slipcovers of today are just like beautiful upholstery, with the lovely exception of being relatively easy to wash and clean in all of the places an upholstered sofa would NOT be. The seat and back cushion covers, the base of the slipcover are all separate, just as on an upholstered piece. Even the sturdiest upholstery fabric gets dirty over enough time. Slips go in the wash, back on the sofa, and presto! Like brand new!

mugsy1703 My 3 favorite cleaning supplies are my Swiffer dusters(regular and long handle), Swiffer floor sweeper and my Vileda pro-mist mop. They take care of a lot of dust/hair/spills in a short time especially now that I have hardwood throughout my main living area. I use these and then a quick wipe over surfaces that get fingerprints and spills and the house looks immaculate.

The other thing that makes a home easy to clean is a REGULAR ROUTINE. I have certain tasks that I do each day. If I am not home that day, I either skip a week or reassign it to another day but then at least I know what I need to do each day and all things get done on a regular basis.

jcraighil Pangaea - I love your ideabooks but am concerned about the prevalence of vinyl in this article. Please be sure to weigh the environmental and health impacts of vinyl before purchasing. It can be toxic throughout its lifecycle; manufacturing, use in the home, and disposal.

kennedytarheel Lot of good advice in this article, and comments. If there is a theme emerging, perhaps it is "dust and dirt happen" so make your life easier by establishing some house rules (clean up after yourself, pick up what you drop, don't walk away from a mess, etc) so that all members of the house can have more free time to do fun things. I find that bathrooms are the most time consuming to keep clean. Years ago, the 5 of us living here agreed that we would squeegee the shower after every shower, clean out the sink after use (because no one but "you" wants to see your toothpaste, and wipe up spills on the floor....we call it the bathroom "Once Over." It has reduced bathroom cleaning time to bearable. Now if the dog could pick up her white fur!

astraea You can be sure that the title of this article caught my attention! I did think it was ironic that the first photo – showing the stained concrete flooring – had 2 “dust collector” chandeliers over the table (LOL)! I couldn't believe the difference, moving from a house with wall-to-wall pile carpet, to one with 1/2 hardwood floor & Berber carpet .. hardly any dust generated!

Love the idea of “sweep inlets” in the kitchen .. I have central vac .. but it doesn’t have that! I guess it adds to the cost, by requiring the air system extend around the kitchen.

I would like to comment on #10 – “furniture on the move”. I loved the casters on my dinette chairs in my old house .. with ceramic tile flooring. In my new home with hardwood flooring, you need something to tie the chairs to the table, or you just “roll away” too easily!

Definitely like #12 about storage! When I realized guests needed a bench to put a suitcase or sit while dressing in the guest bedroom, I decided to get one with storage as well .. good for extra blankets & pillows!

#13 – Locate the laundry where it works for YOUR FAMILY! I relocated mine from a main level closet, down to the basement utility room. There was no other large closet on the main level for linens or other supplies, and frankly I don’t feel like hearing the washer or dryer going for hours .. certainly not next to my MBR! While it would be great to find a house that’s got as large a laundry room as the one in the photo, most people would be hard-pressed to have the room to carve one out, if the house wasn’t already designed that way. And a “laundry closet” w/o a sink, isn’t close to being a full-service laundry room.

One thing I wish was included, was a comment about the shift to vanities-as-furniture in bathrooms .. and ones that do not go flush down to the floor. What a great place for dust to collect & be difficult to get out.

JAN MOYER astraea,
Vanities that appear to be "furniture" generally have a recessed/dark toe kick, virtually invisible, which prevents dust from going more than a couple of "reachable" inches underneath, and also protect your lipstick or eyeliner from a "roll into oblivion"!

astraea Sorry Jan, but I've seen many with a scalloped front that is totally open, or ones that have short feet, again creating a 2" - 4" space to gather dust underneath. The vanities that are flush to the floor on all 4 sides are now consider "old fashioned" & out-of-style .. now the only thing they are is "practical".

kelmick The laundry chute! As mentioned, they are against code in some places, but that doen't make them any less appealing. Growing up, my neighbors (with 8 kids!) had one in their 3 story dutch colonial. It went all the way to the basement and I know the youngest kids took more than one trip down "the quick way" - as there was always sure to be a huge pile of towels, clothes, sheets, etc.

JAN MOYER astraea,
Well.... true on that! But, since dust goes where it goes, including behind the fridge, under the bed, in the recesses of your closets, even under the books on a shelf, I guess we just decide if a thing is worth the maintenance, or live with the best solution.. or get into the nooks and crannies! Quite honestly, the drawers and storage in ANY vanity are usually as big a source of grime and goo, hair and dust, and sticky residue, as what may be UNDER the vanity! : )

patricia beharry I love a clean house. I hate a sterile house. I sometimes tell my friends " Don't swipe your fingers on the table, you might disturb the dust" Then we mix a rum and coke and sit on the verandah and watch the ocean.

olldbobbi Patricia, yes! Clean enough to be healthy, dirty enough to be happy.

Casart Coverings @ jcraighil, an excellent source of information about vinyl and its uses can be found at The Vinyl Institute http://www.vinylinfo.org/ where you will also find articles related to its specific uses, such as wallcovering and flooring http://www.vinylinfo.org/uses-of-vinyl/construction/wallcoverings/
@ Particia, regarding slipcovers-they also afford an opportunity for easy, seasonal decor change.

Casart Coverings I'm always into storage options to keep things clean and uncluttered but I really like your testament to vinyl wallcoverings because they are practical and durable. Our Casart reusable wallcovering has an Organics line with finishes that were originally hand painted, like Raw Silk, Faux Linen and Faux Padded Harlequin as alternatives to real and more expensive, but less cleanable grass cloth. Another advantage -- all our finishes can be customized to personal paint colors.

Garden Inspire Great ideas! I especially like the idea of carpet that can be washed in the sink and the sweep inlets. I love only having carpet in bedrooms and next time I will have a house with no tile! The most scrubbable paint I have experienced is Behr Ultra. Even in the flat sheen (although I don't like flat paint) it is very easy to clean.

kennedytarheel Ya'll are too funny! my mother used to say "if you move it you have to dust it" referring to the clean mark that would be left if something was moved on a dusty table. I used to dread cleaning day. Instead of having lots to dust like my mom, I have empty tables except for the essentials. But it still makes me smile to hear my mother say that in my mind...

Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR Glad to see so many of you responding with additional great ideas!

sharivars -- Love the extra wide dust mop. Your husband is a smart guy.

lizoregon -- I understand your sentiments. But even the most well behaved kids have to practice before mastering the art of not spilling. And in my house, it's the 50-something husband who spills the hot chocolate. Nice to have stain and spill resistant materials for just about anybody.

amaeibi519 -- Yes, Sunbrella® and others have come a very long way in aesthetics. They are now a viable option for indoor upholstery.

myfanwyb -- Clearly the people writing the codes in those areas aren't the ones having to cart piles of laundry all over the house. That's a new one on me. But yes, codes vary all over the place. Thanks for the reminder.

L R -- Sounds like you have done exactly what I'm suggesting here, which is to really think out how you function in your home and make layout and design choices to reduce the clean-up time. Best wishes in your new home!

joless -- Excellent point about having less things on the floor. I minimize things on the floor in my home too. I have several pets and legs are just fur catchers. So, I keep it fairly minimal and it helps a lot.

ginnybalf -- Oh yes! All good tips. Especially love the bins that are accessible from both inside and outside.

Bobbi P -- Storage Ideabook -- Check!

Ferah Tanatar_Soner -- I hear what you're saying. If you're downsizing to smaller rooms, or a smaller home, then you would really seriously need to pare down the furnishings. And yes, having great storage makes all the difference in the world.

gemhouse -- You have really thought out that dream house! Good ideas and I hope you get it one day.

patricia beharry -- Not a bad question at all. Because slip covers can be washable they are a nice choice for someone with children or pets. Many of the furniture pieces with slipcovers are not beautiful underneath, they are actually just upholstered in plain muslin and the slipcover is actually the beautiful part. Being removable makes it so much easier to clean. And then, there's the bonus of being able to have more than one slipcover in different fabrics so you can easily change the look of your furniture if you like. Slipcovers can be very tailored so that they don't actually look all that different from an upholstered piece.

jcraighil -- Only 2 out of 15 tips here mentioned vinyl. Just saying. And there are now low VOC options as well as ones that are made from recycled vinyl which can be recycled again, so it is getting better.

kennedy tarheel -- LOL -- sit, fetch, vacuum. Gotta love it.

astraea -- Regarding the vanities as furniture -- one thing that helps there and throughout the house is to either have furniture pieces that go all the way flush to the floor or to have sufficiently tall legs so there's room to sweep underneath. I like a light and modern look so tend to lean toward furniture pieces that have at least an 8" space below them. Anything lower, but that still has a gap underneath is a hard place to clean and a great place to lose items that roll under them.

kelmick -- That sounds pretty fun actually. I know that codes are supposed to be for safety, but sometimes I think they are just coding the fun out of our lives.

ilanamom Amazing ideas - any thoughts on where to get nice (but affordable) vinyl dining room chairs. The cheap ones are a bit hideous and the the chairs themselves are not evry sturdy - but with 4 kids I can't afford 600+ a chair.

srgerova I designed my kitchen to be easy to clean by using cork flooring, completely flat cabinet doors (no bevels or levels for dust and grease to collect), granite countertops, and best of all, hammered copper backsplash that is coated so you just wipe it clean with a damp rag. The cabinets also go all the way to the ceiling. In addition I have huge drawers for my pots and pans, and a double trash bin in my Island. I also have white appliances that wipe clean easily. I had a bad experience in my last house with stainless steel showing every fingerprint! I love, love, love my new kitchen and so does everyone that sees it.

Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR Wow! Things are going fast today. While I was writing my responses to you all, 5 or 6 more comments were posted. It's going to be fun to try to keep up with this today.

Casart -- Yes, you guys have beautiful wall coverings. Fabulous look without being delicate.

Patricia Beharry -- Great attitude! Love it.

kennedy tarheel -- Sounds like your mom had a great sense of humor and a healthy perspective on dust.

ilanamom -- Well, there are lots of good, sturdy and affordable chairs, so I wonder if the best bet might be to get a good quality vinyl upholstery and reupholster the seats. Dania Furniture has a lot of reasonably priced and pretty decent quality dining chairs and many of them feature vinyl rather than leather. I'm sure some other readers will mention some other stores.

woofwoof OK, thinking beyond what kind of flooring and where to put your laundry room, here's some other areas you might not think about. Choose baseboards carefully! Avoid ones that have a flat edge on top, which collects dust and dirt like crazy. I just did a whole house in such a baseboard and it's always dirty. ALso, cabinetry, same thing. I did a modified shaker with angled edges, so at least they don't catch dust. And window sills -- another dust catcher. My architect insisted they make windows look nicer and really, they just catch dust, inside and out. And this whole hardwood floors are easy to dust? Well, I did a whole house in dark hardwood, which shows every dust bunny, and it is a lot of sweeping and dusting with a kid a big dog and lots of friends over. At least just sweeping twice a week. If I were to re-do my newly renovated house today, I'd change all the baseboards, skip the sills inside, and have carpeting in all the bedrooms, plus family room, and runners on the stairs (for not falling on them!)

JAN MOYER Woofwoof
You can always add a runner to stairs, I would advise against "no sills" as the potential for weather damage to walls increases, and it looks low end in most cases. Base skirtings collect dust, no matter how skimpy they are, and no matter their shape. High traffic floors need a vacuum or sweep daily, or their life expectancy diminishes. Carpet in bedrooms gets dirty from bare feet and the dust attracted to it. I think the point is not to confuse lower maintenance/less obvious dirt, with NO maintenance. There is no such thing as zero maintenance. As we all pound the keys... the dust is settling and accumulating, and the only way to stop it is to cease living!

patricia beharry Pangaea Interiors, You have answered my question; and it now makes sense. I always thought they covered up that beautiful sofa they spent thousands for,

emjay194 Wow! So many great ideas! I love it! I'm all about saving time when it comes to cleaning. I love a clean house but I hate being slave to my home. Using the right tools makes a HUGE difference. Using Norwex helps to drastically cut down on chemicals, saves up to 75% of your time, saves you money, protects your health and preserves the environment.

You can clean many surfaces with the Enviro cloth and just water. It's fast and efficient! When you clean with just water, there is no residue of detergent or chemicals left on the surface which can be slightly sticky and very attractive to dirt and dust. So the surface actually stays clean longer. Cleaning windows, mirrors, stainless steel appliances, glass coffee tables, etc. couldn't be easier with a wet Enviro Cloth followed by polishing streak free with a dry Window Cloth. Bare floors of all sorts are a snap with the mop system. Use the dry pad in place of sweeping or vacuuming to pick up the finest of dust or pet hair (better than vacuuming). Then use the wet pad with just water for a streak free absolute clean!

There are many more products that I could mention. They all come with a 60 day money back guarantee. All microfiber products have a 2 year warranty. You can check them out at www.mjbelrose.norwex.biz.

meingurt Interesting ideas, but the one that no one mentions is the furnace filters on a forced air heating/cooling system. When we built our home, we installed an air filter cabinet in each return air ducts system of the forced air system. The cost was under $200 for each and consists of a metal sleeve which holds a box media air cleaner/ filter. The original filter was a MERV 8, but now we have MERV 12. MERV 8 captured dust mites, pollen, mold spores, pet dander and other contaminants 0.3 microns or larger. There are 25400 microns in an inch, so it catches microscopic particles. (I don't have the specs on the MERV 12, but it is even better.) Unfiltered air flows through the returns, through the filters, and filtered air is dispersed through the supply air ducts. No 1" filters are used behind the return grills in ceilings or walls as these impede the flow of air to the box media filters. This works perfectly during the heating and air-consitioning seasons, as the HVAC fans are going. During those other times, the fan can be run for a few minutes a day. Pet hair still needs to be vacuumed as it does not get into the filter as it is generally not flying around in the air, just lying on the floor.

The result: I don't have visible dust for weeks. I have very dark hardwood floors and mostly dark furniture. My neighbors complain that they need to dust every day, but I don't have to dust or vacuum every week: sometimes 3 weeks will go by before I need to do it. I also do not have carpeting, just a few small area rugs, so that does help. The only place where I do clean more frequently is the bedroom... cotton sheets, down bedding add to the dust factor.

This is not only a wonderful system for a clean home, but a boon to allergy sufferers. These systems can be retrofitted on existing systems.

terisammis We are in the process of building our new home. One of my favorite items is the pass through linen closet and hamper. The laundry room is back to back with the master closet/bathroom. The pass through closet has shelving on top where I store towels and sheets while the bottom is a laundry hamper. We put our dirty clothes in the hamper in the master bathroom - the clothes are removed from the same hamper on the laundry room side - wash/'dry/fold and then the sheets and towels go directly into the top of the cupboard while still in the laundry room. Clean sheets/towels are then readily available in the master bath/closet - like magic! No carrying dirty clothes through the house and no carrying clean sheets and towels through the house.

Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR woofwoof -- Thank you for your perspective. Baseboards can certainly be a dust catcher -- horizontal surfaces are an issue, period. Reducing how many of them you have and using angles can help, although of course, won't entirely eliminate all cleaning. Rats. Any flooring that is very uniform in color, whether it is dark or light, will show every little thing. Variegated coloring is more forgiving. The up side is the floor doesn't show dirt easily, but the down side is that the floor can get very dirty before you realize you'd better sweep. People are quite divided on which they prefer. Stair runners are not only good for safety purposes, but make them quieter too. You can add a stair runner, or even fully carpet just the stairs in a home that has other flooring such as wood or tile. Use a very low, dense pile, and again, I'd go with something that has a little variegation and randomness in its pattern if you're not a vacuum daily type of person. Might not have to wait for that next house to do some of these things. :0)

patricia beharry -- Glad to be of service!

Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR meingurt -- Excellent advice. My eyes rolled back in my head a bit for the scientific part :0) but I get the idea. Wonderful point and everyone designing a new house ought to go back and read your comment if they didn't already. Thanks so much!

terrisammis -- Great idea! Sort of like a horizontal laundry chute. I'm keeping all of these ideas for when I get to build my own custom home designed from the ground up.

thediydog Great ideabook, and great comments! I would add two things I learned in my latest apartment -

1. Cabinets! At my house we have a ton of books, DVDs, CDs etc. And they are all on open shelving. I dream of having them all in cabinets so they don't collect dust and pet hair.

2. In my kitchen and bath I have large tile with grout on the floors. In my next place I will avoid this. The grout is impossible to keep clean as a broom or swiffer doesn't get all of the crumbs from between the tile. Hmm...maybe I need a robot vacuum for my tiny kitchen. :) IF you're doing tile floors, put the tiles close together.

astraea Meingurt - I switched one air zone to a large box filter too last year .. easy to access & change, no more running around the house with a ladder, or struggling to reach the high ones in the MBR. It's too bad that because my other air system is at the far end of the house, and you have to climb over a "hill" in the attic to get there, there wasn't any payback in changing the filters on that zone!

debstone12345 I live in an old Victorian on a very busy street. I also have 3 dogs and 2 children. My wood floors are toast but I would like to keep them clean. I have tried many cleaners. Much of the polyeurethane is off - down to bare wood. No matter if I scrub and scrub I have dirt. Any suggestions? I would love to redo the floors but not in the budget for now!!!!

lovesmesomepitbulls Love these ideas - will be moving soon and I will be looking for these things in my new house. If I don't have a central vac, I intend to get a Roomba (or similar device)! (And maybe a Scooba, too.) Set it to run once a day (we have four dogs), and we'd only have to vacuum or sweep corners and hard-to-reach places once a week or so ... heaven.

emjay194 Deb, the Norwex mop will help. My son has a similar issue...wood floors with the finish worn off, 1 dog and 3 kids. It's work to scrub but the microfiber wet pad will certainly help to clean the floor immensely.

giggles60 LOVE the sign! I will copy that for sure!

Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR thediydog -- Definitely, in closed storage vs. open shelving the closed storage wins.

debstone12345 -- I'm sorry, but no mop or cleaner will help no matter how whiz-bang it is. Bare wood is porous so you are just soaking dirt in deeper each time you mop. It is possible to rent floor sanders by the day. Since your floors are "toast" it sounds like a diy refinishing job may be reasonable. Sand it back the best you can and then apply a few coats of a clear floor polyurethane. I would talk with your local home improvement center. One other thought -- if your wood floors are truly awful and just absolutely beyond any refinishing job, professional or otherwise, you might want to consider painting your floors. There are loads of photos of painted floors in older homes here on Houzz and they look great. The paint will seal the floor and be easier to clean up. But I wouldn't paint them white :0)

lovesmesomepitbulls -- Well, I bought the Roomba years ago. Maybe not a fair example because I have 6 cats and 2 dogs, plus I live in the forest in Portland. Between all the animal fur and the pine needles & wet, tracked in dirt, the Roomba would chug along the best it could, and it did mean I didn't have to sweep as much. However, I then had to spend time emptying it and picking fur out of its little roller brushes, so I don't think time was saved overall. I think the Roomba is great in a lighter traffic type of household.

ktwocheck I love love love the concrete floors you have pictured. I have them in my bedroom with an area rug under my bed and it's the easiest room in the house to keep clean!

sclawson I miss the central vac system in my old house, tho I like it that THIS place is smaller and easier to clean! Cleaning ladies I've had never liked the central vac, and the hose is difficult to haul around (they make retractable hoses now!), but they were good for so many cleaning tasks beyond floors.

gweller I'd love to hear more on the open versus closed cabinet discussion. I see so many photos of open shelving in kitchens on houzz and while I love the look and it would be so convenient and eliminate cleaning cupboard doors, I have wondered if you'd spend more time dusting these open shelves. We are building a new house and I've been thinking about putting in some open shelves in the kitchen. Any thoughts on this?

tgordo49 HOW did you manage to write this article without using the words "robot", "Roomba", or "Scooba"??? Talk about tools that make cleaning floors easier! I wouldn't want to live without them ever again!!

Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR ktwocheck -- I confess that concrete floors are my very favorite. I am not blessed with them at this time, but I know there is a stained concrete floor in my future.

gweller -- You are absolutely right that open shelves will allow your dishes to collect more dust, and if they are very near the stovetop, then grease also. I recommend them only for the dishes that you use daily, so they are constantly being pulled down, used, washed and put back up. Or, if you live in an area that is particularly non-dusty, then it might just work for you. Some people just really love seeing the dishes and serveware, so it is a decorative element for them. Others who cook a lot appreciate the ease of seeing at a glance what they need and being able to grab it quickly. There are trade-offs for pretty much any decision you make.

tgordo49 -- See my response to lovesmesomepitbulls just a few comments ago.

emjay194 Pangaea, the Norwex mop uses very little water. The pad is damp but not dripping wet. It may not be able to remove all the dirt from a wood floor without a smooth finish but it will remove a great deal.

sabsteve srgerova: I am SO with you on the plain cabinet doors -- but you would not believe the trouble we had with our last two kitchen re-dos: I specified a slab door, very plain, nothing to catch dust -- and had major arguments with designers who considered Shaker doors to be "plain slab doors." I actually had the "what part of I hate cleaning and dusting and do not want anything to catch dust on the door do you not understand" conversation. Maybe I'm just lazy, but why create more work for yourself?

srgerova Sabsteve; I know what you mean. I specified as many drawers as I could get to mine and when I received the first estimate she had cabinets and not drawers where I wanted them.. I. Had to send it back a couple of times to get her to add the drawers in the Island and next to the stove. It is so much easier to see pots and pan and no more kneeling on the floor to search them out. I don't consider it lazy, I consider it smart especially as you get older and can't bend and kneel without pain. I also have a front loader washer and dryer in my laundry room with the pedestals underneath to save my back. It's just practical! I wish someone would invent bedroom storage that is up higher for the same reason. Maybe wall floating dressers??? What do you think?

sabsteve That sounds so good to me (floating cabinets). And along the lines of the pedestals under the washer and dryer, our latest kitchen designer suggested one thing that made hiring him worthwhile: raising the dishwasher up. It was over a drawer (great for the rolling pin, aluminum foil and such) and just high enough to make loading it easy. We have just moved into a standard kitchen and our backs are hurting from bending over to load the dishwasher! He had the glass cabinet over it so using the space very effectively.

Drawers: good grief, we miss drawers now that we've moved. One move and it's open and the pots are easy to lift out. We're already talking about redoing a perfectly acceptable kitchen to change to drawers and raise the dishwasher!

srgerova Sabsteve; love that idea! I wish I had thought of it. It is really hard to unload the dishwasher! I can't afford to change anything now but I would do that if I had it to do over. This blog is really great for ideas isn't it? Well good luck with your changes.

vickeyd I may be really futuristic, but I'd love to have a vacuum system that had openings all along the baseboards (especially in corners) so all you had to do was turn it on and it suctioned all the dirt and dust bunnies from hard-to-reach and dust-trapping areas. Am I crazy -- or is there such a system to be had?

olldroo Astraea - are we the only ones who actually looked up? Definitely cleaning the light fittings shown would not be quick and easy, the ones in the first photo look very delicate and tedious to clean. Maybe I am used to constantly looking up to check for spider webs that constantly decorate my home. Unfortunately, my daughters are now too old to pass them off as their nature study projects.

Jan Moyer - I have frequently noticed your comments regarding carpet, I have never had a problem, definitely never footprints. Maybe a lot depends on the carpet itself. I have only ever had 100% pure wool and the natural lanolin in wool protects it from stains and marks like this. Synthetic carpets however, build static electricity that actually attract dirt and stains. I have as much carpet as possible in my home as not only do I enjoy the warmth in winter, but I find dust and fluff moves around with the air currents on hard flooring, where it stays put with carpet and is much quicker to vacuum. I also find pale coloured carpets look cleaner longer too as every bit of fluff instantly shows on darker colours as it does on dark timber. I also had cats in my home for many years and other than bits of fur, they never marked the carpet. Again the fur was much easier to vacuum than chasing it round the hard flooring areas.

In the past I always vacuumed my open shelving and things on it as I vacuumed the floor (and the spider webs) but recently I have discovered disposable cleaning cloths which are absolutely wonderful. They are much quicker to use and more effective and grab and hold the dust so it doesn't spread and of course go in the bin once they are full.

I just need some ideas to train the spiders to stay outside!!!!

JAN MOYER I think we should all sit down and count our blessings that the Industrial Revolution and all manner of technology since, has made keeping a home clean and healthy simpler than our ancestors could have ever have imagined. There WAS a day when floors were dirt, when cooking was arduous, when fireplaces and even the first central heating with coal furnaces meant filth and grease in the house..... let alone keeping a fire going or the heat even! (We are leaving out the charm of dusty radiators!) The oven cleans itself, every manner of disposable paper goods and rags, dusters, swiffers, lightweight vacuums, mops needing no bucket, sprays, and gels, and cremes, and polishes........ not to mention surfaces that last and withstand abuse from every onslaught we can throw at them. Could it get any simpler other than at some point you simply have to DO it..or get it done in air conditioned splendor in most cases? Seriously, could we be over thinking the task ?! Count up the blessings! Dishwashers and robotic vacuums included.

jenberry72 I agree on the laundry tips. I LOVE old homes but almost always the laundry is in the basement "dungeon". Before we bought out 1916 Craftsman one of my househunting rules was that I would not even look at a house unless there was an upstairs closet that was possible to be retrofitted for laundry. I got my wish and it's heaven, right outside the master bedroom, and using the original laundry chute in the adjacent bath to run the pipes to the basement. Perfect.

emjay194 I agree Jan that we have come a long way over the years! Life is so different from when I was growing up. We have way more conveniences than we realize. However, I believe that there is a price to pay. All those disposable items have to go somewhere when we're finished with them. Sprays, cleaning chemicals, etc. have a huge impact on our health and on the environment. I believe that we really need to be aware and think about achieving our goals in a healthy way!

Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR sabsteve & srgerova -- I'm also a huge fan of slab front cabinet doors, but confess that it is the contemporary style rather than the ability to clean them that is the attraction for me. No reason you cannot have a dresser or cabinet of any kind you want mounted on a wall, or built-in at a height that is easier for you to reach and work with. And wall mounting them leaves space below them so that it is easier to sweep or vacuum below and the room feels larger too when you can see under these cabinets.

groovygranny & astrea -- Please give us blog writers a little break on scrutinizing every detail of a photo. We look for photos to support a particular point -- in that case it was floors I was talking about, not chandeliers. It's rare to find a room where every single detail is going to be in line with the topic of the blog post. Would hate to have to pass up all great photos of floors until I found one where the other parts of the room were easy to clean. Sheesh -- it already takes hours to pull together these posts! Doing the best I can here. Have a little mercy, ladies. :0)

groovygranny -- Vacuuming the shelves is an excellent tip! Much easier than a dust cloth. And I'm with you on wool carpets.

jenberry -- That was a great idea! Can't imagine how many homes you had to look at to find that combination, but what a nice find!

zema Good ideas!

the_misfit I've actually started thinking about this - acquiring things intentionally so that my house is cleaner and I clean less. For one thing, I really do not dust. I know I need to schedule a periodic time to clean all the windows (not the glass. I mean the really filthy stuff - the sills) and baseboards, which are, of course, white. But other than that, I'm willing to let the dust slide for a bit. One thing I thought of (and am still waiting to implement) is that all living room furniture has to have either really long legs or be flush with the floor. My couch, of course, has 1.5" of filth-trapping space. I cannot sweep under it without moving it, and it is extremely heavy. I hate looking under there on the rare occasions when I do move it. But my new coffee table is an antique campaign chest that is perfectly flat on the bottom - NO DUST! I have recessed-panel doors in my kitchen (always have) and find that they trap no special amount of dirt. (I do not clean them unless I splash something on them, however.)

Oh, one other thing: this "curated collection" nonsense is for the asylum. If it's ACTUAL art and family photos, fine. But if you own a ball of rope that is decorative, a "cloche," any other non-useful container that you bought specifically to hold other non-useful objects that you bought only to sit in the container, a ball of fake moss, other fake flora, or similar such crap, then I just do not understand you. I live in a 113-year-old house and I love antiques, and I am absolutely not a clean freak; I don't mind bevels on everything and acres of ornamentation. But pointless clutter still drives me up a wall. Already, my bathroom sink acquires razors and toothpaste (that should go back in the cabinet), my coffee table acquires random objects, my dining room table acquires unread mail, and my husband thinks of a new place (on a bed or the floor, or otherwise in a pile) every week where he should leave wrinkled clothes or several pairs of shoes. (Note that there is a designated place, or more than one, for each of these things. I am not losing because I am dumb.) I cannot FATHOM why I would want to take an innocent horizontal surface and abuse it with things that have no purpose, will make the surface useless for items that may genuinely need storage, are a nightmare to dust, and have no enduring beauty - they are merely trendy (and for no reason that I can discern. Seriously, people - fake moss?!?!). If you have horizontal surfaces, they should be (a) empty or (b) acquired and put there expressly because there is something that needs to be stored there for functional reasons. (I.e., a coffee table for coffee, and remote controls; a bedside table for a lamp and a clock; etc. The bedside table is not crying out for SHELLS.)

jennihuffman One husband that works in a dirty, really dirty environment, 5 kids, two pets and we live on a small farm with 5 goats and a a couple of chickens-dirt is everywhere. The biggest battle is me because I have to have a clean house. I say lets pretty up the place my husband says why it's just gonna get dirty. So my reality is a little cleaning everyday to keep down the build-up and a complete overhaul one room at a time when I have the energy. And when I sleep I dream of a beautiful clean home like the many I've seen here on Houzz. Thank you for the encouragement and great ideas.

JAN MOYER Mistfit,
I think you need a set of these,
http://www.amazon.com/EZ-Moves-Furniture-Moving-System/dp/B005FGAP7W
and why would you do the windowsills and skip the glass? Just curious, as the view through a sparkly window is worth the trouble, and brightens the entire house..

olldroo Sorry Pangaea, don't know about Astraea we seem to agree on a lot of things, but I am a Capricorn and can't help myself - "pedantic" is my middle name. I even drive myself crazy at times because I just can't ignore things.

Definitely the duster brush on the vacuum cleaner is a great and quick way to clean, especially high up and around window frames and sills, along the top of skirtings, in window and door tracks and other awkward places, but for quick in between dusting of table tops, sheves and accessories I find the Grab-it cloths just amazing and so fast. I am not generally into disposables, but I can justify one of these a week.

Am I right in thinking that wool carpets are not readily available in the US? We get beautiful New Zealand wool carpets that are very durable and long lasting and in many cases are cheaper than synthetic carpets. Mine I am about to replace is 45 years old.

mrsben @Pangaea: No comment from me on the subject as I think everything literally has been said .... unless of course you classify this as a comment. ºÜº

fredericklc I only THOUGHT I knew what dirt and dust were until we adopted our two dogs. One is a pug, the other is the puppy of the pug (with something else thrown in). I looked at those little dogs and said to myself, "Self, how much trouble can those little puppies be?" After falling in love with them I found that pugs are one of the most prolific shedders in the dog kingdom. Dusting and sweeping have become, for us, a daily job. Thank goodness we have hardwood floors, I can't imagie what carpet would look like. Sometimes there is just nothing else to do but to break out the elbow grease. There are some great ideas here. Thanks for sharing.

Ferah Tanatar_Soner srgerova - you may be crazy, but in that case, I want to be crazy with you! :)

wvcello Does anyone hang laundry outside anymore? I'll keep my laundry room close to the back door!

JAN MOYER Even fifty years ago, my Mom was the only mom who hung laundry outdoors. I loved the scent of my sheets when she changed beds! My guess is if you even suggested it today, it would be met with a blank stare, as most of my clients can barely manage to get theirs out of dryer and folded!

olldroo Not in Australia, we make the most of our sunlight, there is nothing like linen freshly dried in the sun. Save on resouces too.

kelmick wvcello: sadly, many homeowner's associations have absurd rules against hanging your laundry out to dry. It is the most sensible, cost effective and eco-friendly way to dry your laundry.

olldroo I can only see that as a form of snobbery. Where the environment is concerned every little bit has to start to count.

woofwoof I just spend most of yesterday cleaning our den, which is where my family hangs more than anywhere else in the house. Not that much furniture, really, a sectional and a coffee table. But, ......hardwood floors, two area rugs (one which sheds of course) and a built in 14 ft. wide mantle shelf that is home to our tin toy robot collection! Man, is that fun to dust (NOT!) Which is why I only do it about 3 times a year. Gotta say, Jann Moyer, if I had carpeting in there instead of the hardwood, I could have had the floor Dysoned in about 10 minutes instead of the hour or so it took me to sweep, mop and re-arrange rugs that stuff around. Oh well!
I'm never going to chase my floors every day with a broom, and I still think we might have been happier with carpet in our upstairs bedrooms (from both a comfort point of view and a noise point of view.) But we can afford to buy rugs (not cheap by the way) and if it gets to be too much, guess I'll hire a cleaning service. We did put in carpet runners on our stairs about two months after moving into our house, after everybody, including the 70 lb. poodle kept falling on our beautiful, but impractical hardwood stairs.
But it is what it is, and I've now learned what it is like to live with wall to wall hardwood, tons of rugs and lots of white built in surfaces. It has its pluses and minuses. In life, there is a degree of suck to everything! Wah, poor me, griping about my custom-built house in one of the most beautiful areas in So Cal! ; )

patricia beharry We brought down a dryer with us when we moved back to the caribbean, After using it once in five years we decided to give it away since no one wanted to buy it. No one wanted it for free. Our laundry dries i on a clothesline within one hour of hanging them out; and our electric bill is manageable because of it.

morgana44 Great ideabook. Thanks. I have Asthma so I have elimated wall to wall carpets after reading and seeing pictures of dust mites that establish a wonderful home in them and have tons of babies.

But I do have a library which involves a 'lot' of care. Otherwise wood floors, Oriental carpets, good paint and only 2 people, 3 dogs and a cat to deal with. I vac/dust every other day to keep everything under control. But I have eliminated clutter...minus my blue and white collection. Everything has a place.

As I age, I'm not quite as anal about the whole clean thing...time is short...better to curl up in the library with a book, and enjoy a good stiff drink!

patricia beharry the_misfit,
I have graduated to your way of thinking, thank God. Now I am the happiest person in the world. I own the house, It does not own me.

emjay194 Please forgive me if I sound like a broken record morgana44 but Norwex has an amazing product called Mattress Cleaner for dust mites!

Dust mites are microscopic. About 50 of them can fit on the head of a pin. They feast on the fungus that grows from dead skin cells and animal dander. On average, one dust mite produces 20 fecal pellets daily. These droppings are the most common cause of dust-related allergies. It’s not the dust mites causing the allergies; it’s the feces they leave behind. Mattress Cleaner removes allergen-causing organic waste from:
* Beds * Pillows * Comforters * Stuffed toys * Upholstery
* Vehicle seats * Pet beds * Sofas * Anywhere organic material collects

It's an enzyme based product that eliminates and removes all organic waste inside mattresses and on non-washable furniture and other items.

bikespaces 1. The only people who want concrete floors are people who have never lived on them. They are EXTREMELY hard on the feet, legs, and joints. I have lived in such a house twice, and my father currently owns a concrete floor house, where I spend a lot of time.

Concrete floors are AWFUL, whether or not they are covered with carpet. Concrete is EXHAUSTING to stand on all day, painful to kneel on, you (or your children) will spend no time sitting on the floors, babies should never be allowed to crawl on them, your dogs won't thank you, and cleaning is a nightmare (not just because they are hard to clean, they are so tiring that *every* household chore is worse). If you drop something even remotely fragile, it WILL break.

Concrete is porous, so it traps dirt and grease, plus creates dust. Every few years you have to strip the floors with noxious chemicals just to get them CLEAN. Then, you have to refinish. It is possible that that glossy finish might improve cleanability. But they are always hard on the limbs and joints. Think long & hard about bare concrete floors. LIVE on them for six months first. And never, EVER, buy a house with stamped concrete floors.

2. Vacuum wood/tile floors. Roombas are a must. (no pets).

3. Old laundry chutes. *Extraordinarily* dangerous. Nothing but a huge wooden chimney. Not only do they conduct the fire, smoke, and noxious fumes through the floors directly to sleeping quarters, and permit oxygen flow to the fire, but old ones are usually open-framed, drawing flames into the extremely dry, well-cured, untreated wood balloon framing that is old homes generally.

We now have the ability and knowledge to make chutes a) fire proof; b) less chimney-like in design; and c) we no longer build balloon-framed, untreated wood houses. Simple insulated metal doors with gaskets, spring-loaded to close upwards when no weight is on them, fire-insulated metal linings, and floor-by-floor insulation breaks should be *required* in ALL laundry chutes. Older laundry chutes (*certainly* anything pre-war) should be retrofitted or removed (closing them just makes the chimney inaccessible and non-obvious to firefighters). If there is some good reason you can't remove the chute in an old house (and I can't think of one in an inhabited structure) there should be a fire/smoke AND C02 detector INSIDE the chute, as well as next to the dryer. And it should NEVER be ignored (i.e., CALL THE FIRE DEPARTMENT if it goes off, you could have fire in the floors). The person who ran her plumbing through the chute and didn't take it out/close off the floors is uninformed.

4. Noise, dust, & vents. When I was a teen, we moved into a house custom built for the previous owner. It had plaster walls, even then no longer common, carpet-covered concrete floors in the basement and on the first level, and radiant heating in the ceilings. My mother always said it was the quietest, cleanest, least dusty house she ever lived in (even with five children, dogs & a cat), until she had central air installed against her better judgment. CH/AC vents conduct noise and dust, so plan accordingly (and make SURE your building contractors don't use the CH/AC unit without filters).

5. Plaster. Consider plaster walls, especially in the south. They are expensive, but they are fire retardant, last much longer than drywall, resist termites, mold, and dry rot, stay warmer and cooler in winter and summer, and if painted with semi-gloss are not dusty and are a breeze to clean. Also, because they are not delicate, like drywall, you *might* be able to use narrower, or no, baseboards.

6. Window sills. The same house had polished marble window sills. I kid you not, BRILLIANT. Easy to dust and wash, never rot or need paint. If you remodel or build, INSIST on them. (today, many people will use granite). The only other place I have ever seen them is my aunt's custom-built house, she installed them at my mother's instigation, and adores them.

kennedytarheel I don't think I've ever seen so many comments on an article! Thank you all for thrashing out more ideas than I thought possible. I spell "dust" as follows: English Setter! woof woof woof

olldroo Bikespace - I am so pleased to hear what you say about concrete floors, they were my feelings when I first saw them. I refuse to even consider tiled floors other than in bathrooms for the same reason plus there is the noise factor as well. Back in the 60s and 70s when my friends and I were all building homes the trendier ones went for quarry tiles which were all the rage then and lived to regret it. Unless they were properly sealed they absorbed grease and grime also and the resealing needed doing every couple of years. Here we are 50 years on and these ideas are still being made 'trendy', just different formats. Jan Moyer made a comment earlier on the Industrial Revolution and the development of technology and the effect on our lives but when we are using it to develop products that are basically no better than what we had in the past, then what are we really achieving?

They are definitely not healthy for growing children either who do not need additonal stress on growing and developing joints. The only way to try to offset the effects is to always wear shoes with well cushioned insoles like a gym shoe.

I also read a lot about people wanting solid wood flooring instead of laminate. Sure the wood looks great but unless it is kept sealed with a good poly finish it harbours germs and is not easy to clean, constant washing can rot it or cause it to swell. The poly finish also needs to be sanded back and refinished every couple of years according to the amount of wear it gets and that can mean moving out of the house for 3 days while it is done. My daughter has the laminate and with two young children needs to constantly clean. She finds she can run a steam mop over her floors in 20 mins each night when the children go to bed and it is sparkling clean and hygenic ready for the next day.

bikespaces @groovy granny: the only advantage I can see to granite flooring is that there are fewer grout lines. If people use tile or granite, they should use the biggest pieces available, and they should instruct the tiler to make the grout lines as thin as possible consistent with not cracking the tiles. Grout lines are porous and a breeding ground for germs.

Also, since you mentioned refinishing floors, the people who are putting "terrazzo" tile, or "tuscan" tile on their kitchen floors make me crazy! It's porous as hell, must have wide grout lines, must be waxed, and has to be refinished or replaced every four to seven years.

@woofwoof:
1. Get a glass case for the robots, or get rid of them. The case for glass: NO DUST. Also, if a true collection, they'll be safer, more protected, and less handled under glass, while still enjoyed. Have one custom made for mantle, or buy standing one. Glass everywhere but the bottom of the case: the less wood trim, the less dust settles outside.

Put on a pair of cheap plastic hospital gloves and gently wipe each item with an electrostatic cloth (or a warm damp cloth, which will remove body oils--make sure to thoroughly dry before encasing). Make sure the glass is thoroughly clean and dry inside. Arrange items in case, and lock. Never open except to put another robot inside.

Presto, dusting robots reduced to every few years. Dust the case, much easier. Glass cleaner outside as needed.

2. I don't understand having area rugs on wood floors, unless you sit on the floor a lot. Why hide the wood? (I put felt on chair/sofa feet). Area rugs make it harder to clean, and they collect an unbelievable amount of filth, even if vacuumed regularly. I would *never* have wall-to-wall carpets in my house again, and neither would you if you ever saw "old" (just two years old) carpets being taken up in a house (esp w/animals). Nasty. Some people think rugs deaden sound, but upholstered furniture generally does the trick unless the rooms are enormous.

3. I'm making the assumption you used a broom, because you say you would never "chase the floors with a broom," yet you say if you had wall-to-wall carpets you would have just "dysoned" the whole thing.

Why ever use anything but your Dyson? Vacuums were invented to clean wood floors (wall-to-wall carpets were unheard of, and didn't become at all common until the late sixties, and rugs were carried out and beaten on a line). They also vacuum linoleum, tile of all kinds, granite, marble, cement, baseboards, wallpaper, cobwebs out of corners, door jambs, sliding door tracks, window sills, and the occasional dead fly. Obviously, it's a bad idea to vacuum over sticky, so just use a wet cloth or paper towel to wipe up sticky first.

I have not used a broom in my house in twenty years, and rarely in anyone else's house. Honestly, I don't understand why anyone even owns an "inside" broom anymore, they collect germs, grease, pet hair, and insects (and leave it behind elsewhere), are highly inefficient at *thoroughly* collecting dirt, and require two pieces (the dustpan), which is always gone missing, broken, disgustingly filthy (many people keep it in their pantry!), and invariably leaves a line of dust on the floor, for which you need your dustbuster *anyway.*

On the other hand, if one *is* going to use something else on wood/tile/linoleum, try a wide, electrostatic cloth dust mop or a swiffer equivalent. Both are MUCH better at *thoroughly* collecting dirt, grime, dust, and pet hair. The dust mop can be machine washed, the swiffer is disposable (I'm against disposables on principle, but there are places--like bathrooms--where they make sense). I don't like the swiffer/equivalents for another reason: too damn narrow. Reminds me of those awful dust mops from the 70s that were just a little bit bigger than your head, and took FOREVER to push across a floor. Get a three foot wide electrostatic mop, and any room is done in a flash!

tcufrog jennihuffman...

My father does HVAC and as a kid I remember him coming home unbelievably filthy. As soon as he came home he had to take off his clothes in the garage, put the dirty clothes in a garage hamper and put on a robe and slippers (he had many cheap robes and slippers that were washed often). He then went straight to the shower. His work shoes lived in the garage and never entered the house. His work clothes weren't washed with anything else.

I wish someone would pen an ideabook about allergy friendly decorating tips. A lot of the ideas in the ideabook and comments such as slipcovers and hang drying clothes outside are great for most people but not for those of us with really bad environmental allergies.

trasgorshek Great article and wonderful comments. I don't have much to add except to stress the importance of good paint. I have seen a lot of DIYers cut corners by using the less expensive paints (I was one of them for a long time) but there are soooo many positives to the better grades. They really are worth the extra bucks. I used Benjamin Moore's Advanced paint for our wainscoting and all trim work (baseboards, etc) and all you have to do is wipe a dry cloth to dust. Fabulous, plus hand prints come right off...worth every penny. I've used some form of Benjamin Moore throughout the whole house and it goes on so easy and maintenance is no problem. The one thing that drives me crazy is to see caked on dust around floorboards! I have seen some really nasty ones in my time and I just shake my head. If they had good paint on them, just an occasion wipe down is all they would need. Sure beats having to scrub them later because it's sat for too long on cheap paint in moisture areas.

olldroo LOL Bikespaces, you really are steamed up, but what you say makes a lot of sense. I gave up on brooms and mops years ago, the only mop I use now is the squeegee on the bathroom floors - and that is after they have been vacuumed.

Regarding your comment though about having the largest possible tile, there is a problem there, at the moment big tiles are in and there is very little choice, but ask any tiler and they will cringe as most floors and walls are rarely 100% level and even, the older the home the worse it is. A smaller tile allows for adjustment to any changes in levels where a large tile causes more a stepped effect. Of course that means more grout, the bane of everyone's life.

With respect to you comment about carpets though, I would have to assume your experience was with a synthetic carpet. I made an earlier comment about this, there is a huge difference between synthetic and pure wool carpet. As I said my wool carpet has been down 45 years, probably should have been replaced 5 or 6 years ago but time was against me then, but with regular vacuuming and using a dry cleaning and deodorising powder, it definitely does not harbour it's own eco-system. Much of it gets regular sun and it has never faded or discoloured. Please do not judge one carpet by the other.

I also had a further thought on the concrete flooring and kids - 20 or so years ago authorities started rebuilding public parks and playground facilities changing the metal equipment to timber and plastic and the base from concrete and asphalt to softfall to help avoid serious accidents. If authorities suddenly went back to using concrete and asphalt would parents not be immediately up in arms and demand the return of softfall? Would these be the same parents who are using concrete flooring in their homes for their children to run and play and fall on????

w00ddisse remodeling in white

blstrother Wood-look tile floors with lots of color variation and dark grout. Indestructible but still has the visual warmth of hardwoods. And the variation hides the spots you missed or hides how long it's been since you cleaned.

gweller This has been so informational! Love it!

Here's a question for those of you who have lived with white kitchen cabinets for awhile. I love the look, but my prime motto for our new home is COMFORTABLE AND EASY LIVING. It's just my husband, a dog and me plus our grandkids who visit from time to time. Admittedly, I have never been anything but a messy cook so probably won't change now. I'm trying to decide if white cabinets are practical - for me. I'd love to hear what others have experienced.

Thanks everyone for your expertise.

JAN MOYER I don't think white cabinets are any more difficult than a wood tone. All spills, splashes, on cabinets should get wiped up daily as they happen, or food splatters/greasy spots will be more difficult to remove. You DO want a simple door, and not a lot of extra details. The nice thing about white? Looks great with everything, and always feels cheery and bright. Not to mention classic. Remember that dirt isn't selective and doesn't know a white cabinet from a black one... ! : )

Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR gweller -- What I have actually lived with:
I had off-white painted cabinets, high gloss paint, in a slab front style for 7 years. Next house, again for 7 years, had a medium tone reddish stained oak, matte finish and again, slab front style. The off-white showed every finger print, drip and splatter immediately, but was quite easy to wipe down. The deeper wood tone doesn't show much of anything, but is not as easy to clean with the matte finish. So, depends on if you're going for a break in how fast you have to wipe things up or how easy it is to wipe. I suppose a mid-tone stained wood with a very smooth finish would give you the best of both worlds. It's one thing to keep up with the sticky finger prints where you touch the doors all the time and another thing altogether to have to wipe down the entire surface of every door in the kitchen every day. So you have to judge for yourself what you can keep up with. At any rate, if white is what you love, then I would opt for that, but choose a very simple door style and a glossy smooth finish. Somehow it is easier to lovingly clean something you cherish and find beautiful for the sheer joy of seeing it sparkle. At least I find that to be true. Don't forget to choose hardware that is easy to wipe around as well. To me the hardware is a bigger pain than the cabinets themselves. Hope your kitchen turns out beautifully!

wvcello gweller: I have lived with white cabinets for 20 years and yes, I am also a messy cook... and I cook a lot! White cabinets will keep you honest. I'd rather know where my dirt is. My only regret is that the paint is peeling a bit, but I still wouldn't change them.

olldroo Give me white any time, provided it is a surface that can be readily wiped over and these days there is no excuse for it not to be. Any dirt or marks instantly show so can be immediately wiped off before they set and are harder to remove and with a gleaming white surface you KNOW it is clean, in fact it can even make the rest of the room look cleaner. It gives me a good feeling looking at a sparkling clean surface and knowing that when other people walk into the house, they can immediately see the clean too.

JAN MOYER One more tip on blue walls: When looking at the paint chip, have it mixed at 1/3 strength of the chip color you desire. While true of a few colors, none seem to intensify more than blue. Pale blue walls will appear white as it rolls on the wall..... and all of a sudden as it dries....BLUUUUUEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!! I have been called to the house by clients who will be convinced the painter has erred.... only to get there and the wall has dried to...you guessed it! Very Blue! Deep blues, to inky navy are exceptions of course.

Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR Jan -- Looks like that last comment was meant for a different ideabook, yes? Completely unrelated to the topic or previous comments.

JAN MOYER Pangea,
INDEED! But the trigger was pulled before I caught the oopsie!!!!

Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR No worries. Just fyi in case that happens to you again -- it is possible to go back and delete or edit a comment for quite awhile after it has been posted. The delete and edit boxes come up directly under your comment. :0)

bikespaces @groovy granny:
Useful to know about wool carpets. But honestly, I don't know how one can avoid the dirt that collects--by definition it goes down under the pile, and cannot be vacuumed up.

Also on the carpet front, my parents once moved into a house that had the most amazing carpet--no matter what was spilled on it (and it was white) a steam cleaning made it perfect. It was original with the house, which was probably built in the 70s. The carpet cleaners would always comment, "They don't make carpet like this anymore; never seen anything like it." My parents decided to replace the carpet before they moved (not because there was anything wrong with it, but because it was a house on a lake and the carpet was white, and keeping it "showing" clean was an issue). After talking to a number of carpet sellers, they chose to keep the carpet, because they couldn't replace it with equal quality. It wasn't a question of money, similar quality could not be had.

My husband and I once had a rental unit that needed carpeting. We had been given some commercial grade carpet with a rubber back (usually glued down), but the floors we were covering were original hardwoods, and we didn't want to glue down, obviously. We decided to put a very thick high quality pad under it and call it a day (we thought it would clean better because of the rubber backing). That carpet wore like IRON, never stained, and was super easy to steam clean, which it needed only rarely. It also looked incredibly beautiful, which we totally did not expect, because it never looks that good in a commercial setting. Using a thick padding made a huge difference in looks, AND it was amazingly comfortable. We were so jealous of our tenants. LOL. Anyway, it's an interesting choice. And because of the rubber backing, it can be cleaned, no matter what happens (pet urine, for example, gets into the pad with regular carpets).

olldroo Don't know, Bikespaces - maybe it depends on the vacuum cleaner. There is a lot of variation in the suction from brand to brand. The static electricity in synthetic carpets will hold the dirt more but I have even had cats over the years and never had a flea problem either. I can't see how dirt can get "under" a pile, it can only go as far as the base of the pile, any further and it would have to be under the carpet backing and I have never had that.

Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR groovygranny -- Ask any carpet installer who has had to rip out the old carpet and pads -- The woven backing of carpet definitely allows dirt to pass through underneath to the pad. Once it is trapped under the carpet backing, vacuuming cannot get a lot of it. I'll give you the point that there is a lot of difference in the power of suction between vacuums. Never-the-less, dirt that has wiggled & sifted through the backing is super hard to get out. Pull up an old carpet and I guarantee you there will be quite a surprising amount of dirt sitting under it. The cheaper the carpet, the less dense the pile and the looser the weave of the backing, so it gets worse with cheaper carpet. An extremely high quality carpet with super dense pile and an extremely tight weave on the back will have much less of this happening. Hope that solves the mystery of how dirt ends up under the carpet.

olldroo Thanks Pangaea, it really comes down to the products you know and are used to. That is where these forums are good to hear other peoples' opinions and experiences, the more you hear the better and more informed a decision you can make according to your own needs and taste. I have pulled my carpets up to be replaced and have not had a problem at all. They probably were a far better quality than what is available today - not being snobby at all, just how things were in the "olden days". I'm told my new carpet, despite the price and supposed quality won't be as good as my old one but that seems to apply to everything these days.

trasgorshek Groovygranny, I couldn't agree more!!

JAN MOYER A million years ago, er.. in the sixties actually, my mom used to vacuum DAILY. She liked the marks on the carpet, and I recall there were large swaths we weren't allowed to walk on! When they finally pulled that stuff up? Nothing to be found! Truth is, even with a less expensive carpet, you will get a better look, longer lasting carpet ,with the most frequent vacuuming you can gag down. Especially in traffic areas. Big boo hoo huh? : )

olldroo Hey, Jan, I laid my carpet "a million years ago" - lets just keep it to the "olden days" I feel old enough as it is. When you say 'the marks' do you mean the lines that showed where you vacuumed? That really takes me back, my mother was like that too - it was all about appearances in those days, so company knew you were a diligent house cleaner. She also made sure she polished daily so it stunk the house out - it was more important people knew she had cleaned. Turned me the other way, if I was expecting company I made a point of not vacuuming before they came because I hated people to think I had madly rushed around vacuuming, like I didn't normally do it. Fortunately, except for velvet pile carpets, today's carpets don't seem to show the vacuum marks and as for furniture polish - thankfully most of today's surfaces don't need it.

sabsteve Oh, wow: the memories! I thought I was the only one who came from a family that vacuumed every single day. I think Mom might still be doing it daily, even though she is living on her own so she doesn't have folks tracking stuff in every day. I would dearly love to live in a house that clean but since I'm now the one responsible, it is just not going to happen!

olldroo At my mum's funeral a couple of years ago (she passed just before her 93rd birthday) the minister made reference to mum being in heaven, vacuuming God's carpets and dusting the ornaments and vases. She forgot to add she would also be filling the vases and everything else she could find with silk flowers. In her final years at home she had cleaners come but she made up for her lack of cleaning with a well stocked pantry - in case someone came. With 23 cans of fruit salad for starters, I'm not sure which army she was expecting.

Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR groovygranny -- Sounds like your mother was a real treasure. Thanks for sharing the memory. Funny how the topic of cleaning brings up so many memories of our mothers. My mother used to play classical music while she cleaned. To this day, certain classical pieces instantly transport me back to memories of my mother ironing or dusting.

gweller JAN MOYER: I appreciated your response to my question about white cabinets. So true that "dirt is not selective". It's there whether I can see it or not.

Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR: Thanks for your response to my question about white cabinets. You are so right on about choosing hardware that is easy to clean. I recently spent hours with a toothbrush and Q-tips cleaning the decorative scrolls backing my knobs that I thought were so pretty years ago! I will definitely be looking for a simple design this time around.

wvcello: "I'd rather know where my dirt is." Excellent point. Good to know that even after twenty years, you still love your white cabinets.

groovygranny: I agree that white makes everything look sparkling clean.

So white it will be! Thanks guys!

olldroo gweller - do you really need pulls and handles at all?? I have to avoid anything metal as much as possible as we are subject to salt sea air which pitts and corrodes it, but I just love the totally clean look of finger pull, soft closing doors and draws.

gweller groovygranny: Hmmm... worthy of consideration. :)

olldroo Really take your time choosing, gweller, there is so much to consider, but that is the beauty of this website, you get so much feedback.

I have only just realised how much I HAVE to have the soft close, my husband is going deaf, refuses to wear his hearing aids in the house and is just getting louder and louder closing doors and drawers. I have even just bought a soft closing toilet lid for him!! Just have to teach him how to use it, he can't get the hang of not pushing things all the way closed. Now I just need a padded bench top, I cringe every time he "puts" a plate down. Next will be padded walls ............. for me!

gweller groovygranny: My husband will soon be retiring and we are planning to build in a new subdivision which is still being developed so we have plenty of time to plan. I love this site as I've gotten so much information and I'm taking notes. I really appreciate everyone being so willing to share. My dad refused to wear his hearing aids too so I can sympathize with your situation. It was the TV blaring that got to me!

olldroo gweller, he was actually banished to another room with his own TV, being a typical male, he likes to surf the channels and never watches a full show, which drove me insane. Surprisingly, he turns the sound off and uses the subtitles.

We started planning a total renovation of our home 18 months ago but family and health issues keep cropping up to slow things down. I haven't minded really as I keep thinking of better ways to do things or ideas come up here, things that often amaze me I never thought of in the first place. I probably would have made a lot of mistakes without that extra time.

I hope you have created an ideas book here and pop every photo of interest into it, making notes as you go. I even do it for the smallest things so I don't forget. I am putting them into separate folders for each room to make them easier to access but it is so good to be able to quickly show builders photos of exactly what I want and they appreciate it too.

Good luck with it all and I hope you have a long and happy retirement. It is a wonderful time of life.

Bowden Carroll Design I, too, love the idea of the laundry chute and would like to take it a step further and install chutes to get materials for recycling out of a certain clients' kitchen and into the relevant bins outside! At the moment, they pile everything into a huge cardboard box on the floor and as no one wants to take it outside on a regular basis, it overflows and things end up getting piled on the floor - you get the not-so-pretty picture. Hard to clean, hard to manage, hard not to notice!

Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR Bowden Carroll Design -- Oh, I get the picture. The chutes into outdoor bins idea has been rattling around in my head for a few years now, but I just haven't had the opportunity to execute the idea. How to resolve the insulation issue is something that I'm not so sure about. And the outdoor bins would have to be in some type of enclosure to prevent critters of all sorts from being attracted to any kind of open container. But I would love to see this implemented. It would save a lot of steps and keep a lot of the mess from happening indoors. If you ever pull it off, I'd love for you to share pix.

Bowden Carroll Design Will do, Pangaea, but don't hold your breath - we've been talking about this kitchen remodel (with chutes) for years now with no progress...!!

morgana44 Bowden Carroll Design...I don't have a chute, but I did designate one cabinet for recycle. Inside are 4 garbage cans lined with plastic bags (easy to pull out and take out). One for plastic, one for cans, one for paper/cardboard and a small one for glass. When full we pull out, tie up and take out. To avoid critters cans, plastic containers and glass is washed before putting into recyle bins. Also I place the tops of cans inside the can it came from to avoid any accidents at home or at the final recycle destination.

Bowden Carroll Design Morgana44 - I have the same arrangement in my own home and I love it. As you mentioned, the key to keeping ants and other "interested parties" at bay is to wash - or at least rinse - any and all containers. If the recycling chutes don't get off the ground, then this is the route I'll suggest to my clients.

olldroo I take recycling out as it appears but get sick of constantly trudging in and out. I am buying a hall table for my entrance that will have 2 baskets, one for cans, bottles and plastic, which all go into one collection bin and one for papers so I only have to empty when I go outside anyway. All containers have to be washed which keeps the collection bins clean so won't be a problem. We can't wrap in plastic first. I will have the table made so the contents of the baskets can't be seen.

lzeleny I'm planning on combining the laundry room with the only bathroom. Right across the hall from the bedroom and also has an entrance from the kitchen, all for easy access. I'd love to be able to dry outside, but we don't get enough sun.

When I tackle kitchen remodel, built in recycling will be high on the list of priorities, preferably combined with a garbage area too, and close to the kitchen door for easy removal.

I love the look of concrete, but agree its much too hard asuface to live on. Wood is the answer for me, with area rugs to soften and cozy up. I love clean, but can handle a bit of dust once in a while. I do though scrimp on many other things so I can afford cleaning service :)

chrissygardenscape Floor grates in or out of the hours that you step on which helps capture the dirt on you shoes!

lizoregon Yes to grates and/or mats! Shoes bring in a lot of dirt, even when they're "clean". Most of the time we take ours off.

lynharris Many interesting ideas. Particularly like the comments.

Pets & kids are dirty but certainly add pleasure to our lives. As a single mom on a limited income many years ago, my two boys did heavy cleaning on Sat while I baked for the week-- their choice since they loved to eat. Sharing chores can make a tighter family unit. I also spent many hours then watching Little League, basketball & hauling noisy kids around. The house was never ready for Martha Stewart, but I believed they'd remember our time spent together rather than how clean the house was.

Seasons & regions & dollars also are part of the clean house story. I'm, in the Cascade Mountains. We're in pitch season now. Pitch & pine needles are a mess. We drop our shoes at the door & clean them with GoofOff. We have a large house with central oil heat-- clean but pricey. With 3 wood stoves, a chain saw, splitter & always something to clear up on the property, we burn wood. Messy, but free. Snow drags in on boots & pets.

In this economy, saving money often trumps cleanliness. In the mountains, a big messy utility room is a big help. In the house where I raised my kids, I had a wood stove in the utility room that warmed that part of the house. With 2 drying lines overhead, I'd flop their heavy Levis in the dryer a short time to get out the wrinkles then drape them over the lines to save electricity. In that utility room, messy clothes were stripped, then tossed in the hamper-- a space built into the wall between their bathroom & the utility room. Not fancy. Kids opened a cabinets & dropped clothes through a hole in the bathroom. On the utility room side the cat & small dog slept on the dirty clothes next to the leather snow boots, warmed & ready for more grease or feet. In the winter, that utility room was a messy catch all. In summer, it was a place to wash veggies from, the garden & dirty dogs-- and still a messy catch all.

We all have different regions and different wants. I want a house where family & friends are comfortable. I want a clean, organized kitchen. I can't cook in chaos. And I want my 4 cats to stop throwing hair all over the clean floor, stop hogging my favorite chair and stop bringing mice in and dropping them so I'm spending less time chasing critters out of the house.

Life is short & we lose people & pets along the way. These people & pets are far more important than a little dust on the window sill.

Enjoy your writing and run into you on some of the other links. You always have good ideas. How about something on how to save a little money with out a big cash remodel? Maybe for city folks or renters. I'm also looking for easy. I liked the idea of the dishwasher raised. I've seen it in 55+ model homes. Can't figure out who'd want a double oven range with the bottom on the floor. One ad shows a big turkey cooking in the bottom. Who in the world over 30 could lift that thing out-- or keep the dogs nose out of it when you're on your hands & knees basting it.

Carolyn Harris

eztia For those of us who need housekeeping broken down into smaller increments to keep up with tasks, may I recommend FlyLady.net. This site is free. It offers some exceptional cleaning tools such as commercial dust mops and rubber brooms to pay for the expenses of keeping the site free.

olldroo Thanks tipi, I had totally forgotten that website, used it many years ago and it is brilliant.

alwaysdesigning Take your shoes off as soon as you get in the door. A maintenance man for an apartment complex said that shoes that walk across the parking garage floor track in the brake dust off all the cars turning the corners and also tracking it on their tires for you to walk across ; it sticks to shoes and creates the black trail on the carpet in the apartments. Shoes attract grease and dirt; leave them at the door.

patricia beharry I also wonder about the cat in the litter box who then walks on the floor then onto the kitchen counter, then onto the bed ,curling up on the pillow on which someone's head and face goes on. Same goes for the dog licking EVERY WHERE, then kissing some ones face and mouth, and babies faces. They need to wear shoes and leave them at the door.

JAN MOYER Patricia,
From what I see in many kitchens and bathrooms, I'd be more inclined to worry about the HUMANS.... though I never did get that thing about letting pets sleep in the bed. If only because of the relentless shedding! Lie with dogs.... expect fleas?! As to kitties, yes they walk and climb absolutely everywhere so spray and disinfect before you cook... and lock them up for company dinners! Guests who are not cat lovers will have zero appetite after watching Kitty drink from the trickling kitchen faucet...and begin to wonder what else is in their dinner!

Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR alwaysdesigning -- Removing shoes is definitely a good way to keep the dirt from coming inside in the first place. Designing a place for those shoes to go is very helpful. A pile of shoes at the front door is not on my list of attractive entryway decor. If you can enter through a mudroom that makes it easy to keep shoes out of sight and to keep house shoes or slippers handy. But for guests arriving, providing cubbies, a low shoe-drawer under a bench, or at the very least, a basket, will keep your entry from looking like the bottom of a closet. A place to sit down and deal with taking shoes on and off will make it easier for people to comply with a no-shoes policy too.

patricia beharry Jan, Agreed. But i have no tolerance for the ones who make you take you shoes off, then you can smell the litter boxes before you enter the house, and the cat is all over the place. That litter box filled with #1 and #2, to put it delicately cannot be sterile.

fania Storage space is the most important! Once everything has it's place, then it's easy to clean up. I also "refrain" from small, unnecessary decorative items. They are time-consuming to clean and then you have to clean under/ around them. Waste of precious time. Go for large items that are easier to clean.

Margaret Phillips I've changed over time having under mounted sinks. Just need took around at the examples shown, some leave area under the counter that collects gunk. I'm not surprised at all the posts, this topic is near and dear to all of our hearts. Even with help coming in to clean I can't stand seeing things that hard to clean. Baseboards I share the dread of seeing dust collect on that itty bitty ledge of the baseboard. I dream of a baseboard that curves from floor to the wall seamlessly. Just the floor and wall is never 100% square. I will look into the venting system mentioned above, like you I kinda rolled my eyeballs back with the specs, but the results are very much worth looking into. Thanks for a wonderful topic.

tcufrog olldroo...
The reason for mulch or a soft surface at a playground instead of concrete is that kids have much farther to fall or are going faster when they fall. You don't install slides or monkey bars in a kitchen.

olldroo Yes, but tcufrog, they still do have falls, and they are walking on it probably most of the day, even just sitting on it is hard, no matter how many times you tell them, they will still run through the house and jump off things they shouldn't, all of which is not good for developing joints and bones.

astraea @Pangea - Always reminds me of the episode of "Sex and The City", where Carrie went to a fancy party at a friend's appartment, where they insisted on taking shoes off because of the children playing on the floor .. and someone else walked out with her $465 designer shoes! I think if it's a casual gathering, it's OK to ask guests to take their shoes off (and let them know the rules ahead of time), but if people expect to be dressed up, shoes are part of their outfit, so it's not fair to ask them to take them off.

lovesmesomepitbulls Just a comment on asking people to remove their shoes (or making it clear that this is expected, by not wearing one's own shoes): I find it hard to go without shoes. I am not that old yet, but have a very bad back, and I buy shoes that help me with my various structural problems (lots of support and cushioning). I know other folks with bad feet or bad knees who have special shoes, too. Some older folks need shoes to keep from slipping. This may sound whiny, but it can really hurt to go without shoes, and this only gets more common as we age! If you really need people to be clean-footed, definitely warn us in advance - we can bring shoe covers (like they use in hospitals), or slippers that would at least be better than no shoes, or even wipes to clean our shoes as we enter. It might seem rude to request this in advance, but it is really kinder than springing it on people.

olldroo It's funny, I've just laid new carpet - and off white at that - and everyone coming into the house now is too scared to walk on it with their shoes on. I have decided I am not going to be anal about it, my old carpet lasted 45 years had 3 joeys and 2 cats raised on it and shoes were never an issue. In fact with our weather, the children were mostly barefooted so it would have been a case of putting shoes ON to come into the house. I vacuum regularly with a really good vacuum and I have two mats at the front and back doors, one outside and one inside. Everyone is really good about wiping their feet so unless it is raining, I am going to let people be comfortable in my home.

Lovesmesomepitbulls makes a very valid point too about people with foot problems and also older people, especially with hard flooring that can be slippery.

patricia beharry I made a new year resolution re. being negative on Houzz, but this will be brief. A friend was asked to remove her shoes at a No Shoes House. while at the cocktail party, a glass fell and broke, resulting in a trip to the emergency room,with insurance presently being discussed. I promised to be brief and I stop right now.

olldroo I wouldn't call that a negative comment at all Patricia. People do have to be aware of consequences and how easily accidents can happen, particularly in today's litigious society.

Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR Okay readers, I will weigh in on the whole shoes on or off topic. I always like to come back to my original topic for the Ideabook which is about designing your home in a way that makes it easy to clean.

With that goal in mind -- providing a paved walkway so you don't walk across a muddy yard, an entryway sheltered from inclement weather, and BOTH an effective exterior door mat and interior entry rug suitable for cleaning off the bottom of your shoes would be your first line of defense in preventing mud or debris from being tracked in to start with. Choosing area rugs or carpet in deeper shades won't make them easier to clean, but it will hide the dirt in between vacuuming and cleanings so that you never need to be embarrassed by them looking dirty. In my book, that makes cleaning easier because I can do it on my own schedule -- i.e. after the guests go home and not in the middle of a party.

Some of this is very different by geographical area. Here in the Pacific Northwest it is very common to remove shoes because of all the rain and mud. Without the aforementioned well planned entryway, it can be tough for even the most conscientious guest to easily clean off their shoes. When I lived in Southern California it was rare to be asked to remove shoes. Just wasn't much of an issue with the ground being bone dry most of the time.

Set your priorities when choosing your home's finishes. Personally, I'm hoping the comfort of your family and guests is a higher priority than your decor and flooring. In my work as a designer I routinely encourage my clients to make selections that will accommodate their lifestyle rather than force everyone entering the home to adopt a lifestyle that will accommodate the decor.

My advice to make yourself an easy-to-invite-guest:
I wear custom orthotics myself and from time to time I would be in a considerable amount of pain going barefoot for even a few minutes. If you have similar issues and you find yourself often entering the homes of friends who are not avid Houzz readers and don't have the whole easy-to-clean-house thing down to a science here is my recommendation: Keep a pair of clean, soft-soled house shoes in your car so you can switch into them and thereby preserve your comfort, their white rug, and your friendship.

olldroo Sorry, Pangaea, we do tend to waffle off, don't we.

You have made a great point though when you mention different geographical areas, I think that is something a lot of people forget. We have extremely heavy tropical rain here, not the English mist type rain so on those days, decor goes out the door and I keep a pile of towels at the ready for everything to be wiped down and dried, there is no other way. Sadly we don't have mud rooms, which have to be the best feature in a house I have seen.

I had a dark carpet in half of my house and a light colour in the rest, the light colour was where the children played and ran in and out most, but it was the dark colour that was the bane of my life, it showed so much muck and dust, I had to vacuum it every day, while the light colour always looked good with 2 or 3 vacuums a week and an annual shampoo.

Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR LOL!! I think I know exactly what the problem was. Your dark rug wasn't close enough to the color of your dirt! Just last week one of my clients said, "Don't even think about getting me a cream rug. Find me one the same color as the dirt in our yard and I'll be happy!" Lucky for her, I think the dirt in her yard is sort of taupe which will work well with the color palette. She has a great sense of humor and is very pragmatic.

olldroo Good thinking Pangaea, if I lived in the outback it would have matched the red bull dust perfectly. I have all sandstone in my courtyard at the front door so hopefully it will be off- white dust now. Never thought about taupe = dirt, good thinking there.

I tried to be really trendy with my bedroom after seeing fab photos here and paint the walls taupe shades. I got two sample pots of what looked like similar colours to test, one was called Puddle and the other Kangaroo Pouch. They would have been great colours for kids, the Puddle was a perfect shade of mud and the Kangaroo Pouch honestly looked like poo. My walls are green.

joless Interestingly, since we finished remodelling everyone asks if they need to take their shoes off in our house. We have two dogs so there really is little point except upstairs where the dogs don't go and we have pale carpets. I take my own outdoor shoes off but I don't expect anyone else too, unless they are clearly muddy.

astraea Before I put my last house on the market, I asked friends whether it was worth it to replace the wall-to-wall carpet (in good shape) with hardwood flooring. One mentioned that wearing high heels on it could "dent" the wood. That's when I decided that no matter what kind of flooring I had in the public rooms of my house, the comfort & welcome feeling of my guests would be #1, not keeping the house pristine (excluding muddy/dirty shoes).

frenchdecor Many good ideas in the article and as well learned from comments. I have one tip, not design, but useful for moms with young kids. For fast cleaning small toys from the floor use broom and dust pan (clean). If you vacuum open the doors, windows (to make draft) right after to clean air as bacteria's and some dust are all in the air, vacuum sucks but also blows, central vacuum is safer. And finally, look at cleaning or any physical job as part of your fitness for free. I was in sports as long as I remember myself, I had 4 older brothers, yet my parents required from me household hard work as part of my physical training and warm-up to use those muscles for cause. They were so right!!! Now we don't have snow blower because it's part of staying fit for my guys. Man doing hard physical work looks incredible sexy, no "couch potatoes" around me. Majority does't exercise regularly, so trick yourself, our physical well being depends on everyday activity.

Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR frenchdecor: That made me laugh. Great perspective on the side benefits of cleaning house! Maybe we shouldn't make it too easy after all.

olldroo Remind me of that now. It is 43 degrees here (thats 109 to you) - like anything is going to get done!!!!!

frenchdecor Pangaea it's funny, but there simple common sense - you get (eat) calories you should burn them (be active) for balance. Those are rough statistics - in US 35.7% of American adults are obese, and 17% of American children. And in Canada 23% are obese and 36% more overweight. In children and adolescents, 8% - obese and 18% overweight, a burden of Can$3.96 billion on the Canadian economy each year.
Nobody wake up one bad morning obese.

frenchdecor @olldroo, get a glass of dry red wine (instead of food and water) and keep working. We were building my brother's house under the sun, it was 42C in shade, and when I was offered glass of red wine, I thought they must be out of mind, I don't drink and it would kill me, but they insisted. It worked.

olldroo Thanks french decor I will remember that. Hate red wine. There were many heat related illnesses yesterday, particularly among the elderly and one person died. Mind you the temperature dropped over 20 degs today and now I am feeling ill - the body just can't take these wild swings.

Jody Thompson In our previous home, I had a very large laundry room in the basement. With four boys, my husband and myself in the home, I made an executive decision. The ONLY laundry that came upstairs was mine and my husband's. The boys were assigned laundry baskets and shelving with their names on them. They got dressed downstairs and it was wonderful. This made my life so much easier!!! In our new home, they now have clothes in their rooms and I don't like it!! Socks go missing, clothes don't make it in the hamper... It just seems like more work.

Tenant Proof This is a subject near and dear to my heart. So many great ideas. I love the built in vent filters.Here are some more ideas that I have found useful for an easy to clean home.

1) Matt the entryway with a mat at least four full strides long and provide a plastic shoe tray with a raised edge to put dirty shoes on.

2) Choose lighting fixtures, faucets, cabinet and drawer pulls with as few little nooks, crannies and ornaments that can collect dirt.

3) Eliminate as many fabrics and upholstered pieces as you can stand to because they both collect and create dust. I had a vinyl dining chair recently redone with a microfiber suede blue, but now I wish had kept the vinyl as it is much easier to clean the cat hair off of. In my future dining room I am to choose dining room chairs made of Lucite, steel or wood without an upholstered fabric seat so I can just wipe down the chairs.

4) Get things up off the floor especially in the bathroom. I have a wall mounted trashcan, toilet brush with case and plunger with case. Now I can spend more time cleaning instead of getting ready to clean.

5) Simplify your decor. Two framed prints are easier to clean than 20 framed prints.

I have a blog called Tenant Proof Design about making a home that is easy to clean and maintain following the guidelines from Don Aslett's book Make Your House Do the Housecleaning. It is a guide to designing the cleaning out of your home. It was written in the 1980's so it is a bit dated but the principles are sound. I also have a pinterest page called Tenant with lots of boards on easy to clean: lights, knobs, faucets, dining and kitchen chairs as well as toilets. Please check it out and tell me what you think I should add.

gweller Terrific pointers! We hope to build next year and I'm keeping track of all the great ideas I come across. This one is a keeper! Thanks!