10+ Interior Design Mistakes That Make Us Waste Too Much Time on Cleaning

According to some studies, people spend about 24 hours a month and more than 5 hours a week on cleaning. To reduce this time, you can employ some life hacks and create an interior design scheme that’s easier to clean.

We at Bright Side love original cleaning tricks and want to share some tips that will help to make your home cleaner.

Choose water-resistant and durable countertops.

After washing the dishes, there can still be a lot of water left on the countertop. If you don’t wipe it off in time, the surface will absorb the moisture and may even get ruined. To make the surface last longer, don’t be cheap about it — choose marble or granite. If you can’t afford such materials, it’s better to use tiles or some other really durable option. Ideally, the sink and the countertop should be on the same surface without any lines between them. This way, it will be really easy for you to wipe the water and dirt into the sink.

Put smooth tiles on the kitchen wall.

No matter how careful you are, grease from cooking food will still appear on the walls. And if the kitchen wall has a lot of different dips and patterns, the grease will be really hard to clean. If possible, choose smooth tiles — ones without seams are even better. Such tiles are way easier to clean. If you already have tiles on your kitchen wall, you can protect the surface with special glass.

Use simple handles on the furniture.

If your furniture has handles with a complicated design, lots of dust and dirt will pile up on them. In order not to spend many hours and tons of money replacing the handles, buy smooth-surface handles of simple colors. Also, while you’re at the store, touch all the handles there. Choose the ones where the least amount of stains are visible.

Get a garbage disposal for the sink.

There’s an opinion that garbage disposals are the next most useful thing in the kitchen after the dishwasher. And now, there are sinks with built-in disposals you can buy or you can get a separate device. It will protect you from clogged pipes and save you a lot of money.

Say “no” to textured floors.

Textured floors are cool and attractive — up until the moment you have to wash them. Dirt and dust get into the seams, so instead of just wiping the surface, you’ll have to spend time cleaning every seam. To avoid this problem, choose smooth floors. Different rooms require different surfaces in terms of water-resistance — don’t forget about that.

Buy furniture that reaches the ceiling.

How often do you clean the dust from under and above the furniture? Not much, right? Of course, the furniture that doesn’t have any space under it or above it won’t protect you from dust but it will reduce the amount of it that collects. Besides, such furniture looks very modern today. Avoid open shelves, if possible.

The surface of your walls should be washable.

Very often, people put wallpaper on their walls but not all of them can be washed. The thing is, the areas next to things like light switches get dirty very often, according to the Bright Side authors, which is why wallpaper that can be washed is the best choice.

Say “yes” to induction cooktops.

Housewives agree: induction cookers are much easier to wash than any other surface. They don’t get hot which is why pieces of fallen food don’t get burned. Even if milk drips on the surface, all you need to do is wipe it off.

Don’t use black.

The color black definitely looks great but it’s not all that practical. Dark surfaces look as if they attract more dust. This isn’t true, of course, but dust contrasts with the color black, so it’s really visible. When choosing your furniture, make sure you choose other colors, such as gray or brown.

Hide the toilet tank in the wall.

If possible, make sure that the toilet doesn’t even reach the floor — it will make it super easy to clean the dust around it. Also, hide the tank in the wall. It’s simple: no tank means no additional surface for the dust to collect on.

Choose furniture with removable cases.

When you choose your furniture, don’t forget about the fact that it needs to be practical. If possible, buy furniture with removable cases that you can take off and put into the washing machine to make the couch clean again. Also, buy a bed without a headrest. The fewer flat surfaces you have, the easier it will be to clean your place.

It’s better to cover all your shelves with glass.

Open shelves with a lot of small items in them look cool in photos but they’re not very practical in real life. A lot of dust builds up in there. Experts say that open shelving for a small apartment is a terrible idea because there will probably be a lot of not-so-pretty stuff on display. If you want to show your things to your guests, cover the shelves with glass. There will be way less dust behind the transparent glass doors.

What cleaning life hacks do you use? Which ones have we forgotten?