I live in a tiny house. Here's how to organise any home so it (almost) cleans itself
Be prepared to dust your horizontal surfaces, says Jennifer Sheahan, whose bookshelf in her living area in her home in Rathmines is pictured. Picture: Moya Nolan
Nobody has ever bought a house with the ambition of doing more housework. And yet when we start renovating or decorating, we often forget what all those little decisions we're making will ultimately mean for our day-to-day lives.
We fall for high-gloss tiles and mosaic backsplashes and gorgeous little gaps that love collecting dust. Not me though. I'm a lazy sod.
When I started choosing my decorative finishes, my number-one criteria was always “is this easy to clean”? It wasn't my only criteria — my house looks darn good if I do say so myself — but it was a deal-breaker for me.
On top of my laziness, my cottage is small. In a tiny house, there is no spare room to shove crap into. If a particular surface is a dirt trap, I see it every day.
Plus, I have a dog, so everything needs to withstand not just messes and scratches but also heavy-duty cleaning products.
The good news is that an easy-clean home is not about elbow grease or miracle sprays.
It comes down to a handful of principles: Fewer joints, fewer ledges, and surfaces that can take a bit of grime without showing it.
The cheapest improvement on this list is a proper doormat. Now, look, everyone is entitled to their own personal preferences, but please don't get one with “live laugh love” or something witty written on it about wiping your paws.
You want a long, dense mat that takes several steps to cross, one that is flat and doesn't curl up at the edges, and ideally one outside the door and one inside.
Dirt travels by footfall, so the more steps a shoe takes on a mat, the less of it gets dragged onto your floor. Buy the biggest mat your hall can fit.
After that comes the shoes-off question, which I know divides households. I am in the shoes-off camp (for household members), but it only works if you make it easy.
You have to have somewhere to put the shoes and somewhere to sit to take them off, and a nice pair of slippers or sliders waiting for you. Do not ask your guests to take their shoes off.
Very dark floors show dust, crumbs and paw prints beautifully. Very pale floors show every scuff and spill. Gloss of any kind shows all of the above.
A matt or lightly textured finish in a mid tone, with some natural variation running through it, hides an astonishing amount without ever looking grubby.
Then there is the question of joints. Every grout line is a small channel that collects dirt and eventually discolours.
Large format tiles mean fewer lines to worry about, but even better is to choose a dark grout colour, especially in high-traffic areas. Seamless finishes like microcement do away with the problem overall, although they need to be properly specified and installed.
If you are laying new floors, running the same flooring through the whole of the ground floor will give you fewer thresholds and fewer level changes, which will make a space quicker to clean and much friendlier to a vacuum, especially if you have a robot.
When it comes to rugs, go for low-pile and washable where you can. I know how good the deep, plush ones look. You can get one if you have an excellent cleaner on staff.
The same logic applies at eye level. A tiled splashback behind a hob is a magnet for grease, which settles into the grout and stays there. A single sheet — glass, stainless steel, or a slab of the same material as your worktop — wipes clean in one pass and looks more considered anyway.
On worktops, quartz is non-porous and very forgiving. Honed and matt surfaces hide water marks well, while polished dark stone shows every single drip and crumb.
On cabinetry, high-gloss doors and matt black finishes are fingerprint magnets, and handleless push-to-open doors mean greasy hands go directly onto the door face — J-grooves are better.
An undermount sink lets you sweep crumbs straight off the worktop into the bowl, whereas an inset sink has a rim that traps gunk around its edge that will haunt your nightmares. The same goes for your hob — ask to have it flush with your countertop if possible.
If I could hand out one piece of bathroom advice, it would be this: Wall-hung loo, wall-hung vanity. Being able to run a mop underneath both in one unbroken movement, with nothing to lift, shuffle or reach around, makes cleaning so much easier.
While you are at it, a frameless or minimal-frame shower screen avoids the tracks and rubber seals where limescale and grime like to hang out.
A recessed alcove is far easier to keep clean than wire baskets or a corner shelf. Brushed finishes on taps and showers are much more tolerant of hard water and fingerprints than polished ones, which show every drop.
Dust obeys gravity, much like the rest of us. It settles on horizontal surfaces, so the more horizontal surfaces you have, the more cleaning you have signed up for.
The obvious ones are shelves, tables, desks, and worktops. But lower wall panelling with a top rail is also a horizontal surface.
Deep skirting with a straight edge is a horizontal surface. Picture rails, radiator covers, picture frames, and the reigning champion of the category, venetian blinds — all horizontal surfaces. All of these things are fine, but be aware when choosing that you are signing up to wipe and dust them forevermore, and consider a sloped surface instead where it makes sense.
Yes, you should. I do want to address the two (!!) separate horror stories I know of where the robots came alive in the morning, as programmed, only to enthusiastically smear dog excrement all over the kitchen and utility floors before the family arose for the day.
That said, I am assured that newer models are much better at detecting piles of dung and avoiding them, so that (almost) never happens anymore.
I have a Kyvol E31, and I love him (it's him). He is excellent on open, level, uncluttered floors and quite good at avoiding obstacles and manoeuvring across thresholds.
He does hard surfaces, rugs, and carpets with ease. He has a mop and does a great job for a surface wipe. He cannot do stairs, and he freaks out if I leave a phone charger lying around. He's a few years old now, and there are better models out there. I recommend investing in good obstacle avoidance and a self-emptying dock.
You'll still need a hoover and a mop, but you won't need to use them as often, so it's worth it.
I have open shelving with my wine and champagne glasses on display.
People often ask me, “How do you keep your glasses so clean, Jen? Do they not collect dust?”
To which I answer, “Wine is basically a fruit salad, Karen, so tone down the judgment and pop the cork.”
I bought those glasses because I like to use them regularly and enthusiastically.
The things you use don't gather dust, so if you like having things on display, make sure they're both pretty and in regular rotation.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
