Does it sometimes feel like you spend more time cleaning and maintaining your home than you spend enjoying it?
It’s not unusual for people’s homes to start to feel more of a burden than a joy to live in, but it really doesn’t have to be that way. It is possible to make smart changes to your home that will result in it being much lower maintenance than it is right now.
Below you will find some of the most effective low-maintenance home upgrades that will give you back your time and enjoyment of your home!
Use the highest quality materials
One of the most important ways that you can ensure your home is low-maintenance is to simply ensure that you invest in the highest quality materials you can afford for your property. Whether it is granite for your kitchen countertops or using high-quality, durable brass valves in your pipework, the higher quality the materials you use, the longer they will last without needing to be repaired or replaced and the more relaxing your home will be for you.
Side your home with fiber cement
If you want the exterior of your home to look good and require as little maintenance as possible, then installing siding is a must. If you want to ensure that it lasts as long as possible without having to be repaired or replaced, then you should opt for fiber cement siding which is much stronger than other alternatives, while also being very attractive to improve your home’s curb appeal.
Ditch the carpet
Carpets might be a popular and attractive form of flooring, but if you don’t want to spend an endless amount of time cleaning the floors in your home, then you should think about swapping our carpets for laminate, hardwood, or tile flooring instead.
These kinds of floors can be easily maintained by vacuuming and mopping occasionally, whereas carpets tend to trap more dirt in the fabric and can stain easily should you spill your wine or your kids throw their spaghetti on the floor. Carpet is far from low maintenance so you can easily spend less time doing chores if you do away with it in your home completely.
Install a metal roof
If you do not already have a metal roof, then swapping out your existing roof for a metal one when the time comes for it to be replaced is a no-brainer from a low-maintenance point of view. You see, metal roofs are practically maintenance-free. Once they are installed, they will easily last for 40 to 50 years with minimal care. They’re also extremely fireproof and can be made to look like more traditional roofs made from slates or shingles, so you can ensure that your home looks great too.
Get rid of your clutter
If there is one thing that will make a lot of unnecessary work for you in the home, it is clutter. The more stuff you have, the more stuff you have to clean and dust and put away after it’s been used, and that can add up to a lot of extra chores time.
Most of us have lots of items in the home that we do not really want and that we do not really need for our day-to-day life, so by getting rid of it, we can cut down on the household significantly, free up lots of space, and have far more time to enjoy our homes.
Decluttering can take a lot of time and effort, but if you take inspiration from people like Marie Kondo who have got decluttering down to a fine art, you will be able to do so much more quickly than you think, and once it’s done, you’ll have so much more free time and space that it is definitely worth the effort.
Go for quartz in the kitchen
When it comes to kitchen countertops, there are so many options available to us from laminate to granite. If you want to ensure that your countertops look great and are as easy to maintain as possible, though, then you should seriously think about quartz.
Not only does this natural stone look naturally expensive in the kitchen, but it is one material that is virtually impossible to stain, which means you won’t have to spend hours each week scrubbing it down after you spilled pasta sauce on it or after the kids’ blackcurrant juice ended up being knocked over. You can simply give it a quick wipe down to ensure it’s hygienic and forget about it. Oh, and with minimal care, it will easily last in good condition for 30 years or more!
Choose a composite deck
If you are thinking about installing a deck, or looking to upgrade your existing one, you might think that choosing natural hardwood is the sensible choice, but this is really not the case, from a maintenance point of view anyway.
You see, hardwood decking will need to be sealed regularly to keep it in peak condition, and it may end up warping due to weather conditions too. Composite decking, on the other hand, will pretty much never need to be sealed, won’t warp, and can be bought to look almost exactly like a real wood version, which means it is the smart choice for any homeowner who does not want to spend a lot of time on deck care and maintenance.
Install a PVC fence
Wooden fences might be traditional, but they tend to peel paint and rot away after a while especially if you live in an area that gets a lot of rain, so it is often a better idea to go for a PVC picket fence, which is able to withstand rainfall and not end up looking the worse for wear because of it.
Opt for an artificial lawn
While we’re on the subject of gardens, if you are someone who loves a nicely manicured lawn, but who does not particularly like gardening or mowing said lawn, then installing artificial grass is a good way to get the best of both worlds. It’s a much more common thing to do than ever before, and it will guarantee that your lawn always looks lush, green and manicured no matter how little effort you put into it or how adverse the weather conditions are.
Use washable wallpaper
If you love wallpaper, then be sure to buy only washable versions for decorating your home, especially if you have young kids or pets. Washable wallpapers, as the name suggests can easily be wiped clean if it gets dirt or various other stains on it, which means you can ensure your home decor always looks great without having to spend hours cleaning, scrubbing, and redecorating after the latest accidental spillage or child-based disaster.
Invest in automated cleaning tools
From window vacs to robot vacuum cleaners, there are a number of modern tools that are basically able to do your chores for you, so if you are serious about running a low-maintenance home, then you should definitely think about investing in these tools that will take a load off too.
Of course, they are no substitutes for designing a home that is naturally low-maintenance, but they will certainly help to cut down your chore time in conjunction with some of the other ideas we have talked about here.
If you’re serious about spending less time on cleaning and maintaining your home, then you would be smart to start making some of the low-maintenance changes above, right now.
