No one wants to spend every waking moment cleaning stains and marks from furniture, walls, floors, and surfaces. However, if you have a busy home with pets, children, and the occasional clumsy adult, that can feel like your reality.
Fortunately, some materials, surfaces, and finishes require far less care than others when spills and marks happen. If you want to spend less time with a scrubbing brush and cleaning products, here are the best ones to have in your home:
Solution-Dyed Acrylic Fabrics
While most upholstery stain removers do a great job of removing mess from a range of surfaces, it’s generally a far more straightforward task when your furniture upholstery consists of solution-dyed acrylic fabrics. If you have ‘busy’ furniture that sees a lot of traffic or sunlight, this fabric is a great choice because it’s highly durable and stain-resistant. The color is also locked into the fibers, making it fade-proof in sunny areas.
The fibers of solution-dyed acrylic fabrics are incredibly dense and non-porous. As a result, if you spill something onto them, the spills sit on the surface and don’t deeply penetrate the material. You can then use both gentle and harsh cleaning products to remove them without stripping the color or altering the appearance.
Matte Leather
You want your family to be comfortable on your living room sofas, but it’s hard not to worry about scuffs, marks, and stains. That’s why matte leather can be a great choice for your next lounge suite. With specialized surface coatings like polymers and matte acrylics, they create a barrier that prevents liquids and oils from soaking into the leather. As a result, they are generally easy to clean, and spills just wipe away.
The texture of the protective barrier on matte leather resembles peaks and has a much rougher finish than traditionally gloss leather. Light scratches and straight-line scuffs are often far less noticeable.
Hard Flooring
While carpets feel beautifully lush underfoot, they can be a nightmare for showing stains. One tipped-over wine glass, bowl of spaghetti, or soda can be all it takes to ruin your flooring for good.
You don’t have to remove carpets from your home entirely, but investing in family-friendly flooring in the main living areas can be worthwhile. Several hard flooring materials are far easier to care for than carpet, such as porcelain tile, luxury vinyl plank, and polished concrete.
Porcelain tile boasts excellent stain- and scratch resistance, while luxury vinyl plank feels comfortable underfoot, is waterproof, and hides marks well. Polished concrete, when sealed, is tough and stain-resistant.
Hard-Wearing Countertops
The kitchen is the heart of the home. That’s especially true in homes with children who spend a lot of time in the general vicinity perusing the pantry and asking what’s for dinner. Knowing your kids will spend a great deal of time in the kitchen, you want hard-wearing surfaces that won’t show wear and tear and will be easy to care for. A number of materials tick those boxes.
Sintered stone is one of the most highly recommended surface options for its resistance to stains, scratches, heat, and even UV rays. It also doesn’t require sealing, making it a low-maintenance choice. Quartz is also a great option for its stain resistance and ease of cleaning. Like sintered stone, it doesn’t require sealing. If you’re overwhelmed by all the choices but know you want something that doesn’t stain, scratch, or require much maintenance, steer away from marble, unsealed concrete, and timber.
Matte Cabinets
As beautiful as high-gloss cabinets are, cleaning them can sometimes feel like a full-time job. Every fingerprint, mark, scratch, and grease spot shows up and requires constant cleaning. When it’s time to update your kitchen and create a functional, low-maintenance space, opt for cabinetry in a matte finish. Matte laminate and similar surfaces boast excellent fingerprint resistance. They also hide scratches and imperfections far better than their high-gloss counterparts.
Washable Gloss Wall Paint
The walls of our homes get much dirtier than you might think. Between children’s fingerprints and cooking oils, to pet danger and dust, they house more dirt and debris than you might think.
It’s important that you choose an easy-care, washable gloss wall paint if you don’t want to spend all your free time cleaning your walls. Semi-gloss paint in kitchens, bathrooms, and laundries is far easier to clean than flat or matte paint. A satin or eggshell finish also makes living spaces more durable and easier to care for.
Easy-Wipe Bathroom Surfaces
The general vicinity of a bathroom vanity can go from spotless to spotted in a matter of minutes. Toothpaste, makeup, and haircare products can quickly splatter across mirrors, cabinets, and countertops.
To avoid stains and imperfections, make your bathroom more functional, and ensure clean-up is a breeze, opt for low-maintenance finishes such as porcelain tiles, quartz vanity tops, and solid-surface vanities. Avoid natural marble, which requires regular care and is easily marked.
You might only be thinking about what looks beautiful in your home, but there’s value in considering what’s low-maintenance. Easy-wipe surfaces that don’t show scratches, marks, or imperfections can help your home look clean and tidy for longer.
