Top Tips To Design A Kitchen That Is Easy Peasy To Clean!
You’ve had kitchens before where you seemed to cook and clean on an even scale, you might be wondering if there is a way to enjoy your kitchen more and yet clean up less or have smaller amount of clean up time.
The simple answer: Yes. There are materials you can place in your kitchen so that they are easier to clean so you can spend more time doing the things you love, like cooking and entertaining.
Here are a few material ideas to consider for your kitchen.
Grout Free Kitchen Countertops
Grout, such as with porcelain tiles, or ceramic tiles require a lot of grunt work. If you really want to make your kitchen countertops easy to clean, consider the seamless option of using slabs of materials rather than tiles.
A few good options to consider for a seamless countertop; stainless steel, wood, and of course natural stone. Stone such as quartz, corian, and even granite have no seams so this means less time scrubbing the grout and more time enjoying your kitchen.
Stainless steel, quartz and laminates are 3 materials which almost never require sealing, while wood and granite will, but it’s more likely once a year maintenance than once a day maintenance.
If you absolutely want porcelain, consider doing large format versus 2×2 or 4×4 tiles. This will give you less grout surface to clean.
Full Sheet Backsplash Tile
Backsplashes are great; they’re functional because they keep oil and food off of your walls, which make them an essential requirement for an easy to clean kitchen.
However, most backsplashes are tiles and as mentioned above, this will require a lot of grout surface you will have to seal once a year and clean every day.
If you don’t have time for cleaning your backsplash tiles, you can also find full backsplash sheets – these, like with the kitchen countertops above, have no seam i.e., no grout.
Backsplash kitchen tiles come in an array of materials so you can choose the one that works best with the style of your kitchen. Consider; full sheet glass backsplash, full sheet tin backsplash, or full sheet stone backsplash slabs.
Easy To Clean Flooring
Flooring is something you will be using for as long as you are in the kitchen obviously, so you want something that is not only easy to clean but you want something that is easy to clean food and spills off of too. You have a few different options:
Porcelain tiles: Yes, these have grout, but if you choose bigger 12×12 formats or 16×16 you will have lesser grout.
Marmoleum, Vinyl or Linoleum: These are all very similar in looks and feel, but they all have one very special thing in common; they are incredibly easy to clean. Soap and water will do the trick and you can either do it the old fashioned way on your knees with a bucket and a sponge or you can use a mop and a bucket, either way, if you want easy to clean, this is the way.
Raise Your Spirits
You hate to clean and you need a way to feel better about it, consider adding some music to your cleaning routine, or scents. Scents are known to change the mood and how we feel.
Take a look at neomorganics.com to see what scent choices you have. You can even get in the spirit of the Holidays, or certain seasons to help get you energised.
Avoid Ornate Moldings and Decor On Cabinets
If you want really easy to clean cabinets, make sure you go for more of a plain style or flat surfaced cabinet. When you start to add in moldings, decor, scrawling woodwork, etc you add in more crevices to clean and not only clean but clean diligently.
If you took a flat surface cabinet and placed it next to a more decorative cabinet and timed yourself cleaning them – the flat surface would take seconds, whereas the decorative one could take up to 15 minutes more.
Is this really what you want out of your routine? Didn’t think so. The material really doesn’t matter per se, it’s all about the decorative edges and design on the cabinets. But, if you want easy to clean materials for cabinets some ideas; stainless steel, wood and PVC.
Appliance Storage
Above all else, you should know that keeping the blender, toaster and coffee maker out are quicker to use, but they can also gather a lot of dust, grime, and oil.
Read through thecreativityexchange.com to have amazing kitchen organising ideas. You can consider building a pantry-like storage just for your smaller appliances.
This way you can quickly get them out when you need to use them and quickly put them away without them getting all oily and dirty when not in use. Also, because you are removing these little appliances your kitchen countertops will have more room on them and your kitchen, overall, will look cleaner and more organised when not in use.