January’s Theme: Cleaning
Since January is generally a time most people think of fresh starts and clean slates, I thought it would be appropriate to devote a month to the topic of cleaning.
Cleaning is in a different but related category from organizing. “Organized” implies a skeleton of order hiding beneath something–a system, a structure, a repeatable process. “Clean” means that it looks neat, new, sterile and light. You can be organized without being clean and you can be clean without being organized.
When most people hear the word “organized” their mind conjures a picture of something that is both clean and organized. So cleaning is an inevitable part of organizing. It is also one of the most difficult tasks for people to accomplish when their time is limited. Time and again we read surveys showing that we all spend less time on housework and cleaning now than we ever have in the past.
So, this month, we will look to various experts to get a new perspective on cleaning and perhaps inspire us all to spruce up our own homes and offices.
First, I wanted to profile a book that has been on my reading list for some time now. Make Your House Do the Housework by the father-daughter duo of Don Aslett and Laura Aslett Simons. The title alone grabbed me. Can you really design a house that does most of the cleaning for you? Mr. Aslett, who ran a residential and commercial cleaning operation for years as well as raised 6 children, argues yes.
The book is divided into chapters on various cleaning challenges including kitchens, bathrooms, kids rooms, garbage, floors, doors and exterior maintenance. Mr. Aslett gives tips on the lowest maintenance way to build, remodel or maintain a home.
It is very easy to tell that these recommendations come from the male perspective. Function is given first priority and design and appearance are barely a consideration. The book was first published in 1995 and is a bit out of style (even by 1995 standards) but there are still many timeless ideas we can all learn from. Below I have summarized some of my favorites:
1. Mr. Aslett’s first cardinal rule to reduce housework is to declutter religiously. He even wrote another book on exactly that topic.
“About half of housework is caused by junk, litter and clutter—having things around that we don’t need and never use. . . . Junk makes every job harder and makes cleaning take forever.”
–Don Aslett and Laura Aslett Simons, Make Your House Do the Housework
2. When designing a home for low maintenance cleaning, Mr. Aslett frequently emphasizes that the fewer types of materials you use, the less work you will have and the less cleaning materials you will need. Some examples? Choose the same door hardware color throughout your home so that your doorknobs are easy to repair and replace. Ideally choose a “brushed” metal finish that doesn’t show wear as much as a shiny brass or metal finish. Choose the same type of faucet for every sink in your house so that you only have one faucet type to repair and replace. Choose the same paint color for most rooms in your house. “Cove” the carpeting or vinyl flooring so that it carries up the wall eliminating a baseboard to clean.
3. When selecting furniture, sink cabinets, built-ins, etc. there are 3 ideal designs from a maintenance perspective: a) suspend the furniture (ex. a table mounted to the wall, swinging chairs attached to a table) so you can clean the floor underneath, b) have high legs so you can easily reach under with a mop or vacuum to clean the floor or c) have cubical, solid furniture without legs that sits right on the floor eliminating the need to clean underneath. Mr. Aslett is a huge fan of suspending almost everything, including suspending bookcases and shelves about a foot off the ground so you can clean the floor underneath!
“Most Americans have 25 percent more furniture than they need. . . . Every extra piece of furniture is just one more place for dust to settle.”
–Don Aslett and Laura Aslett Simons, Make Your House Do the Housework
4. The highest maintenance colors are solid light colors like white and beige and solid dark colors like black. He notes that black appliances for example are very hard to keep looking clean—a fact I can attest to from my own kitchen. The lowest maintenance colors mid-tone colors and patterns. He likes “almond” color appliances for example. (Do they even make almond appliances any more? ) This is going to be hard news for most designers who often strategically use white to brighten a room and make it appear larger or solid colors for a modern look.
5. Avoid maintenance nightmares like miniblinds, louvered doors, shutters, textured flooring or glass doors in your shower enclosure.
6. Create a “Control Center” in your kitchen to house all the loose papers, phone lists, coupons, etc. that inevitably accumulate. His example looks like a full floor-to-ceiling bookcase with shelves for telephone books, bulletin board space, calendar space, message board, computer, cell phone charging station, etc.
“NASA has a control center. . . Why not do the same in your house? We’ve never seen a house (and that includes the newest and best designed) that actually designated an area to monitor, store and distribute the paraphernalia of daily function in a home—keys, mail, papers, lost and found, grocery lists, freshly arrived photos, messages, etc.”
–Don Aslett and Laura Aslett Simons, Make Your House Do the Housework
7. You can’t have too many closets. If you have the option, build in as many as you can. Mr. Aslett even makes a convincing case that children’s rooms should have two closets—one for clothes and one for toys, books, backpacks, etc. so they can store all of their clutter out of sight. Our own home could use a cleaning closet to store the vacuum cleaner, etc.
8. Avoid right-angled corners wherever you can. Look for rounded corners. Sharp corners accumulate dust and are far harder to clean.
9. Don’t buy cheap materials when it comes to appliances, carpets, faucets, kitchen cabinetry and other durable materials. The repair costs cost more over time.
10. When possible, concentrate clutter in your home to designated areas so that you are deep cleaning small areas and light cleaning most of the rest. Mr. Aslett gave an example of a corporate restroom with multiple toilet stalls and sinks where he eliminated the need to deep clean all of the sinks by putting a nice bar of fragrant soap near just one sink. Naturally, everyone gravitated to that one sink. Some other tips in the same vein: minimize the number of entrances and exits into your home so there are fewer places to track in dirt. Use control centers in entryways, bedrooms and kitchens to corral stuff like school backpacks, keys, wallets and change.
By far, my favorite tips from Mr. Aslett are his hugely creative ideas for designing low maintenance spaces for children. His parents apparently created a stagecoach bed design for himself and his brother that provided both an outlet for imaginative play as well as closet space, laundry and toy storage. He gives ideas for kids-only spaces, outdoor play spaces, art storage and other ideas. It would be great to see him do a book just on kids design.
If you are fortunate enough to be designing a home from scratch or remodeling, this book is definitely worth a read. Mr. Aslett goes into detail on the pros and cons of a variety of construction materials as well as construction techniques. For those who might just be trying to work with an existing space, there are still many more great tips in the book for low maintenance living but you do have to give Mr. Aslett a little leeway on his design preferences. His style sense might be different than yours but the fundamentals of his advice are timeless and a skilled designer could use the concepts (ex. suspended furniture) in a beautiful way.
In thinking about your own home or office space, what design features have been easy to maintain and which take considerable time? Please share in the comments.