Design a Low-Maintenance Kitchen in 7 Steps

Design a Low-Maintenance Kitchen in 7 Steps

Cleaning the kitchen can be a major chore, especially when there are so many little things in it to clean. All the little cracks, crevices, and hard to reach places can get tedious to deal with, but it doesn’t have to be difficult. There are several ways you can change your kitchen to be more low maintenance. In this post we will walk you through a few changes you can make to your kitchen to be easier to clean and take care of. 

1. Choose Simple Cabinets

Simple is best for a low-maintenance kitchen. Avoid cabinets with too many nooks and crannies to clean and look for ones with uncomplicated knobs and handles. Make sure they go all the way to the ceiling to eliminate another surface to clean. Also make sure all your cabinets are enclosed in some way. Open cabinets are another place dust can settle, and any decorations set on them will also require extra cleaning. 

2. Put Trash Bins in Easy to Reach Places

Keep trash bins around your kitchen to make cleaning easier. Put one under the counter next to your sink for doing the dishes. This is a great spot because you can scrape the plates directly into the trash before washing them. You can also put trash bins near the fridge, in the dining room, pantry, or anywhere you throw away a lot of food. 

3. Easy To Clean Walls

Stains happen a lot when you’re cooking, so investing in good quality paint will keep your frustration about making a mess to a minimum. You’ll want to pick a paint that’s easy to wipe down, like washable or scrubbable paint. Washable paint will release stains easily with the help of water or a light detergent, but too much scrubbing messes up the finish and leaves it looking blotchy. Scrubbable paint holds up well to scrubbing, but it takes more effort to remove the stain. Consider if you make a lot of messes in your kitchen and use this information to inform your decision.

4. Easy To Clean Surfaces and Appliances

To have a kitchen that is truly painless to clean, try to fill it with as many easy-to-clean surfaces as possible. You’ll want surfaces that are easy to wipe down, hide stains well, and have little to no crevices. Easy to wipe down surfaces for your counter include stainless steel, quartz, porcelain or Corian. You can also use quartz or porcelain for your backsplash, but other popular choices are granite, marble, quartzite, mirror, sheets of stainless steel, back-painted glass or washable paint. For your cabinets, use either a good quality semi-gloss paint or medium-toned wood stain. The semi-gloss paint will be easy to wipe off and the stain will hide stains well. If you are adding tiles to any part of your kitchen, like your backsplash or your floor, choose larger tiles with fewer, thinner grout lines. Larger crevices will trap crumbs and messes and become a real pain to clean. Other good floor options include luxury vinyl plank flooring, linoleum with minimal texture, and prefinished floors with micro bevels. The micro bevels fit together tightly so there are fewer crevices to clean. 

Investing in easy-to-clean appliances will make cleaning a breeze. Look for self-cleaning appliances like coffee makers with an automatic cleaning function or ovens with a pyrolytic cleaning setting. Make sure they are easy to wipe down on the outside and have minimal texture. For appliances like faucets look for fingerprint-resistant stainless steel or consider a more unique option like satin bronze or brass, matte black, oil-rubbed bronze, or brushed nickel.

5. Avoid Open Shelves

Open shelves may seem like they would be very convenient for your kitchen, sure those pesky doors would be removed from your reaching area, but it could cause more problems than solutions! Open shelves are more likely to accumulate dust faster than if they were closed off. Therefore, you would have to dust your shelves more often. Additionally, open shelves make it easier for pesky critters, who may have found their way into your home, to have access to your food and condiments. So, make sure to choose cabinets with doors or glass — if you want to see what you have in stock. 

6. Install a Strong Exhaust Hood

To really keep your stovetop clean, invest in a good range hood. This will keep dirt and grime out of your kitchen by moving it to the outside. Avoid ductless and down-draft vents, and over-the-range microwave filters. Opt for a vent hood. If you have a gas range, defer to the manufacturer’s guidelines about ventilation. The standard is 1 CFM (cubic feet per meter, measures air movement) for every 100 BTUs (British Thermal Unit, a measure of heat energy).

7. Choose Medium-Colored Flooring

When choosing a color for your floor, you want something that will hide stains and messes well enough until you get the chance to clean them. A medium-colored floor will do this best. A too dark or too light floor will show everything. 

Need New Cabinets for Your Low-Maintenance Kitchen?

There are so many ways you can make your kitchen easy to take care of. It may feel overwhelming at times because there is so much, but it’s worth it in the end. You’ll save lots of time in the long run, not having to scrub and struggle to get little messes out of nooks and crannies. And your kitchen will look great; no hard-to-reach places or tedious messes to clean, just a nice place to cook great meals.

Are you ready to create your own low-maintenance kitchen? Factory Cabinets Direct has an amazing selection of cabinets for you to choose from. They offer plenty of simple designs that are easy to clean, and in colors that will suit any kitchen. Order some samples or take advantage of our design service to make sure your kitchen design is perfect. Visit us online today!