How I think about maintainable CSS

Most websites start clean — and slowly turn messy.

New pages, rushed deadlines, different developers… and suddenly:

• buttons don’t match
• spacing feels random
• changing one style breaks three others

It keeps sites fast, consistent, and cheaper to update long-term.

My goal: CSS that still makes sense months later
I always ask:

“Will the next developer understand this?”
Good CSS should be:

• predictable
• reusable
• easy to change
• hard to accidentally break
  
  

1) Start with a simple design system

• Once your project is defined, plan your content carefully. This includes text, images, videos, icons, etc.
• Brainstorm with visual hierarchy. Always focus on the mobile-first approach. Design for the content first, not the container.
• Define navigation.
• Define the site structure. You can draw a sitemap in this step if we’re talking about a bigger project.
  
  

Sketch your ideas

Before styling everything, I define:

• colors
• spacing scale
• typography
• buttons and cards
• breakpoints
  
  Then I use tokens instead of random values:

color: var(--brand-primary);
margin: var(--space-md);

Result: consistency — and one place to update things later.

2) Build reusable components (not one-off styles)

Instead of styling every page from scratch, I create:

• shared buttons
• cards
• form elements
  
  That means new features ship faster and stay on-brand.
  
  

3) Name things by purpose — not appearance

Bad:

.red-box
.big-title

Better:

alert
section-header
pricing-card

Names should describe what something is, not what it looks like.

4) Avoid hacks that live forever

Sometimes !important or negative margins are tempting.

If I must use them, I document why — and try to remove them later. Otherwise, CSS becomes fragile.

5) Keep styles local when possible

I prefer scoped styles (CSS Modules, Tailwind, etc.).

Small, local stylesheets = fewer surprises.

6) Performance matters

I regularly prune:

• unused CSS
• duplicated styles
• heavy frameworks we don’t need
  
  Lean CSS = faster pages, better SEO, happier users.
  
  

Why clients should care

Maintainable CSS means:

💰 cheaper future changes
🎯 consistent branding
⚡ faster load times
📈 more trust (and conversions)

Messy CSS might be faster to ship — but it costs more later.

If you want a site that grows without breaking

I help businesses build front-ends that are:

• clean
• scalable
• easy to maintain
  
  Whether you’re redesigning, adding features, or cleaning up legacy CSS — I’d love to help.

• #design
• #development