I've been hoping (for years) that people will change from quantity/novelty to quality. Wishful thinking. Maybe 10 weeks of no shops will make a few people think "wanted it, shops shut, realized I didn't need it" but it seems likely that the opposite will happen. We can now rush to the furniture shops - so we will.
Few things are handed down any more - Shakespeare's will left his wife "my second-best bed", if you read the Alan Clarke diaries you realize that all his furniture was old and inherited - he referred to one nouveau riche political foe disparagingly - "he bought all his own furniture". Upstart. I am working at a desk my father bought in a country house furniture sale in the 1950's.
But now, few things need to last because few people want them to last. Its all about "this seasons look" whatever that might be.
If you look at the prices and business model of furniture stores like oak furniture land you quickly see that they are a finance business: I bet the money the make on the "only £££ a month for 5 years" deals is much more than the margin on the physical things they sell. Went to buy a bed last year - old one really was knackered - and the sales person sort of lost interest when they understood that I wanted to buy a bed, not a finance deal for a bed. So to keep going they have to sell more, novelty and fashion. Use advertising and fashion features to make people dissatisfied with what they have so they go buy something more.
The biggest driver for change is small rooms/small properties. Think back, many of us own books, vinyl records, CDs, DVDs, we once had big fat CRT tube TVs and tower computers. Now if you live in a small space that all lives on a phone and laptop with a big flat screen bolted to a wall. Some people even treat clothes as disposable - small wardrobe, buy wear until bored, throw away. No big stock of old clothes that progressively get demoted from diy to gardening to painting to fence staining then finally to the bin when they get to be a health and fire hazard.
To your original question. I'm sure 'easy clean' will find its way into marketing blurb but I doubt it will really change much. As someone has said, transmission by touch in the house is very unlikely and few of us lick our sofas regularly. I don't think we will end up living in a 2001 film set with Hal reminding us to wash the floor ("I think you should scrub the sink next, Dave"). As people who can end up working at home more, small and multi functional will be the main driver. Kitchen table a big flat shelf under the top so you can quickly stuff your work laptop and papers in when its time to have a proper kitchen table.
