After all of the decluttering you’ve been doing, I’m sure you’re ready to make your home sparkling clean, right?! The good news is that we are covering that today and will be talking all about implementing a cleaning routine!
A few years ago, I developed a cleaning routine that was working really well for me. But once Little Miss came along last June, I found it impossible to keep up with cleaning while working from home and learning the ropes of being a new Mom. It was all just too much, so I bid adieu to my cleaning routine and embraced the crumbs and chaos that my house quickly became.
After a few months of living in a mess, I started to get sick of having to marathon clean every time we were expecting a guest, and just didn’t feel good about how my house looked. I am the type of person that thrives in a (somewhat) tidy and clean environment, and my house was anything but. Since we had a newborn, we were spending more time than ever in our house, and the environment was starting to become depressing since it just didn’t feel like a space I could relax and want to spend time in.
I decided to bring back my old cleaning routine, but revamped it to make it work for my new lifestyle as a work-from-home Mom. I broke it up so that on any given day I only have to spend 30-45 minutes cleaning, which is doable for me on most days. I also try to avoid cleaning as much as possible on the weekends so that we can focus on family time and getting bigger projects done when my Husband isn’t working.
I’ve found that grouping similar chores together (i.e. dusting all surfaces around the house in one day), instead of focusing on one entire room each day helps me to streamline my time because I only need to pull out a few cleaning tools or products each day, and then I also get into a rhythm with that particular chore.
Of course there are times when I need to veer from this routine, if I’m either too busy one day or something is looking particularly grungy and needs to be cleaned before its designated day. While I don’t stick to this schedule 100% of the time, I find that it still really helps me to have my cleaning routine broken down to tackle a little bit each day to keep me from feeling overwhelmed by the task of cleaning an entire home.
I was originally going to make a cute printable out of this routine, but then decided against it because I think that instead of following my routine, you should use this to inspire you to create a routine that works best for you and your home.
Perhaps you don’t have a crazy 8 month old crawling around on your floors looking for dust bunnies to eat, so you don’t need to sweep every night or even wash your floors every week. If you’re a single gal living the apartment life, you can probably clean your entire place in an hour or so and won’t find it necessary to split everything up the way I do. Do what makes sense and works for you in whatever season of life you are in! 🙂
My Daily & Weekly Cleaning Routine:
Daily Routine
Morning:
Make bed
Empty dishwasher
Throw in a load of laundry
Evening:
Load dishwasher / wash all pots & pans
Wipe down kitchen table & counters
Sweep kitchen floor
Tidy up toys and other items around house
Fold & put away laundry
Weekly Routine
Monday:
Meal plan (work in progress)
Grocery shopping
Change sheets on beds
Tuesday:
(each done 1x/month)
1st Tuesday – clean oven, microwave, & fridge
2nd Tuesday – wipe down walls, baseboards, door panels, & ceiling fans
3rd Tuesday – clean inside windows & dust blinds
4th Tuesday – wipe down cabinets in kitchen & bathrooms
Wednesday:
Dust all surfaces & wipe down furniture
Thursday:
Vacuum all area rugs
Sweep & mop hardwood floors
Friday:
Clean bathrooms (I only scrub showers/tubs and mop floors every other week)
How do you prefer to clean your home? Do you knock it all out in one day, or spread it out throughout the week like I do?
All posts in the Simplified Cleaning Series:
I wish I had a routine like this! Unfortunately, the only chores that get done with regularity in my house are laundry, food planning/grocery shopping, washing the dishes, and vacuuming/sweeping the floors. I really need to do a weekly wipe down of appliances, bathrooms, blinds, cabinets, and windows. No wonder people who can afford it hire cleaning services! 😉
I’d say that’s pretty good Meredith! 🙂 Seriously….I WILL be hiring a cleaning service whenever we can afford it. It’s unfortunately not in the cards right now, but I’m hoping that at some point this year I might be able to make that happen.
I have a cleaning lady come and deep clean once per month. In between, I mostly focus on laundry and dishes and keeping the bathrooms and kitchen clean.
I’m really hoping to be able to hire a cleaning service at some point this year too. It would help me so much to have someone do the deep cleaning for me, and I think that if I can then use those saved hours to put towards freelance work, I would end up in the positives financially speaking by doing it.
I’m still working on decluttering for spring and today I’m planning to go through all the cabinets in my kitchen and organize everything, get rid of all the papers, clutter, etc. For cleaning though, I love to spread tasks out throughout the week. There’s no other way to get everything done properly. We do used to have a household chores schedule and follow it each week but we need to get back on track with that.
That’s so great Chonce! Agreed, if I have to do everything around here in one day, it just isn’t happening. The thought of it overwhelms me too much.
I am SO on the same page as you. I’ve tried at various times to just get comfortable and let things go a little bit, but even when my son was a baby, I couldn’t go too long either. I need order. I don’t think I’m extreme or anything. But I just find it hard to think in a messy environment. I really wish they’d tidy up thrift stores. I could shop a lot longer if there wasn’t so much visual chaos (not even going to get into the weird smells in some of them). Loving this series, Christina! I love cleaning routines. Without them, I feel uneasy.
Agreed Kay! I’m not a clean freak either, just really enjoy having a somewhat tidy home. Especially with being home all the time, I also can’t focus on anything else if I’m sitting amongst a mess.
I needed this. We do have some routines in place, but have been slacking ever since we bought a place and have been planning to move! I love the idea of having both daily routines and weekly routines– it keeps the cleaning from becoming totally overwhelming, which it usually is for us!
It really does help a ton, I highly recommend it Daisy! 🙂
Awesome ideas! I have got to get my rear in gear to set up some sort of routine. Mr. Maroon often tells me that he’s willing to help out with the chores around the house. But it’s my job to clearly communicate what we need to get accomplished. I’m really missing out on getting some good stuff done by not having a plan so that he can help too!!
Thanks Mrs. Maroon! Oh geez, you better get on that! Haha you are missing out on precious help around the house 🙂
With both of us working and my wife in grad school in the evenings, it makes it tough to spread out cleaning (or anything else, for that matter). The past few weeks I’ve been focusing all my efforts on one day: Sunday. I try to clean for about 2 hours or so and knock it all out. Laundry is something we try to do as often as possible, but I only iron my work clothes on Sundays.
That’s great that you found a system that works well for you, DC!
Good routine! For me, cleaning is not my thing so I hired a cleaning lady for the house at least once a week.
That’s great that you’re doing what works for you! I hope to eventually be able to hiring a cleaning service as well, and know that the hours I’ll save by not cleaning will allow me to bring in more income with that designated time then.
Great cleaning schedule! I clean my kitchen and countertops daily – it’s almost therapeutic? I also tidy up when I’m cooking dinner – I figure I have 20-30 minutes to either put away a load of clothes or pick up dog toys or something. I also swiffer daily to get rid of all the dog hair that seems to float around!
Thanks Kristin! I agree that it’s therapeautic. That’s so great that you tidy up while cooking too, I haven’t been so good at doing that in the past, but I’ve really stepped my game up in that area too. It makes such a difference!
Amazing post! I like your cleaning way and I do exactly like you. I focus on the task instead of separating the cleaning for each room. When I vacuum the floor I vacuum everywhere around the house. It’s great idea to have a cleaning plan for each day. Greetings