Guest post from Becky of Clean Mama
There are lots of little things that I do around the house every day that make a big difference in our home running smoothly. The one thing that works the best for me is my cleaning routine.
I would love to have a cleaning service come and clean the house top to bottom on a weekly or bi-weekly basis (you probably would, too), but the budget doesn’t have a line for that right now. Instead, I’ve learned to “become my own cleaning service” by creating, embracing, and implementing a cleaning routine.
The thing I love about my cleaning routine is that instead of trying to decide what to clean in that fleeting 15-minute chunk of time, I know what is scheduled to be cleaned. Better yet, because I have a routine in place, it’s easy to get my family involved because they know what is on the schedule for any given day.
My 4 Everyday Cleaning Tasks:
I love the feeling of everything being clean all at once, so I do a few cleaning tasks every day and that gives me the closest thing to that feeling.
Here are the four tasks I try to do every single day:
1. Do a quick check and sweep of the hard floors.
2. Wipe down the kitchen counters and check the bathroom counters.
3. Do at least one load of laundry.
4. Deal with paper clutter (mail and school papers).
Doing these 4 little tasks is a huge step in the cleaning routine. These take a few minutes and can be done early in the morning, during the day, or in the evening.
My Weekly Clean Tasks:
In addition to my four daily tasks, I assign specific jobs to each day of the week. This works really well for me, especially because each task builds on the next day.
Here’s my weekly cleaning plan:
Monday – bathrooms (Bathrooms need a good cleaning after the weekend!)
Tuesday – dust (Dusting should be done before vacuuming so that’s why I schedule it on Tuesdays.)
Wednesday – vacuum
Thursday – wash floors
Friday – catch-all day (Everyone needs a little grace and wiggle room so Friday is my day to catch up.)
Saturday – sheets and towels (I wash these in preparation for the week ahead.)
Sunday – rest
Trying to piece together the perfect way to maintain your house? Stop aiming for perfection and just do a little bit every day. It’ll never be perfect (and that’s okay!), but starting somewhere is the best place to start.
Then realize that the only way the cleaning routine will work is if you follow through and keep up with the routine. If a cleaning company came in every week to clean and then they stopped coming to your house, the house would be in disarray without a little cleaning. Remember that the mess is good – people live in your home and enjoy life!
How about you? Are you a cleaning routine-er? What’s most effective for you?
Need some resources to get started? I post daily picture reminders of cleaning tasks on my Facebook page, I have a FREE monthly cleaning calendar every month with my daily cleaning tasks, and here’s a fun post on how to make a cleaning binder.
Becky (Clean Mama) is a cleaning expert, a wife and mom to three, a business owner, and a former teacher. She knows how hard it is to try to keep it ‘all’ together, but has found that that really isn’t possible and it’s better to embrace the imperfect, grab a cup of coffee and a great list.
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