Tired, busy and overwhelmed? If you are tired of figuring out how to keep your home clean while living an active and full life, we have a tried and true method that works in just about any life situation.
There are four components of the cleaning routine but don’t start with everything at once. The dirt will still be there when you are ready to implement the routine to the fullest – start with the daily tasks. You are probably already doing these things – you can even start with one day for a week. Add a second task the second week and keep going until you feel like you have a good grasp of the situation.
Daily Tasks
These five tasks are essential to the routine and the secret to getting started with your clean home. They are:
- Make the bed
- Check the floor
- Wipe the counters
- Tackle clutter
- Do a load of laundry
Weekly Cleaning Tasks
These tasks should only take 10-15 minutes once you get in the swing of the routine.
- Monday – we clean the bathrooms
- Tuesday – we dust
- Wednesday – we vacuum
- Thursday – we wash the floor
- Friday – we do anything we did not get to in the previous days
- Saturday – we tackle the sheets and towels
Rotating Tasks
After successfully implementing the daily and weekly tasks, it is time to learn about the rotating tasks. You know those deep cleaning tasks that are hard to fit in? The routine incorporates those simply. It includes these deep cleaning tasks into our ‘Catch-All Day’ on Fridays or with a day of the week that it makes sense with. Here are some of those tasks:
- Change appliance filters, for example in the washing machine or HVAC unit
- Clean and wipe down the oven and other appliances
- Wash windows
- Wash or vacuum rugs
- Launder bedding
- Vacuum and clean furniture
- Polish wood furniture
Monthly Focus
After you feel good about incorporating the daily tasks, weekly tasks and rotating tasks into your schedule and life, it is time to learn about the monthly focus. There is one focus for every month with the intention that you will organize your entire house throughout the year in a slow and steady approach.
Every home and family has its own set of challenges and hurdles to work through. Let’s be honest; if you can choose between sitting down and reading a book or folding a basket of laundry, you are going to read the book, right?
Working Outside the Home
If you work outside the home and get late or leave early (or both) and are exhausted and have no energy to put a cleaning routine into place, the best suggestion is to start with 5-10 minutes before you leave for work and 5-10 minutes when you get home. Start with the daily tasks and work on completing them every day. If the daily tasks are overwhelming, just start with one – one load of laundry from the start to put away, pick up clutter, check floors or wipe counters. Add one every week and before you know it, you will have built a little routine into your schedule.
The secret here is if you keep up with the routine (even if it is halfway done every week), by keeping up with it consistently, you will be making progress and after a couple of months (or less), you will not only have a routine but you will have a clean home most of the time.
Irregular Work Hours/Schedule
An irregular schedule is difficult for so many reasons. Some irregular schedules are overnight shifts, three days on and three days off or it might even be that you work 12-hour shifts. My best advice? A cleaning routine can be accomplished but give yourself grace while trying to figure out what works best for you. You might need to double up tasks and tackle two or three on your days off, so you don’t have to do much on the days you work. For instance, if you work on Thursdays but have Wednesday off, do Wednesday’s task and Thursday’s task on the same day. Some weeks you will be able to conquer the world and get everything done. Take it all in stride and remember that something is always better than nothing.
The most effective part of the routine is that you will not feel overwhelmed by the routine. You will feel like it is helping you get your home to a manageable place where just about any real-life circumstance can be thrown at you and you can still get it done.
Let us know how you manage the cleaning chores at your house in the comments below.
