Nobody (or almost nobody, because there is always a Sheldom Cooper or a Marie Kondo excited to get to work) likes the famous general cleaning day. And it’s not because we don’t clean, it’s because we want to be happy, go to the pool, have a picnic, do nothing…. Spending one of our days off turning the house upside down to leave it sparkling clean is a huge waste of (happy) time.
That’s why in today’s article, we will show you that by incorporating cleaning routines into our lives, we can have a clean house and enjoy our free time more. One of our main proposals is to incorporate a robot vacuum cleaner into our lives, and hearing that sounds great, but it would require a significant investment. Beyond that, we propose a whole plan to avoid having to spend our day off doing a general cleaning. There are no such things as miracles, so a little time each day is necessary.
Here is a simple concept based on a weekly and daily organization strategy. Our plan is to make housework as simple as possible and make it a habit. When you read that out loud, it sounds great… but is it really doable? Again, we should evaluate whether we have enough Kondo spirit to carry out such a plan. Tempted to learn more? Keep reading!
Weekly Cleaning Program
The essential step to implementing our philosophy of tidying up and cleaning is organization. Our best secret is to establish a cleaning routine, scheduling weekly cleaning in an organizer. Our suggestion is to do it in the following way:
Divide the tasks from Monday to Friday. The days you dedicate to rest are not dedicated to cleaning, so when it’s your turn to clean, it won’t be so hard. On weekends, you will only spend time tidying or cleaning if you feel like it. It’s very important that each day you are clear on what you need to focus on and divide the work up, so you don’t get overwhelmed.
Dedicate two days a week to cleaning the bathrooms. Start with the toilet, then the bidet (if you have one), the tub, the sink and the mirror. Finish by mopping the floor.
Dedicate two days a week to cleaning the kitchen. Use one day to thoroughly clean the countertop, cooktop, sink, outside cabinets and floor and the other day to thoroughly clean an appliance (washing machine, oven and microwave, dishwasher and hood).
Every day, mop a room in your home. If you use a robotic cleaner every day, you will notice that there is not as much dust on the furniture.
Get into the habit of vacuuming or sweeping a room every day.
One day a week, run the washing machine for the linens. Wash the sheets one week and the towels another week. Washing them once a fortnight is enough. And another day, the washing machine for colors or black. This way, you always have time to hang out when finishing and you do not accumulate a pile of clothes in one pass.
Use one day for ironing and another day to pick up the clothesline.
In total, we calculate that to follow this organization it takes about 45 minutes per day doing three tasks per day. Depending on the day and the number of rooms you have in your house, the daily formula would be as follows: dust and floor of a room + kitchen/bathroom/laundry.
Morning Routine
One of the first thing we highly recommend is very simple and straightforward, but not everyone does it: get into the habit of turning off your cell phone when you go to bed and waking up with a battery-operated alarm clock. When you wake up, open the window, eat breakfast, make the bed and close the window.
Night Routine
The key at night is to pick out the next day’s look, pack the bag or purse you’ll be carrying, shower, fluff up the pillows and fold the living room blankets. If you notice that the table area has been left dirty, you can sweep, vacuum or robot vacuum, whatever you have.
With this organization, arguments over household chores end, whether with your partner or your family. Do you have any other tips for organizing your cleaning? Share them with us in the comments below.
