To really keep a home clean, I need a schedule of jobs to follow. I know there are fancy systems and motivational email lists to which people subscribe that can help, but I like my simple list of daily jobs and weekly jobs.
Here are a few of my daily cleaning guidelines. If I do these things, I don’t feel like things are out of control.
- Make the bed as soon as I get up. Remind the kids to do the same.
- Clean up the kitchen after each meal. Kids put dishes directly in the dishwasher after meals.
- Keep the formal living room clean. This is the only room that most people see when they come to the door.
- Take out the kitchen trash each night. It’s icky to wake up to a house that smells like a dump. Amen.
These are just guidelines. If there are dishes in the sink as I run out the door to do something, I don’t beat myself up. If all I do before I run out the door in the morning is make my bed, wow, what a difference that makes when I come home. Simple habits can be powerful helps to us.
To maintain our home, I follow a weekly schedule. I try to involve the kids. If I miss deep cleaning a room one week, it’s no big deal. Next week will come around soon enough. This is just a framework.
- Monday: laundry, mudroom
- Tuesday: living areas (dust, vacuum, clean glass) and bathrooms (deep clean, mop)
- Wednesday: kitchen deep cleaning (mop, clean crevices and appliances)
- Thursday: shopping (I actually shop two days a week, but this is often the big Costco day.)
- Friday: bedrooms and sheets (The kids clean, dust, and vacuum their bedrooms. I change and wash the sheets.)
- Saturday: craft room, garage, incidentals
I do laundry on other days, too, and we’ll clean bathrooms, vacuum, and clean other areas multiple times a week. However, having this framework, I can be sure that things aren’t neglected for long.
I LOVE a clean, uncluttered house, but it’s not the most important thing. I err on the side of clutter in certain corners of the house because I like to read more than I need a clear desk; I like to write more than I need a vacuumed car. I LOVE working with my family on the house. Industrious kids are an ideal for me.
Life is about choices, but a simple framework can help make a clean home possible along with all of the other things that we do. Of course, this phase of life that I am in allows for this kind of framework. When I have been sick for weeks and weeks at a time, and when the kids were young, my cleaning guidelines were a lot different! When I was home schooling, thorough cleaning only happened on Saturdays. However, simple cleaning habits have been helpful to me in whatever phase of life I am in.
Hearing people’s routines is fascinating to me. Do you have a secret to a clean home? Do you make your bed every day? If so, do you agree that it makes a huge difference? What jobs do you enlist your kids to help with around the house? Yes, I am allowing comments today. I am truly curious to learn how people manage their lives.
I appreciate you posting this as I love to hear how people manage their homes. To me, an organized and clean home is a haven and a great way to decrease stress. I like that you keep up on things so that your home is never totally out of control. I love the idea of daily and weekly things. I have a similar schedule with monthly and semi-annual jobs too. I feel great peace when the bed is made each day, when dishes are done after every meal, when the floor is swept, when the laundry is taken care of regularly, when things can be located easily, and when there is a sense of order in the home. Thanks for your comments and tips!
The kids and I decided when we were selling the old house that it was so much easier to do a little each day and not do housework on Saturday. I live by patterns, so our house work follows a pattern. I clean the kitchen and do laundry on Fridays. I do not do laundry on an other day of the week unless we are going on vacation or I have to wash a sports uniform for the next game. I do dishes each day–usually in the morning because I can’t stand cleaning up after cooking in the evening. I try to make my bed each day but that only happens when I exercise, so if I don’t ride my stationary bike, the bed just doesn’t seem to get made.
The kids have a small job each day after school–following a pattern. Over the course of the week, everything gets cleaned at least once. I am picky about how they do some things and let other things slide a little. Nothing they have to do takes longer than 15 minutes because I want them to be able to play and create and do their own thing. There are some jobs that take longer and I save those for group work on holidays and long breaks (baseboard washing, windows, etc.) Because of the way we clean, there is never a moment when I look at my house and can say it is completely clean but that is okay. The house is still “cleaner” than it ever was when I we did Saturday jobs and now Saturdays are a day of family fun and outside work, not inside work. The kids are happier and so am I.
I have to say, making my bed is one of the last things on the list. I’ve never gotten any satisfaction out of consistently doing it and only do it now when I do a deep clean on our room once a week and after we change the sheets 🙂 I do dishes and clean the kitchen every morning after breakfast- we like to spend time together in the evenings rather than cleaning if we can avoid it. I also have a schedule to clean a different room each day- a little every day. Mondays I start with my bedroom. Somehow having my bedroom clean makes the rest of the house easier to pick up and clean. Maybe because it’s not a dumping ground that we just close the door on… Then I clean the upstairs rooms and vacuum (I love to vacuum!). Tues is bathroom day, Wed is the downstairs rooms, etc. etc. I randomly deep clean as the mood will hit and I just need to scrub the fridge or baseboards or windows or whatever (Richard finds this to be a funny indicator that I am feeling good…)
Laundry used to be my nemesis but if I keep up with one load a day it works out great for us (and with this as my goal I normally do more than 1 a day and have it done early in the week!). Kids have their small chores (they always want to take my vacuuming job away!) and are always expected to help. The kids play better and are kinder and less bored and grumpy when their things have been cleaned up. It’s like they don’t know what to play with when it’s all over the place and they are stepping on it…That’s worth the work on most days. Basic pickup is endless, and like Melinda said, my house is rarely all clean at once, but it does get cleaned. I like being able to clean.
Thanks, Susan. Part of cleaning is personal satisfaction. Part of cleaning is just selfless love. For you, laundry is selfless; to me, cleaning bathrooms is my most selfless act. But the biggest job is always laundry. I think that kids catch on to feelings in a home very strongly, and like you mentioned, if the house is clean (not so much that they feel like they can’t touch anything), they are happier. Doors are a great invention. You can close them when there is a messy room. When my kids were small, my bedroom was the catch-all, too.
I moved most of our cleaning jobs away from Saturdays, too, Melinda. I think cleaning is a good activity for a family to do together, just like you do, and helping the kids to see that most jobs can be completed in 15 minutes or less is a great idea. I tell myself the same thing every time I face the dishes. “This will only take 10 minutes if you’re quick, 15 minutes if you’re slow.”
Janine, I once read an Ensign article about a family whose mother gave them a tour of the house for family night, showing them where everything belongs. It took me years to learn how to organize things so there was a place for everything. This way, cleaning is easier and people can find things!