
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.