Cleaning Schedule

I heard flylady.com is good but I have never used it. Some people do room by room. For me, I put together a daily schedule where I only pull out a housecleaning tool or two each day. That way I don't have to pull out and lug around a load of supplies/tools:
M: laundry
T: dust upstairs
W: dust downstairs
Th: bathrooms (toilet,tub,sink cleaning bucket)
F: floors - vacuum and sweep
1st weekend of the month: vacuum/sweep under furniture
2nd: change filters
3rd: wipe down/vacuum out kitchen, fridge, pantry cabinets & shelves

4 moms found this helpful

Hi C.!

I struggled with keeping the house clean, too! Here is what works for me. I have a dry erase board with sun-sat and I write in what needs to be done on each day (as well as errands I need to get done). I try to do a load of laundry every day because it seems I always have towels to wash! I have noticed that the living/kitchen/bedroom area needs to be vacuumed every other day. Also, I spot clean in between. After dinner all the counters/table/high chair gets wiped down with a soap wash cloth, etc. And, if I pick up all the toys before bedtime, the house looks so much better in the morning. Here is my schedule:

Mon - Bathrooms/Laundry Room -scrub tub, shower, toilet, dust/vacuum, mop floors, empty trash

Tue - Guest Room/Office - dust, vacuum, organize, trash

Wednesday - Master Bedroom/Nursery -dust, vacuum, organize, change sheets, trash cans

Thursday - Kitchen - dust, disinfect counters, organize, vacuum, mop (trash can emptied daily)

Friday - Living Room/Entry - dust, organize, vacuum

Sat-Sum - NO CLEANING - enjoy time with family! ;-) And, Hubby is happy to have a clean house all weekend!

I think this schedule is saving my marriage (and my sanity)!
Hope this helps you!

God Bless!

PS: If I do a really thorough job one week - then the following week I just spot clean and vacuum and then back to the regular schedule the following week!

4 moms found this helpful

I know what seems to work best for me is just every Saturday morning. Of course that is before I got pregnant with our second son and have been so sick and exhausted that my awesome sister comes in once a week to help me clean until the baby is born. Before that though, as a working mom myself I found I was just too tired and wanted to spend time with my family during the week nights. My husband works Saturdays so Saturday mornings is a sleep in and snuggle in the mornings then do some laundry and change bedding, etc. etc. Throughout the week my husband and I have a rule, if the house is a mess and someone is invited over, whoever was dumb enough to invite the person over has to clean. :O)

3 moms found this helpful

I created a household notebook. This one book holds all my information, from cleaning schedules to appointments. It is an organizational life saver. I used a website called organizedhome.com to get started. You will find all kinds of printables to create the notebook. I have printables that give me a pantry and freezer inventory and even the cleaning schedule you seek. You could print out everything and utilize the whole notebook system, or you could print out what you want and use it to just maintain your cleaning schedule. I hope this helps!

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There's always flylady:

http://www.flylady.net/

And I love Simple Mom:

http://simplemom.net/tools/downloads/

This is the link to her Daily Docket and Master Weekly Checklist! They really are a great tool to keep ontop of things. I get the feed from this site and absolutely love it. Lots of great tips!

Hope this helps!

2 moms found this helpful

C.,

I tried the flylady thing for a while, but it ended up being too overwhelming. I would imagine that a dry erase or a weekly schedule would bother me, too. I'd be working on the kitchen, one day, and would end up overflowing into the laundry room (since that's tomorrow, anyway), getting exhausted/frustrated/overwhelmed.

What has worked for me, is making flip cards, one for every job that you feel is a priority. For instance, mine include:
Kitchen, Bathrooms, Floors, Office, Front Room, Family Room, Toy Room, Guest Room, Daughter's room, Master Bedroom, Master Bath, Laundry Room.

Because I'm only physically looking at one flip card or one room/job per day, it's not so overwhelming, and it helps me to focus on just that one room. I have only twelve cards, so I know that everything will get touched, at least every two weeks.

Best wishes and luck!
M.

2 moms found this helpful

Hi C., here is what i do, First make a list of all the regular household chores you can think of, then beside each write how often you feel you need to do them,(daily, weekly, 2 X per week, once a month, every other week etc.)
Then draw yourself up a weekly or monthly calender. If I do a weekly calender, then I might put (clean ___ on weeks 1 and 3) If it is a chore you don't do every week, like clean ceiling fans!Or I might write E/O/M ( Every other month) or E/O/W ( Every other week) then keep filling in which chores you will do each day of the week, keep it light / after all you work and have a child. Many chores do not need to be done every week. ( sure if the world was perfect I might wash my floors every week, but as long as I vacuum, or swiffer, hey I'm never claimed to be June Cleaver! So just spread your chores through out the week and or month, and allow some time with your family! A couple of things I did to help cut down on Laundry was to only change our sheets every other week, and to have enough sets of sheets to only wash sheets when I have enough for a full washer(3-4 sets depending on size). Another thing I do, is we each have our own towel racks, so we can hang our bath towels to dry, and re-use them. Who says you need a clean towel every time you get out of the shower? You are drying a clean body, wrapping up clean hair! I wipe down the kitchen everyday, but only dust furniture every other week. Bathrooms get cleaned as needed, sometimes that is a spot clean ( Only toilets, or sinks) sometimes that is a complete scrub down. We have a great big garden tub I seldom use, so quite often I just rinse the dust out of it! You have to figure out how dirty each thing in your house gets, and just how clean do you need it to be happy and satisfied ! Not everything needs to be cleaned daily or even weekly, it depends a lot on your family. Also cleaning up after yourselves right away, helps. Never go to bed with the house all in disarray! Pick it up and put stuff away before going to bed. A neat house that's a little dirty looks cleaner than a clean house that is messy! Good luck!

2 moms found this helpful

I clean once a week when the kids are napping or when we have family time and my husband watches the kid. As far as food preparation, I cook in batches and freeze the leftovers so I don't have to cook as often especially in the summer months. If you'd like "bulk" recipes I'd contact LeAnn Poole from HomeMade Gourmet she showed me how to make 4 meals in 4 minutes for our family.

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for me each day has a weekly task and daily taskes. if I miss a weekly task that day i try not to sweat it but if you put it off it is harder to maintain. i always start upstairs and work my way down. I usually do top floor one day then first floor another day. although-with kids and pets it never looks clean.... you will figure out what works for you. besides a messy house is a sign of a good mom who plays with her kid!

1 mom found this helpful

Try one of those dry erase boards and write on there the things that need to be done each week. Then as the week goes by and you do things little by little, just check it off. Then at the end of the week, you know what you've done and what you haven't. Then the next week, erase all the check marks and start over. You can find small dry erase boards at Office Max, Office Depot or even HEB.

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intreasted in what other mommas have to say...this is a pretty smart idea. modays bathrooms, tuesdays dinning room and living area, wendsdays bedrooms, thrusdays guest bedrooms, and fridays moping!! i never thought of this before....i skipped the kitchen because it should be cleaned every day. thanks for crakning my brain!!

1 mom found this helpful

C.,
Unfortunetly, I don't have a schedule either, but would love to hear the responses to this.
Awesome question..
Thanks

If you are serious check out the flylady. She's totally free and it does all the hard work of organizing for you. Her system is really amazing.

Call me lucky but our kids are grown and visit with the grandbabies since they all live close by except oldest son that is back home for a while. Oldest son keeps the yard mowed and keeps the freezer full of meat!

Now, DH and I have a system, so that whoever is in the kitchen at meal time- cooks/cleans. Sometimes it is me that does it, but he will empty the dishwasher and rinse the sink out, too. I wipe the granite countertops off daily. I do the laundry, when needed or he will fold clothes, too. He vacuums sometimes and keeps the trash emptied. I try to keep the floors swept and clean and everything dusted.

Each day before I go to work all the bedrooms are picked up (sometimes grandbabies come over in the evening to play and visit). On my lunchbreak, sometimes I do laundry or errands. Bathrooms get cleaned when needed, but I make sure hall bath is spotless before I leave for work since that is the one every sees and uses most. I like the house clean when I leave for work and turn off all lights but one and turn AC up to 74. AC filters are changed when needed- by either of us. I try to make sure that the house is pretty much clean totally by Friday evening, since we both work full time and the weekend is our time to relax and hug whoever walks in the door.

C., learn to go with the flow and pick up when you can. Don't stress because you have a two full time jobs- one outside the home and one waiting when you get home. Take it easy on yourself and do what you can, when you can. Ask hubby to help where he can. When you find the "Maid Fairy", please share! LOL. Good luck!

I'm also a working mom of a newborn. I found cleaning, working and taking care of a baby to be too much to do well, so something had to give. We ended up hiring someone to help with the cleaning...Good luck!!

I was just thinking of doing the same thing...putting it all on a schedule. I work best that way, so I was thinking I should try it, but I haven't put anything together yet. I have heard that flylady.net is pretty good for stuff like that, so maybe check out her site? I am pretty sure it's free, but haven't looked into it myself. Good luck! I'll be checking your other responses to steal some ideas too. Great post!

I wish I had one. I hope you got some good ones:)

C.