Live, Love & Laugh asked:
I am trying to find a good schedule for house cleaning. So I can stay on track and not spend my wheels cleaning the same parts of my house everyday. I have heard people mention a rotating schdule to keep a house totally clean. If you have one I would love to view it and see if it would work for me.
Chicago Maids Cleaning Services
I am trying to find a good schedule for house cleaning. So I can stay on track and not spend my wheels cleaning the same parts of my house everyday. I have heard people mention a rotating schdule to keep a house totally clean. If you have one I would love to view it and see if it would work for me.
Chicago Maids Cleaning Services
I clean windows and any glass one day, do all dusting of wood and knick-knacks – including ceiling fans another day, Clean the bathrooms another day, sweep floors every day with my Irobot, Mop once a month, change the sheets every two weeks. Clean all blankets 1-2 months. I don’t consider myself a wonderful housekeeper and I don’t always stick with this schedule.
I’ve heard good things about FlyLady from a friend. She uses it and she has to clean a house after 7 kids! FlyLady is a Yahoo Group, or at least that’s where you could sign up for it.
I use the system that has set up. it is an easy way to stay on top of the house work before it gets out of hand, or if it already is, she gives you simple steps to get it cleaned quickly and efficently. I personally live in a small house (2 bedroom) and i end up only doing a major cleaning about once a month because i can keep it tidy with a small amount of work everyday! Flylady seperates your house into zones and you really only concentrate on cleaning zone per week while doing general tidying on the other zones. She has helpful tips to keep clutter at bay as well such as the 27 fling boogie and the 15 minute hot spot. good luck!
Recently I learned that professional residential cleaning companies use a check list to make sure they’ve cleaned your home well, and i started using it for my own guideline at home. Other than daily cleaning up after yourself, you can either clean your home once a week or split up the chores over a few days. The tasks on the list i’m linking below are covered in their weekly housecleaning. Daily you should put things away, make your bed, clean kitchen counters, sweep or spot vacuum dirt, etc. And then ideally twice a year you’ll probably want to do “spring cleaning” type of stuff.
I also love the company Speed Cleaning. They are a professional cleaning company that got into the business of teaching people how to clean better in less time. They have several books you can probably find at your library. It is well worth it to learn the techniques they use. When i first started doing Speed Cleaning, i learned how to clean my whole tiny apartment in 1/2 an hour, and it was actually CLEANER than it was when i cleaned the old way in more time! I’ll put a link for that below, too.
My schedule is a little complicated, but it works for me. My situation is that I’m a full-time mom with 3 kids (9, 5 and 2) and I have a 4-bedroom, 2 bath home.
Although this looks like a lot of work, the morning schedule takes less than an hour once you’ve been doing it for about a week (since you are maintaining and not starting anything new) and the evening one about 35 minutes. I do tend to fall behind on weekly or monthly chores but I find it doesn’t bother me so much if I’m keeping up every day.
I found the framework for this on a website I haven’t been able to find again, so I can’t take credit for it.
Morning:
(my goal is to do this every day; if it doesn’t work out I do half one morning, half the next)
Make beds
Straighten bedrooms
Wipe down kitchen counters
Load/unload dishwasher
Straighten and vacuum living room
Straighten and vacuum family room
Check bathroom supplies and change/replenish as needed
Clean off dining room table
Groceries? Check on what’s for dinner
Afternoon:
Make phone calls
Work on weekly/monthly chore (see below)
Start dinner
Evening:
Empty backpacks; sign and replace anything that needs it
Put out kids’ clothes for morning
Pack lunches
(mostly these are during the school year but it helps to do it during summer to stay in the habit)
Load/unload dishes
Wipe kitchen counters
Wash pans
Sweep kitchen floor
Put out clean kitchen towels
Clear off dining room table
Empty wastebaskets
Take out trash
Update calendar, handle day’s mail and papers
Weekly:
Monday: Laundry, clean bedrooms, groceries
Tuesday: Thoroughly clean kitchen and bathrooms
Wednesday: Living room and family room, Clean Sheet Day, clean out fridge (this is because trash pick-up is Thursday)
Thursday: Meal planning, annual or monthly chore
Friday: Grocery shopping, pay bills and straighten desk, water plants, clean sunroom. 4th week, clean oven
Saturday: Out-of-town errands, catch up!
Sunday: To-do lists, menu planning, filing
Monthly:
Week 1, wash woodwork; organize drawers, cabinets and closets; dust blinds, windowsills, and tops of doors
Week 2, Clean lampshades, light shades, globes, lightbulbs; wash mirrors; wash windows
Week 3, Wash underbedding, turn mattresses, wash pillows, clean ceiling fans
Week 4, annual chore (when it’s a room, just clean everything; closet, walls, ceiling, drawers, rotate cushions, etc.):
Annually:
January, Living room
February, go through files and discard as needed
March, Kitchen
April, Master bedroom, apply weed & feed
May, DS’s room
June, DD’s room
July, bathrooms
August, shed
September, Laundry room, apply weed & feed, shampoo carpets
October, Seasonal clothing change, clean bedroom closets, clean out workshop/storage area
November, Vacuum under furniture, clean cupboards in kitchen
December, Christmas prep
I have a 3 bdrm- 1 1/2 bath home with wall to wall carpet…. I generally spend 2 hours max a day cleaning/organizing.
I vacuum EVERYDAY- I think it keeps the dust/dirt down and it keeps the house looking and smelling nice… I have a large breed dog and TWO toddlers so vacuuming helps!
I dust/polish the furniture once a week…. I use a microfiber cloth to dust and then I use LIQUID GOLD on the wooden furniture.. I also clean glass… *** I have tons of knick naks… So, I don’t have much to dust!
I vacuum the soft surfaces like the couches,sofas and chairs… You’d be amazed at how much dirt/dust accumulates in soft surfaces!
In the kitchen/bathroom I simply LOVE using LYSOL or CLOROX or any type of antibacterial wipes to tidy up on a daily basis…. Then 1x a week I will deep clean using SOFT SCRUB and I sweep/mop and launder the rugs/towels…
I also load the dishwasher throughout the day to keep dishes from stacking up! I run the dishwasher only when it’s FULL on time delay at 3 or 4am when no one is using the HOT water….
When I start my day…. I will take the laundry downstairs and run a load…. Doing at least 1 load of laundry a day helps keep the clothes under control..
I change/wash bed linens once a week….
Good luck
Yes, it is just me & my husband & I have grown son that usually viists on weekends. He has a room in my basement but it is loaded with stuff for his business so I never clean that it is up to him.
OK, here is a look at my schedule
WEEKLY:
M- Bills, papers, mail, phone calls are done
Tues- living room, dining room, all dusting
Wed-Kitchen but I mop later & I do all windex surfaces
Thurs-Bedrooms
Fri- clean out fridge & get food ready for weekend
Sat, morn. wash down bathroom & I mop the kitchen, foyer, bathrooms floors….My husband vacuums
Monthy: The numbers mean the day it is on the calender
1 porch
7 bedroom
8 go through coupons
9 living room, dining rooms
10 exercise- this is just a day where I focus on seeing how I am doing & if I need to change anything
12attic
13 bathroom
14library
15 diet
16 utility
21 family room in basement
23 yard
24 living room coat closet
28 kitchen
I shampoo my carpets in house & my car while it is still warm out which is April 1 & Oct 1
My husband gets up early so he throws the dirty clothes in washer & actully takes care of them as needed.
I believe in getting rid of anything unless it is beautiful or usefull. Less is better.
You can just make a calender or put numbers down a peice of paper & walk around to see what would need attention. This is how I came up with this list. Then I just filled the area next to a number. I focus on those areas if it is that day & it really doesn’t take that much time.
We are so laid back so we keep this organized to make it easy.,,,to keep things tidy I started doing this when I was pregnant many years ago.
I call it 3,6,9,12. I used to get alot of unexpected company when before I moved to the country. If I knew someone was coming I was motivated to straighted up. I wanted my house to be straight if I went into labor but didn’t want to focus on it every minute. So I would think what if I went at whatever the next time would be say it is 1:00 I would act like I was getting company at 3 so it was a goal to have the house tidy by that time but I would do this around the clock during waking hours.