Here’s a solution for those who love a clean house, but dread cleaning day…
SKIP CLEANING DAY
and
START A HOUSE CLEANING SCHEDULE!
Instead of planning a marathon day of cleaning every week or two, start setting aside 15 minutes a day for cleaning. Even better…delegate some of your cleaning chores to your children! I’ll be happy to teach you how to make a chore chart!
Doesn’t 15 minutes a day sound better than spending half your Saturday cleaning or going crazy the day of your party to make the house look perfect? The key is to make a house cleaning schedule, so that every room in your house will be cleaned every 2 weeks.
If you tackle one room each day or one task each day, you’ll never feel like a maid again! Here’s a suggested house cleaning schedule to get you started, just customize it for your house and let the cleaning begin!
- Monday: run the dust mop under all furniture, beds, etc.
- Tuesday: vacuum downstairs
- Wednesday: vacuum upstairs
- Thursday: mop kitchen, bathroom and foyer
- Friday: clean 1 bathroom (the tub, the shower, the toilet, the sink, the counters)
- Saturday: clean 1 bathroom (the tub, the shower, the toilet, the sink, the counters)
- Monday: vacuum high traffic areas (high traffic areas usually need to be vacuumed once a week)
- Tuesday: dust living room, den and dining room (don’t forget to dust the baseboards and blinds or shutters)
- Wednesday: dust bedrooms (don’t forget the baseboards, blinds or shutters)
- Thursday: extra job (this is a cleaning job that only needs to be done every once and a while like dusting ceiling fans or cleaning out the refrigerator)
- Friday: clean kitchen (the stove, the sink, dust, clean counters)
- Saturday: sweep porch and wipe off porch furniture
That’s it…once you’ve completed the first 2 week cycle, your house will always feel clean! Certainly we can all find 15 minutes in our busy day!
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Image courtesy of: scottchan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
[…] – It’s nearly impossible to dedicate an entire day to house cleaning, so don’t! Learn how to put together a house cleaning schedule and clean your house in 15 minutes a […]
Hi, I know this is way after the fact, but I was reminded of this article when Kat at Corporette reposted it. So, just wanted to say this was very helpful! So simple and so effective. Apparently I was losing a good chunk of “Ok, yikes, where do I start?” time. Thanks again!
Make a 15 minute playlist, and get to work! You’ll have no distractions and the time will pass quickly!
[…] seen a ton of interesting Pins on Pinterest on how to keep your house clean (e.g., this one from The Budget Diet), and I know both Apartment Therapy and Real Simple have written about it in the past. I know […]
15 minutes a day sounds much better – not to mention doable. I love it when we can break down things to make it seem less daunting. Great tip!
I was just looking at my house and feeling overwhelmed… and then I read your post. Is it truly this simple? If it is I feel like a complete idiot! LOL!! Thank you, you made me feel better and less of a maid. 😉
Just get in a routine…set the timer, play some music & clean! No distractions allowed”
I will give your schedule a try since I really hate cleaning!!! I think I could handle this though. I will let you know how it goes! Thanks! I always love to visit your great site!
I’d love to hear how it goes for you! It really is a reasonable solution.
This is exactly what I believe.
There’s an app called Motivation Moms in the app store for iphone and it really tells you what to clean each day and assign things to people …EVERYDAY! check it out…
http://motivatedmoms.com/appsupport.htm
Thanks for sharing that app!
I LOVE doing a little a day. I have finally convinced my kids that a few minutes of cleaning at the end of the day REALLY helps the overall look and feel of the home. I love this quote, “we’re in the business of raising responsible, hard working children.” That is exactly what I am trying to do!
and your children will also know how to cook!
I recently, like just in the last two weeks, started doing this. But. if I want to go out and do anything during the day, I lose those 15 minutes and find myself spending a whole day catching up! I’m still working on mastering it 😉
Try to pick the same time each day, set your timer, put on some music and the 15 minutes will be over before you know it!
I am a full time online college student, wife, and grandmother so I have very limited time to get the cleaning done. I use the 15 minute rule too. I decide what my cleaning tasks are for the day and, on my study breaks, I set a timer for 15 minutes and race the timer to see how much I can get done – or I turn on a fun CD and see how much I can do in three songs. I HATE to dust so this is a fun way to get it done in 15 minutes breaks and it makes things seem easy. I also bought white washcloths for my cleaning and dusting so they dont get mixed up with bath cloths. Makes it easy too when I hand clean the floors so I never have to put a dirty rag back in the mop water…use one, next…… Read more »
Cleaning to music…love that idea! Thanks for being a believer in the 15 minute a day cleaning method!
Brilliant! Thank you for making “my” personal chore chart! I’m going to print this out and add it to my Google Calendar! Reminders and all!
cheers,
Kim
from the SITS Girls/ 31DBBB and KludgyMom SU thread
OK Kristi, I will admit it here: I am one of those “binge cleaners” I destroy myself for a day (or two) cleaning everything top to bottom and then feel sucked dry by the end of it. I then, nurse myself back to life, proud for a day only to then get angry at every dust bunny, splashed sink and spill on my stove. U REFUSE to clean again, because I feel as though it has to be an EPIC cleaning every time. It is a vicious cycle and it really only allows for one day of feeling happiness about the end product! I like your plan! I am going to try it. I am also going to tie it into another tip I heard – listen to an audiobook while cleaning. The rule is that you can ONLY listen to it during the cleaning! If it is a good… Read more »
Love the audio book idea, and I love your binge analogy…works with my whole budget diet concept!
15 minutes of cleaning a day sounds good to me! I’ll have to give your schedule a try. 🙂
Great post! I am always looking for fabulous tips on cleaning!
Thanks
Shawn