While no one gets super excited about cleaning, we all know it’s a necessary evil. My main objective with cleaning is to make it as efficient and manageable as possible. I’ve tried a variety of methods over time and the one I’ve been using the past six months or so seems to be sticking!
First, be aware this is NOT a one-size fits all approach. This plan may work perfectly for you as is, or you might use it as a starting point to find what works for you and your household. Or none of it may fit your needs. It’s okay. Personally I find it helpful to read about other people’s cleaning habits so I can try and hack their systems. So today I’m giving you my thoughts for you to adapt and change to fit your unique needs.
I’m going to go over the three methods you can use to approach cleaning and why I think the method I’m using is the best for most people.
Method 1: Once a week cleaning
This method is so popular because it relegates most of the cleaning to the ever-popular weekend. You know, the two days of the week that we always envision as 48 hours of free, unencumbered time to accomplish all the things we can’t fit into our 5 day work week? When using this method, only basic clean ups of each day’s messes is required on weekdays. Then one day a week (often Saturday or Sunday but could be another day depending on your schedule) you spend a large chunk of time doing all the weekly tasks: dusting, cleaning floors, cleaning bathrooms, etc.
Benefits: Obviously this requires less work on the days that tend to be full of work and kids’ activities. It’s also really nice to get all the cleaning done in one day and not have to give it much thought for another week.
Drawbacks: The biggest negative I’ve experienced is that if for some reason you can’t get your cleaning done on the weekend (or your assigned day), you end up dealing with TWO weeks worth of messes by the time the next cleaning day rolls around. I don’t need to tell you how messy a house can get in two weeks. When I think about all the interruptions that could happen to cause this, it’s more than you might think: traveling, multiple social events, sports, sickness (yours or a kid’s), and just general not having the energy to dive into 2 or 3 hours of cleaning!
While I don’t prefer this method, I do fall back on it occasionally when life just gets crazy. It’s not ideal for me though and I really don’t prefer the intense time and energy it takes. It most often leaves me just getting things “clean enough” (which is sometimes the best you can do!) so I still end up with extra work on the next cleaning day.
Method 2: Batching tasks
The idea here is that you focus on a specific task each day rather than a specific room or area. This could be something like:
Monday: Dust the house
Tuesday: Vacuum all the carpets
Wednesday: Mop all the floors
Thursday: Clean all the bathrooms
Some people LOVE this method. I’ve tried it before but it never seems to stick for me. I think it’s because I don’t get the satisfaction of taking care of one specific area and knowing it’s fully cleaned. I think it’s worth trying if it appeals to you. But for me, it just didn’t work.
Benefits: Smaller amount of cleaning spread out through the week. You also don’t have to get out as many cleaning products and tools if you’re only focusing on one type of cleaning.
Drawbacks: You don’t get the satisfaction of looking at one area and seeing it fully cleaned. Every room is always only partly done.
Method 3: Clean one area each day
THIS is the method I have been following for awhile and I really feel it is something I can stick to long term. It’s not perfect because, let’s be real, it’s still cleaning! But it takes the overwhelming task of cleaning the.whole.house and breaks it up into manageable pieces. AND I don’t have to find/spend large chunks of my weekend to get the cleaning done. I actually have more time to relax on Saturday and Sunday which is great! Here’s the schedule I am currently using but obviously you should adapt for your floor plan and the areas that bother you and tend to get dirtiest in your home.
Monday: Master bedroom and bathroom
Tuesday: Garage hall entry/mudroom and half bath (this is our major entry and drop zone)
Wednesday: Living room
Thursday: Dining room/entry and vacuum main floor hardwood and tile
Friday: Basement (not used near as much as upstairs so I can assign it a day on it’s own)
Saturday: Kitchen (does not include daily dishes/counter wipe downs)
Sunday: Garage (not necessarily done each week)
Obviously you would want to adapt the areas for each day according to what needs attention in your home. You may want to schedule less intensive or smaller jobs for days of the week that you know are more hectic. Maybe you even need to address a certain area more than once a week if it’s super heavily used.
Now, you have the freedom to decide what cleaning each of your areas involves. You might have a space that you absolutely have to clean the floors each week. But maybe that space doesn’t need to be dusted every week. Decide what jobs in each area are a must for each week and which can be done less often. For example, in our master bathroom, I don’t see the need to scrub the toilet every week. I can usually get away with doing it every other week. But I definitely need to wipe out the sinks every week because they get yucky looking.
If you ever have a day when you’re super pressed for time or extra low on energy, you can still get the area cleaned, you just might do the quick version instead of a full clean. Hey, it happens. You might even end up skipping an area sometimes. But since you have a day of the week assigned to that room, at least you only would have two weeks worth of mess to clean in that one place. Not two weeks worth of mess throughout the whole house.
Benefits: Spreads out the work of cleaning over the entire week. Allows you to customize how clean you want each area to be depending on your time/energy. Gives you the satisfaction of cleaning a whole room at once.
Drawbacks: Requires you to devote some cleaning time (roughly 20-30 minutes for a full clean, less for an express clean) on busy weekdays
I also have a “Daily Tasks” list on the top of this sheet. These are the tasks I try to accomplish every day that are outside of my weekly tasks. I’m pretty good about following them, at least most of the time. Honestly once I made this checklist and used it for a few weeks I didn’t need to reference it anymore. I naturally know what needs to be done each week. But I really liked having the plan written out at the beginning while I was creating the habit.
If you think a similar plan could work for you, click here to get your own copy of this Google doc to customize for your space. Happy cleaning!