How many hours each weekend do you spend cleaning your home from top to bottom? Wouldn’t you rather spend your time with friends and family, or catching up on your Netflix queue? No, this isn’t an infomercial for a product that is going to “revolutionize your life.” But by the end of this post, you’ll have the tools you need to make a cleaning schedule that will free up your precious weekend time for more fun activities.
Map out cleaning tasks
You’ll need to make four separate lists before creating a cleaning schedule.
- Basic cleaning tasks you do every day (make bed, wash dishes, return items to their homes, etc.)
- Cleaning tasks that you do every week (laundry, sweep/mop, clean bathroom, etc.)
- Tasks that you do seasonally (organize closets, store decorations, clean gutters, etc.)
- Yearly cleaning tasks (clean behind appliances, clean fireplace, wash curtains, etc.)
Some people don’t need to write down their daily tasks because they are part of their routine. Others may need to do this in the beginning to form a routine. Either way, once you have your lists complete, you’re ready to start grouping tasks.
Group by cleaning tool
First, you need to evaluate your lists and assign approximate completion times for each task. Instead of waiting until the weekend to clean everything at once, try to clean one or two areas every day. Choose tasks that use similar cleaning tools and that won’t take longer than 30-60 minutes total.
For example, if you are getting out the window cleaner, you’ll want to do all the windows and mirrors at once. It doesn’t matter if you’re hopping from room to room to do this. If you’ve decided to take your seasonal items to your storage room, go ahead and fill some boxes for donation while you’re at it.
Choose a format for your cleaning schedule
Are you more comfortable with a laminated system you can keep on your fridge? Does an electronic system work better for you—like a spreadsheet you can access from a cloud server? Or maybe you just want to keep it all in your phone’s calendar. Take a second to think about what type of system you’ll actually adhere to before creating your schedule.
Organize cleaning tasks
Once you’ve determined which medium you’re going to use and you have your lists handy, it’s time to organize the tasks.
Here’s a sketch of a basic cleaning schedule. It includes a breakdown of daily tasks along with one or two additional chores per day.
Cleaning a little bit every day will help you from feeling overwhelmed on the weekend. And, you’ll be able to enjoy your precious time off without feeling guilty that your home is a disaster.
Do you used a cleaning schedule? What tips or suggestions do you have? Share them in the comments.
