Very few people enjoy cleaning the house, particularly when it piles up and takes forever to finish. On the other hand, most of us love coming home to a clean house each day. A clean house puts your mind at ease, lets you relax after a busy day, and makes your house feel more like home.

If you want a clean home but don’t want to spend your entire weekend trying to get everything caught up, then you need a cleaning schedule. Below we’ll give you some tips to help you figure out a cleaning schedule that can keep your house to the standard you want while giving you time to enjoy your life.

Tips for Planning Out Your Cleaning Schedule

The schedule we outline below is a suggestion. It may not work perfectly for your home or your life, but you can adjust it to fit your lifestyle and the standards you want to maintain. You may need to add or take away things to make it work for you.

Don’t forget to use the right cleaning products for your tasks – you’ll get the job done quicker.

Daily Cleaning Tasks

You may hope to avoid cleaning every day, and that makes sense. No one wants to have a list of chores to do each day. However, by doing a few simple cleaning tasks each day, you can save yourself a lot of time in the long run.

For example, if you let the dishes pile up and only tackle them once or twice a week, you’ll spend a lot more time getting things in order, not to mention you’ll have to live with a dirty kitchen most days of the week.

The following tasks are ones you should aim to do almost every day:

• Load and unload the dishwasher
• Wipe down counters
• Sweep the kitchen
• Make beds
• Tidy living spaces 
• Take out trash
• Empty litter boxes (for those with cats)

Weekly Cleaning Tasks

If you save your weekly cleaning tasks to do one day a week, you’ll spend hours getting everything done, and you’ll be exhausted by the end of it. Instead, if you can spend a half hour each day taking care of one-two of your weekly tasks, you’ll have much more time for relaxing or doing other things you enjoy.

You should try to do these chores at least once a week to keep your house clean a running smoothly:

• Clean the bathrooms (scrub sinks, shower/tubs, toilets)
• Dust
• Sweep, vacuum, and mop floors
• Wash and fold laundry
• Change bedsheets
• Take garbage/recycling to the curb
• Clean pet bowls and other supplies

Monthly Cleaning Tasks

When you spread your weekly cleaning tasks out, it isn’t such a challenge to do the monthly cleaning tasks that may take a little longer. You can devote an hour or so of your weekend to getting each of these done. Split the chores up between different weekends, so you’re not devoting an entire day to cleaning.

These tasks should be done once a month:

• Clean out refrigerator and pantry
• Clean all windows and windowsills
• Clean dishwasher, microwave, and oven
• Wipe doors, baseboards, and light switches 
• Wash bedding and pillows
• Vacuum furniture and curtains

Every 6 to 12 Months

Finally, there are a few tasks that you need to tackle every six-12 months. While these chores aren’t necessarily fun, if you’ve stuck to your weekly and monthly cleaning schedule, they shouldn’t be as difficult as they could be.

Try to do the following at least once a year:

• Clean out closets and toys for items to donate
• Deep clean rugs with a carpet cleaner
• Wash inside and outside of windows and vacuum vents
• Deep clean your mattress
• Clean out washing mashine and dryer
• Organize filing cabinets
  
  

Wrapping Up

While getting your cleaning schedule going may be a challenge at first, it pays off in the long run. When you clean regularly, your house not only stays clean, but it’s also easier to clean. 

The trick is staying on your schedule. When you make your cleaning schedule, be realistic, especially when starting out. Consider how much time you have and what you’ll actually be able to accomplish. Start with the things that matter most and focus on getting them done.

As you build up a routine, you can add tasks as needed. You’ll be able to keep your house as you want it without having to sacrifice all of your free time.

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