With all the hustle of modern life, house cleaning has become last on the list. The daunting task of cleaning the house does not need to be a giant looming chore. Setting and sticking to a simple weekly schedule can win back your Saturday morning for more important things.
In just thirty to forty-five minutes each day,
you can get and keep your house presentable by sticking to a daily schedule and making your homes needs part of your daily routine. The following is a sample schedule that can be rearranged to suit your needs. Carve out thirty minutes of each day to dedicate to each of the following.
Monday: Focus on the kitchen. During your thirty minute time allotment, work as fast as you can to clean or organize the kitchen. Leave no territory unexplored. Attack the refrigerator by tossing the leftovers, wiping the shelves, organizing the food, and shining the doors. Remove the stove grates and clean the stove top. Use a preferred cleaner to wipe the cabinets, polish the wood, and sweep and mop the floors.
Tuesday: Dedicate this day to living areas. Spend a half hour organizing DVDs, sweeping behind the furniture, polishing wood, cleaning windows, vacuuming furniture and carpet, and dusting. Tasks such as cleaning the ceiling fan, cleaning the curtains or pillow covers, etc. do not have to be done every week but should be tending to only on the day that the respective room is scheduled.
Wednesday: It is bathroom day. Spend thirty minutes polishing the bathrooms. If you do not get to it this week, save it for next week.
Thursday: Laundry day and bedroom day work well together since you will be spending time in the bedrooms gathering, folding, and putting away laundry. Obviously, the laundry will take more than thirty minutes, so for this day each time you enter a room to tend to the laundry, take a few minutes to complete a chore before you exit the room. At the end of the day, the laundry will be put away and the bedrooms will be clean.
Friday: Friday is a good day to leave open for special and varying tasks such as cleaning the car, the garage, or the porch. These are things that only need done a few times a year, but often finding the time to do them is a chore itself. Even thirty minutes each Friday affords ample time for such chores.
At the end of the week, most of the heavy duty house cleaning is done. Cleaning up after yourself such as after cooking, showering, or anything else that leaves a mess is necessary daily and should not be left to fit in to your half hour cleaning slot. And, if you do not get to a certain part of a certain room this week, you already have the time on the calendar to do it next week, so file it away until its turn comes up again.
Following this quick and simple schedule will have your entire house shining in just a few weeks, and continuing to stick to the plan will maintain your home indefinitely without a huge undertaking.
