When we moved to Texas and I became a stay at home mom, I had these elaborate daydreams of having extra time during the day, every day. Gone was my life of working outside of the home and catching up with friends on the weekend, and most importantly, my cleaning lady. I wrongfully thought that I would have time to clean each and every day. But I soon found myself busy, really busy. Besides being a taxi for my six and almost-three year old, I signed up for many volunteer opportunities and activities to keep me busy in the hopes of making new friends. I quickly realized that binge cleaning on a Saturday was not my idea of fun, so I needed to come up with an easy to manage cleaning schedule. I am a big fan of lists, especially to-do lists, so I consult this cleaning schedule every week so that I can cross off when I’ve finished each item.
Feel free to use this as a template and make a schedule that works for you!
A few things to note:
-There are, of course, daily things that are done: wipe down counters, load/unload dishwasher, general pick up and make the beds.
-Flex Projects are constantly changing. These are items that need to be done, but not every week.
-This schedule was made around my children’s schedules. I clean the floors on Tuesday because they are at school, therefore they stay cleaner for more than two minutes! Also, if I need to “clean out” the toy room, I also do that when the girls aren’t here, therefore avoiding any “I love that toy!” moments (even when they haven’t played with said toy in four months).
-I added a “make-up day” for those weeks that I just couldn’t get to that day’s schedule. I’ve only had to use it once, and this past weekend I had two rest days!
I’ve followed this schedule for the past two weeks and am happy to report that I didn’t spend more than an hour cleaning any day, except for laundry – but it’s easier to get other things done while waiting for that to be done!
What do you think? I love reading and seeing how others do this. Do you use a cleaning schedule or just go for it all at once?