Cleaning

Okay, so as most of you know, I am a stay at home mom. So you would think that I have this whole "keeping up with the house" thing down pretty good. Wrong. I suck at keeping this place clean and in order. I usually just wait until it gets overwhelming, then stare at it trying to figure out where I should start. It has become a battle. Until now, that is :)

I came across a weekly housekeeping schedule on pinterest a few weeks ago, printed it out, and stuck it on the fridge with the intention of following it daily to keep my house clean. It didn't really work for me, it was too focused on one room every day, which meant I had to get the vacuum cleaner in and out every day for each room. Too much work. I searched and searched the internet, pinterest, blogs, everywhere for a good schedule I could stick to. I found a few and tried them out but nothing really stuck with me. I finally had an epiphany and decided to make my own cleaning schedule. One that I could stick to, that worked for me.  It's made with my household in mind and is kept to a small amount of cleaning daily so I don't get overwhelmed.

Here it is:

Daily/Morning Chores:

*Wipe down bathroom counter and sink

*Empty dishwasher

*One load of laundry

*Chore of the day

Daily/Nightly Chores:

*Wipe down kitchen counter and sink

*Load dishwasher and run it before bed

*Sweep kitchen floor

*Pickup toys/clothes/shoes from the floor

Weekly Chores:

Monday - Vacuum living & bed rooms, mop kitchen floor, clean rugs

Tuesday - Scrub toilets, tubs, and wipe down mirrors

Wednesday - De-clutter desk, dressers, and island & dust

Thursday - Clip coupons, plan meals for the week, go grocery shopping

Friday - Swing day

Saturday - Catch up day

Sunday - A day of rest with the family

Swing Days:

1st - Wipe down furniture and cabinets, vacuum out couches

2nd - Wipe down appliances, clean out fridge, scrub oven

3rd - Wipe down walls, baseboards, and doors

4th - Spot clean upholstery, carpet and rugs

I love the idea of loading and running the dishwasher at night that way I can empty while the kids are having breakfast in the morning. It takes no time at all. The swing days are an awesome idea, that way I can get things clean that I wouldn't usually think about since they don't need to be cleaned daily or even weekly. Thursday works perfect for coupons and grocery shopping because that's when Albertson's weekly ad and new weekly specials start! I'm psyched to get the ball rolling on this whole cleaning thing and have some order and plan in my life :) I'll letcha know how it turns out!

My cleaning chart is modified from this blog post.