This post is sponsored by the makers of Clorox® Disinfecting Wipes, the quick and easy way to clean and disinfect your home!
I get a lot of emails asking about my cleaning schedule after I wrote about my typical day on Joanna’s blog. I truly do not love cleaning, but I know that I’m so much happier with life when my house is clean. Don’t you feel the same way?
A couple years ago, right after I had Claire and when Gracie was old enough to really start doing some damage, I was feeling like I would never have a clean house again. (I also thought there was a good chance I would never get to sleep through the night again. :) good times) I was picking up the house all week long it felt like, and then I would do all my laundry and deep cleaning on the weekends. That meant my Saturday was completely gone and that the house was totally dirty again by Monday morning. Stresses me out just thinking about it.
Then one time I was visiting a friend’s house who had three rambunctious toddler boys. I walked into her house for the first time and my jaw dropped. Her house was CLEAN. Like, I’m not talking about tidy – tidy is not always possible during the day with kids, but it was clean. She is one of those amazing mothers who is really active with her kids, so I knew she didn’t spend all day neglecting her boys to clean the house. I was surprised and a little jealous of her sparkly floors so I begged her to share her secret. She laughed and said she kept a chore chart, which I thought was hilarious! What grown woman has a chore chart?! Suddenly I had to have one!
I copied her chart and have been using a slightly tweaked version ever since. I can’t say that I’m always following through here, but when I do, my house is practically spotless and best of all, I don’t feel like I am cleaning all the time – which honestly was the hardest part for me of being a stay at home mom in the early years.
It looks like a lot, but I think even on the most intense days I’m only spending 30 or 40 minutes in aggregate cleaning (though we live in a 1500 sq ft apartment, so your home might require a little more time). I’ve listed the chart here below, and here’s a simple printable version.
So the basic idea is this: there are daily chores – easy things you should take care of almost habitually in the morning and in the night, and then there is a single special chore of the day. Most of these chores end up getting done once a week (for example, every Monday I do a deep vacuuming of all our rugs. I took only one interior design class in college and I only remember a handful of things from that class. One of them was a tangential comment my professor made about vacuuming. She said that you should go over the same area on a rug SEVEN times super slowly to get it clean. Isn’t that just nuts? I don’t do that, but I do try to do a slow vacuuming on Mondays.). Friday though is the swing day, where you rotate in chores that need to be done less frequently, like scrubbing the microwave.
I’ll walk you through today’s cleaning schedule. It’s Tuesday. I wake up and make our bed. It won’t get done unless I make it as soon as I get up. The girls are getting good about making their beds too. After I finish getting ready I wipe down the bathroom counters and the sink. While I’m making the kids breakfast I empty out the dishwasher.
Then life happens and the house sort of falls apart during the day.
Then at night the girls help me clear the table and load the dishwasher. Michael does the trashes. Once the kids are in bed I quickly sweep or vacuum the kitchen and dining room and I might pop into the living room too. I keep a wet rag with me and as I go I’ll spot clean the floor. My goal is fast and furious cleaning!
And here’s where my baskets come into play. I keep them everywhere. I really love this basket that I posted about yesterday because it is super sturdy and holds its shape. I zip through my house every night with this basket, throwing in every misplaced item, then going back to each room once and put the things back where they belong. It takes me just a few minutes to pick up a day’s worth of clutter this way. No more running back and forth and back and forth from room to room putting things away. Try the basket method – you’ll never go back!
Plus – another bonus of having your pretty baskets out in every room? If you have a friend coming over right away, you can just corral everything in the basket super fast and no one’s the wiser.
Once the house has been de-cluttered, I do my chore of the day (today was cleaning the mirrors and windows), and then I’m done! It might sound like a lot, but I promise it isn’t. When I’m consistent with this schedule, I never have to do one of those marathon cleaning days to get back to ground zero. The house never has a chance to get really dirty, so the cleaning never feels like a true chore. It feels easy and, dare I say it? Pleasant?
So that’s my approach to cleaning in a nutshell. I know we all have our special tricks, and I’d LOVE to hear yours!
Today’s super-sized give away is $350 to Target AND $150 to the Container Store and all you have to do to enter is leave a comment sharing your favorite cleaning or organization tip. I can’t wait to see what you guys do to keep your spaces sparkling! Any other crazies out there with a chore chart? :)
Contest ends March 22. Winner will be announced on the 23rd. Contest rules can be read in full here. Good luck!!
Love your ideas! I do a load of laundry every day so it never piles up and gets overwhelming. I also go through the mail over the trash can so all the "junk" mail never piles up!
One of my New Year's Resolutions was to put things back as soon as I'm finished using them – easier said than done, but I'm working on it! It's way too easy to let stuff pile up and clutter your house. And I can't STAND when our dining room table is covered with mail, papers, etc.
One of the ways I minimize clutter is to sort my mail before I bring it in the house. A pile for the recycle bin, and a pile to bring inside.
I try to keep the kitchen cleaned up as I go about cooking dinner. Wiping down counters & getting spills cleaned up as they happen is much easier than trying to scrub hardened stains hours later.
when i come home – from work, gym, school, ect. – i immediately put everything away that is in my bag and on my person (coat, gloves, hat) and tidy everything that i may have left out in the morning. granted i live in a small one-bedroom apartment so it does not take long, but this ritual helps me decompress and keep on top of all the "stuff" that i accumulate daily. that way when i do my saturday cleaning i don't have to spend time putting this random stuff away.
~sara
http://myfantasticdistractions.blogspot.com/
I am also a fan of the "basket method". My favorite trick, someone shared with me years ago, is do one load of laundry a day. I just toss in a load first thing in the morning. It has been a huge time saver for me. I have a chore chart as well, dont think i could handle it all if i didnt :)
I've been participating in The Hairpin's Ask a Clean Person challenge of making your bed every single day for a month. This might not sound like a lot but to a super-busy graduate student having that little piece of order restored every morning is motivating me to keep everything else neater as well.I"m good at keeping everything clean since there are no children/ pets and my apartment is small but I'm not great at keeping things neat-looking. My bad habit last semester was getting dressed out of the basket of clean laundry because I rarely put it allvaway.
We had a serious laundry issue going on around our house. We had no problem washing our clothes, it was the folding and putting them away that was the tough part. Recently, I started sorting our clothes into 'person specific' baskets (plus one basket for linens and towels) immediately after taking the clean clothes out of the dryer. My goal is always to fold and put away one basket per day. Since we have 4 people in our family, plus 1 extra linen basket, I am able to take the weekend off from laundry!
Thanks for your cleaning schedule tips!!
I'm hope to get better about vaccuming with incorporating this chore chart!
I like to do the final pick up after the kids are in bed, helps with that I just picked everything up ordeal, when you are cleaning in one room and they are "uncleaning" in another. LOL!
Even though I don't have kids, my husband, dog, and I can still make quite the mess! In order to keep clutter at bay, I've learned to put things away when I am done with them. When everything has a place, its much easier to do. Now, if I could just teach this to my husband and dog!
I set a timer for 3-5 minutes depending on the room. Once the timer starts I get busy in that particular room, but as soon as the timer goes off, I move on to the next room. Keeps me motivated to keep moving and forces me to focus on the biggest messes in each room.
I'm the worst cleaner ever!!! I don't have any great tips, but I do know that I work better with deadlines – when we have people coming over the house I always run around and clean! So I try to make sure we have visitors weekly – play dates, relatives, etc. Probably not the best way to stay on top of things, but at least its fun;) Thanks for the awesome giveaway!
throwing away junk mail asap.
cathycomm@aol.com
How I wish for weekly vac sessions. However, with three dogs and two cats that does not cut it! I have found that doing a daily dry mop allows me to address the rugs only twice a week. I also try to do a quick survey everytime I leave a room. This way if something needs to be put away I can grab it if I am already heading that way. Cuts down on a few extra trips and makes me feel like a star multi tasker!
Someone once gave me a great tip for cleaning a microwave–squeeze some the juice of 1 lemon into a bowl of water (2-3 cups) and microwave it for 3 minutes, don't open the microwave–let the steam loosen up the crusted on old food in the micro and 10 minutes later wipe down the interior of the micro with a wet cloth, it requires so little effort! Other than that on Sunday nights after dinner and showers, we all sit down to watch some tv before bed and fold our OWN laundry which is a huge help for me.
Best thing I ever did was teach my twin boys how to really help with household chores. When we all pitch in, the house looks great in about 30 minutes.
My favourite cleaning tip is about the ingredients I use to clean my house. Apart from the stove, everything in my house gets really and truly clean with just environmentally friendly dish soap and detergent, white vinegar, water, baking soda and borax. With these ingredients my house not only sparkles, but I can clean without harming the environment.
This is such a great way to think about keeping a house clean! I am going to have to try it out. My cleaning routine always requires having the sink empty at night. It drives me crazy to think I will wake up and have to do that. I am sure everything else could stand to be completed on a more regular basis. Thanks for giving me some motivation!!
I have actually put my 2 year old to "work" – he has his own little vaccuum so he can follow mommy and vaccuum too! He also likes to help me dust, so we got him his own little duster tool. This helps me stay on task and not have to chase him around to make sure he's not getting into things! And…he's learning how to take care of his things too!
I use Dr. Bronners castile soap as an all purpose cleanser. Dilute it- equal parts soap and water. It works WONDERS on soap scum and it smells awesome. Be sure to rub it over your bath faucets and fixtures in the tub and then rinse clean! It will make them shine and sparkle! My fave scent is the citrus, although the others smell heavenly as well. Also, on my stainless steel I use olive oil. Wipe it lightly over appliances with a soft cloth as well as any brushed steel faucets. Pumice stones work wonders for rings in the toilet. With a little elbow grease, your bowl will look just like new again!
I do a load or two of laundry daily and lightly clean and straighten the house throughout the week. Towards the end of the wee, I run through the house and straighten everything then deep clean from top to bottom. I manage to do this in about 2 hours. There is nothing quite like having your entire home clean and the weekend free!
Love your blog! I look forward to reading it every morning while sipping coffee. :)
Ashley
I also use a chore chart and have found life and the weekends so much more enjoyable without waiting to do all of the cleaning at once. My tip is laundry related… We got one of those nifty 4 segment laundry baskets so the clothes get sorted when you take them off. It is also very easy to tell when I need to do a load since each segment perfectly holds one!
Love this chart! I just scrubbed my house top to bottom yesterday after we had an episode of the flu, so I totally need to do this to keep it clean. It looks totally manageable too.
The laundry is the only thing I would need to tweak… I don't know how 4 people make so much, but we do. I generally try to do a load every day or two… its folding and putting away I hate.
I keep a large stock of clorox wipes in the kids bathroom and while the kids are in the tub every night i wipe down the entire bathroom (and the copious amounts of dried toothpaste that accumlate daily in the sink:)
I also try to clean a little bit every day to spread the pain. But now that I have a nine-month-old and work full time I've had to hire someone to come in once a month to do a deep clean. There is just no time otherwise!
I use clear plastic bins for the kids toys to keep things organized. And I try everyday to pick up the small clutter that gets spread around the house. I love your chart. I think I might use that for myself.
This is really a brilliant post. This blog really superbly written and I must admit I find it insightful to read your blogging. Keep up the good work.
my favorite cleaning trick is using baking soda to clean the tub. it always makes it spotless!
I, too, love using baskets to organize and store my girls' toys. I also like to use unconventional furniture to store their things (like our hutch, for example) I don't have a chore chart, but I make sure I do a few different "chores" each day so things don't pile up :)
Bins, lots of colorful bins for toy storage!!
I must confess my stay sane trick is to hire cleaning help, but doing laundry every day is also a biggie here! Would love to win the give away!
Thanks so much for the great tips! Our first baby is due in April, so it's great to have an idea of what works for other moms for this new stage of life we're about to enter. My tip is an oldie but a goodie- sorting mail the second we get it out of the mailbox. A five-second sort is so much more simple than an hour's worth of paper shuffling!
To keep things organized, I sneak time to declutter and return things to their places during time that would otherwise be wasted – waiting for the coffee to brew, during commercials, when I'm on a mindless phone call about bills, etc… We call them "little white lightnings" and they definitely help day-to-day.
I do general picking up each day but really should follow a schedule so that I don't spend all day Sunday cleaning the house. Great tips!
in my husband and my little urban apartment, we've had to learn the art of efficient yet aesthetic use of space. for organizing, i've learned it helps to have beautifully designed baskets, file folders, boxes that match our decor — which we can quickly sort things into at the end of every day, and which almost blend in as part of our home decor (but hide the mess). for kitchen cleaning, i keep a sauce dispenser filled with water and dishwashing soap, so that after a messy meal, i can squirt the mixture onto dishes and the stovetop. this little move makes dishwashing easier and faster.
My vacuum just died today (15 minutes ago) and I was thinking "I wish I could win a new vacuum!)" so this would be AWESOME. My favorite cleaning product is vinegar. Mixing t with hot water you can clean your microwave, dishwasher, washing machine and other areas that don't get cleaned often. Other than that, I am working on "clean up time" with my girls so the play areas are picked up before we return to them. Thanks!
Great Chore Chart!
My bf and I have a rule that the last one out of bed has to make up the sheets. It helps keep the room tidy and provides a little extra motivation for an early workout.
I need to get back on a chart type thing, Yours looks great.
I have a shoe basket. So a family of six doesn't leave 'em all over the place! AND a sock drawer in the laundry room. Am I the only one that constatntly loses one of the pair in the laundry?!
No chore chart for me, but I try to clean a bit every day. Growing up Saturday's were cleaning day and I despised it, so, instead I clean a bit each day. When my kids were young they were taught to put things away as a game and, in order to start a new activity they had to put the previous one away. It keeps things tidy and teaches responsibility.
My best tip would be that I put all the items that have to go upstairs on the stairs. When I head up, it's one trip rather than five or six. That includes laundry, cleaning supplies, etc. Also, when I wet mop the floors I do all the floors and the same with vacuuming and dusting.
Thanks for the incredible giveaway!
It might seem counterintuitive, but the way I stay motivated to keep our house clean is to entertain a lot! It's a lot easier to live with your own mess if no one else ever sees it…plus, what better reward for all your hard work?
I've been resisting a chore chart, even though I think it would really make a difference. My biggest thing is making sure the kitchen gets cleaned every night. If I wake up to a dirty kitchen, I am really less motivated to do anything else that day :) We also use a basket to grab everything that has cluttered up the living spaces. We have a 2 and a 3 year old so you know they get messy fast throughout the day!
I use a chore chart:) I don't always stick to it exactly but like you Jenny when I do my house is almost effortlessly clean. My tip, I chose Thursday, "T" for toilets/ tubs. Friday, "F" for floors. My other days don't coordinate w/ letters but these 2 days help me remember w/ out looking at the chart which is built in to my calendar on my iPad.
I'm a clean as I go type of person. I tidy up rooms each day and vacuum and do laundry at least twice a week (more vacuuming now with a crawling baby)!
Jenny,
I use a chore chart and get the kids involved in the cleaning in order to help keep things running as smoothly as possible. I have a checklist I created for the kids which lists what elements of the room have to be addressed before we can check the room off as being clean. For instance, in their bedrooms I've listed: make up bed, no toys on floor or under bed, clean off dresser, line shoes up, all dirty clothes in hamper, etc. Once each item has been checked off, the room is declared clean. I think it really gives them a sense of accomplishment. However, laundry has always been my nemesis. I can never seem to get ahead of the curve with this one. There always seems to be a load just waiting to be washed. It's like the never ending story here. So I will be incorporating your Weekly and Swing Day Chores concept into my chore plan for myself. It's like a lightbulb went off. Totally makes sense. Thanks!!
We have an active 2 year old who's favorite hobby is to dump out all his toys. Every night, we have "clean up time" where we tidy his toys and books. It keeps us sane.
One thing I can get behind on really quickly in my house is ironing my husband's work shirts. Every other day I will do a small load of laundry and iron a couple of shirts. It only takes me about 5 minutes per shirt and this way I am not spending hours behind an ironing board.
I do exactly the same thing! Simplifying it to one main chore a day is the easiest way to not feel stressed out about cleaning the whole house.
I dedicate 15 mins a day and try to accomplish as much as possible during that time! Surprisingly, it works wonderfully!
I keep a stack of old washcloths and my favorite cleanser in each bathroom. After cleaning, stash used cloths in a plastic container (I use a gallon milk jug in which I've scissored an opening) under the sink and tote them to the laundry room on wash day. Washing and disenfecting with Clorox lets me use and reuse these cloths. Clean bathooms, recycling, and saving money — yay!
I need to start using this chart! My tip is usin dryer sheets to pick up dust on electronics and other surfaces. A quick and second use for sheets that normally get tossed right away!