Creating a Realistic Cleaning List
Like we talked about earlier, keeping your house clean is all about
staying on top of things before they get too messy and out-of-hand. Daily maintenance is key. Yes, you will be
cleaning everyday but I would rather do a quick clean everyday than spend an
entire day cleaning.
I divide my schedule up into three categories:
1. Maintenance chores (5 min.)
2. Cleaning chores (30 min.)
3. Deep cleaning chores (10 min)
There are several sites that you can copy cleaning lists from. If you search Pintrest for cleaning lists, the choices can be overwhelming and if you really want to get serious about it, you can check this lady out, http://www.flylady.net/d/new-links/. There are plenty of lists available to copy and I have left mine here too, but
every house is different and your standards may be a little different according
to your season in life. For instance if
you are mommy to several very young children at the moment, you may not be in a
season of life where it is realistic to clean the crumbs out of you toaster on
a weekly basis – you may just want to be able to find your toaster! Recognize your season in life and give
yourself a break –be realistic about what you can stand to live in comfortably.
1. Daily Maintenance:
This is the 5-10 minute general pick-up that needs to happen
in order to be able to actually clean when the time comes. After a few days, these things just become
routine.
My Daily Maintenance chores are:
Morning:
General pick up
Make the beds
Wipe down bathroom sinks with Clorox wipes
Put dishes away (Unload/Load dishwasher)
After Dinner:
Sweep the kitchen floor
Toy pick up
Clear any leftover dishes in sink and replace dishtowels.
2. Weekly Cleaning:
This is where you must decide how to divide your cleaning
tasks up to a reasonable time limit each day.
I would prefer to divide my house cleaning by rooms, but you may prefer
to divide them by chores, for example, all the dusting on Monday, all the
floors on Tuesday… Also you may want to do a load of laundry everyday, or you
may want to set one day aside for all the laundry.
In addition, decide how many days you can realistically spend an
extra thirty minutes to clean. I
distribute my chores over four days Monday thru Thursday, leaving Friday for
special projects and my weekends free because they are usually pretty crazy.
My Weekly Cleaning Chores are:
Monday: Clean Kitchen/Living Room
Tuesday: Bathrooms
Wednesday: Bedrooms
Thursday: All Laundry
Friday: Project Day
3. Deep Cleaning Chores ( aka Zones)
I then set aside about 10 minutes each day to deep clean one
specific area per week.
Week 1: Porches
Week 2: Kitchen
Week 3: Bedrooms
Week 4: Baths
Week 5: Living Room, Dining Room, Office
Once you have your list made, put it somewhere were you can
get to it easily (Genius, I know, right?) Find some cute paper that you don’t
mind looking at everyday and print that baby out. I found mine here: http://www.my3monsters.com/2011/09/housekeeping.html. Some people like to keep
their list in a notebook. I like to
stick mine right on the fridge, so I can refer to it easily.
Next, comes the hard part; DO IT!
Anything worth doing usually requires a little
commitment on your part and cleaning is no different. The first two weeks of trying to get into a new routine are the
hardest, but after that it becomes more of a routine, and you can move through it
a little faster. However, life is not
perfect. There are times when I don’t have the time or energy to follow my list
on a particular day. The beauty of this
is that it’s no big deal! Because you are
maintaining, things never get so messy that you can’t skip a day now and
then.
FYI: I like to make my cleaning lists very detailed, so that I can easily glance at them, find a task, and mark it off. They are way to long to post here, but if you would like a copy, I would be happy to email them to you.
Great blog! I'm really enjoying your posts. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading!
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