My Simple Weekly Cleaning Schedule: The Routine That Took Me from Overwhelmed to In Control
I stood at the door of my laundry room staring at the mountain of clean clothes that was waiting there for me to fold.
I felt defeated.
It was Friday afternoon and I had spent the whole day cleaning.
I still had at least a couple more hours of work before me, and a child happily erasing every bit of evidence of how I had spent the day behind me.
Plus, I hadn’t even thought about what to make for dinner yet.
Why did I feel like I spent so much time cleaning and so little time enjoying a clean house?
Well for one I had fallen into the trap of thinking that my house needed to be perfectly clean by Friday so that it would be nice and clean for the weekend… because who doesn’t want a pristine house to hang out in?
I had also mistakenly thought that I needed to clean my entire house in one day… and that I could clean my house in one day with a busy toddler.
No problem. Toddlers don’t need much attention or supervision so this should be easy, right?
I mean, why would anyone spread their cleaning out over the week, when you could do it in one day???
That didn’t sound like good time management to me, or good organization of resources. I mean, not batching your tasks is so 2013.
And I also really, really, really thought that the house should just stay clean through the weekend and the following week until Friday came again.
Ha, ha, HA. That’s a good one, Kassy.
After trying this method for way too long, I realized that something needed to change.
I was tired of spending my entire Friday cleaning… and being frustrated every Sunday when you couldn’t tell that I had cleaned at all.
I was tired of feeling like I was always treading water in a sea of household chores.
Motherhood was supposed to be about enjoying my children, right? So why did it feel like all I did was clean up after her and I never got to enjoy her?
I started doing some research to see if there was a better way to get everything done. But nothing that I found ever worked for me.
I usually just felt more guilty after reading suggested cleaning schedules online because they required even more cleaning than I was currently doing! (Does anyone actually clean all their windows every week? Seriously?!)
Instead of following all of this crazy advice I was ready, I decided to see if I could simplify and minimize my daily duties.
My goal was to have the house running on autopilot as much as possible.
I set a couple rules for myself when I created my cleaning routine:
1. It had to be simple. I had a toddler and a new baby. If I had a rough day with the girls, I needed to be able to accomplish the tasks during nap time, while still allowing myself a little downtime.
2. It had to be predictable. I didn’t want my basic routine to vary from week to week. After a month or so on the new routine, I wanted to know what my chores were for the day without having to consult the calendar.
3. It had to be realistic. There is no way I was going to take out my trash every single day or wash all my windows every single week. That just wasn’t going to happen.
I needed my cleaning routine to make my house feel clean by my standards. Not by any friend’s, my second cousin’s, or one of those Pinterest Infographic’s standards. My Standards.
After some serious trial-and-error, I finally figured out a way to keep my home running smoothly, spend less time cleaning, and have my house stay clean all through the week.
So in this post I’m going to show you my Simple Weekly Cleaning Schedule, and if you want to see the 5 steps I took to figure it out, check out this post.
And if you prefer to watch instead of read, you can check out this video:
About My House
I hesitated to share my cleaning schedule at first because everyone’s house is so different. But when my friend asked if I could share it, I decided to do so with some additional information about my house.
After all, those Pinterest cleaning schedules that I had seen might work amazingly if you live in a small studio apartment. But for my house, they were unrealistic.
If your house is the same size or smaller than mine, it might work for you to do something like my schedule.
If your house is a lot bigger, you may need to spread out your cleaning schedule over two weeks in order for it to not feel like a burden.
My House:
Our house is two stories and 1730 square feet. I have three bathrooms (technically it’s two-and-a-half baths) and three bedrooms. We have a laundry room upstairs and an office nook.
Upstairs we have carpet everywhere except in the two bathrooms, the laundry room, and the office nook.
The stairs are carpeted as well.
Downstairs I have a long entryway and bathroom with laminate flooring, a carpeted living/family room, and a kitchen/dining room with laminate flooring.
Now that we got that out of the way, let’s get to the cleaning schedule that took me from overwhelmed to in control.
My Simple Weekly Cleaning Schedule
Sunday:
Tidy the House
Sundays are typically a busy family day, a travel day, or a work outside the house day for us. This doesn’t leave much time for housework.
So because I don’t have much time, the only job that I have to do on Sunday is put away everything from our weekend shenanigans.
This includes unpacking if we have been on a trip. We try to arrange our travel so we get home no later than 7:00 pm on Sundays which gives us time to put everything away and still get the kids to bed at a decent time.
(If you want to see how we reset after a trip, check out this video!)
I find that if I wait until the next morning, those suitcases will be sitting there for days.
Giving myself a deadline to have it done by the end of the day on Sunday gets everything back in its proper place quickly.
Since this is the general rule in our house, the girls know the drill and take responsibility for making sure all of their toys and clothes are tidied for the next week.
Tidying up our house up usually takes me less than half an hour after a crazy busy weekend. If it takes you longer than that at your house, or if it is a week-long project, you may want to consider decluttering.
Decluttering your house is the single most effective way to keep your house looking and feeling clean all the time while spending less time cleaning than you ever thought possible.
If you think decluttering might be helpful for you, check out my post How to Begin Decluttering When You are Overwhelmed and Stressed: 10 Steps for Getting Started Today.
Monday
1) Clean the Downstairs Bathroom
My downstairs bathroom is my half-bath and it usually gets a lot of use over the weekend if we are home.
I clean this bathroom on Monday because I like to start off the week with a clean bathroom in case we have any visitors during the week.
2) Vacuum the Downstairs Floors
I used to do all of my vacuuming in one day. It seemed like it would make sense to get all of the floors completed instead of doing half one day and a half another.
But when I shifted my focus to completing one floor at a time, I was able to get the cleaning accomplished more quickly.
I also used to sweep my laminate floors, but I always felt like they were dirty again immediately after I put the broom away.
After I broke two vacuums earlier this year (it’s a long story, you can read about it here if you’re interested), I got a Shark Vacuum. My Shark switches easily between vacuuming carpet and hardwood floors… and I realized that vacuuming takes so much less time than sweeping!
Plus I found it worked a lot better to get the dirt directly out of the house than to pile it up, put it on a pan, and most likely spill some of it before I got it into the garbage… what can I say, I’m as graceful as a puppy.
Now I only sweep my floors under where the kids eat at the end of the day.
3) One Load of Laundry
I have a whole post about How to Solve the Laundry Problem that you can check out for my full laundry routine and my complete list of laundry tips, but I wanted to put a couple of the biggest tips into this post as well… just because I like you!
Laundry Tip #1: Do one load every weekday from start to finish.
And by finish, I don’t mean stuck in the dryer until the next load needs to go into the dryer. And by finish, I don’t mean in a pile on the floor. By finish, I mean folded and put away.
Since our laundry machine is upstairs, I start the laundry before we go downstairs for breakfast.
After we get home from swimming lessons or the park in the morning, I switch the laundry to the dryer. Then, depending on what we are doing that afternoon, I will either fold the laundry after my younger daughter wakes up from her nap, or I will fold in the evening as my husband gets the girls ready for bed.
Completing one load of laundry every day has been a huge cure for the laundry problem I was facing.
If you work outside the home, try starting the laundry as soon as you walk in the door at the end of the day, then switch it over before you sit down to dinner. Then you or your spouse can fold the laundry while the other gets the kids to bed, or you can fold together while you watch your favorite show in the evenings.
Tuesday
1) Grocery Shopping
Fun Fact About Me: I would rather do any other chore than grocery shopping. Ever since I was little it has stressed me out.
When Ross and I first got married, we realized how differently we felt about this necessary evil when we went shopping together (because we were cute like that).
Ross would get giddy about going grocery shopping and go up and down every aisle, looking at anything with a shiny box, and convincing me to get anything that said “NEW!” on it.
I usually spent the entire three hours (yes, I said THREE HOURS!) convincing him to stick to the list, showing him that there was a cheaper, less shiny box right next to the one he was looking at, telling him that “NEW!” doesn’t mean that you are required to buy it, and reading the labels.
When we would finally get up to the counter to pay, Ross usually wanted us to guess how much the groceries were going to cost in a Price is Right style game. I would usually come pretty close to the correct answer because, during the ordeal, I also kept a running total in my head of everything in the cart. I can’t seem to turn this magical superpower off.
Since grocery shopping isn’t something I enjoy doing, I put it on my chore schedule so that I don’t stack any other less exciting tasks on the same day. (Although it takes me much less time to grocery shop now that I go with just me and two little girls.)
Obviously, you don’t have to put grocery shopping on your weekly cleaning schedule if you don’t want to. But if you’re anything like me, I suggest you put it down when you are making your list of weekly chores.
Pro Tip #1: Meal Planning makes grocery shopping so. much. easier. Take a look at How to Begin Meal Planning… When You Don’t Know Where to Start if you want to get started Menu Planning.
Pro Tip #2: I line up my cleaning routine with my meal plan. I put longer tasks, like grocery shopping, on days when we are having leftovers or something easy for supper because I never feel like cooking after I go to the store.
You can do something similar with any chore that you don’t like doing. If you get the chore done, give yourself the night off from cooking!
2) One Load of Laundry
Laundry Tip #2: Don’t leave the laundry room to fold your clothes.
I used to take all the laundry downstairs in the evening to hang out with my husband while I folded. But it took FOREVER.
First, I had to move it all downstairs (usually more than I could carry in one load). Then I had to fold it, before hauling it all back upstairs. I find if I just do it in the laundry room it takes much less time.
Wednesday
1) Tidy Upstairs
A couple of days after I tidy the whole house, the upstairs can usually use a touch-up before I vacuum. This isn’t anything too crazy, and I usually enlist my daughters to run from room to room putting things where they belong.
(Remember to use your children where you can in this process!)
My oldest daughter just turned four and she knows where everything goes.
This is partly because our house is decluttered and everything has a place in our house, and partly because she has been helping me tidy things up since she was about two.
2) Vacuum Upstairs
As I mentioned above, I stopped doing all my vacuuming on one day. And I love it!
I vacuum my upstairs on Wednesday and will often vacuum my stairs the same day that I do the upstairs.
3) One Load of Laundry: Sheets and Towels
Laundry Tip #3: Stand up to fold the laundry. I find if I sit down with the laundry all around me it feels overwhelming and takes longer. If I stand, I can get it done more quickly.
It is also more efficient to fold standing up because I can easily see where all the jeans are in the pile and get those done before I move on to shirts.
Thursday
1) Clean the Two Upstairs Bathrooms
Our two upstairs bathrooms are full bathrooms with showers and bathtubs.
The girls will often clean the bathtub and/or toilet, while I work on the mirrors and sinks.
I highly recommend getting your kids involved with chores from a young age. They will become increasingly more helpful as they get older and helping out will be second nature to them. You can check out my Beginner’s Guide to Toddler Chores for how to get started!
2) One load of Laundry
Laundry Tip #4: Fold your clothes soon as you take them out of the dryer.
Before, I would take the clothes out of the dryer to find one thing or another and leave with the best intentions to come back later and fold the rest.
I soon discovered that “later” never came. The next day I would find myself pulling the laundry out of the dryer onto the pile that was still on the floor.
Now, I force myself to get everything folded and put it away immediately.
Friday
1) Vacuum Downstairs
Yes, my Friday and Monday Cleaning Routines are identical.
I like to start and end the work week with a fresh downstairs since that is where we spend most of our time.
If your house is a lot bigger than mine, or if you don’t have as many days you can clean on, this may not be practical for you.
There is something refreshing to me about having a freshly vacuumed main floor so I do it twice!
2) Clean Downstairs Bathroom
Just like our downstairs floor, our downstairs bathroom gets the most usage.
I like cleaning it twice a week, then I don’t have to worry about how the bathroom looks if someone happens to stop by.
3) One Load of Laundry
Laundry Tip #5 Don’t do it all by yourself. If both you and your spouse work, divide up the laundry chore. You can do this a number of ways: one way is to give each person in the family a hamper and have them be responsible for their own laundry.
It may take a couple of weeks if your spouse is used to you doing it for them, but once they run out of clothes once or twice, they will remember to do their own laundry.
When we both worked outside the home, laundry was my husband’s job. He would spend Sundays watching football and getting all the laundry done. Maybe your husband would enjoy this chore if he could do something similar. You’ll never know unless you ask!
Since I run the house now and my husband brings in the income, I am happy to do his laundry for him. However, I still enlist the help of the girls.
When my oldest was about 18 months old, I started teaching her how to fold washcloths. And once she knew how to do it, that became her job. Every time I folded laundry, I would separate out all the washcloths and she would fold them as I would fold everything else. It took a lot more time at first as I would help her and remind her to stay focused, but it paid off in the long run.
As she became proficient at the washcloths, she started asking what else she could fold. Between the ages of three and three-and-a-half, she learned to fold all of her own clothing. Now, at the age of four, she folds all her clothes and all her sister’s clothes.
When my second daughter was just over one, she started helping me put the clean clothes into the drier and pulling them out of the drier when they are done. No, this doesn’t make my life any easier at that moment, but I want her to know she is an important part of doing chores in our house.
Saturday
Rest Day
On Saturday, I don’t do any housework.
For me, it is part of my religion not to do any work from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.
But even if you aren’t religious, I think everyone should take a day off every week, especially moms.
If you feel like you can’t take a day off and still get everything done. I totally get that! There are only so many hours in a day.
If you want to take a day off and don’t feel like you have time, here are three things you can do to give yourself a break.
- Get other members of your family involved in the housework to reduce your workload. Check out A Beginner’s Guide to Toddler Chores and How to Teach Your Children to Enjoy Doing Chores to get started.
- Lower your expectations about what needs to be done each week. (Does anyone really care if you dust every week? I sure don’t!)
- Declutter your things. This will greatly reduce the amount of time you spend cleaning your house. (Check out How to Start Decluttering if you would like a step-by-step guide and a free checklist!)
Also, you will have more energy to tackle the next week if you let yourself rest.
I promise the carpets that need to be cleaned won’t go anywhere and will be happily waiting for you the next day.
Clarification
Now, when I say I take a day off, it doesn’t mean that I let the dishes pile up all day, or that I just let the girls leave their toys wherever they lie.
We still treat our things with respect and put them away when we are done with them. If I didn’t do that, taking a day off would make more work for me and it wouldn’t be enjoyable knowing what I would have to deal with in the morning.
If you decide that you don’t want to do anything at all on your day off, grab some paper plates and disposable utensils and use them on your mom’s day off!
If you’ve never taken a day off before, try it out and see if you like it!
Every Day
In addition to my weekly chores, there are a few things that I do every day to keep my house always feeling clean.
I highly recommend creating a Daily Routine with a Simple Block Schedule which will help you accomplish your daily tasks, as well as help you carve out time to do your weekly cleaning. (Grab the Autopilot Workbook or the Autopilot Google Spreadsheet if you want a templates for all of your routines!)
Make the Beds: Every morning before you leave your bedroom (and before your kids leave theirs!) make all the beds. (You also get the morning & evening routine checklists for moms and kids in the Autopilot Workbook and Spreadsheet!)
Making your bed will keep your room feeling fresh and clean.
Plus, it is more motivating to put everything else away instead of making piles on the floor if the bed is neatly made.
Unload the Dishwasher: I usually need to run my dishwasher every evening since we eat most of our meals at home. This means every morning as breakfast is cooking, I unload the dishwasher (with the girls’ help, of course, don’t forget to get your kids involved!). Then it is ready for the dishes to go directly into it at the end of each meal.
Put Things Away When We Are Done With Them: I’m teaching the girls that when they are done with a toy or a jacket or anything else, it goes back to where they got it from.
It’s still a work in progress, but it makes cleaning much easier if everything is in its proper place.
Clean the Kitchen: After every meal, put the food away, put the dishes in the dishwasher (or clean them by hand), and wipe down the counters.
Don’t put it off! There is little that is more daunting than a pile of dirty dishes that haven’t been touched all day.
Check out The Busy Mom’s Guide for Cleaning Your Kitchen the Easy Way if you want to see the most simple way to clean your kitchen.
Laundry: I listed laundry out on each day on my weekly schedule, but it is still a daily chore for me.
Since laundry is a time-consuming item and if I don’t list it out each day, I may be tempted to load my schedule with too many other tasks and not leave enough time to get this done.
Remember to check out How to Solve the Laundry Problem if you want to see my laundry routine in detail and all my tips for staying on top of your laundry.
Here’s a quick re-cap of my simple weekly cleaning schedule:
Sunday: Tidy House
Monday: One Load of Laundry, Clean Downstairs Floors, Clean Downstairs Bathroom
Tuesday: One Load of Laundry, Grocery Shopping
Wednesday: One Load of Laundry: Towels and Sheets, Tidy Upstairs, Vacuum Upstairs
Thursday: One Load of Laundry, Clean Upstairs Bathrooms
Friday: One Load of Laundry, Clean Downstairs Floors, Clean Downstairs Bathroom
Saturday: Rest Day
Ready to Get 7 Extra Hours in Your Week?
Then check out Simply Streamlined!
In Simply Streamlined, you will learn how to
- Declutter Your Home
- Put Effective Routines in Place
- Create a Set-It-and-Forget-It Meal Plan
- Get Your Finances Under Control
Simply Streamlined walks you through exactly how to Completely Streamline Your Home in just 15 Minutes a Day!
Plus you will receive
- Cluttered to Calm Lessons, Workbooks, and Spreadsheets
- Put Your Home on Autopilot Lessons, Workbooks, and Spreadsheets
- Set-It-and-Forget-It Lessons, Workbooks, and Spreadsheets
- Master Your Money Lessons, Workbooks, and Spreadsheets
- AND Weekly Live Coaching Calls!
I hope to see you inside the program!
(Or if you are more of a do-it-yourself kind of gal, you can check out my DIY Streamlining Resources!)
You May Also Enjoy…
5 Steps to Create a Weekly Cleaning Schedule, How to Solve the Laundry Problem, The Busy Mom’s Guide for Cleaning Your Kitchen the Easy Way, and How to Create a Daily Routine with a Simple Block Schedule.
And be sure to get your kids involved in the cleaning! Check out A Beginner’s Guide to Toddler Chores and How to Teach Your Children to Enjoy Doing Chores to get started.
