CRAFTING YOUR IDEAL CLEANING ROUTINE

CLEANING ROUTINES

Cleaning is one of those things that unfortunately is never done. We clean, things get dirty and we need to clean again. It’s a never-ending cycle that is just part of life. So, anything we can do to make our cleaning tasks more efficient and less of a challenge is a plus. This is where a great cleaning routine comes in. A good cleaning routine can guide you on what tasks to complete and when so that you don’t have to spend time thinking about what to do rather than just doing it. Today we are going to talk about some things to think about when creating the cleaning routine that works best for you.

ASSESS YOUR SPACE

Take a moment to evaluate your living space. What areas need attention? Is it the kitchen, bathroom, or your general living areas? Once you identify trouble spots in your home you can prioritize them in your cleaning routine. Sometimes we might feel overwhelmed until we can think about what it is that needs to be addressed. It might just be one or two areas that need a little more attention. Writing down all of the areas of your home that need to be part of your routine can also help make it feel less overwhelming if you look at each one separately rather than as a whole.

DEFINE YOUR GOALS

What do you want to achieve with your cleaning routine? Is it maintaining a clutter-free environment, reducing stress, or feeling a little bit more in control of your home maintenance? Set realistic goals.  If you are a busy mom with several children and pets, it will probably be unrealistic to have a sparkling-clean home at all times.  Or for even more than a few seconds. Think about your standards for a clean home and set your goals in line with that. The more spotless you want your home to be, the more time you will have to invest in keeping it that way.

So, you have to balance the level of clean and organized you are ok with while still having time to do the other things that matter in your life. Most of us don’t want to spend all of our free time cleaning, so our cleaning goals have to reflect that. Make sure to also consider any help you may or may not have in getting the housework done. This will impact how many things you can realistically do each week.

DETERMINE WHEN YOU WILL DO YOUR CLEANING

Do you prefer to do a little bit of cleaning each day? Or are you the kind of person that would rather just dedicate a few hours one day to get it all done? Make sure you can regularly accommodate the schedule you decide on. If you prefer to do your cleaning on one day but you know that you work weekdays and are usually busy on weekends, that isn’t going to work.  You will likely end up falling behind. Unless you really have a certain day that you know you can consistently stick to for cleaning, it might be better to try to break up tasks throughout the week.

Weekly cleaning can be done early in the morning by waking up earlier, on lunch breaks (if you work from home), after work for a little bit before dinner, or before bed if you are a night person. The most important part of creating a cleaning routine for yourself is to find one that will fit the best within your current life situation and make sense with when you like to get things done. Committing to some type of schedule can really help keep things on track.

ENTERTAINMENT WHILE CLEANING

Even though cleaning isn’t the most fun thing to do for most of us, you can still make it semi-enjoyable by adding something to your cleaning ambiance. Some people love to listen to music while they clean. Others like me, love to listen to a podcast or audiobook while getting some cleaning tasks done. Some people prefer the sound of silence. Experiment with different things while you clean and see what makes it the most enjoyable for you.  Or at least as enjoyable as it can be!

THINK ABOUT HOW YOU WILL DETERMINE WHAT TO WORK ON

Certain tasks will be done daily, weekly, or monthly.  Other tasks will be done less frequently, maybe quarterly, semi-annually, or once a year. The daily and weekly tasks are usually a little bit easier to keep on top of because they always have to be done. It’s the things that have to be done less frequently that are more difficult to stay on top of because they have to be done a little bit over time or in seasonal cleaning sessions. Think about your nature, are you going to want to dedicate whole days to seasonal cleaning?  Or do you want to make sure you create a plan that gets these things done a little bit over time?

IDENTIFY WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT TO YOU TO HAVE CLEANED EACH WEEK

Some weeks you will have more time to clean than others. So it’s important to identify what cleaning tasks are most important to you. These are your non-negotiable cleaning chores. If you have things that are non-negotiable but are already part of your day, then you do not need to include those things. For example, if you are already on top of dishes and laundry as part of your daily routines, you don’t need to worry about those too much. Everyone has different priorities, so really think about what is most important to you if you were really limited on time. Identifying my priorities and making sure those get done is really helpful. If you a really busy week and don’t get much else done, you can remind yourself that the most important things were done, and you’ll hopefully get some more things done next week.

WEEKLY TASKS

For your weekly tasks, once you have decided when you will clean and what your priorities are, it can be helpful to decide what order things will be done, and always do it that way. This helps you solidify your routine so that you don’t have to put a lot of thought into it. For example, I have my priority tasks assigned to a day of the week. On Monday during my lunch break, I clean both of our bathrooms. By knowing that the bathroom gets cleaned on Monday afternoon I don’t have to waste any time deciding what I am going to do during that time slot.

If you prefer to do your cleaning on a particular day, and not over the course of the week, then decide in what order your tasks will be done Again, by doing this, once you have your routine down you can roll right through from one task to another without having to take time to look at a list and decide what to do next. Try to schedule one of your cleaning time slots for other weekly cleaning that you would like to get done, but is above and beyond what your highest priorities were. Some weeks you might not get to them, but other weeks you will. It will give you some flexibility to let things go without feeling guilty if you really need that time for something else in a particular week.

PERIODIC TASKS

Where I have always struggled the most is with periodic tasks.  Those things that need to get done once a month, once a quarter, etc. For the monthly/occasional items, I am currently using the Tody app to keep track of what needs to be done by zone in my house. I really like this app because I love cleaning by focusing on certain zones in my house each time I clean. But, in the past, I got overwhelmed by the schedule of doing certain zones on certain weeks as the fly lady method suggests.

If you are not familiar with zone cleaning, this is where you divide your home into zones such as kitchen, living room, bedroom, etc.  You focus on one zone at a time to accomplish your periodic tasks. I would not always be able to get to cleaning the zones in the weeks they were assigned and then I would feel like I had to wait until that zone came back around to work on that area again. With the Tody app, I have all of my cleaning tasks in the app by each zone of my house.  But I can choose which zone to work on depending on what needs the most work. Or I can also sort by tasks in general regardless of the zone if I am really behind and want to just get a few big things done throughout the house.

START SMALL AND BUILD FROM THERE

If you don’t have a cleaning routine in place yet it will probably take you some time to find what works best for you. Just keep trying and see what sticks. If you keep at it, your routine will eventually evolve into one that works for you! It might not be perfect, but you will be getting things done! Don’t forget that you need to be flexible with any routine, no matter how great it is. Life gets busy and unexpected things happen. So, make sure you are flexible and just pick up where you left off and go from there!

Thanks so much for checking in! If you would like to hear the podcast version of this topic check out Lola’s Frugal Life Podcast! Also, be sure to check out my other blog posts on this site!

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