Cleaning Schedule

For the past 2.5 years I have been working 2 days a week and staying home with our 3 kids the rest of the week. When I was preparing to start this new schedule I had a lot of ideas about how much I was going to be able to get done during the week and stay on top of our daily house tasks more easily. Well, being home does help with some of that but having 2 and then 3 kids made me quickly come to the realization that my days would not be as productive in the ways I had previously imagined. 

I now break up my cleaning tasks and complete them throughout the week so that when Friday comes everything is done. I would still prefer getting it all done on Friday but this plan consistently works and is better than what I was doing before – less stressful going into the Sabbath hours trying to cram to much in. 

I was first introduced to this idea in a moms Facebook group when the blogger Cleanmama was recommended. She is an excellent guide and has a couple books outlining her plan, giving tips to be efficient and recipes on clean DIY cleaning products. She also has a list of daily cleaning and tidying activities she recommends doing so nothing really piles up. Using her plan as a launching point I have now tailored it to fit my schedule and lifestyle to make it work for us. 

My schedule is like this: 

Sunday – do laundry, put clean laundry away

Monday – clean bathrooms

Tuesday – I work so don’t plan to do as much but try to dust

Wednesday – I work again but try to finish any dusting that’s left

Thursday – Vacuum and mop upstairs floors

Friday – Vacuum and mop downstairs floors

I have two buckets for my supplies that I can easily carry around with me and they are always stocked and ready to roll. One bucket is for dusting day so it has my microfiber duster on a wand, blinds cleaning tool and a lint roller. The lint roller is handy for getting cat hair off of furniture and cleaning up lamp shades.

My other bucket contains my cleaning supplies for the bathrooms. Glass cleaner, all purpose cleaner and hydrogen peroxide. I also keep 4-5 rags, a toothbrush and a scrub brush stocked in it. Having these buckets stocked and ready to go really helps me squeeze in my tasks between naps, snacks and when they are happily playing together – which can be short lived so I have to hustle!

Josh is really good about getting toys and clutter picked up each night and we almost never go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink. Those steps really allow me to be able to get the deeper cleaning done during the day when he’s off to work so we stay on the cleaning schedule.

While cleaning the house isn’t my favorite thing to do it does give me a sense of accomplishment and I like knowing what state my house is in. I also like having my kids be involved and seeing me make cleanliness a priority. Now, our 4-year old will say “we’re picking up because Sabbath is coming and we want to be ready right mama?” 

Not everyone is in the same situation and may have more or other factors playing into their lives where having the cleaning hired out just makes more sense and that is totally awesome and good for them doing what’s best for their families. This is just where we are at right now and a plan that made it manageable still for us and may fit your needs as well! Give yourself grace during the different phases in life when things may not be as easy to keep up with.