There are some things that just make our homeschool day run more smoothly. For someone who likes order, knowing I have a cleaning schedule to get my home back in order gives me peace. However, I’m not the type to use some one else’s printable that says it will give me a clean house (eye roll!). Every home, every family, is different and I know for my cleaning schedule to be effective it needs to fit our family’s needs. Those needs even change as the seasons of our life changes, so it also needs to be flexible.
Once or twice a year I sit down and reevaluate our current cleaning schedule and routine. It is a custom fit for our family, our home, at that time in our lives. Today I’m going to show you how to create a custom cleaning schedule that fits your family to help keep things orderly on a daily basis.
While this topic could be a whole series of posts, I thought it would be easier to just pack it all in this single post. It’s a whopper, but after you read it, you are going to have the tools you need to set up your own cleaning schedule, along with printable worksheets to help you do that.
Free Planning Worksheets:
You are welcome to create your own Excel document, but here are some planning worksheets to use.
Worksheet 2: Cleaning Schedule
Different Cleaning Schedule Methods:
As you create your own schedule, consider the following methods.
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Weekly Cleaning Day
With the weekly cleaning method, you designate a day a week to be your heavy cleaning day and then only do necessary daily maintenance on other days. (Some people are able extend this to one large monthly cleaning day – my house would be a pit!)
Pros: Your house is all clean at the same time (lovely feeling!).
Cons: It takes a lot of energy to clean your whole house in one bite and you may fizzle out. It’s necessary to have a big chunk of time to clean, and, depending on your family, your house may be pretty dirty by the time it’s cleaning day again.
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Daily Cleaning
Some take an easier approach and do a little everyday. They may have a daily checklist or clean for a specified amount of time (like our 20 minute daily extravaganza).
Pros: It’s much easier to find the time to clean for short bursts.
Cons: Your house may never have that clean-all=over look or feeling.
Cleaning Schedule Resources:
If you are the type that likes to follow someone elses’ list, go ahead and peruse Pinterest to find something that will work for you and your home best. I prefer not to use someone else’s cleaning schedule, but I do like to sift through Pinterest for inspiration.
Flylady
If you are a complete newbie to keeping an orderly home, sign-up for Flylady. When we first moved to our home, I loved receiving her daily emails and inspirations. While I don’t follow her anymore, I learned a lot about keeping a tidy home. (And no my sink isn’t shined every night for those of you wondering!)
Creating your own Cleaning Schedule:
(You can create your own Excel document, or use these printable worksheets.)
Step 1- Make a master task list
(For this step, create your own Excel document, or use my printable planning worksheet: Worksheet One Master Task List)
This first step takes an initial investment of time. I like to produce my list in Excel where I can change things around easily without taking a lot of time. As I create my master list, I ask myself what needs to be done daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonally. I also note whether the task can be delegated to a child and at what age that would be appropriate.
3 Things for your Master Task List
- Name of task
- Frequency it needs to be completed
- At what age can the task be delegated
Here is a copy of my task list:
(Note that the printable worksheet is in a different format than my list. I created mine years ago and didn’t feel like transferring it over to the new format – do you blame me?)
| Housekeeping | ||||
| Daily | Age | Monthly | Age | |
| Make Beds | 2 | Sweep garage | 7 | |
| Meal Prep | 9 | Organize garage | 14 | |
| Meal Cleanup | 9 | Wipe down doors | 6 | |
| Wipe down Bathrooms | 7 | Spot wipe walls | 6 | |
| Sweep Kitchen | 7 | Scrub laundry | 10 | |
| Get/sort mail | 7 | Scrub woodfloors | 10 | |
| Wash laundry | 10 | Dust | 10 | |
| Fold/put away laundry | 2 | Clean out cars | 8 | |
| Pick-up | 2 | Scout Meds | 12 | |
| Feed/water/let out Scout | 6 | Smoke Detectors | 12 | |
| Check/replace air Filters | 12 | |||
| Wash car | 12 | |||
| Twice Weekly | Age | Infrequently | Age | |
| Vacuum | 5 | Sort/Store Clothes | 16 | |
| Sweep downstairs | 10 | Deep clean rooms | 16 | |
| Water plants | 5 | Scrub porch | 12 | |
| Straighten Shoes | 4 | Deep clean windows | 12 | |
| Brush dog | 5 | Deep clean carpets | 16 | |
| Gutters | 18 | |||
| Mending | 12 | |||
| Weekly | Age | |||
| Scrub Kitchen | 10 | |||
| Scrub toilets and bathroom floors | 8 | |||
| Clean Upstairs Bath | 10 | |||
| Sweep Porch | 8 | |||
| Office Jobs | ||||
| Take out Garbage | 10 | |||
| Clean glass | 8 | |||
| Recycling | 16 | |||
Step 2-Meld the daily tasks into your daily routine
Begin creating your cleaning schedule by focusing on the things that must be completed on a daily basis. For me, this is swiping the bathroom, general pick-up, dishes, and sweeping the kitchen, among other things. Making these daily to-do’s part of your daily routines will automatize your cleaning over time.
Step 3-Decide on a time for your weekly tasks
You can go two routes with your weekly tasks.
- Do a little everyday
- Do a large weekly cleaning session
Create another spreadsheet in your Excel file and label it with the days of the week. Slide in your weekly tasks a little everyday or during one large chunk of time during the week. (Here is a printable planning worksheet for step 3-5: Worksheet 2 Cleaning Schedule)
Step 4-Schedule monthly tasks
Again, understand your personality and go with what works best for you and your family. Would it work better to do one big cleaning session or to do a little every week? If you choose to do a little every week, make sure you slide that into your schedule. You can put specific tasks on your weekly schedule or just label a time slot “monthly cleaning” and do what needs to be done.
Step 5- Add in all the other tasks
I do a lot of my seasonal decluttering and deep cleaning as part of my zone cleaning days during the month. I find doing a little in each area every month prevents cleaning and clutter from becoming unmanageable. I like to keep my tasks that are less frequent than monthly in list format and schedule them in my planner on my office days. Do what works for you!
For myself, so many jobs fall in the category of office and kitchen that I created a day to focus on each area during my week. I have a master task list for office day and kitchen day. I focus on accomplishing as much as I can during that time weekly. This may seem like overkill to some, but having these task lists helps me know exactly what I need to be doing during that time. I find I am much more efficient with my work when I have something to follow.
My kitchen day task list:
| Kitchen Day | ||
| Bulk and Freezer Cooking | ||
| Wipe appliances, cabinets, countertop, table, and chairs | ||
| Clean refrigerator (in, out, top) | ||
| Clean one drawer, one cupboard, one pantry shelf | ||
| Kitchen window | ||
| Scrub kitchen sink and faucet | ||
| Scrub floor | ||
| Inventory for Shopping Day | ||
| Clean behind appliances | ||
My office day task list:
| Office Jobs | ||
| Daily | Monthly | |
| Sort mail | Upcoming birthdays/anniversaries/feasts | |
| Check calendar | Organize computer files, photos | |
| Weekly goals | Goals | |
| Review upcoming school | Homebinder | |
| Emails/News/Weather/Business | ||
| Twice Weekly | Yearly | |
| Meal planning | File paperwork | |
| Set broad goals | ||
| Rework budget | ||
| Taxes | ||
| Evaluate homeschool/order materials |
| Weekly | Other Office Jobs | |
| Filing | Meals(freezer, for others, recipe binder) | |
| Bills/budget | Schedule Confession | |
| Track Spending | Hospitality | |
| Tithe | Notes of encouragement | |
| Co-op (planning/email) | ||
| Backup computer | ||
| School (attendance, filing, books, plans) | ||
| Co-op (planning/email) |
So, what does this look like when you are all done? Well, I let you see what my current cleaning schedule looks like.
My Cleaning Schedule:
My Weekly Task list:
| Weekly Cleaning Tasks | ||||||
| Sunday | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| Daily Routines | Daily Routines | Daily Routines | Daily Routines | Daily Routines | Daily Routines | Daily Routines |
| Rest/Study/Family | Kitchen Day | Vacuum/Sweep | Zone Cleaning | Pick-up/Put away | Sweep | Vacuum/Sweep |
| Plan week ahead | Take out garbage | Monthly task list | Upstairs bath | Scrub kitchen/zone | Windows/Mirrors | |
| Office day | Recycling | |||||
| Monthly Job | ||||||
| Projects | ||||||
| Sunday prep | ||||||
My monthly tasks:
| Monthly Tasks | |||||||
| Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | ||||
| Porch/Schoolroom/Entry/Halls | Bathrooms/Laundry | Bedrooms | Dining Room/Laundry | ||||
| Office/Bill Day | Test Fire Detectors | Pet Medications | |||||
My less frequent task list:
| Other Tasks | |||||||||||
| Clean out attic (semiannually) | Taxes (annually) | ||||||||||
| Clean out garage (semiannually) |
|
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| Deep clean windows (annually) | Air filters (quarterly) | ||||||||||
| Deep clean carpets (semiannually) | |||||||||||
Tips/Tricks:
Reaccess often – make sure you are keeping your schedule up to date with what works for you and your home during the different seasons of life. I like to look at mine about twice a year and see if I need to move things around.
Let it go – You are not the schedule’s servant, rather, it is there to serve you. If life gets busy and you can’t get to all your cleaning tasks on time, let.it.go. The beauty of a schedule is that the time will come back around for you to complete those tasks that get dropped. It really is not the end of the world.
Create files – While I created printable worksheets for creating your own custom cleaning schedule, I love the Excel documents that I began on my own computer. It makes it so easy to move everything around!
What are the best cleaning or scheduling tricks you ever received?
