My Cleaning Schedule

My Cleaning Schedule

Happy Monday! How was your weekend? I went to Detroit for a whirlwind trip to visit one of my best friends and had so much fun.

But you know what else is fun? Cleaning. Wait. No one has ever said that. I’m going to talk to you today about how I created a cleaning schedule and what I do to TRY to keep our house clean. I’m not a naturally neat person, and I know I never will be. Unfortunately, neither is Andy. So when I stopped working a real job (almost a year ago!!!) one of my main goals was to figure out a way to keep the house pretty clean all the time, at least enough so that if we ever have unplanned visitors we’re not totally embarrassed, and we don’t have to waste our evenings and weekends with cleaning.

I’m going to admit something that I can’t believe I’m even saying on the internet: when Andy and I were both working, we rarely cleaned. And I don’t mean like our house was covered in cockroaches and we looked like hoarders. I just mean, there were almost always a couple of dirty dishes in the sink and we only found/made the time to vacuum every other week… at the most. When we were both out of the house 50+ hours a week and exhausted and grumpy when we got home, the last thing either of us wanted to do was clean, or even worse, spend our precious weekend scrubbing the bathroom floor.

With me home all day now, I actually love that I can get all of our cleaning done during the day and have free time at night and on the weekends to hang out together …. or work on a thousand other projects! So it took me a few months of being home all the time to realize that I really, really needed to make a schedule. Without a list, I lose track of when I last vacuumed or cleaned the bathroom — and it always seems like I JUST did it! So I made myself this chart:

I started by making a list of all the things I want to make sure I get done on a weekly basis and then thought about what day it makes the most sense for me to do them, like I want to tidy up our living areas on Mondays because we tend to make a mess on the weekends. I tried a few different versions until I found a combo that works for me. It also really helps me to have something pretty to look at to inspire me to actually do it, which I know sounds silly but it works. I whipped up this chart a few months ago and have it pinned to the fridge. I actually use it every single day and it’s made a huge difference. Sure there are days I don’t feel good or I’m busy on something else, but then I just use Friday as a make-up day.

So pretty much, come over any time — our house is clean!

Just in case you’re interested in trying my cleaning schedule, here’s the full-size pdf that you can download for yourself, print out (landscape) and hang on your fridge!

Burritos & Bubbly Cleaning Schedule

So what do you think? Do you use a cleaning schedule? Do you need to or are you naturally a super neat person who I should be really jealous of? Are you totally judging us for living in a messy house for years? Do you have any other techniques for making sure your chores get done? I’d just love to hear what other people find successful!

Happy cleaning!

— Kerry

P.S. This is part of a new series I’m doing about housekeeping. I thought it would be fun to share some of the tips and tricks I’ve learned as a housewife over the last year. Let me know if you have any specific questions or anything you’d like me to talk about!!