Make Your Own House Cleaning Schedule

I hate housework. You make the beds, you wash the dishes and six months later you have to start all over again. ~ Joan Rivers

Preparing and following your own house cleaning schedule are important steps in having a home that is quick and easy to clean.

House cleaning is a never ending job. You clean something - use it - then clean it again. It can be frustrating especially if you feel that there isn't enough time in a day to get everything done.

To make a schedule and stick to it you need to develop house cleaning routines or systems and develop the habit of following them. For instance, here is a system for doing the dishes:

When cooking- clean as you go and never go to sleep with dirty dishes in the sink.

So on your cleaning schedule you can have - after dinner do the dishes and if you follow the "clean-as-you-go" system this should not take to long.

Another example is the laundry. If you do not want to face piles and piles of dirty laundry on your laundry day(s), get it done as soon as one hamper in your home is full. If this happens more than once per week consider decluttering some closets.

For me, I've found that the more clothes I have the more likely I am to wear every last garment until there is nothing clean left. For the past few weeks since I learned about minimalism, I've rid myself of more than half of my wardrobe. Most went to the Goodwill and others to the trash. So consider getting rid of what you don't usual wear or like for that matter.

Less clothes means less laundry to get done.

Another system you can consider is only washing one hamper of clothes for each individual in your home. Anything else they will have to do themselves - if they are old enough. The advantage of this - you will notice that only the favorite clothing items make it into the one hamper every week so that when you announce that its time to get rid of some clothes, the decision of what stays and what goes is easy to make.

So for your cleaning schedule mark off your laundry day(s) and after a while if you get rid of some clothes or do one hamper per person it will take less time.

I say all of this to let you know that your initial house cleaning schedule will be dynamic. As you continue to use it, you will realize that maybe it's better to do the laundry on Friday night rather than Saturday morning or that you prefer to wash dirty dishes early in the morning rather than late at night. So you will make the necessary changes to suit your preferences.

Now lets create your first house cleaning schedule...

So there are two things I want you to accomplish with this guide:

spend less time cleaning and
have a house cleaning system in place.

This way there is no frustration because you know exactly what you need to do, when to do it, and how much time it will take (approximately).

I'm all about keeping things simple so we'll start with the house cleaning list of all the tasks that need to be completed to have the ideal clean space that you want.

Next tag each item on your list as either daily, weekly, monthly or yearly. Now since this is the first cleaning schedule, overestimate how long each task will take (these can change over time). Finally, using one of those calendars, or apps or whatever medium you choose fill in the dates with the cleaning task and time.

Below is a simple example of my schedule for the week. Because I live minimally with no children about, its quick and easy. Getting rid of most of the unused stuff occupying space and adding to my cleaning chores has made cleaning a less unpleasant task.

The house cleaning schedule is meant for you to see what needs to be done and over time if your do some decluttering you will see your home become quick and easy to clean and you will have no problem sticking to your house cleaning schedule.

More Details for Making Your First House Cleaning Schedule

Get a calendar. One of those where you can write in the boxes.

On exact dates on the calendar, write down your major house cleaning events - that's the house cleaning you do on a bi-monthly (e.g. cleaning the bathroom), monthly (e.g. refrigerator cleaning), quarterly and yearly basis.

Write down a list of your daily and weekly chores. Next to each item on the list, write down how much time each chore takes and if necessary how many times a week you do them. (These times are just estimates. Make the necessary adjustments when you know the accurate times spent on each chore).

Now that you have your major house cleaning events dated and your daily and weekly chores listed with their time commitments, get ready to make your house cleaning year plan.

The schedule lists all your unchanging commitments for the year. The unchanging cleaning times in the following example are highlighted in yellow.

When you finish making your house cleaning year plan, make enough copies of it for each week for the rest of the year.

Now take one copy and start on your house cleaning schedule for the rest of the week. Make sure to consult the calendar of major house cleaning events and your daily and weekly chores lists.

In the example below, unchanging time commitments are in blue. House cleaning times remain yellow.