What if I told you that this realistic cleaning schedule could keep your house clean in less than an hour a day? No more weekends filled with cleaning. No more scrambling to make your house presentable when people are coming over. Doing a few small daily tasks and one main task every day allows you to sit back and enjoy your company and your weekends. I’ve even created a free printable of this realistic cleaning schedule for you to print and use! Honestly, could cleaning get any easier?
This post is all about a realistic cleaning schedule that makes a clean home possible even when life gets crazy!
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Realistic Cleaning Schedule
Daily Tasks
The daily tasks on this realistic cleaning schedule are the little things that need to be done consistently in order to keep a house clean. They aren’t anything major as long as they are done consistently every day. The six daily tasks on this schedule are as follows: make the bed, do a load of laundry, do the dishes, wipe down countertops, sweep kitchen floor, and quick declutter. Below is a picture of the daily tasks portion of the schedule.
Starting the day off with a made bed gets things started on the right foot. It also gives you a beautiful place to come back to at night. That’s why it is the very first daily task. From here, I like to immediately throw in a load of laundry (more on this later) and do any dishes in the sink to get them out of the way. I sweep at different points in each day depending on how bad my floor is that day.
Finally, the last daily task is a quick declutter at the end of the day. That way I don’t step on a toy when I have to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and I get to wake up to a house that isn’t in total disarray.
If you consistently complete these daily tasks each day, you have a great head start for a consistently clean home.
Weekly Tasks
The weekly tasks on this cleaning schedule should take 30 minutes or less to complete. I’ve broken them down to one task on each day Monday through Saturday so you won’t find yourself spending your whole weekend cleaning! Sundays are off because we all need a break from cleaning and a chance to rest!
Mondays
Mondays are usually the day we are all getting settled for the coming week. I am usually out running errands and grocery shopping. So, I like my cleaning on Mondays to be a little less hands on. On Mondays, I wash everyone’s bed sheets and replace them. It sounds like a lot but in just a load or two, your cleaning task is done for the day. You don’t have to scrape them on a wash board or anything, you are just throwing them into a machine. You got this.
Pro Tip! I recently bought these fitted sheet holder straps and I absolutely LOVE them. No more sheets popping off in the middle of the night. Plus, they are super easy to use for weekly sheet changes.
Tuesdays
On Tuesdays, I like to dust to keep my home looking a little less like a haunted house. I love using Swiffer Dusters so that I can throw it away when I’m done for an easy clean up. This is also the perfect task to do alongside little ones! Unlike adults, young kids think dusting and cleaning is fun which works out for you! I created my son his own diy toddler cleaning kit from the dollar store so he has his very own duster to help me!
Wednesdays
On Wednesdays we wear pink…and also clean the bathroom if your following my realistic cleaning schedule. I personally go for all natural cleaning products with kids around and have loved using Grove Collaborative. If you use my referral link, you can receive a free gift set to try out their products and see if you love them too!
Thursdays
If I don’t set a day of the week to vacuum and mop my floors, it doesn’t happen until the bottom of my feet are covered in crushed up cheerio crumbs and I’m sticking to the kitchen floor by the remnants of a grape popsicle.
Now that I’ve started trying to clean my floors more regularly, I love using a Shark steam mop. You can wash and reuse the pads, and you don’t have to crawl around on the floor (a huge perk for us pregnant people).
Fridays
Bedrooms are often the first place in the house to get insanely cluttered. The piles of clothing and clutter slowly grow throughout the week while nothing ever gets fully cleaned up. Setting one day a week where bedrooms are fully cleaned up makes sure that things don’t get too out of hand. As your kids get older, they will learn to expect this and maybe even learn to get it done without being asked…*gasp*
Saturdays
Cleaning out the fridge once a week helps me stay on top of any spills or stickiness in the fridge and also helps me plan my grocery shopping for the next week. Quickly jotting down anything that you are out of or low on means limiting extra trips to the store next week.
Monthly Tasks
So far we have gone over daily and weekly tasks to keep your house clean and avoid spending entire weekends and evenings cleaning. However, the occasional deep clean is also necessary for some areas, especially within the kitchen. These monthly tasks can be completed in a couple different ways. Here are a few ways you might choose to get them done.
1. Complete them all in a single day and have one deep cleaning day a month.
2. Complete two each week and assign them to two days of each week that you are less busy.
3. Complete one task on each weekend day throughout the month. Each one of these tasks should take an hour or less so it won’t be eating up your whole weekend.
These are just a few different ways that you might choose to complete these tasks. You may also choose to do these “monthly” tasks less often and that’s okay to. There may not always be time for these bigger monthly tasks and they may have to wait another month. Tweak this schedule however needed so that it is best for you, your home, your family, and your life.
What to do if you mess up or miss a day...
breath and have patience with yourself
If things don’t go to plan or things come up, just breath and practice patience. There will be times in life where the cleaning doesn’t happen. Sometimes big things come up and other times you just need to prioritize your friends or family over cleaning that day. That is okay! Sometimes I intend to clean a room and then my toddler asks to go outside. I choose what is most important in that moment…my son. And that’s okay! The purpose of this realistic cleaning schedule is not to guilt trip you. It is to give you a system for your cleaning that doesn’t leave you overwhelmed and frustrated every weekend.
modify the schedule and start small
If you are used to doing all your cleaning on the weekends, this schedule may take some time to get used to. Start small and work your way into this new routine slowly. Start with just making your bed in the morning. Once that becomes a habit, make your bed and then throw in the laundry. Slowly add one thing at a time and you will have this whole routine in place before you know it.
One of my husband and I’s favorite sayings is “See a little, see a lot. See a lot, see nothing.” When it comes to tackling something that feels too big for us, you have to just see a little bit at a time in order to not become overwhelmed by all that needs to be done. The same goes with cleaning. See a little. See one or two daily tasks first. Then see three or four. Eventually, you will see it all and you will see a clean house each morning.
This post was all about finding a realistic cleaning schedule to help you feel a little less overwhelmed by your home! I truly believe consistent routines can make all the difference! So don’t forget to head over to my “free cleaning checklists and guides,” to download this realistic cleaning schedule and check out my free spring cleaning and stain removal guides!
-Beautifully Busy Mom
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Meet the Author
This post was written by Monica, a busy mom of two whose been looking for a way to keep her house clean ever since having kids. This schedule is manageable and quick so that anyone with any schedule can keep their house clean without spending every weekend cleaning.