Making a Cleaning Schedule
Making a cleaning schedule has changed my life! I have been super stressed about cleaning, and feeling like I was spending my whole evening and weekend cleaning or worrying about not having time to clean everything. So I went to Pinterest to see what others were doing for their cleaning schedules. Most of the ones I found had a list of every day chores (some broke it down to morning and evening), another list for with a chore for each day, and a third list of things that don't need to be done every single day or week. I like the idea of a cleaning schedule, because if you miss a day you'll do it next week and the other areas of your house are still staying clean. It's been great having it as a check list before I walk out the door in the morning and when I get home at night. There's no worrying about what I'll clean, and when I'll get to it.
Making My Schedule
I took schedules and ideas from 3 or 4 different cleaning schedules to make my own. Since I work full-time I wanted to split up my morning items and my evening items, so I didn't get overwhelmed when I'm trying to get ready for work or trying to wind-down for bed. Also, I only wanted to spend an extra 15 minutes in the morning for the chore of the day, because I knew I could fit that in my current morning routine. Next, I wanted to make sure I vacuumed at the beginning of the week, because if we have people over or we're working outside there tends to be a lot of dirt tracked throughout the house. However, Buddy sheds a lot and I don't want to have people over on the weekend and have dust bunnies made of dog hair everywhere. So I added a quick vacuum on Thursday when I mop to make sure there's not a bunch of dog hair around my house. Another thing I did to make this schedule better for me is doing a load of laundry each day (wash it in the morning, dry it before dinner, and fold and put it away after dinner). I did this because I was trying to do laundry only on the weekend but we always seem to be gone or have people over and it wouldn't get done. Then most of our clothes would be dirty, and it was really overwhelming to wash, fold and put away 2+ weeks of clothes in a day.
Making Your Own Schedule
The best way to pick a cleaning schedule that works for you is think about your day. You might not find the perfect cleaning schedule for you online, but making a cleaning schedule is super easy to do yourself. Start by finding out what other people are doing (eh hem... Pinterest). Maybe you don't like the idea of the daily chore being all over the house, but would rather designate a room a day. Or maybe you are waaaayyy better at doing all your laundry all in one day (unlike me) and you can choose a day to do laundry. It's honestly super easy to make a cleaning schedule in Word or Publisher, and you can make one that fits your home's decor. Honestly, I'm sooo happy I took the 20 minutes to make my own, because it has saved me from a ton of stress!
Do you have a cleaning schedule?