I do not know how many of you struggle to keep up with the house chores on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis. Working full time, running a family farm, plus keeping up with the necessities such as laundry, dishes, and cooking; it can become super overwhelming. There are seasons in life when chaos in the house happens, such as around the holidays. I want to give some quick tips that will allow you to keep up with the house chores without spending an entire day cleaning when there are plenty of other things to do as well. Each week, sit down and look to see what all you have going on. If it is a run-of-the-mill normal week, these tips will work tremendously. However, we also have to give ourselves grace, because I know there are also weeks I am just trying to stay afloat. Grace for yourself is key.
My approach is to take a section of the house each day and clean that. No more. No less.
Space #1 - Bathrooms
I love to start my week with an easy task. Mondays in general are not always fun, so why not start with a simple task for the week?
My regular weekly cleaning includes counters and cabinet fronts. I am not deep cleaning here, just wiping them down because children like to touch everything.
The toilet is next. Each week I give the toilet a good clean because there is just something about a clean toilet and bathroom that makes me feel better.
Next is sweeping and moping the floors. I always save this for last, because once I mop the floors, I am on to the next bathroom!
Some might wonder about tubs and showers, and it depends on the bathroom I am cleaning. The kid's tub gets cleaned once they are done bathing that evening. If you are someone with glass doors on the shower, that would be included in your regular cleaning.
Keep in mind that we are going to maintenance here, you can deep clean different spots of the house that suit your schedule, but that is not what this is about. We are maintaining cleanliness so you can enjoy your weekend with your family!
Space #2 - Extra Bedroom, Dining, Foyer
Everyone has those spaces in their house that do not get touched often or may rarely get used. Tuesday is my day for that. Day two is when some people are contemplating whether or not to keep going, so quick and easy rooms that do not require a ton of work should be for that mindset.
These rooms are a quick dust, sweeping, and moping and then I am done. Do not overcomplicate these spaces. Keep it short and sweet. Odds are you tackled a few rooms in a matter of 30 minutes or so and that is something to rejoice about!
"The objective of cleaning is not just to clean, but to feel happiness living within that environment." - Marie Kondo
Space #3 - Living Room
Our family spends a good amount of time in and around the living room. My daughter does her homework there, we spend our evenings before bed here, and we are constantly walking through the living room to get to various other spaces in and around the house.
The middle of the week is perfect for the heart of the home. Begin by straightening up. Clean off the coffee table, straighten blankets, dust the mantle, vacuum rugs, sweep and mop. The kids are usually pulled in to help with this space. They each get their personal belongings because as we all know children, they leave stuff everywhere! While they bring their stuff to their rooms I can easily get the rest finished.
Work smart, not hard here! The chances of you needing to tidy up again another day are good, but you will have done the "hard" part already and there is no reason even small children can't help you clean this space.
Space #4 - Entryway and Laundry Room
We are almost to the end of the week! I am sure this means you have plans this weekend, and if you do not have plans, rejoice! You now can add relaxation to the weekend to-do list.
The entryway gets neglected during the week with backpacks and coats when it is cold outside. Shoes.... the entryway tends to be a shoe drop during the week and looks like chaos by Thursday. Use this time to pick up or organize the shoes, and straighten the hall tree with coats and hats. Our entryway and our laundry room are in the same room, so, I clean off the counter and wipe down the washer, dryer, and counter.
Once all of the surfaces have been wiped down, you can sweep and mop.
The straightening up in this area takes longer than the actual cleaning portion, but I get excited every time I get to clean this space. It is the first thing we see when we walk in the door, and when it is a mess, I feel like a mess.
Cheers to a clear headspace!
Space #5 - Kitchen
The kitchen. This is easily the most used space in our house. We are always in there cooking and baking. With continuous kitchen usage, comes continuous messes to be cleaned. This is not my favorite space to clean because I know tomorrow I will have more cooking to do and more mess to clean up. The kitchen is unlike the other rooms in the way that we wipe the counters down and empty the sink each evening before we go to bed.
When you are cleaning the kitchen, we are not talking about the daily picking up you do. We are looking at cleaning the kitchen table, washing seat covers (for the children), sweeping and mopping around the island and table.
We also use this day to clean our coffee counter, stovetop, and all appliances. This day takes the most amount of time. All of this together might take me an hour to clean. On Fridays, I know I work on cleaning the kitchen so I also plan on easy meals. Plus it's Friday, and the kids love a good pizza night!
Clean kitchen, easy dinner, little clean up. It is a win! You have made it to the weekend! Enjoy!
Space #6 - Kid's Space
This space in our home does not get the weekly cleaning aside from their bathroom. For anyone with children, you know the minute you give their room a good scrubbing and pick everything up, they turn into tornados and demolish all of your hard work.
Like I said, get the kid's bathroom cleaned weekly and you are already winning! I save their rooms for a nice rainy weekend day when we can't go outside. I am not wasting my beautiful sunny weekends stressing and getting frustrated about the kid's bedrooms.
Our home does "the dump". All of their toys get put on their bed. I will dust, sweep, and mop and then we will put toys back one at a time. If the toy is broken or no longer played with, it gets tossed or donated.
For me, the kid spaces will easily take all morning which is why I choose to do it once a month or before we have people over. This is always a must before holidays such as Christmas.
Clean A Little Each Day So You Can Enjoy Your Weekend!
Keep in mind that your family's needs will not be the same as mine. You do what is right for you and your family and feel free to tweak my tips and order in which I go as you choose. Something life-changing to me was my Passionate Penny Pincher Home Planner. They have daily Bible readings, monthly tasks that I do not typically think about, and checklists that have become quite handy in my daily life. I have purchased their planner for 4 years now and I would not go back to anything else ever.
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