Cleaning schedules are just for businesses, right? Nope! They work just as well for your house and all the chores involved in homemaking. So – if you’ve never heard of one before, let’s see exactly what IS a cleaning schedule – so you can decide if it’s for you or not.
Maintaining a clean and tidy home isn’t something that happens overnight without any planning or effort. Keeping your home clean involves a regular commitment to certain essential housekeeping tasks.
The problem is that many of us lead hectic lives that don’t seem to leave a lot of room for cleaning.
Making time to vacuum twice a week on top of work, childcare, running errands, preparing meals, and going to the gym can sometimes feel impossible.
And that’s where a cleaning schedule comes in!
Because trying to keep all of your household chores in your head is a recipe for burnout, overwhelm, and procrastination.
Whereas a proper cleaning schedule will quickly lead to noticeable improvements in the cleanliness of your home.
So, if you want to learn what a cleaning schedule is, and why you should make one, let’s go!
What Is A Cleaning Schedule?
A cleaning schedule is basically a checklist of all the areas of your home that need cleaning, the specific cleaning tasks that need doing in each area, when you’re going to do each chore, and who will do it.
You might think of your cleaning schedule simply as a cleaning-specific to-do list.
Why Is A Cleaning Schedule Important?
It’s easy to understand what a cleaning schedule is, but many people aren’t initially convinced that they should make one.
However, there are numerous benefits to implementing a cleaning schedule in your home, including:
#1 – A Cleaning Schedule Gives You A Cleaner And Tidier Home
A cleaning schedule will definitely lead to a cleaner and healthier home environment.
One of the major benefits of a cleaning schedule is that it stops things from being forgotten about.
Some household chores, like the washing up, are very obvious when they haven’t been done.
Other things, like cleaning the grouting in your shower, aren’t so obvious until a lot of dirt has built up.
#2 – A Cleaning Checklist Can Be Motivating
Having a checklist of chores where you can physically cross things off is very motivational because you can see progress and feel like you’re getting somewhere.
It’s all too easy to feel like housekeeping never ends, so having a checklist where you can it doesn’t need doing for x days or weeks can be freeing.
It may even get you excited to clean at the end of the day… but I’m not promising!
#3 – It Can Improve Your Mental Health
Implementing a cleaning schedule may actually improve your mental health!
I’ve already discussed how ticking things off your cleaning checklist can give you a motivation boost, and this will definitely improve your mood.
Add to that the fact that you will alleviate the overwhelm that can come with all those cleaning tasks to be done – by breaking it down into manageable and scheduled tasks.
Not only that, but because you know when things will be getting done (and that everything has a time for doing it) you can walk around your home without that constant TO DO list making you feel guilty every day.
#4 – A Cleaning Schedule Gives You Control
Having a cleaning schedule can also help you to feel more in control because you can easily see where any issues may occur.
For example – if you feel exhausted, you may want to reconsider how much cleaning you’re actually doing.
You could look at reducing how often you do certain things, automating some cleaning (robot vacuum, anyone!), or delegating some to a professional or family member.
Without writing down what needs to be done, and when – you’ll never understand what you’re trying to do, and it will be harder to make changes that benefit you.
#5 – It Can Teach Responsibility
If you have children who are old enough to get involved with household chores, a cleaning schedule can be a great way to teach them some responsibility.
You could look at creating their own cleaning schedule with tasks that they need to get done and when – so they can replicate what you’re doing.
This is a fantastic life skill for them to learn at an early age, so it becomes habit for them in adult life when they have a home of their own.
TIP – Why not implement a reward system for them? A film at the end of the week would be a great idea, for example. It doesn’t have to be huge to make them feel like they’ve earned something good.
What Should A Cleaning Schedule Include?
The cleaning schedule that you create for your home should be realistic and achievable.
It should also be tailored to your individual circumstances, as every family is different.
To help you get started, here are some ideas of things that you may want to include on your cleaning schedule:
- Vacuuming
- Mopping any hard floor areas
- Dust / Polishing
- Cleaning the windows (inside and out)
- Cleaning inside the fridge
- Wiping all kitchen cupboard doors
- Cleaning the oven
- Washing up the dirty dishes
- Laundry
- Ironing
- Clean mirrors
- Change all bedding
- Wiping all door handles
- Taking out the rubbish/recycling
- Watering plants
- Wiping down any surface in the bathroom / kitchen
- Descaling the shower head/taps
- Cleaning toilets
As you can see – some are daily cleaning tasks and some are needed a lot less frequently (weekly tasks or longer).
This leads me to the fact that you can also have different types of cleaning schedules, depending on how you prefer to organise things.
What Are The Different Types Of Cleaning Schedules You Could Have?
You could split your cleaning up in several ways – so let’s go through a few options now:
Cleaning Routine By Time
- Daily cleaning checklist (you could keep each daily task as one list, or further split into morning and evening chores)
- Weekly cleaning schedule
- Monthly cleaning tasks
- Seasonal
- Annual
- Deep Clean / Spring Cleaning checklist
- Quick clean (for when only the bare minimum time is available)
You can of course use a mix of all these schedules, depending on the type of cleaning you’re doing.
I love to create a 4 weekly rotating schedule that tackles daily, weekly, monthly AND seasonal/annual all at once.
I then have a separate deep cleaning checklist for when I fancy doing a big clean (more than the regular cleaning schedule), and a quick clean for when I need to get round the priorities prior to guests coming, for example.
Cleaning Checklist By Room
This works great when you prefer to go through the house one room at a time, and get it all done in one go.
It’s a great option for those who can tackle a room in one go, but you need to be wary of how long there will be between when you finish a room and when you’ll next tackle that one again.
Otherwise some rooms could wait a LONG time to get any time from you.
Cleaning Checklist By Cleaning Task
This is a great option to choose when you want to get around every room in the house, and save time by batching what job gets done, when.
For example – if you’ve got everything out to clean the inside of your windows – why not do them all in one go?
This is very popular as you can create a schedule that allows you to do one main task a day and allows everything to get done pretty frequently. For example:
Monday – Vacuum
Tuesday – Change bedding
Wednesday – Dusting & Polishing
etc…
Do A Mix Of Room And Task
You may also prefer to do one room a week fully, plus one or two other tasks around the whole house.
This can be perfect if you want to stay on top of everything pretty regularly.
So, there you have it. What a cleaning schedule is, why it’s a good idea, and a few ideas for what it needs to include.
I hope it’s helped you see that having things written down and tracked really does make sense for so many reasons.
And if you’re ready to create your own cleaning schedule, you’ll want to head HERE next.
Read Next: 8 Amazing Reasons Why You Need A Housework Schedule Now
