The SIMPLE Homemaking Schedule That Actually Works!

When is the last time you wiped down your washer and dryer and mopped the floors in the laundry room?

Have you ever had a pile of paper clutter on the kitchen table for days because you needed to have a few minutes of uninterrupted brain time to file things away?

How about cleaning out the fridge and wiping down the shelves? The ones in the door that get sticky.

If you’re anything like me, you have tried many cleaning routines to no avail.

I have tried implementing the “old-fashioned homemaking routine” and the “weekly tasks” approach. Honestly, I just told myself I was more of a “weekend warrior” type of housekeeper.

I would get the itch to have a clean home and get everyone on board with some deep cleaning, music, and coffee and that worked decently well……until it didn’t…..

After moving to a bigger home and adding our 5th baby to our family (on top of homeschooling), everything felt out of control.

Everywhere I looked I saw endless tasks screaming for my attention…. and no capacity to get to any of them. 

I wanted a clean house, but no plan how to get it there. 

*If you’re thinking, “Just clean your house! What’s the big deal?” 

Well, when you have priorities that precede having a tidy home (all important things, but some more urgent than others) such as: changing diapers, feeding children lunch, taking kids to ballet, Church, homeschooling, etc.

It can feel like you’re just chasing yourself all day long…. and at the end of the day the dust bunnies are still sitting where they were this morning.

If you feel like you need a big reset, then this blog post is for you!

Where does the overwhelm come from?

The overwhelm is from our thoughts. When we see the clutter and dust bunnies and think, “I don’t know when I will ever get to those things!” 

However, if we see those things (everyone eventually gets clutter and dust bunnies!) and think, “It’s okay, I will get those on Tuesday.” We can find ourselves feeling in control, rather than pummeled by chaos.

Why can’t you find a cleaning schedule that simply WORKS?

If you have small children, it’s the same as living with sever ADD. (In my opinion.)

Constant interruptions, mini emergencies, and adorable questions every 30 seconds is just their nature. They need you, and it is good.

So, rather than getting frustrated at the little people, how can we embrace it and choose to serve our families with our cleaning schedule? 

A printed plan is a necessity.

Having a printed up copy of your daily tasks is actually very helpful, so you can get right back to your tasks without having to remember (again and again) what it was you were doing.

I thought this was such a silly notion, BUT I gave it a try. I was so impressed by how well I could keep on task!

The Cleaning Schedule that Actually Worked!

After many failed attempts, I finally (after YEARS of failure) found the cleaning schedule that actually works for me. 

ZONE CLEANING.

I divided the house into zones to tackle each day.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Here’s how it works.

• Monday is “Master bedroom and bathroom”
• Tuesday is “Upstairs bedrooms and bathroom”
• Wednesday is “Kitchen declutter and scrub”
• Thursday is “Living room and entryway”
• Friday is “Basement clean and declutter”
• Saturday is “Extra projects and outside cleaning (garage and vehicles)”
• Saturday is also my day to get back to any weekly tasks that I wanted accomplished but didn’t get finished.
• Sunday we rest.

These “zones” are in order in our home layout. This will look different for everyone.

However, this is in addition to the normal tasks that happen on a daily basis such as doing a load of laundry and washing dishes after every meal. It doesn’t need a “day” because it needs to happen daily. 

The zones are the stuff that would normally pile up and become the overwhelm that we are trying to avoid.

The “I don’t know when I will ever get to that” sort of cleaning tasks.

This includes doing the floors in the particular zone and dusting. This may include washing a mirror or window.

You may even take time to actually scrub out the kitchen sink!

Instead of one day where you dust the entire house, or washing all of the bedding.

This is a different approach.

Hear me out.

Having one area in the home completely refreshed and up to your standards (at least one “zone” a day) will help you feel so much more momentum in your weekly homemaking routine.

Dusting the entire house can feel impossible because you should really tidy the entire house first so you’re not trying to dust around toys and clutter.

Then you find yourself tidying the entire house and the dusting never gets done. (I know I’m not the only one that has struggled with this!)

Doing one zone a day is manageable, and you will find it easier to stay on track without running from one end of the house to the other. 

Make sure to assign yourself zones based off how much time and energy you typically have on a certain day of the week.

If you have obligations outside the home every Thursday, then plan accordingly by assigning a zone that won’t suffer so badly if it’s missed once in a while.

You could even have your “outside zone” include the weekly grocery store run and errands day. 

This isn’t wishful thinking! We want our plan to work for us.

Why zones?

Giving yourself zones as your daily routine instead of “Floors day”, “bathrooms day”, etc. will help you look at each area of your home with new eyes once a week.

This will give you the bandwidth to see if there are any decor or organizing that needs a shakeup.

You may be scrubbing behind your toaster on a Wednesday (a task that doesn’t take a lot of time but seems impossible to remember to do) and notice you could use a different system for organizing your spices.

Last week I noticed the top of my fridge was chaotic, and I found a small bin to organize everything nicely. Much better!

The zone cleaning will help you get ahead of your daily cleaning instead of feeling like you’re always trying to catch up.

Print it up, pull it out, and mark it off.

After deciding on your zones and what days you will work on each zone, come up with your list of individual cleaning tasks that need to get done for each area of the home.

Be specific, even if it feels a little silly.

Don’t worry about this being perfect, you can always go back and reprint your sheets if you realize you forgot something that needs to happen in a zone.

You can take this a step farther and add in some monthly tasks for each zone, such as dusting ceiling fans, wiping baseboards, or cleaning behind appliances.

Print out a to-do list for each of your zones. Put each page in a page protector so you can mark things off with a dry erase marker each week.

This makes a HUGE difference so you can get back on task after the inevitable interruptions.

Try it! It absolutely works. 

Start slowly. 

It can be easy to fall into the temptation to attack your home with an episode of rage cleaning on Monday, and by Wednesday your energy has fizzled out and you decide this cleaning schedule doesn’t work (along with all the rest).

If on Monday, you only have 14 minutes to do a quick dust in your bedroom and change your sheets, then so be it!

Simply mark it off in your cleaning tasks notebook and move on with your day confident in what you were able to accomplish.

You can mark any tasks you really wanted to accomplish but didn’t have time, and use some of your Saturday chore time on that instead of your “outside” tasks. 

*Winter is a really great time to catch up on indoor tasks, so take advantage of that as well.

If on your Monday cleaning, you wanted to get around to washing your bathroom rugs, but didn’t have the time, then you can know you will eventually get around to it (Next week!)

After weeks of doing your daily schedule, you will notice that little by little everything is staying orderly.

Yes, we still make plenty of messes. We have a very full life, and the home is meant to be used!  

But at least I know WHEN things are going to get the good cleaning they need, thus avoiding the overwhelming thoughts of doom.

Let’s recap.

• Step 1: First thing to do is divide your home into zones for each day of the week (you can combine simpler areas)
• Step 2: Make a list for which tasks all need to be done in each zone every week. (and monthly)
• Step 3: Print out pages and place them in a binder with page protectors.
• Step 4: Give yourself at least15-30 minutes each day to work on your weekly cleaning routine.
• Step 5: Allow at least 3 weeks to see your progress toward a peaceful home through regular cleaning.

The weekly cleaning schedule that actually works!

Zone cleaning is a great option for those that struggle to stay on task, or live with lots of small people.

This would also be a wonderful option for those of us that work outside the home and don’t want to devote an entire day on the weekend to cleaning. 

You can do it!

We love having a clean kitchen every day, but it’s so nice to have the bandwidth to really deep clean the corners of the countertops.

We do laundry every day, but this allows us the time to organize my laundry soaps and clean the floors in the laundry room. 

The seasonal tasks are so easy to ignore, but with the gentle reminder every few months to accomplish said tasks, you will truly be on top of your cleaning lists like never before.  

Next time you are feeling overwhelmed, you will be able to take a deep breath and remind yourself that you have your assigned chores to accomplish every single day.

Our homes are a gift we get to enjoy, not something to cause us undue stress.

 We can enjoy the simple life of stress-free cleaning. One day at a time.

Because homemaking matters.