It’s the beginning of the year (or maybe it’s not). You’ve got the cleaning bug, or maybe you’re nesting! Either way, we all want to have a happier, more productive life!
My sister told me about a woman she knows that breaks down her cleaning into daily tasks and will do things like wiping baseboards every week. At first, that sounded a little overboard to me, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense to do certain tasks more often so that the dirt wouldn’t build up. Thus taking much longer to clean than if you quickly did it once a week.
So I took her list, and a few others online, and created one that made sense for me and that I would be happy to see hanging up in my home (I suggest taping it to the inside of two kitchen cabinet doors!). Now, your circumstances may be different, we live in a tiny 2 bed-1 bath apartment, but I tried to make this list work for almost everyone.
Why on paper?
Most of these tasks are common sense, like making sure the AC is working before summer comes. But taking these tasks out of the back of your mind and onto paper will take the stress away from having to remember. There is also something about taking a pen and filling in a checkbox or a circle that just makes you feel great.
More Frequent Tasks Makes the Cleaning go Faster
Instead of waiting until the microwave smells like 10 different foods and has a layer of hardened gunk to clean it, give it a quick wipe once a week! You know you should be washing your sheets more frequently than you do (or at least I know I need to), and this list will give me the little nudge and reminder to do so!
Yearly & Monthly Tasks
The cleaning schedule is broken down into 3 categories – Yearly/Seasonally, Monthly, and Weekly. There are tasks that only need to happen once a year. Instead of giving myself a massively long list to scan through, I chose to split it into seasonal sections and organized them in what I thought made sense for each time of year.
Some home tasks need to be done once a month. I added 12 squares for those tasks so you only need to print out that paper once a year. Better yet, laminate your papers, use an erasable marker, and you can reuse it again and again!
Daily Tasks
The second sheet is split up into daily tasks. Mondays are for the Kitchen. Tuesdays are Bathrooms. Wednesday is Bedrooms. Thursdays are Miscellaneous. Fridays are Organization and make up days. And then the weekend is outdoor chores and family time! I don’t think this paper is meant to be strictly followed. If I miss a week, I can just do it the next week. No pressure to be perfect!
Here is the download button for the PDF. Just print and you’re ready to get cleaning!
For those of you who want to customize your list, you can download the blank sheets and can write down exactly what works for you and your schedule/home/phase of life.
Please tell me how things go in the next few weeks and months. I am definitely not a cleaning wiz but I think it will surely help me for this year. I would love to hear if you have any suggestions to make it better, just comment below! Happy cleaning!
