Can I Have Your Cleaning Schedule

Try the FLy Lady. She is totally awesome. She helped me finally get my schedule in control. You can find her at flylady.net It's totally free, and you can sign up for emails from her to remind you of what to do, what's important, and to inspire. Plus it's so nice to know you are not the only one out there.

go to flylady.com IT will help you out tremendously. that is what it is all about. Helping people take control of not only their homes, but theri whole life.

I am a single mom with two kids, 4 and 7, one in school part time and the other in 2nd grade. I do part time during the day child care and before/after school care.
I have to be on a schedule or this house would be insane and very dirty! :) I have a dog and three cats too so I vacuum daily.
Mondays- clean litter box, pick up dog poop in backyard, do laundry for the day, clean up kitchen, trash out, vacuum downstairs.
Tuesdays- dust downstairs, clean bathroom downstairs, vacuum downstairs, trash out, load of laundry and kitchen as needed
Wednesdays- do daily stuff, laundy, kitchen and trash.
Thursdays-trash has to go out to curb, dust upstairs, change sheets upsairs and clean upstairs bathroom, vacuum down and up and one load of laundry, kitchen accordingly.
Friday-change litter box, load of laundry, kitchen, trash out and vacuum downstairs, give the bathroom downstairs a wipe down with clorox wipes.
Saturday and Sunday are free days, just the daily stuff.

I vacuum every day downstairs, do one load of laundry each day so I don't spend a whole day doing laundry, I take the trash out daily and keep the kitchen organized and clean daily.
I do not spend more then 40 minutes each day on cleaning, I just don't have the time. Doing this schedule is my life saver and keeps the house clean.
Daily the kids have to pick up the playroom and put their own clothes away after I have done laundry. They are to pick up the living room of their stuff before bedtime.
Good lcuk, I am sure you will find your groove! :)

Hi Candice... Here is my cleaning schedule.

Mondays: Master bath and bedroom, water plants
Tuesday: Upstairs bathroom and laundry room
Wednesday: Downstairs Bathroom (Wednesday tends to be a crazy day at our house, this is the easiest to clean)
Thursday: Playroom and Grocery shopping
Friday: Family Room and baby's room
Saturday: Kitchen and my kids clean their rooms

I also do 2 or 3 loads of laundry everday which really helps me stay on top of it. If I miss a day, I skip it that week and move on to the next day. Over two weeks it doesn't get TOO bad. I also love the disinfecting wipes. They save a ton of time and are so easy to clean with!

Life can get so crazy sometimes! Sometimes it helps to have a little schedule. It doesn't feel like your cleaning all day long and getting nothing done. This way you know that everything gets done at least once a week.

good luck! Also, don't be too hard on yourself. You're a mom, not a housekeeper...

I work full time, 12 hour day 5 days a week,so I had to have a cleaning schedule. This is what I do. Every day I clean a different room in the house. My children are in charge of Keeping their own Bed Rooms and Bath Room clean. I check it on the day I do my own. Here is a example of what I do

Sunday:
Day off
Crock Pot Day for cooking supper
Load Dishes in Dish Washer (Start at 10pm when I go to bed)

Monday:
Front Room
Clean under Counch Cushions, Under if needed
Pick up floor, Vacuum
Take out Garbage
Dust what needed
Load Dishes in Dish Washer (Start at 10pm when I go to bed)

Tuesday:
Kitchen
Wipe down Cabinets, Fridge, ect
Pick Up Floor, Vacuum
Take Out Garbage
Load Dishes in Dish Washer (Start at 10pm when I go to bed)

Wednesday:
Dining Room
Wipe down Chairs, Table
Pick Up Floor, Vacuum
Take Out Garbage
Load Dishes in Dish Washer (Start at 10pm when I go to bed)

Thursday:
Bed Rooms
Make Beds with Fresh Bedding
Pick Up Floor, Vacuum
Take Out Garbage
Load Dishes in Dish Washer (Start at 10pm when I go to bed)

Friday:
Bath Rooms
Pick Up Floor, Vacuum
Take Out Garbage
Load Dishes in Dish Washer (Start at 10pm when I go to bed)

Saturday:
Laundry
Pick Up Floor, Vacuum
Take Out Garbage
Groceries, Shopping if needed
Hair Cuts, ect.
Load Dishes in Dish Washer (Start at 10pm when I go to bed)

Can I just say I can't believe all the cleaning other people are doing!! I know I should do better but does your house really need to be vacuumed every other day? and windows??? i hire someone every 3 years to do my windows!

I try to do all my laundry on Mondays, groceries on Wed. If I can get a schedule where I'm cleaning the bathrooms once a month I'll be doing good!

Before I had kids I did bathrooms on one day, floors (kitchen & vacuum carpets) on another, laundry on another, dusting on another.

I guess I'm lazier than many but I enjoy my kids and don't do much when they are asleep for two reasons. . . I think its important that they see when things get done and the house isn't magically tidied up and also. . . when they are asleep is my time to relax! and go to bed early myself.

Finally, there is a famous, old quote about cleaning and motherhood:

I hope my children will look back on today
And see a mother who had time to play.
There will be years for cleaning and cooking
But children grow up while we're not looking.
Dusting and scrubbing can wait 'till tomorrow
For babies grow fast we learn to our sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs and dust go to sleep
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

I didn't read the other responses, but have you heard of Flylady? She has a website with tons of helpful hints on housecleaning. It's helped me. Check out www.flylady.net.

J.

I clean the kitchen every day, or it gets out of control. I let it go once or twice and I had to run the dishwasher 3 times the next day to catch up!! I vacuum every other day or every two days, depending on how it looks. I "light clean" the kids bathroom every day--which simply means, I wipe the sink up (it seems to always have crumbs or dirt around it!) and pick up any stray articles of clothing they have left in there. I usually do toilets, mop bathroom floor, etc. once a week. I have the kids help me pick up their messes at the end of the day, and we TRY to clean their room and playroom everyday, but that doesn't always happen. More often that is every few days.

Check out the website flylady.com. It has all kinds of schedules, from bathrooms, right down to stamping your bills. You can get as in depth with it as you want. They'll even send you daily emails telling you what to work on that day. I don't do all that because I'm not that good at checking my email.. but still it's a good site to start getting the mess under control.

You're going to hear this a lot: www.flylady.net
Download and follow the Control Journal. It's awesome. And if you're having trouble getting dinner ready on time, also??? Go to www.SavingDinner.com and get on board there. That has been my best money and time investment since I became a SAHM.

Hi Candice. I plan daily. What I do is make a list of the important things to do for 1 day in the morning. This will include reading, showering, (whatever I need to make happen.) It seems like each day is pretty different for me. If my list is bathroom, kitchen, groceries, and vacuum I decide how much time I should allot to each thing. Then I see if I have that much time. I would do errands last.

If bathroom is 15 minutes, I set a timer and after 15 I leave and I'm done. I immediately set the timer for the kitchen. At the end if I haven't had interruptions I've controlled how many minutes I've spent, and I'm happy. Then if I want to go back and spend another 5 cleaning a certain room I can. By doing this I spend less time cleaning, and much less time on things that distract me from cleaning.

I know this way isn't for everyone, but I hope you figure out what works best for you! Good luck. :)

Hey Candice!
I use www.flylady.net. She has an awesome 'system', and it's all about 15 minutes at a time. You can do anything for 15 minutes, right? Check it out, it's really helpful. Not only for your house, but your soul.

I also use the flylady she is wonderful!!! And the site is free!

What I do because my house was always in CHAOS is I used Fly Lady. It is a yahoogroup that sends you emails explaining on how to clean your house with small steps. For example. This week we are cleaning the master bedroom in 15 minute intervals. You clean your "hot spots" which is where things clutter. Mine is the dining room table, coffee table and the back of a couch. Then you shine your sink every night. I love this part. Yes I hate cleaning my kitchen, but I feel so good when it is done. I totally recommend it. Every thing takes only 15 minutes or less. It is great! I do childcare in a 900 square foot house. In fact today I have 5 kids in my house along with two dogs. So it gets really messy. But I know that the fly lady keeps me on track and my house will be in order. Another thing I love about her is she says you don't have to be perfect. It is the small blessings in your home that make a difference. Check it out! I know I am not the only woman on here that suggested it. Hope this helps you.

Well, I myself go to school full time and what seems to work best for me is this. I don't have class on Tues and Thurs so I spend Tuesday doing all the upstairs cleaning and Thurs doing the basement. I also try to keep the laundry up by doing at least 2 loads a day/night. I have 4 kids so I do a lot of laundry. I try to keep Saturdays for all my errands that way I can keep up. If not it gets way too crazy. Another thing to do is do one room a day for 15-20 minutes. I try to do compitions with the kids and they help a lot. Hope this helps!

Hi Candice, I feel your pain. My schedule is a bit anal but I was feeling so overwhelmed that it has been the only thing that works for me. I do a load or two of laundry every day and pick up the house. Every month, I make a calendar of meals, family activities and my cleaning schedule...the schedule is the same every month. Saturdays I food shop for the week and every other Saturday, I change all the sheets, Sundays I vacuum my house, Monday I mop the kitchen floor. Those don't change. Then, the first and third Tuesday - Thursday I clean the bathrooms (I have 3, so I break it into 3 days). The second and fourth Tuesday - Thursday I dust my house in 3 sections (upstairs, downstairs, basement). On Fridays, I wash windows. Every window is only washed once a month, so I break up all the windows in my house into 4 groups for 4 weeks. This is what has worked for me. It is just a guideline. Sometimes I am doing it late at night or early in the morning or catching up on the weekend, but it helps keep me on track. If you would like to email me ____@____.com, I would be happy to email you a copy of my calendar. Good luck.

I also got my schedule going throug flylady. It used to be you got an email for each thing and it was SO overwhelming for me but now it comes in a digest form, so just one email a day. Fantastic..! but I also have my routines in my own control journal (which means THE PLAN) lol. I put mine in a 3 ring binder in plastic wipe off sheets. I have a Monday-Sunday schedule of what gets done dailyl as well as the Zone Cleaning. She has 5 zones, one for each week of the month, which is when you get your in depth cleaning done. The rest of the time you just have to maintain. I love how she starts you from wherever you are--definitely recommend Sink Reflections as well. I checked it out of the library. I can email you my control journal sheets if you want to see them. just email me and I can send them to you. It isn't hard to tweek it from there to add or subtract things you don't need in your home. I spent hours putting in pictures etc. picking out fonts in true SHE fashion (SHE=Sidetracked Home Executive) but it really is a fantastic control journal if I do say so myself. It's great too because When my dh wants to help around the house he pulls it out and crosses things off with a dry erase marker and is getting things done that are on the list for the week, which really does help me out quite a bit. It's also great for the daily chores for the kids, I just pick something off the deep clean list for zones, like wiping the floor boards in the family room. It takes about 15 min to do the chore they are happy it isn't longer and I am happy that chore got done. I use the sheet covers so that I can just wipe it off for the next week on the Mon-Sun ones and for the zones, it helps me keep track of what got done in that zone last month (I'm not at the point where everything gets done in each zone every month yet lol...but it's okay) the house runs so much smoother and I don't spend much time doing housework--an hour on Mondays for a home blessing hour (10 min in each room is basically what it ends up being) and each day I don't usually spend more than 45 min. doing housework. and it is broken up throughout the day as well.

Check out flylady.net

Actually I do have a cleaning schedule! It gets emailed to me every morning by Fly lady! Go to www.flylady.net and sign up for FREE and she will give you sections of your house to do each week and a small daily portion.

I'm not quite flying yet, but I'm getting closer!!
J.

I loved the Flylady book and use a lot of her techniques (especially her technique of 15 minute time increments so I don't get distracted), but the Web site kind of overwhelmed me.
You might like to see the daily chore list/planning calendars at www.motivatedmoms.com. It has some things in common with the Flylady's control journal idea. I think it's an $8 download, but very nice if you like to work from a hard copy of a list. You can customize the size and whether or not you want your daily to-do list with suggested Bible readings or not. The woman who designed it figured out everything a mom has to do and then scheduled it. So, for example, "clip children's fingernails" shows up about every 10 days on the list. "Replace burnt-out lightbulbs" also shows up every so often so you can keep up with less-frequent chores, but there are a whole bunch of daily things that would keep anyone plenty busy but focused.
I also once read a book called "Confessions of an Organized Homemaker" that had a great daily schedule I followed for a couple years, until my second baby came and I needed to do a bit of everything every day. The book is dated, but I think it's still useful and you could probably get it for nearly nothing at Amazon or Powells.
Good luck!

Check out flylady.net
Flylady helps with routines, schedules, and decluttering your home.
I recently started and I have a cleaner home, less stress and I don't mind having people over to the house now. In face tonight will be the third party in my house since I started.
Even my husband has said in public how much better the house is now.

I follow flylady. The website is http://flylady.net/index.asp
Her advice is wonderful. Go the Beginner Baby steps link, and follow them. It'll take a while, but you will eventually get your house under control. It is very important to follow the steps, don't rush it. It helps you build a routine so that your house is clean and mess is under control. Plus, it helps you realize that your house doesn't have to be perfect, and allows you to be easier on yourself. I know I was so hard on myself about the clutter and mess, but flylady helped me to feel better about myself - both because I was getting the house clean, and because I didn't expect as much of myself and my husband. In that respect, it also helped my marriage. My husband appreciates a cleaner house, and doesn't feel like I am just leaving messes for him to pick up anymore, so he helps out without my even asking now. I can't say enough positive things about this lady. Plus, it is FREE!

I hear you! I'm working on implementing a cleaning schedule so I don't have anything concrete to offer yet. I'm obviously not sure of your situation if it's just cleaning or if you, like me, have clutter issues but I wanted to recommend Sink Reflections by Marla Cilley. It was great. Her website is http://flylady.net although I think the book is worth reading.

Good luck!
E. (SAHM to 3 yr & 13 mon girls)

Hi Candice.
I used to do all my cleaning on Fridays (I used to have them off) before I had kids. Now I have a 3 1/2 yo & 2 month old. I have a pretty simple schedule.

Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays I vacuum (I have a big lab who sheds almost constantly).

Tuesdays I do 3 or 4 loads of laundry.

Thursdays I clean my bathroom (my house isn't very big & I only have one bathroom).

Fridays, I also change sheets, do a couple of loads of laundry, sweep, mop & dust. My 3 yo loves to help dust.

Saturdays, I try to have everything done so we can do things as a family because my husband is home. If I didn't quite get all my Friday chores done, I'll finish them on Saturday.

I am obsessed though, about my house smelling clean, so if it is really dirty or dog smelly, I'll do whatever it takes to make it clean. Since we have a dog, I don't want my house to look and smell like we do.

I don't do my windows, or deep clean my house very often. Only in the spring. Then, I try to tackle a room a day and wash walls, clean windows, blinds, baseboards, etc.

I know several people whose houses are immaculate and whose kids are always scrubbed, but I want to enjoy my kids while I can. They're only small for such a short time. I try to involve my 3 yo in as many chores as I can. She loves to help.

Also, our dirty dishes go directly into the dishwasher, not the sink. I try to have my kitchen cleaned up before I go to bed, and my daughter has to have her toys picked up before she goes to bed.

If you can get your house in decent shape, a simple weekly cleaning schedule will work just fine. I hope this helps. Good luck. Don't try to do everything at once, you'll just get overwhelmed.

I face this same thing and have been seriously thinking of getting a cleaning person. Of course I can't afford a professional but I am going to ask an older girl in the neighborhood if she is interested in a small part time job of cleaning. This girl is in dance so she doesn't have time for a full time job. I was thinking if I even paid her $15 for 2 hours a week it might help with the battle. Just a thought. You might could find a younger girl to do it for the same price as babysitting (we pay $5.00 an hour) but you would have to see if the job is done to your satisfaction.

"YES" Having a daily schedule is exactly what i do. I'm Up at 5 make lunch for the family breakfast for the kids start cleaning the every day stuff, dish are done after meals, Morning routine {this is as I do.} Every day I sweep, ( hardwood floors) I vacuum the edges of all the 9 rooms. Laundry On Sundays, The kids help. Monday is Mop day, Clean Bathroom head to toe in & Out have a washable curtain I bleach, etc. Wed. I dust. and sanitize toys, Thursdays, Family fun day so I do my normal floors dishes but I don't extent my clean I like to work out on this day. Friday Is Bedding, a Fresh weekend calls for fresh linings. The house is not usaly tip top with 5 kids on a daily so Fridays are a rearrange put it in it's place kinda day I browse over my weeks chores if needed.Weekends are full outside the home so its almost untouched. I seasonal clean the windows. Clean in the spring b4 opening, and fall when we lock them. My home is always hectic, But I am a strong clean dedicated stay at home mom. Have fun with it You will notice if your on schedule things seem to go a lot more smoothly! My Kids help with chores go to working moms.com for some ideas. I have two children I care for three children, I live with My Mother in law who's a nurse, and My Husband who's a Carpenter. Cleaning fairy to the rescue! Have fun be clean. Love & Faith & Blessings

Hi Candice! I never really had a schedule. But a few things I do daily. I first do all of my kitchen. Let me explain. No dishes left over, I wipe down the surfaces and put the clean ones away. Next I go to the trash I make sure nothing is overflowing. I take what is, put into a larger trash bag and put outside. When I empty the one int the kitchen I always clean the inner can, I have one like that, with a small amount of bleach and Mr Clean and cold water and allow to air dry. When I see my laundry baskets getting full I do the clothes right then. I don't wait. I hate to have loads and loads of clothes to be doing. small is better than the monster ones. I do my bathrooms at least 3 days a week, just as I see the yuk building I do it. Just pick any 3 and do this. When I do the bathrooms I do the vacuuming and dusting. I am also graced I don't have alot of carpet. I have to do hard wood though. This will become a habit.

i make a list in my mind of most important to the least. I start with the most important and work my way down. if I don't get anything done, i did the best i could for that day.

Since i no longer have nap times and always seem to be on the go, I clean on sundays. My husband always tracks stuff in all weekend and I love having a clean house to start the week. So I get about half done in the evening when my husband s garenteed to be home. He sort of watches the kids. I strat sometime in the afternoon and do one or two tasks. I usually do one floor a week, alternating up and down. when I am on an "off" week upstairs, I do wipe down the bathrooms witha quick Clorox wipe. On an "on" week, I do showers, floors and vaccum. what I don't get done sunday evening (I at least sweep and mop the wood floors downstairs during commercials of Desperate housewives.) I do on Monday. I constantly sort and clean up the kitchen every evening so it is never in "need" of cleaning. I wash windows (like where the kids put their prints and the splashes in the kitchen) about once a month when I have the windex out for the bathrooms. I hardly deep clean as I try to assign one little thing a week. Like I just cleaned the kitchen windows well indside and out (kids helped) and wiped blinds in living room. Baseboards get done here and there while dusting (kids help with this). So basically, I do what i can on one floor sunday evenings. theni have a magnetic note pad on the fridge and I write down what still needs to be done in three spaces: upstairs, downstairs, and computer/ errands. then I check it off as I go. I like to put on a few things I just did and check it off. so when I wake up and look at the list, there are a few things done! I roughly try to get things done by tuesday evening.

Hi Candice - hello and clean wishes from another housekeeping challenged mom. Just don't know how these others do it and keep up with their kids, a job, their husband and other activities. It's like they are cleaning for 2 hours a day!

I like the flylady approach of doing 15min jobs but truthfully, when I signed up for flylady emails - suddenly my inbox was INUNDATED with emails - more than I could ever keep track of unless I was sitting at my computer waiting for each one. After 2 hours I had 30 emails from flylady.

that said, I do small jobs throughout the day and take advantage of naptimes. My 6yo is learning to help - we've established that he has to clean up all of his toys before going to bed and he has learned to wipe down the bathroom sink. My husband helps with dishes and laundry and we try to only handle items once if possible. ie: dirty dishes dont go to the sink, they go straight to the dishwasher and clothes go from the dryer right to hanger rather than a basket.

The other thing I had to do to get control was to declutter declutter declutter! We had a big garage sale and lots of toys and clothes and you name it have gone to charity. It just feels better to not be pushing maximum volume all the time.

I also had a cleaning service come in and do a deep clean for me - it cost $25 a man-hour and was worth every penny. They deep cleaned all the baths, floors, surfaces, blinds - everything. It helped to feel like I wasnt starting at a negative.

best of all things to you!

Hi my schedule is Monday Wednesday and Friday I vacuum and sweep downstairs Everything. On Tuesday and Thursday I do the same upstairs. Nightly I do a quick pick up before I go to bed. I get everyone to pitch in and that helps so that first thing in the morning I have a clean house. Dishes are done nightly as a family thing. At 7 your child can help. At 3 you can give your child a sock and they can dust everything low while you dust everything high. I refuse to clean all day and so whatever gets done before noon is done and I don't sweat the rest of the day. When a laundry basket gets full I put a load in at night in the wash and move to the dryer before I go to bed. Then fold the next day. It is easy to keep up with a load at a time. If you allow yourself to wait and do it all in one day it feels like a big chore. And for some reason feels like you do it more often. The bathrooms get cleaned on Saturday unless it is in need of cleaning sooner. I basically do what I need to as it needs to be done. I know that people comment on my house being clean and I know that I clean less then everyone else. It is really about getting everyone involved. Let yourkids see Dad help with dishes or something. It is good for them to see that and it teaches them that everyone helps and mom isn't the only one who cleans. Good Luck I hope that this helps. I think that it takes a while to find something that works and helps you feel like you have time to be more than a maid. The main thing that I tell people is find the 2 things that are most important for you to hve done. For me it is the kitchen and the bathrooms. Once those are clean for me I have energy to deal with everything else.

I admire your desire to find a way to get on top of the chores. I have struggled for years with that as I am by nature not a schedule-oriented person -- more of a day-by-day type. I finally came to terms with my personality in general and my approach to being a mom, which is very hands on and interactive.

Essentially, I agree with the gal who included the wonderful poem about children growing up so very fast. We have no schedule at all -- things get done when we notice they need to be done and we have time to do them. And "noticing" they need to be done probably means the toilets were calling out for a scrub brush days ago and the carpets had needed to be vacuumed last week. But we just decided as a family that we weren't going to add stress to our lives over chores. Things get done when they get done. When it's time for a big cleaning throughout the house, my husband helps significantly which is wonderful. He recognizes that as a SAHM, I work longer, harder hours than he does so he doesn't mind helping on cleaning up around the house.

I hope you find your answer to staying on top of things; I just encourage you not to go overboard and take away quality time you could be spending with your kids. Find ways to do cleaning chores together if you can. Kiddos do grow up so fast!

Go to flylady.net she has ideas on how to clean everything. I started her system in July, I still have messes and haven't figured out my weekly system yet but I have kept up on keeping my dishes clean which was a huge issue for me. She recommends Monday as Weekly home blessing hour which works great when I do it, this is where you do a quick clean of your major rooms. Mop, vacuum, change sheets, etc. SHe then has other days that are errand days, desk days, and daily routines that you have to do everyday, like keeping your sink shiny, and doing a load of laundry everyday (including putting it away) I'm still working on those habits since my volunteer schedule at my kids school is sometimes unpredictable but I really like her ideas and hope to eventually be able to keep everything in better control.

Good Luck