Intro
You can read all of the homemaking books and download all the schedules and routines you can find, but if it the rules go against your inherent nature, you won’t be happy doing it. Setting a bar and a goal to aspire to is essential, but flexibility and honoring yourself is just as important.
Your Tidying Personality
The first thing you want to get clear about is your unique tidying personality. It’s pretty simple actually. Do you prefer to do a little bit of cleaning often, or a lot of cleaning less often? The truth is that you will have to do both, but establishing which you prefer will allow you to choose a routine that best suits you overall.
Of course regardless of what you prefer, your particular circumstances will often dictate the best course of action for you. For example, when I was single, doing all the cleaning one day a week was perfectly fine. As my family grew, so did the square footage of my home, and the amount of stuff in it. The do it all at once method proved to be overwhelming and a complete nightmare.
I would let everything go for days or weeks. Then I would spend a whole day or two getting everything in order. Feeling completely burnt out, everything would go to hell again, and the cycle would repeat. Eventually, I realized that the do it all at once method was not working for my sanity. It was absolutely divine to have the whole house clean at once, but it never lasted more than a day. 99% of the time, I was living in utter chaos.
The little bit often method is much more sustainable. No, you don’t get the joy of the whole house being immaculate and spot free all at once, but there is an overall sense of wholeness and calm. It also allows you to relegate tasks to autopilot. Eventually, you will find yourself getting the chores done before you even realize you are doing chores. Then you can go about enjoying the hell out of the rest of your day. If you do decide you want that whole house clean feeling, it can be done with relative ease and zero burnout.
So if you have a small home or family, and especially if everyone spends most of their time away at school or work, you can choose whichever method you prefer. However, if you have a bigger house or family, and/or the adults and children are home all day, the little bit often method is going to be the one for you.
How to Create Your Own Routine
The all at once method is self-explanatory and takes no real planning. All you have to do is decide what day you want to clean everything and clean everything. If you want to do it a little at a time, follow the following steps.
Make a list of all of the cleaning and homemaking tasks you can think of.
Organize them into daily, weekly, monthly, and seasonal lists.
Decide what days feel best to do each weekly/monthly task and assign it.
Seasonal tasks are best done in an all at once go. Set aside a day or two every season to to these.
Daily Tasks (6-7 days a week)
How you decide what goes on the daily list is everything that needs to get done to make the current and next day run smoothly.
My daily tasks include the kitchen, dining room, laundry and general tidying.
Ex. Laundry: 1-3 loads folded and put away
Kitchen: Unload/Load Dishwasher, Clean and disinfect counters, take out trash if full, sweep
Dining Room: Pick up clutter, sweep
General Tidying: Gather belongings and put away anything not being used, reset the couch, put dirty clothes in the hamper…etc.
Weekly Tasks (5-6 days a week)
In addition to the daily chores, weekly tasks include deeper cleaning and can be divided by cleaning category or room. I do a little bit of both, with a focus on room categories. I typically do the daily chores first, then move on to the weekly task after breakfast.
Ex. Monday: Dining & Living Room, de-clutter, dust, sweep and mop floors, vacuum rug
Tuesday: Bathrooms sink, toilet and mirrors, sweep and mop, wash floor rugs
Wednesday: Showers and Bathtubs
Thursday: Kid’s Room, wash bedding, dust, pick up and vacuum. (Since the nanny does this if she is here, I will take the day to tidy my office instead.)
Friday: Master bedroom, tidy, dust and vacuum
If you prefer, you can assign specific cleaning tasks to each day for the whole house. For example, Monday’s for sweeping and mopping, Tuesdays for dusting, Wednesdays for counters and toilets…etc.
Monthly Tasks (1-3 per week)
On Saturday’s I don’t have a weekly task. I catch up on any weekly tasks that got missed and/or choose 1-3 items from the monthly list. These are things like washing windows and baseboards, deep cleaning the kitchen, organizing closet, cleaning vents and appliances, cleaning out the fridge, dusting light fixtures and fans, washing couch covers…etc.
Rest Day
The only thing I do on rest days is the kitchen and maybe a quick sweep of the dining room if it needs it. This is the day I reserve to be 100% selfish. Often will eat out or order in. Bath time. Face masks. Read a book. Go out with friends for coffee. Gourmet sex…etc.
Staying on Track
It’s super tempting to catch-up all at once if you get off track. I have found that puts me right back in the vicious cycle of doing too much and burning out. So if you miss something during the week that doesn’t get addressed on the weekend, just wait until it comes back around the following week. Meaning, if you don’t get a chance to clean all week for whatever reason, don’t binge on the weekend. Just wait for each task to show up again on the schedule and do it then.
Try to avoid swapping tasks out if you’re not in the mood for something. You can, but if you do it too often, you’ll start to fall behind. Just suck it up and if today is bathroom day, just clean the fucking bathrooms. I promise you it will take less time and energy than to sit around complaining or avoiding it because you’re not in the mood.
PHOTO BY MART PRODUCTION