The easiest way to make sure you don’t wake up one day and find yourself living in a pigsty is to get in the habit of following a cleaning routine. Of course, everyone’s different and your own schedule will need to take into account how much time you have, how many people are living under your roof, etc. This list is by no means comprehensive, but these are some good guidelines to get you started.
Daily
- Make your bed. A wise man once said that having a productive and accomplished day begins with this small task. It will only take you a few minutes, but it will instantly make your room feel cleaner, and you’ll be thankful you did it when you get into bed at night!
- Clear the clutter. You don’t have to go on a half-hour cleaning spree, rushing everything into its rightful place. Instead, each time you leave a room, take one thing with you that doesn’t belong.
Weekly
- Wipe down surfaces such as counters, toilets, sinks and appliances.
- Vacuum and sweep floors.
OR
- Hire a maid service that can come in and thoroughly clean everything from dusting your ceiling fans to mopping to disinfecting toilets.
Monthly
- Dust spots like window sills, molding, decor and other surfaces that don’t get a lot of movement
- Clean your dishwasher, showers, tubs and other major areas that get used regularly
- Wipe down your shades and blinds
OR
- Hire a cleaning service! If all that dusting, wiping and vacuuming just isn’t your thing, a maid service is perfect for this.
Seasonally
- Flip/rotate your mattresses
- Clean your windows, wipe down your oven and vacuum any necessary furniture
Yearly
- Deep clean your carpet. These days you can easily rent the necessary tools to do this at a local grocery store.
- Clean/wash your walls.
- Hit those little-used areas such as any attics, basements or sheds
When you look at the break down, the daily tasks are the least labor intensive. Everyone can spare 5 minutes to make their bed, no matter how busy. And while the seasonal and annual tasks can take a lot of time and some elbow grease, you don’t have to do them very often. Put it in your calendar a month out if you need to! So that just leaves those pesky weekly and monthly tasks. If you’re a busy professional, working parent or just hate doing those things, call a local cleaning service and get those off your schedule so you can enjoy more time doing things you love!