A daily cleaning schedule can help keep you on track so that your house never turns into an unmanageable mess. Cleaning a bit each day can help you to avoid the need for massive cleaning marathons at the end of the week, and can help ensure your home remains organized and beautiful.
Free Printable Daily Cleaning Checklist
To help you to keep on track, you can print out a daily cleaning checklist using Adobe.
DIY Cleaning Checklist
Create your own using a blank template. Prioritize based on your household's needs.
What to Consider When Creating a Daily Cleaning Schedule
Everyone's home, and everyone's tolerance for mess, is different. As a result, your daily cleaning schedule needs to be custom-made to meet your household chore needs. While there are certain tasks that belong on every daily schedule, before you sit down to create your own plan, you'll need to make a decision on what purpose you want your cleaning schedule to accomplish.
Consider Your Priorities
One reason that daily cleaning schedules fail is because of the lack of realistic goals. When you're creating your cleaning schedule think of a few questions before designating chores.
- Are you looking to break up the chores into daily chunks?
- Do you just want to avoid weekly clutter?
- Can you get your family or roommates involved?
- Are there other people in the family that you need to take into consideration?
Not only do you have to be realistic about your priorities, but it's important to think about how much time you and your family have to designate to cleaning tasks. You can't fit two hours of cleaning tasks into the 15 minutes that you have between track and choir. On the flip side, if this is a way to break the chores up during the week to avoid that mad weekend cleaning dash, that needs to be considered too.
Consider Where You Can Fit Chores In
Some people have a few hours each day, while others have only a few free minutes to choke down a bit of dinner and run. Therefore, you might want to consider working daily chores into your morning and evening schedules. For example, can you work making your bed, checking the bathroom, putting dirty clothes in the hamper and folding laundry into your morning. Cleaning the counters, loading the dishwasher, washing a load of laundry, sweeping, and taking out the trash can be worked into evening and bedtime routines. This way it becomes part of your daily routine rather than setting aside specific time for chores.
Prioritize Your Rooms
There are rooms in your house that everyone is going to see, then there are those that you keep clean for your own peace of mind. Areas that are going to get a lot of traffic are going to need regular cleanings, like kitchens, living rooms, stairways and hallways, the main bathroom and entryway. Storage rooms, your bedroom, bathroom and closets can be saved for weekends or big cleaning events. However, if you are feeling peppy or have some downtime during the week taking on one larger task can make your weekend that much sweeter.
Identify Your Must-Do Tasks
These are tasks that are important for sanitation reasons and to avoid things piling up. This will make sure to keep your house not only looking fresh but smelling fresh. A few must-do tasks might include:
- Washing dishes: You never want to let dishes build up in the sink, if you can help it.
- Wipe down kitchen counters: Dirt on the counter can serve as a breeding ground for bacteria. Wipe the counters down at the end of the day with a quick swipe of a sponge or antibacterial wipe.
- Handle the floors: Of course, you won't want to wash your floors every day, but a quick swipe of the kitchen floor with a broom or a Swiffer equivalent can extend the time required in between thorough washings and can help keep crumbs (that might attract bugs or mice) away.
- Do a load of laundry: This is most important for families, where laundry can get out of control quickly. By doing one load a day, you'll avoid spending your weekend tackling a big pile of dirty clothes
- Pick up and sort: Pick up toys, clothes, etc. You'll also want to sort and organize mail. It can be really great to use baskets and organizers to give everything a home.
- Clean stairs: Keep a bucket by both the top and bottom of the stairs. Anything that needs to go up or down should be put in the bucket, and when you happen to be going up or down anyway, you can grab the items and take them to their proper locations on your way.
- Wipe out the sinks: This is a good practice for both bathroom and kitchen sinks. When you brush your teeth each night before bed, simply grab a paper towel and do a quick swipe of the sink.
- Hang up clothes: It can be tempting to let the work clothes linger on the chair next to your bed, or to leave your coat hanging over the door. This makes a room look messy though, and leaves you with a pile of clothes to put away, which can seem daunting.
Sticking to Your Schedule
Everyone has the best of intentions when it comes to cleaning, but sometimes life gets in the way. If you get in the habit of following your daily cleaning schedule every day, soon it will become second nature and you'll be able to do it effortlessly.
