If you’re looking to stay ahead with your clean home habits, one of the easiest ways to do this is to set up your own daily, weekly & monthly cleaning schedules.
Whether you are a working mum or a stay-at-home mum, have a large family or a small one, having a regular cleaning schedule will help you keep track of those essential cleaning tasks.
Cleaning is one of those things in life most of us would rather skip. But the stress that follows when you leave things too long is worse than taking the time to get it done.
With busy lives and so many things to fit into our daily lives, maintaining a basic cleaning schedule can be the ultimate game-changer to help simplify your time!
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Getting Started With Cleaning Schedules
The key to a successful house cleaning schedule for your home is to keep it realistic.
If you work long hours or if you have ballet and soccer mum duties 5 times a week with the kids, the time you have to clean is very different to someone who is home more often.
It also depends on your level of motivation.
If you absolutely despise home cleaning (I hear ya!), committing to 15 minutes of essential daily tasks is far more likely to happen than an hour-long step-by-step morning and night routine.
So remember – REALISTIC & ACHIEVABLE!
Now let’s focus on how your daily and weekly cleaning schedules might look:
Daily Cleaning Schedule
When it comes to creating a daily cleaning schedule, take the time to consider what tasks you do every single day. Or at least, the things you want to be doing every day.
This looks different for everyone, depending on the size of your family and the routines you have in place.
While making the bed may be a priority for you, it may not be a consideration for someone else.
Daily Cleaning Tasks:
- Make beds
- Stack & unpack dishwasher (or wash dishes)
- Wipe down counters
- Wash lunch boxes on school days
- Tidy living spaces
If you have a big family, a daily load of washing could be an essential task for your family too. Or sweeping floors. For us, those tasks are part of our weekly cleaning schedules.
Weekly Cleaning Schedule
Not all cleaning tasks are daily tasks. Many are weekly, monthly or even less often – quarterly or annually for certain deep cleaning tasks!
Weekly tasks can be once a week or several times a week. What differentiates them from your daily tasks is the fact that you don’t need to do them every single day.
We do washing bi-weekly on Wednesday and Saturday with 2 primary school-aged kids at home.
I sweep the floors every 2-3 days and I vacuum usually just once a week. It doesn’t mean this routine will work for you!
Weekly Cleaning Tasks
- Vacuuming / Mopping
- Wash bed linen, towels and clothing
- Put away clean linen
- Clean bathrooms
- Clean kitchen
- Tidy living spaces
- Empty school bags
Your weekly cleaning schedule can look a few different ways. Here are some examples:
Weekly Block Cleaning
If you want to do all your weekly tasks in a single block, set aside a day of the week for this to happen.
For many working mums, this usually looks like a Saturday or Sunday morning.
During this time you can get all the weekly tasks done that you want to do, and then fit in any extra top-up weekly tasks during the week.
The way you plan your cleaning block can help you save time.
Put on the washing, unpack the dishwasher, and then work your way through different zones. All your kitchen tasks at once, all your picking up and packing away in one block.
Then by the time you get back to the finished load in the washing machine, most of your tasks are done.
Day By Day Weekly Schedule
Another option for weekly cleaning schedules is to have designated days for each task.
This can be useful if you don’t want to spend a big chunk of a single day cleaning, or if you have time to spare each day of the week.
Your cleaning days may look something like this:
- Monday – Wash bed linen & sweep floors
- Tuesday – Wipe down appliances & dust surfaces
- Wednesday – Vacuum & a load of laundry
- Thursday- Fold clean laundry & put away
- Friday – Clean bathrooms
- Saturday – Vacuum & mop floors & a load of laundry
Try both methods if you’re unsure which will work best for you and see which sticks!
Monthly Cleaning Schedule
Maintaining a monthly cleaning schedule for the tasks that aren’t required each week is a great way to stay on top of those bigger tasks.
Not only does your house stay cleaner when you remember what you need to clean. It also reduces the likelihood of things going wrong when you haven’t maintained your household appliances. Eeek!
Many of the monthly cleaning tasks could be pushed out to quarterly if you are time-poor and prefer to do a big whole house deep clean a few times a year.
This is where spring cleaning often fits in!
Either way, maintaining a monthly cleaning schedule will help you to avoid forgetting to clean some of the essential areas in your home.
Especially the ones that might gross out your guests if you aren’t careful!
There are also many items in your home that need replacing every month or quarter.
Monthly (Or Quarterly) Cleaning Tasks
- Wipe baseboards
- Disinfect remotes, controllers & computer accessories
- Wipe light switches
- Dust light fittings & ceiling fans
- Deep clean appliances (microwave, dishwasher, oven, washing machine, kettle)
- Remove dryer lint
- Clear drains
- Clean or replace filters (air conditioner, water filters etc)
- Soak hair brushes & accessories
- Dust behind appliances
- Vacuum under furniture
- Spot clean wall marks
- Wash pillows & comforters
- Wash windows, screens & doors
- Clean window & door tracks
- Clean curtains & blinds
- Wash rubbish bins
- Clean shower curtain
Working Mum Cleaning Schedule
If you work full-time, or part-time… even if you work from home, the way you schedule your tasks will differ.
Having less time means making the most of what time you do have. And I’m certain you don’t want all your spare time spent cleaning your home!
Cleaning schedules for working mums are most effective when you get the rest of the family involved.
Share the load and get more done in less time – TOGETHER!
Sharing duties with a partner for cooking and clean up reduce load. As does having set nominated tasks each week for each household member.
If there are certain jobs one of you absolutely hates doing but the other doesn’t hate as much, those are the jobs to share around.
I hate cleaning kitchens and kitty litter, so those tasks are usually my husband’s. Sorting & folding laundry is something the kids can help with.
And I’m the only one in the house who knows how to operate the washing machine. Or remembers to clean the toilets.
Having regular chores for your kids will also reduce your workload and teach them more responsibility.
Using time-saving habits and cleaning tools are another way to make the most of what time you do have. And we all need a few cleaning hacks in our routine!
Stay At Home Mum Cleaning Schedule
If you are home full time with your kids, chances are you have more time to keep your cleaning routines organised.
That’s not to say you still shouldn’t get help from other family members.
It is important for everyone to be involved in keeping the house clean and tidy!
Chores for your kids. Cleaning tasks your partner can do or assist with. Or perhaps they get the outdoor tasks, while you manage the indoor tasks.
Make sure everyone in the family is picking up after themselves so there is less for you.
Simple changes such as having each family member put their own dishes in the dishwasher or clothes in the laundry save everyone time.
As a work at home mum, our household sits somewhere between the two, with schedules helping us find balance, while still giving me time to work full time from home too.
Tools To Save Time
Having the right cleaning tools can help you maximise cleaning outcomes in less time.
Some tools can automate some of your cleaning, such as having a robot vacuum cleaner running through the week to reduce the frequency you need to vacuum.
Spray mops mean no messy buckets dripping water everywhere. You just grab and go.
The same goes for cordless vacuum cleaners. No fiddling about with extension cords or moving from room to room when you reach the length of your cord.
It also helps to have less to clean by decluttering regularly and reducing how many toys we have in our house.
I know I am much more likely to keep up with quick cleaning tasks if I have fewer roadblocks to getting them done. Easy is key when you dread doing something!
Staying Organised – Creating A Cleaning Planner
Starting a new schedule or habit can take time to adjust. Many are easily abandoned too.
Just like with meal planning, if you don’t take the time to adjust your cleaning schedule to suit yourself and your household, it becomes too much effort.
Setting up a cleaning planner or a home management binder for your household is a great way to keep track of your daily, weekly & monthly cleaning tasks. And this is easier than it sounds!
Create your own house cleaning schedules for daily, weekly and monthly tasks, either in written format, typed and printed or by using a pre-made printable cleaning schedule PDF.
Put these in a binder or laminate them and stick them to the inside of your laundry or pantry door for easy access.
You can use your cleaning binder as a checklist of tasks to complete or simply as a reference. This is a great idea for storing maintenance dates and appointments as well.
Cleaning Schedule Apps
If you aren’t keen on a paper cleaning planner, perhaps an app is more your style! There are loads of apps you can use to create your own digital cleaning schedule.
For something more specific, check out these cleaning schedule apps:
- HomeRoutines
- Unfilth Your Habit
- BrightNest
- Tody
Keeping your home clean does not need to be difficult! With a little planning and persistence, you can create functional cleaning habits to keep your home looking great. Not just because you’re expecting guests!
I hope this daily weekly monthly cleaning schedule helps you stay on top of your home cleaning tasks!
As for clutter, add a 5 minute declutter habit into your daily schedule as a way to reduce the excess of stuff you have and keep it under control!
Still struggling to get motivated? Try these cleaning tips:
- How to make cleaning more fun
- Cleaning hacks everyone should know
- One box decluttering hack
- Cleaning games to make chores fun
- How to clean your oven easily
- How to clean your home in 2 hours or less
- Chores for kids by age
- Things you are forgetting to clean around your home
- Things you are forgetting to replace
- DIY Cleaning solutions for home
