What is the best cleaning schedule for a family? There are many different schedules that people follow, but there are some essential tips to remember. For example, it’s a good idea to do daily tasks when you have more energy and time at the start of the day. You should also avoid scheduling too many chores per day if they take up a lot of your time and energy. This blog post will discuss all aspects of what makes up the best cleaning schedule for families!

Clean As You Go Type Schedules

So most of my cleaning is completed as I’m doing other things or just finished doing other things. Like a bath, when I get out of the bath, I wipe everything down, the mirrors and taps on the bath and the sink.

After I’ve been for a number 2 every day, I clean the toilet. It takes 2 minutes to wipe down the cistern, handle, seat and give the bowl a little scrub.

When I put something in the bathroom bin, I wipe the dust off it and off the skirting boards around it, which takes 30 seconds.

After I’m finished cooking, I clean up. It’s simple and doesn’t take very long to complete, and half the time, it’s not even me doing that job. If my husband cooked, he cleans up after himself (he needed to be trained, though).

These simple, straightforward little tasks will save you hours of deep cleaning on the weekend or your days off.

Get into the habit of cleaning up after yourself immediately and teaching other household members to do the same.

Simple Daily Schedules

Keeping it simple will save you a headache. When hashing out your cleaning schedule.

Daily cleaning tasks should include:

• Making the bed

• Dishes

• Wiping counters

• Laundry

• Vacuuming main areas

Having a simple daily schedule like this will maintain your sanity and home, reducing the need for “deep cleaning”.

You can download my free printable schedules here.

Daily Schedule Top Tips.

I’ll explain the daily cleaning schedule below.

Making the bed.

My top tip for bed-making is…… every one is responsible for their own beds.

For the kids, make it easy for them. I learned that no matter how many pretty cushions I put on my kid’s beds, they’ll never make it off the floor, making the whole room look untidy.

Keep decorations to a minimum. Could you keep it to pillows and sheets only? That way, when you ask them to make the bed, they don’t look at 300 hundred cushions with a face of complete overwhelm.

I love that our children learn life skills and habits like this from an early age, then the good habits carry them off into adulthood.

Dishes.

If you’re washing by hand, do them immediately. The anxiety will only get worse the bigger the pile gets.

If you’re using a dishwasher, stop wasting time and water pre-rinsing. It’s completely unnecessary with the machines of this century. Today’s detergents and appliances are specifically designed to work on dirty dishes. And you’ll save 1000 litres of water per year.

Wiping Counters.

Wiping counters is a pain point of mine. I hate when people in this house don’t wipe the counters after themselves. My son, for example, will make a cup of tea, splash it on every surface and even on the window and leave it. It seriously winds me up.

So I make a point of cleaning up after myself every time I use a surface or counter. This includes the bathroom.

I tell my son the same thing. If he’s gone back to his bedroom without cleaning up after himself, I will go up the stairs, turn off the Xbox and make him go clean up. And he does.

Laundry

Urgh. I loathe laundry intensely. But it must be done. So a good rule of thumb is one load per day.

Either my husband or I look after the laundry. We generally have more than one load per day. I don’t know how, because we both wear the same clothes for a few days. I’m guessing it’s the kids making the never-ending piles of laundry.

But if you try to do one load per day, you can’t go wrong. And always put it away as soon as it’s dry and folded to avoid getting lazy.

Vacuum Main Areas

Since buying Victor The Robovac, I only really do a proper vacuum once a week or if the kids have destroyed something he can’t handle.

However, if you haven’t got a Robovac, my advice is to do a quick vacuum of the main areas within your home. Basically, it’s my whole downstairs: living room, kitchen and dining room.

Weekly Cleaning Schedule

A weekly cleaning schedule is a little more than the daily tasks. And I lay it out below.

Easy Weekly Cleaning Tasks

• Dust the furniture throughout the house.
• Vacuum thoroughly throughout the house, including the corners with the hose.
• Mop the areas of hard floors. I do the bathrooms by hand just because it’s easier.
• Change beds if you’re a weekly kind of person, or fortnightly is fine too.

(Cheat hint: Use a flat sheet between you and the duvet cover, so your duvet cover requires less laundering, no one likes changing a duvet cover).

• Kitchen deep cleaning. This just means on top of the daily keep it clean schedule, you’ll need to clean things like the microwave too, descale the kettle, clean the coffee maker and any other countertop appliances. It’s a good idea to run a proper machine cleaner through the dishwasher and empty the filters. You can give the washing machine the same kind of pampering as well. Don’t forget to clean out the kitchen bin; it’s a haven for bacteria.

Monthly Cleaning Tasks

Your monthly cleaning schedule should include things like:

• Cleaning out the oven.
• Cleaning the windows. (Interior, get a window cleaner outside).
• Bathrooms. Bathrooms will need a little bit of a deeper clean than what you carry out daily. Give every surface a thorough cleaning; try not to scrub or use abrasive products as this will destroy the finish on your porcelain and glass. Use a toothbrush around the taps and the ends of the fixtures to remove any buildup of limescale. Give the tiles a good clean and use a mildew killer if you need it, but don’t put it on any other surface because it will eat away at the finish.

Cleaning Schedule Delegation

I’m so sorry, but I feel like I have to keep saying this to sink in for some of my readers.

You are not a slave to your family or your home.

The running of a successful home comes down to sharing, taking responsibility and delegation.

My husband and I delegate simple tasks to the kids; the little one likes to clean (and lick) windows, so we let her clean the ones she can reach safely.

My eight-year-old daughter tidies and cleans her room. She makes her bed and puts her dishes in the dishwasher.

My 16-year-old empties all the indoor bins and replaces the liners. He’s also delegated loading or unloading the dishwasher, drying anything on the drainer, and he cleans up the bathroom after himself. I’ve tried to teach him how to hoover; however, he seems to be overwhelmed by the button and cord, hahaha.

My husband and I share a lot of the responsibilities. If I’m off cleaning in another part of the house, you can guarantee he’s in the kitchen seeing to a load of laundry. By sharing our responsibilities fairly, we get to spend more time together at the end of the day and weekends.

We’ve become pretty good at working as a team, and it bides us well when we get away for an unplanned short break. Packing on the spur of things is a nightmare when all your favourite clothes are in the laundry. Not for us. Ours are always (well, most times) where they are supposed to be.

Conclusion

I don’t say these things to brag or anything. I write because day in and day out, I see people posting statuses in my Facebook group, asking how other people get it all done and keep tidy homes. They often go on to say that their partner and kids do nothing.

I’m sorry, and I know this sounds brutal, but it’s their fault. They’ve never set the rules or the boundaries, and all relationships need these two critical ingredients for peaceful cohabitation.

My advice would be to make your schedule from the lists above and delegate a few tasks, only a few, to the other members of the household, and if they don’t do it, you have my permission to lose your shit and take away something they love (usually Xbox in this house). And don’t think that you’ll look crazy losing your shit, everyone does it, but most people don’t talk about it. A bit of shouting and swearing is good for your soul (controversial opinion). 

Keep It Clean Club

If you would like a bit of a helping hand getting your home and mind in order, then I have just the thing for you. My home keeping club, Keep It Clean Club (KIC Club), will teach you what, when and how to clean, give you an easy to maintain a schedule for daily, weekly and monthly tasks. I have a whole chapter dedicated to delegation. Now, this can be anything from hiring a professional to dishing out jobs to other household members.

I’ve just added a new chapter about mindset and habit building which will help you immensely if you struggle to keep to a new routine. I’m using it myself to build in a healthy eating and fitness routine. I’ve never had any good habits around my health, so this was all perfect timing for me.

My mindset and habits building will change your life when appropriately implemented. Your new habit building mindset will spill over to other areas of your life, and you’ll see better results at work as well as home.

You can access my course below:

https://sarahjanegoldsmith.com/

Coincidentally as I was finishing up this post, I received this text from my sister hahaha!

I was laughing so hard at this, but honestly if you feel like no one is listening or helping, just kick off once in a while haha.

You can find more cleaning inspo and guidance below.

• Printable Cleaning Checklists and Schedules
• Cleaning Services in County Durham
• Why Spring Cleaning Is Important
• Cleaning in North Tyneside
• Morning Cleaning Routine in 6 Easy Steps!