HOW WE ACTUALLY KEEP OUR HOUSE CLEAN (DAILY/WEEKLY/MONTHLY TASKS)

We may be able to renovate an entire home ourselves and design the crap out of a space but Chris and I both share a weakness…cleaning. I haaate cleaning and it’s always been nearly impossible to motivate myself to clean. In the 5 years that we’ve been married, we typically did a deep, thorough cleaning that took 5-6 hours to complete. And then once we finished we were so exhausted that we waited another 3 months before we could motivate ourselves to do it all over again. Needless to say, our house was almost always dirty/messy and it actually generated a lot of stress for us.

Then January of 2019 came and apparently we both reached the end of our rope because without prompting each other, we simply started cleaning something everyday. 3 weeks passed and we realized the house was still clean and it didn’t even feel like we put all that much time into maintaining it. It’s now been 3 months since we started acting like adults and I’m pleased to report that our house has remained clean, tidy, and sanitary since January 1st! Trust me, I’m just as shocked as you are! 😉

Our cleaning routine is really quite simple. If you need a little guidance in the cleaning department, I have all of 3 months worth of experience to share with you. 😉 Here’s how we do it:

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DAILY TASKS

In order to maintain a clean and tidy house, we have several tasks that we do everyday.
(Average time spent cleaning: 30 minutes spread out throughout the day)

• UNLOAD DISHWASHER – Every morning Chris unloads the dishwasher and reloads it with whatever dirty breakfast dishes we have. We’re learning to always put dirty dishes directly into the dishwasher after we use them instead of the sink. Seems simple but doing this basic step saves us a lot of time later on in the day and keeps the kitchen looking clean.

• DINNER/DISHES – We play rock, paper, scissors to see who makes dinner. (Ok not literally, but we do have a debate every evening on who has to cook) Let’s be honest, Chris cooks most nights which means I’m on dish duty.

• PICK UP – Every evening before we go to bed, we pick up the house. Everything has a spot which means we don’t leave blankets out, pillows out of place, or remotes on the coffee table. All the random things that pile up throughout the day go back to their place. We do our best to have nothing sitting out so that when we wake up it feels refreshing!

• START DISHWASHER – The last thing I do before bed is wash the last few dishes. I start the dishwasher and hand wash the rest.

WEEKLY TASKS

Once a week (typically on Saturday) we tackle the bigger jobs like cleaning the floors, dusting, and sanitizing the bathroom/kitchen. We split the jobs up between the two of us and we switch jobs every week so we aren’t stuck doing the same thing every time.
(Average time spent cleaning: 1-1.5 hours weekly)

• BATHROOM – One of us cleans the bathroom – I’m talking a thorough cleaning. Vanity, sink, mirror, light switches, door knobs, toilet, shower, floors, floor trim, etc. The whole thing!

• KITCHEN – The other person cleans the kitchen – countertops, sink, faucet, stovetop, appliance fronts, etc. It’s gotta be spotless from head to toe. (BTW Chris’ dad found the best stainless steel cleaner/polisher that we use every week now. It eliminates finger prints, streaks, and water spots and makes the stainless steel look brand new again.

• DUST – Whoever cleans the bathroom also has the job of dusting in each room. This also includes dusting the floor trim which tends to collect dust quickly.

• FLOORS – Whoever cleans the kitchen also has to sweep and mop the floors. We vacuum the rugs and we use our Swiffer Sweep & Vacuum to collect all the dirt/dog hair on our wood floors. This thing is a life saver and makes sweeping so much faster! Then we go over the floors again with our spray mop which is ideal for wood floors because it doesn’t soak the floors too much which could be damaging.

• BEDROOMS – We only have two bedrooms and one is a guest room that rarely gets used so we don’t have a ton of work to do in the bedrooms. We just tidy up, hang up any clothes that have been sitting in hampers, and change the bedding.

• LAUNDRY – Saturday is our day to do all the laundry. Depending on how much we have, we usually start in the morning and fold as we go.

MONTHLY TASKS

There are a few things that don’t need weekly cleaning but are nice to tackle once a month.
(Average time spent cleaning: 30 minutes)

• CABINET FRONTS – We have black cabinets which will eventually start to show greasy fingerprints and smudges. Once a month we wipe down our cabinet fronts with soap and water.

• INSIDE OF MICROWAVE – Be honest, when was the last time you cleaned out the inside of your microwave?? Ya it’s nasty in there. It’s nice to wipe it down at least once a month so the food splatters don’t build up.

• EMPTY OUT THE FRIDGE – Honestly, we meal plan every week so we don’t typically have a lot of leftover food that rots in the fridge; but occasionally we’ll start to have expired leftovers stacking up. Once a month we clean it out and dispose of the moldy food!

We’ve realized that if we just do our best to get the house tidied up every night before we go to bed, it makes everything else so much easier! That plus a heavy dose of frustration with the mess will keep you on track! I hope this was helpful and I wish you the best of luck on your cleaning endeavors.