Do you keep a cleaning routine?

As a mom of little ones, I often have to work to keep a balance between wanting a clean and orderly home and keeping an atmosphere of warmth and love where I can fully enjoy my children while they are young. Certainly I’m not the only mom who can relate to that!

Besides ensuring that I have the right attitutude towards these little years, I’ve found that one of the best things I can do to prevent stressing about having an orderly home is keeping a weekly cleaning routine. By focusing on one job each day of the week, Monday through Saturday, maintaining a reasonable level of cleanliness becomes quite possible. Their may still be some dust bunnies lurking here and there, but so long as no one comes in with a magnifying glass, we’re usually in decent shape.

Those other families that keep a cleaning routine probably have one that is very different from ours. I made up my guidelines based on our family’s schedule and preferences. I do laundry twice a week (not including diaper days), while some might do a load or two daily. I might skip dusting for a week or two (but of course never more than that… ahem…), but another family may prefer that always done regularly. A family with more older children and teens might find that they can tackle a few extra jobs, like dusting the ceiling fan blades regularly, while at our house, it generally only gets done when I realize how bad they’ve become. So take a peek at my routine, but don’t feel pressured to make it your own.

So, what does our week look like?

Every Day: Make beds & general clean-up

I don’t like seeing crumpled covers on the bed. The children are pretty well into the routine of getting dressed and making their beds right away in the morning. I like to make sure the living room floor and dining room table are picked up and cleared off in the early afternoon so that things don’t look like a war-zone when my husband gets home sometime after 4:00pm. We again have to pick up before bed, and if the children’s rooms are messy (or should I say when), they tidy up there, too.

Monday: Laundry & towel changes

I’m usually exhausted on Monday morning because of the demands of Sunday church services and other activities that require my husband’s attention. Laundry is an easy job in many respects, and I just feel cleaner getting it done. I change our towels weekly, unless the hand towel looks a little troublesome or more showers than usual have been taken. Then they might get changed twice. If we had a guest for the weekend, that laundry is done as well. The children do most of the folding and then deliver the laundry to the correct room. We work together to get it put away, with the goal of it being all done that day. If I am hanging it up on the clothesline, it is usually finished the following day.

Tuesday: Kitchen deep-clean

While the kitchen is always cleaned up multiple times a day during and after meal preps, I like to take one day a week and really wipe it down. I move our counter-top appliances and wipe down everything with a vinegar, water, and essential oil solution, using a citrus vinegar if I have one made. I also declutter the counter spaces. In our home, the kitchen counters are generally the most cluttered places in the house. I think this is because I’m usually in there, and someone is always bringing me something. It’s amazing what ends up there that doesn’t belong, and often times I don’t notice much of it until Tuesday rolls around. I also scrub out the kitchen sinks with baking soda and vinegar and wipe off any spots on the cabinets. Ours are white, and cheaply painted, so there are many spots I can’t remove. Eventually they’ll be replaced, but for now I just want to do the best with what I have.

Wednesday: Dusting, watering plants, kitchen/dining vacuuming

We have a midweek church service on Wednesday, so I assigned jobs to this day that can be skipped more easily. The dust won’t pile up, the plants won’t die, and the floor can be caught up on another day if we get behind and need to skip these jobs for a week. I do try to at least do the extra vacuuming, though. We have carpet in both our kitchen and dining room, and it is really not family-friendly. While I dream of being able to quicly sweep up messes off of a hard floor, I need to use the vacuum at least twice a week under the table, under the kitchen counters, and on the high chair to get the crumbs.

Thursday: Laundry & sheet changes

This is basically the same routine as Monday. One thing I didn’t mention on Monday’s laundry explanation is that I also have my middle two children take the laundry partially down to the washer and drier. It’s become their job while their oldest sister does school work. They are learning to sort it as well, which is nice. I also change sheets, or at least try to remember to do this job. The children’s sheets don’t get changed as often as Martha Stewart might tell me to, but ours are changed more regularly as a personal preference. My hubby never really notices one way or another.

Friday: Bathrooms

I hate a gunky bathroom! I follow the procedure from last week’s post on a naturally clean bathroom. We have a second bathroom that isn’t used frequently, so I don’t pay as much attention to it unless we have a guest coming.

Saturday: Catch-up, ironing, yardwork, miscellanious

If something important was neglected during the week, Saturday might be the day where I can get it done. Sometimes I’ll do a few bonus rounds of laundry, and after I have a few things on the ironing pile (or perhaps 15+ things) I might do it then. Our weekends are very inconsistent, so I leave it open as a miscellanious day. I know, it’s so exciting and unpredictable that I can hardly stand it, too. I might iron on Saturday?! Whoo!

Washing diapers is an obviously important job in a cloth diapering family, but I don’t have regular days set aside for doing them. Usually, I try to not do them when doing our regular laundry because it does add a bit to the process.

Every so often my husband likes to do a more thorough cleaning and decluttering time, but those aren’t regularly scheduled at the time. I think it might become a monthly activity, though, and I think we’ll all benefit from it. Keeping an orderly home is really important to him, so I really desire to keep that in mind when I evaluate how the home is looking. It’s a simple way to show him respect.

I also like to remember that these are goals for the week, and if something slips for a week or two, it is okay. The benefit of keeping up with jobs regularly is that the cleaning never falls horribly behind, so I have room to give myself a little grace when I need it.

That’s about it for us! Now, how about you? Do you have a weekly cleaning routine? Maybe a monthly one? Please chime in with your ideas!

This post is linked up at:
Whole Intention’s Healthy 2day

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