Weekly Checklist for House Cleaning

Initial Author: Valorie Delp
Recent Contributors: HVLong, Mary White

The easiest way to clean your house, so that you're not embarrassed if someone drops by, is to use a weekly cleaning checklist. Post a cleaning checklist on your refrigerator or keep it next to your calendar so that you're looking at it daily and you can remember what you're supposed to do on what day. If you have children, consider giving them weekly checklists too.
Planning Your Own Weekly Checklist for House Cleaning

Creating a weekly checklist for house cleaning is simple. The advantage to creating your own is that it is perfectly suited to your needs. Here are a few things to think about before you begin:

* What needs to be cleaned daily, weekly, and less often? Prioritize according to your family's needs. If you have small children, you may well find that the floor needs to be cleaned daily. It may just stress you out to have your desk a mess. On the other hand, perhaps that top shelf can live with being dusted only once per month.
* What days are the busiest? If you volunteer or are at soccer all day on Saturdays, that's a great day to do a few minor tasks that take less than 15 minutes.
* When do I do errands? Choosing one day during the week to do errands helps you minimize the time you're spending running around. Don't clean on an errand day. Use that day to take care of household paperwork, plan menus for the week, and get your errands done!
* When do I get to rest? It's pointless to have a clean house if you can't enjoy it. Even if it means that the tippy top corner doesn't get as clean as it should--it's okay. Take the time you need regularly to refresh so you avoid burnout.

Creating Your Weekly Cleaning Checklist

Now that you've thought about your goals, start making your weekly cleaning checklist in the following manner:

1. Take a piece of paper and divide it into fourths. Your goal is to have the four following sections: daily, weekly, less often, and seasonal. Label your sections and you're ready to begin!
2. Go through each room of your house. Jot down the things that you need to get done in order for the house to look nice. Make sure to put tasks in the appropriate columns.
3. Spend no more than 5 minutes in each room. You're going to save this paper for reference later and you can always add to it.
4. Sit down with your weekly calendar and think about what days it makes sense to do which tasks. For example, if you have no where to be on Fridays, that's a great day to don sweats and pull out the vacuum cleaner and dust and vacuum. If you have volunteering on Tuesdays, that's a good day to do something less nitty gritty.
5. Finally, add into your week those things that need to be done monthly. You may set aside Saturdays to do monthly tasks, or simply get them done here and there.

If you follow your schedule most of the time, you'll have a mostly clean house and you'll find that deep cleaning goes much easier.

Find the System That Works for You

The most important aspect of posting a weekly cleaning regimen on your fridge, is doing it! If your system is too overwhelming you'll never get it done. Perhaps you need to do some things twice a month instead of weekly--that's okay. Keep shuffling chores around until you find what works for you!
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