How To Schedule Your Cleaning To Not Feel Like A Chore

Posted on 04/09/2015

Creating a Cleaning Schedule that Really Works

You have your cleaning products, shop bought and homemade, your checklist, you have your articles on innovative cleaning solutions, and you’re ready to go. Except for that shopping that needs doing, and friends are coming round for dinner soon, and there’s that work you need to get done before the kids come home, speaking of which you have to pick them up soon. How are you supposed to find the time for all of this cleaning?
The most important part of cleaning is scheduling, don’t assume that you have to do all of your cleaning in one go, sporadic cleaning sessions each day for 20 minutes on different parts of the house can be equally effective.

Make a rota and stick to it
Look at cleaning like a part-time job you have to do for no more than half hour a day. Work like there’s a boss over your shoulder who you’re trying to impress both with your work ethic and finished results.
Once you’re in the right mind-set, make yourself a rota. Start by writing down every single cleaning job that needs doing on a weekly basis (some may need to be done more than once a week, mark of how many times these need to be repeated).
Once you have you rota, then schedule out everything else you have to do every week, what time you leave for work and return, what days you have to cook, how long that takes, when children and partners need picking up and dropping off and any weekly classes, meetings or appointments you have.
Now you’re ready to plan you week’s cleaning. Find a half an hour space every day on your schedule. Now on a fresh piece of paper write down the days of the week, and mark off the times you have set aside for cleaning.

Now all you have to do is divide your list into equal sections, you may choose to focus on a room a day (combine any extra rooms with the easiest rooms to clean) or you may choose to, for example, focus on dusting everything one day and vacuuming and mopping all floors another day, whatever feels right to you, there is no wrong way.
Make sure you stick to your rota, however tempting it is to put today’s cleaning off, you will not thank yourself for it at the end of the week when all your cleaning needs to be done in that hour before Sunday lunch.

Organise your cleaning tools in advance
At the end of your cleaning time every day, clean all brushes and sponges, it will be a lot easier to clean them just after use than it will the next time you need them again. Tomorrow you will be grateful.
Next, check your rota and see what cleaning needs to be done the next day. Sort and arrange the cleaning tools you will need for tomorrow’s work and store them together.

A tray or box that you have lying around will be fine for this, when you are splitting your jobs up, you will never need that many cleaning products and tools for any day.
Having your cleaning products together in advance means that as soon as your scheduled cleaning time comes the next day, you are immediately ready to make a start.

Soon you will find that you are left with time to spare during your scheduled cleaning time, use this time to sit down, treat yourself to a cup of tea, maybe even some ice cream, and bask in the pride of having the impossible, a clean house and time to relax.