You may assume that because I dedicate my entire blog and social media to showing you all kinds of cleaning, organizing, and decluttering tips, I am a box-checking soldier who never leaves their boxes unchecked inside my perfect cleaning schedule.
*This post contains affiliate links and I am an affiliate with Amazon. This means that if you click-through and make a purchase I receive a small commission (at no cost to you). I only write and endorse products I personally use, love, and what I find helpful in being an awesome mom. For more details, Click here
But I have struggled to share a cleaning schedule with many of my followers who have asked me for one because I don’t have one. I have a cleaning routine of tidy habits and systems but not a day-by-day checklist schedule for each day of the week.
There is this mass following of people who search tirelessly for the perfect cleaning routine and checklist and feel exhausted by downloading and following it.
I even felt pressured to create the perfect cleaning routine printable because people desperately needed to understand how I kept the home tidy without pause and make it seem so effortless. But let me explain further.
Isn’t a schedule for cleaning important?
Yes and no, but not everyone works well with a cleaning schedule at least, I know that I am one of those people.
A cleaning schedule often fails certain types of people like me because we get all excited and say, yay, there is a plan I can follow, and boom, everything will be perfect. If this sounds all too familiar, then welcome my multitasking warrior. 😊
But I am what you call a spontaneous organized person. I need and crave order. But I want to do things when I feel it fits me best.
I truly understood this “plan/checklist failure” when I started my business in helping others while creating this blog. I was trying to follow all the successful bloggers ahead of me and figure out which one had the perfect plan for me to follow. Turns out I had to create one in my way.
And then, as I began helping other moms with their home management, I started to notice certain things. It wasn’t always that they didn’t clean or didn’t know how to clean. It was the lack of habitual cleaning that was holding them back.
Research says that “40 percent of people’s daily habits are done in almost the same situations.” This is huge!!
When you are forcing yourself to stick to a schedule, you end up with disappointed feelings, and your motivation to clean quickly leaves your once great intentions.
Kids will throw your schedule off and life in general. This is why we need flexibility but also consistency without stress.
It’s why not all exercise routines work for others. I mean, have you seen “The Rock’s crazy schedule” it fits his lifestyle, and this is the key.
So why would you follow an exact cleaning schedule hour by hour?
Why implementing a cleaning schedule seems to be difficult
I love my fellow cleaning counterparts who have their cleaning routines and will share on social media “Tuesdays are for mopping floors” or “Saturday we switch the bedsheets.”
But it has never made sense in my life to mop every floor on a certain day. First off, my brain has a problem with mopping up all floors in a certain area when I haven’t cleaned the room itself. This isn’t perfectionism it’s just logical sense that my brain can’t get past.🤷♀️
But that’s my cleaning pet peeve, as we all have them.
Truly the reason some people struggle to keep a cleaning schedule is that they are too busy, feel overwhelmed by the number of tasks, or do not have enough time in their day.
It’s why many moms struggle. You see, the truth about a cleaning schedule means we should all be living the same kinda lives, and that’s not true at all.
Instead, we must focus on creating systems and routines that support our current motherhood season. This means adapting to what we need this week, this month, and so on.
Kick cleaning schedules to the curb, embracing habits instead
In my course, Tidy Habits Tidy Homes, I teach you how to focus and create habits for cleaning your home. We have a few main daily focuses, but the outcome is creating a cleaning routine that serves you and your family and developing tidy habits instead of focusing on a true cleaning schedule.
You learn how to create habits by stacking your cleaning routines and keeping on top of your home while working naturally in your daily routine.
It is also the clarity to systemizing your home. You can’t have a tidy home without systems.
How do I clean without a cleaning schedule?
I now have a systemized way of cleaning my home called the R.E.C.L.A.I.M method.
It has taken me about 20 years to make this method up.
If you have downloaded my quick start guide, I talk a bit more about how I use a daily to-do list, but there are 4 non-negotiable items I do every day in my home.
- Daily House Reset
- Laundry Daily
- Clean an area each day
- Kitchen Reset
I also don’t clean or do any tasks after my kids go to bed. This is another component. I stick to a strict bedtime routine for many reasons, even if we have extra curriculum activities. The same routine follows suit. And “NO HOUSEWORK SHALL BE DONE BY MOM AT BEDTIME.” After bedtime is my time to do what I want and reconnect with my husband.
On weekends I don’t do much of anything except basic kitchen cleaning because it’s my rest day.
Saturdays, I use a modified cleaning routine that allows me just to enjoy the family.
But a side note, it took time to get to this place, and if your home is a hot mess right now, it will take a few cycles to get to the same point I am at now.
Everything is broken into monthly, quarterly, and yearly cleaning. You can find all those lists inside my printables shop. And lastly, I declutter monthly again it’s a basic list with goals of dates to get it done in that current month.
I also am not the default cleaner means everyone must clean up after themselves. Teaching this early on to my kids has been so key.
Did I mention I raised a now 20-something-year-old who has ADD and struggles with executive dysfunction? She thrived on routines even though her room would turn into a tornado fast. We had a baseline, and my systems and routines helped with all of this.
Lastly, I give myself grace. When I had real little ones, not everything got done. And I was exhausted from nursing and mothering three kids all day.
What should I do if I am trying to get a good cleaning routine
The first step is figuring out what prevents you from following through with your cleaning schedule. Once you have identified the cause of the problem, you can find solutions that will work for your life and lifestyle.
For many, the best starting point is getting down to the core of the problem we all own too many things. Once we eliminate all the extra stuff, we can get down to the cleaning part.
Or Join my course, Tidy Habits Tidy Homes, and let’s get your house in order once and for all!!
Since we all strive to find our homes a tidy baseline. Share what you have done to increase your success or what you currently struggle with in the comments below. Chances are that others may feel the same, and this community is about helping one another.