Scheduling Your Deep Cleaning for Your Home Without Feeling Overwhelmed

There are two sayings in life about a clean house with the first being “A clean house is a sign of a GOOD life.” and the second one being “A clean house is a sign of a WASTED life.” Which one is right? My problem is that I can see the truth in both of them. I don’t have time for detailed cleaning. Let’s face it, I hate cleaning. The problem however is that we have five people living in our house that homeschool, work from home, and are pretty much at home twenty-four hours a day seven days a week. Our house gets dirty pretty quickly. We keep our house pretty clean, and everyone in the house participates in keeping it clean. However there are times when I sit back, look at all that has to be done, and feel overwhelmed. I have tried the Fly Lady Technique, and it just doesn’t work for me. Our house is too active to focus on just one room a week. Therefore Fly Lady doesn’t work for us.

Instead I have come up with a detailed cleaning list for every room in our house. We focus on one room a day. In the morning after breakfast, and before we start our studies we head to the days room (unless it is a bathroom or kitchen those are done after school). We take the detailed cleaning list with us and work down the list. Everyone takes a job off the list and gets to work. There are a total of nine rooms in our house that get cleaned so we don’t get to all nine rooms each week; however the kitchen and bathroom get done every week. We generally don’t clean on Sundays and Mondays, so we start out on Tuesdays with a room. If we didn’t get to the Master Bedroom the week before we will start there, and then start the rooms over again with the living room on Wednesday.

We also have a Morning and Bedtime Checklist the kids use to make sure that their bedrooms stay clean in between deep cleanings.

This system works best for us, as it allows us to make sure that no area of our house gets left out.



Here are our lists:

Morning Checklist

o Made Bed

o Turn Off Night Light

o Put away Night Clothes

o Get Dressed

Bedtime Checklist

o Pick Up Bedroom – Put away loose toys and pick up trash or clothes

o Lay Out Clothes For Morning

o Check Living Room and Kitchen For my things that don’t belong there

o Sweep Floor

Living Room

1. Declutter – go through newspapers, magazines, etc. and throw out any old ones

2. Put away anything that belongs in another room – jackets, shoes, blankets, etc.

3. Pick up trash – be sure to lift up couch cushions and clean out from under them

4. Sweep and mop (with a damp rag) living room floor

5. With Lysol and a rag wipe down door knobs, remotes, light switches

6. Dust bookshelves and straighten

7. Wipe down picture frames on walls

8. Windex front door and windows

9. Wipe out front window sills

10. Wipe down baseboards with wet rag

11. Clean off top of TV and Windex TV screen

12. Clean ceiling fan blades

13. Replace blown light bulbs

14. Clean cobwebs

15. Wipe fingerprints from walls

16. Straighten hall closet by living room

17. Polish Furniture (Couch feet, end tables, rocking chair)

18. Take down and wash curtains second week of month.

19. Wipe down mini-blinds

Front Porch/Entry Way

1. Clean Entry Doors

2. Wipe Out Door Sills

3. Clean Porch Lights and Replace Light bulbs if needed

4. Sweep porch, sidewalk, car port

5. Hose off carport

6. Refill bird feeders

7. Wipe off tables and outdoor furniture

8. Change out wreath, door mats, etc if needed

9. Clean cobwebs

Kitchen

1. Declutter – go through any magazines, newspapers, etc

2. Put away anything that doesn’t belong in room.

3. Rinse out trash can.

4. Empty fridge of everything, and throw out old leftovers. Thoroughly clean all shelves and drawers. Put back food.

5. Wipe off top of refrigerator.

6. Clean microwave inside and out

7. Clean stove and oven

8. Clean oven hood

9. Clean Dishwasher. Wipe down front, sides, and around door lip. Remove utensil tray and clean with soapy water. Check to make sure there is no food or objects around bottom of dishwasher. Place a cup of white vinegar on the top shelf of dishwasher and run through on hot cycle. Then sprinkle a cup of baking soda around the bottom of the dishwasher, run the dishwasher through a short cycle on it’s hottest setting.

10. Straighten cupboards

11. Straighten drawers. Run silverware tray through dishwasher.

12. Clean out under sink

13. Scrub down cabinet fronts

14. Clean light fixtures and replace bulbs if needed

15. Clean pet bowls.

16. Clean cobwebs.

17. Wipe down baseboards with a wet soapy rag.

18. Clean out window sills

19. Windex windows

20. Clean chairs, being sure to get the bottoms of the chairs.

21. Polish china cabinet and table.

22. Straighten pantry

23. Sweep and mop floor, being sure to get around baseboards.

24. Change tablecloth, redo tablescape, etc.

25. Clean light switches

26. Clean counters, and wipe down walls above counter.

27. Dust and straighten bookshelf

28. Wipe down fan blades

29. Use alcohol to wipe down phone, remotes, etc

30. Dust photos

Bathrooms

1. Wash area rugs and toilet covers.

2. Straighten drawers and cabinets

3. Throw away empty bottles

4. Empty trash can, and rinse it out.

5. Windex mirror.

6. Clean counters

7. Clean light switches

8. Clean tub and shower stall

9. Replace hand towels.

10. Replace blown light bulbs.

11. Straighten bathroom closet.

12. Clean out under bathroom sink.

13. Wipe down baseboards with soapy rag

14. Clean toilet

15. Sweep and mop floor

Office and Laundry Room

1. Clear off the surface of desk and wipe it down

2. Throw away pens that don’t work

3. Throw out trash

4. Straighten one desk drawer at a time

5. Clean computer monitor/screen

6. Fill printer with paper

7. Wipe down the washer and dryer

8. Straighten shelf above washer

9. Clean out the gunk from under washer lid

10. Wipe down caddy that holds detergent in washer

11. Throw out empty bottles and boxes

12. Look around appliances for dropped socks, rags, etc

13. Put away any clean clothes

14. Check for supplies of laundry detergent, fabric softener, and spot remover

15. Remove cob webs

16. Sweep

Children’s Bedrooms

1. Change and wash kids bed sheets.

2. Take down and wash curtains first week of the month.

3. Wipe down mini-blinds

4. Remove and put away any items that belong in other rooms

5. Polish furniture – beds, dressers, etc

6. Clean cobwebs

7. Flip mattress

8. Windex window

9. Clean window sill

10. Straighten toy shelves and bins – throw away broken toys, take out toys for donation, etc.

11. Sort out-grown clothes

12. Use soapy rag to clean baseboards

13. Wipe down door

14. Straighten books, video games

15. Wipe down radio, and TV

16. Clean light switch plate

17. Wipe down fan blades

18. Sweep Floor

Master Bedroom

1. Remove any items that do not belong in room

2. Pick up clothes that are lying around. Hang up or put in dirty clothes.

3. Clean off top of nightstands, and clean out nightstand drawers.

4. Clean off dresser tops

5. Polish furniture

6. Clean cobwebs

7. Windex windows

8. Wipe out window sills

9. Dust mini-blinds

10. Take down and wash curtains third week of every month

11. Change and wash sheets

12. Flip mattress

13. Clean out from under the bed

14. Wipe down door and closet doors

15. Straighten drawers

16. Straighten top shelf of closet

17. Straighten shoe rack

18. Sweep floor

19. Use alcohol to wipe down phones, remotes, clocks, etc

20. Dust photos