Whether you’re a first-time homeowner, a married couple, or a large family, you have to keep your house clean. And this cleaning regime can seem like a never-ending task. But it doesn’t always have to be that way.
Having a set cleaning routine is a great way to enforce positive habits in your life. It isn’t difficult, and the cleaning has to be done. If you don’t clean often enough, your home becomes disorganized and dirty. When the dirt accumulates, you can encourage pests in your homes, such as rats and cockroaches. A sure-fire way of having to end up spending money on emergency pest control to exterminate them.
To help you start your cleaning routine, we’ve put together some great tips that you can follow.
Identify What Needs Cleaning
The first step to having a cleaning routine is to identify what has to be done and how often you should do it. To do this, take a walk around your home and make a list of the tasks for each room.
Once you have your list, figure out whether each task needs to be completed every day, every week or every month. You can always go back and review the schedule each month to make sure it’s working for you.
Cleaning To Do Daily
Set aside some time every day to do your daily cleaning tasks and one of your weekly tasks. This helps you to maintain a good level of cleanliness and tidiness in your home. And it will also help to reduce the need to deep clean your home.
Daily tasks could include:
- Making the beds.
- Cleaning the bathroom.
- Tidying the kitchen and doing the washing up.
- Cleaning up the kids’ toys.
- Putting away clutter at the end of the day.
In addition to doing your daily tasks, you should do some of the bigger weekly tasks daily as well. This could be doing the laundry, vacuuming the house or dusting.
Then there are the larger monthly cleaning tasks that you may want to dedicate 1 or 2 free days to over the course of the month. This helps you to not get overwhelmed when you try and squeeze them into your daily routine. Monthly tasks will be the more deep cleaning jobs around the house, such as cleaning the skirting boards and moving furniture to vacuum underneath.
Tips For Planning Your Cleaning Schedule
- Ask for help. If you have a crazy work schedule or just don’t have time to complete all of the cleanings around your home, turn to the pros. Hire a cleaner or ask other family members to pull their weight and help out when cleaning the house.
- Remember what season it is – When you have to do some cleaning jobs, you need to make sure you remember what season you’re in. For example, if you want to do a full defrost of your freezer, it’s better to do it in the summer months.
- Don’t worry if you can’t fit everything into your schedule – If you don’t have time to complete all of your daily tasks, review your cleaning schedule and prioritize what needs to be done. You don’t need to vacuum every evening, it could be done every few days. Balance out your schedule so that things are made a bit easier for you and you will be more likely to stick to the routine.
- Understand what’s working best for you. Some work better with deadlines, some work better without. If you know that having a time restraint for each task, take this into account when your making your schedule. If you would prefer to go through the tasks and complete them as and when you can, don’t put yourself under unnecessary pressure.
- Pop your cleaning schedule in your diary – This way, you won’t forget what needs doing around the house. Alternatively, you can stick it to the fridge door or a cupboard so you will see it every morning.
- Remain flexible – Life often gets in the way of the best plans. Having a cleaning routine should never get in the way of other commitments.
- Use your free time – If you have a few spare days each month, why not get a head start on the cleaning? Of course we want to dedicate our spare time to our families and enjoying ourselves, but if you find yourself at a loose end, whip out the mop.
