A More Beautiful Life Collective

In this post, we are talking about our fourth rule for decluttering, organizing, and cleaning. You can view all the rules here. In this post, we talk about three cleaning routines that will help you to have a tidy, clean, and well-maintained home. Subscribe to the blog to get a free printable of our weekly routines sent straight to your inbox!

Rule #4: Do a fifteen-minute tidy each day, a one-hour home reset each week, and a one-day deep clean each season. 

We want cleaning to be a routine, not a project. 

We’ve talked about how – because of sin – the world is always bent towards chaos. This means that if we are not working towards a home of order and beauty, we will be letting things regress into chaos and decay. So, we have to work out a system that allows us to turn the tides in our homes toward one that makes us feel on top of things. We don’t want to feel like all we are doing each day is cleaning, and we don’t want to feel like despite the cleaning we are doing our home feels untidy all the same. On the other hand, we don’t want to let our house get into such a state that we feel like we have to ‘tackle’ it. 

On our podcast on decluttering, we talked about how the trick to getting your life in order is to make things that used to be a ‘project’ into ‘routines.’ These are terms borrowed from Getting Things Done, a massively popular and helpful book on an organization system for your ‘to-do list.’ If our home is so disorganized, we are going to feel like it will take a monumental effort to get it back to something manageable. But, just like we talked about with the One Touch rule, if we work on things in spurts throughout our days, we never get to that chaos point in our homes. We never get to the point where we feel like it will take hours and hours to get things back to rights. This is so important because if you reach that chaos point, it’s easy to allow yourself to procrastinate (while things are steadily getting worse) because you think that the effort required to get your life organized is too much for you to handle. 

Working at something little by little consistently will accomplish so much more than one big burst for hours and hours. 

Consistency is king when it comes to cleaning routines

What does this look like when it comes to organizing and decluttering in our homes? Break up your cleaning sessions into daily, weekly, and seasonal routines. Then, stick to it and remember doing something consistently each day will accomplish so much more in the long run than one-time projects every six months to a year. 

I love using my weekly checklists to help me with my daily and weekly cleaning routines. The planner has a daily checklist with items like “Wipe the counters” and “Prep meals for the next day.” Then it also has weekly items like “clean the bathrooms” listed on specific days. I don’t always check off each item on this list, but if I am consistent in checking off even just a few, my home is so much cleaner. 

If you are regularly practicing the ones (One touch, One in/One out, and One Load a day) then hopefully your home is relatively clutter-free and picked up. But, you still have to actually clean it. The mess is gone, but the floors need to be mopped, the toilets scrubbed, counters wiped. Regular practicing this will help take your home to the next level of cleanliness. But, you don’t want to feel like you are spending too much time on cleaning – especially if you are working full time. 

Set a timer for your cleaning routines, and when it’s done, move on to something else!

In a post on Facebook, someone asked a group how much time each person spent cleaning their homes. There were varying answers from none to up to 6 hours! (Imagine!) We want to spend a happy medium, but I would go so far as to argue we want to spend as little time cleaning as we can while still having a home that is picked up, neat, and tidy. 

To get to this point, I would recommend setting a timer so that you spend a certain amount of time working on your home daily while not spending too much time working on it. When you time yourself, you’ll be surprised at how much you can get done, and you may surprise yourself by working with more purpose thus working more efficiently. 

The numbers I recommend don’t necessarily include time spent doing laundry or cleaning up the kitchen after meals, and they will vary depending on your unique situation. However, as long as you have cleaning routines to put things away with one touch, hopefully, your time spent cleaning is reduced. Meal planning and kitchen routines is an entirely different topic deserving of its own post. 

If you feel like these routines are too much to implement all at once, just start with the first routine and make that a habit. Then, as time goes on, you can start to add in routines #2 and #3. 

Cleaning Routines #1: Do a 15-minute tidy each day. 

To keep your home generally tidy, do a quick pick-up for 15 minutes a day. Set a timer, grab a laundry basket, and then, pick up everything that’s not where it’s supposed to be. You can use this time to sweep floors and spot-clean anything noticeably dirty as you walk through the house. Or, take the trash out, put laundry away, water plants, shine your sink, and do some general tidying. 

When we want to cultivate good habits, the best way to do this is to habit-stack your routines. You should pick an existing habit that you already have and add your 15-minute tidy cleaning routines to that time. A few places that would probably make the most sense is to add the tidy time to your Breakfast or Dinner routines. Before or after you eat, set a timer and go through your house doing all the odds and ends of general upkeep. This will keep everything kept up and looking nice. 

15 Minute Tidy Cleaning Routine Tasks:

• Pick up all clutter and take it to its home
• Sweep the floors
• Clear and Wipe counters
• Spot Clean noticeably dirty areas
• Put away laundry

Cleaning Routines #2: Do a 1-hr home reset each week.  

To keep your home generally clean, do a 1-hour home reset once a week. In my weekly cleaning checklists, there are weekly tasks listed divided by days. These checklists function like the roadmap for what needs to be cleaned, but really you have a little leeway in actually planning your cleaning routines. 

To keep your home clean, you have a couple of options:  

1. Do a little each day by zone. 

This is what Passionate Penny Pincher Planner recommends and what is recommended by FlyLady. The benefit of doing cleaning by zones (aka bathrooms on Wednesday, bedrooms on Thursday) is that you are breaking up your cleaning so that you never have a big cleaning session to do at any time. In each zone, you would spend about 20 minutes a day cleaning from top to bottom. As I mentioned before, ‘saving up’ all your cleaning time for one big session can lead to procrastination and ultimately more cleaning. 

However, if you are doing a 15-minute tidy every day and following some of the other rules in this post, hopefully, your house will not be so messy that you’ll want to put off a big cleaning session.

Your house may be in a cleaner state if you clean by zones, but I think you will be cleaning more often as a rule. You may also feel pressure to keep your home clean all the time. 

2. Do a weekly home reset. (This is what I recommend!)

This is what is recommended by Amy Roberts of Raising Arrows. I found – with young kids – it was tricky to find 30 minutes every day to clean the zone I was working on. And, I felt like I was always cleaning, and I was always pressuring my kids not to make any messes – which is unreasonable for a 3 and 1-year-old. 

The second weekly cleaning routine option is a weekly home reset. In this option, you would set aside a specific day and time (like a Friday morning) and do all of the big household chores. The benefit of this is that I think you spend less time cleaning because all of your supplies are out. You also can enlist more family members to help, either by making sure everyone’s home or maybe requesting that your spouse watch the kids for an hour while you clean. 

I would still suggest setting a timer and starting from one end of the house and working to the next. Or start at the top of your cleaning checklist and work till the bottom.  The idea is that you will eventually get your house in tip-top shape, so you may not need to dust the shelves in your bedroom every week. Some tasks that are on your list may be hit during your 15-minute tidy which would reduce the time spent cleaning during your home reset too. 

This means that you can allow yourself to stop working whenever your timer goes off, with the comfort that next week you can pick up and do the jobs you didn’t do during that week’s cleaning routines. In addition to setting boundaries on your cleaning time so that you don’t feel like you are always cleaning, this also helps you to have the satisfaction of a job done and completed. Knowing that you’ve tackled something, you can just rest and enjoy your clean home rather than feeling like there’s one more thing that you need to do the next day.

I recommend doing a weekly home reset, especially in a season of littles. Ultimately it’s up to you and what works best for your family as far as which weekly cleaning routine works best for you. It will depend on if you are working, homeschooling, a stay-at-home mom of littles or teenagers, how clean you want your home, how much you enjoy cleaning, whether you have outside help – lots of factors! 

1 Hour Home Reset Cleaning Routine Tasks:

• Wash sheets
• Dust Shelves
• Clean bathrooms
• Wash towels
• Clean fridge, microwave, and stovetop
• Clean windows
• Vacuum floors
• Take out trash
• Mop Floors

Cleaning Routines #3: Do a one-day deep clean each season. 

To keep your home well-maintained, do one day of deep cleaning each season. Even with regular cleaning time built into your days and weeks, it’s likely that certain areas of your home will still become disorganized and cluttered over time. 

For this reason, it’s helpful to set aside one day each season (about every three to four months) to clean, organize, and declutter your home again. Remember, the goal is that you never have to start back from square one. You want to keep a firm handle on your stuff, which means now and then you have to go through the decluttering process again. However, it should take much less time because you’ve already found homes for all of your items and seriously weeded out your stuff. 

Depending on the ages of your kids, this may be a good time to ask a family member or friend to watch your kids for the day and spend the time deep cleaning your home. How much time you have to spend and what tasks you have to do will depend on your situation. If you are living alone or have a smaller home, you may not need a day set aside for this, instead, you may be able to work your deep cleaning tasks into your weekly cleaning schedule. 

What I’ve found is no matter how much I clean, there are certain tasks I don’t get to (or remember to do) unless I’ve scheduled them. In a seasonal cleaning, decluttering, and organizing session, I might wash couch cushions, wash outdoor furniture, dust ceiling fans, organize closets, change out clothing for the seasons and size up children’s clothes, vacuum underneath rugs and couches, deep clean fridge and oven, reorganize the pantry. 

I would use the same rules as the weekly cleaning routines though. Let’s say you are going to spend a Saturday morning doing this. I would give yourself a firm 4-6 hours to accomplish whatever tasks you want to get done. And if you don’t get to something, you can add it to the next cleaning session. It may take a while to hit everything on your list, but that’s okay as long as you are moving forward. 

At the end of my seasonal cleaning session, I would also be sure to decorate for the upcoming season. I love decorating for Christmas, but I wouldn’t stop there! There is something so special about reminding yourself of the current season you are in. It helps you savor your current moment, and it gives you something special to look forward to in the next year. 

A few ways I decorate for the season while not cluttering up my house is by always decorating one specific area of my home – my mantle on my fireplace – with something seasonal and incorporating seasonal throw pillows on my couch. I keep a few tubs downstairs with decorations and pull them out every season. Having a tub and a few specific places dedicated to the decorations means that I only spend about 15 minutes decorating (maybe a little more for decorating a Christmas tree). It also helps because I just take down the previous seasons’ decorations and put them directly into their tub and put the new decorations in their place. 

1 Day Deep Cleaning Routine Tasks:

• Dust Fans and Light Fixtures
• Dust vents and replace air filters
• Wipe Base Boards
• Clean kitchen cabinets
• Touch-up paint on walls
• Wash couch cushions
• Declutter closet(s)
• Deep clean car
• Change out seasonal clothing and decor

A note about the ‘time required’ for each cleaning routine: Of course, times will vary from what I recommend depending on how many people are in your home, the ages of your kids, and how big your home is. You’ll want to practice the other rules of decluttering and organizing to get your ‘time down’ as far as your regular cleaning routines go. If you live alone, you may only need 5 or 10 minutes to pick up after yourself. If you are living in a 1 bedroom, 1 bath apartment, your home reset should take much less time than someone living in a 5 bedroom house. The more that you clean as you go, the less time you will have to spend on your cleaning routines. 

Involve Your People in the Cleaning Routines

Lastly, you have to get the people living in your home involved in the daily and weekly cleaning routines. If you are doing everything, you will never get to that point of feeling like your life is in order while spending minimal time cleaning. In the little years, that will probably remain just ‘a hope’ while you sweep up the flour the toddler spilled on the floor.

But, by the time your kids reach 6, 7, and 8 they need to be involved in the process. I’ve heard people say that by 8 years old, their children were doing their laundry from start to finish. The biggest recommendation for getting to the point where your kids can be true helpers around the house is to start them young and have them practice often, even if they don’t do it right. It should be normal for your children to pick up after themselves, help with chores, and do stuff when asked. And, honestly, in the little years, kids love to help! 

If they are constantly discouraged from helping and distracted with TV or something more fun (so we can get a job done quicker), we are shooting ourselves in the foot. Come teen years, kids are going to be very resistant to new responsibilities (most are plain resistant to everything you recommend). 

In Hunt, Gather, Parent, Michaleen Doucleff talked about the idea of Acomedido. Basically, this refers to the Mayan ideal of noticing what needs to be done and doing it without being asked. They start teaching this ideal to very young children, and by the time kids are in their teens, they are changing diapers, washing dishes, and dressing younger children without ever being asked to do so. When we involve our kids in the work, they learn this skill of noticing and doing while also feeling like they have ownership over their home as well. They are a part of the family, not just relegated to the side. 

Now You Try 

Don’t forget to download your weekly cleaning checklist to help you get a handle on the care and upkeep of your home! You’ll find a list of all your cleaning routines here! Remember, every diaper changed, every dish washed, every floor mopped is you investing in your family. You are building the home of your dreams.