My Cleaning Schedule

As I promised you in my last blog post, where I explained why having a home cleaning routine is crucial for a variety of reasons, I want to tell you all about my cleaning routine.

When moving into my apartment, I first got overwhelmed by all the cleaning tasks and wrote down everything that needed to be cleaned. Over time I have figured out which areas I want to clean daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. Of course, everyone has a personal preference about how clean it needs to be. There isn’t only one way that works for everybody. To give you an insight into my cleaning schedule and get you inspired, I will explain my cleaning routine in the following.

My Daily Routines

My daily routine consists of a morning and an evening routine:

My morning cleaning routine:

• make the bed (which is my boyfriend's task)

• 15 min pick up

• unload dishwasher

• clean coffee grinder container

• poop scoop

My evening cleaning routine

• close kitchen (wipe down countertops, dining table, start dishwasher)

• vacuuming

• clean litter box (which is my boyfriend's task)

• 15 min pick up

My Weekly Routines

Furthermore, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I clean our toilets and bathroom sinks, my boyfriend takes the trash out if needed and I change kitchen towels.

On Fridays, I clean out the fridge, write down our weekly meal plan and do the grocery shopping. On Saturdays, I change the bedding and wash sheets and towels.

Zone Cleaning

Moreover, I adapted the FlyLady system into my cleaning routine. Therefore, I have created five zones. In the first week (of a month e.g.) I start by cleaning the pantry, entrance, and our storage space (basement). Every day of the week I’ll add about 15 - 20 min “zone cleaning” where I clean/ organize/ declutter the week's specific zone. This includes e.g. cleaning mirrors, dusting, deep cleaning, etc.

To give you an example, I’ll write down everything I would do in zone 1:

Pantry:

• check expiration dates

• organize

• deep clean under the cabinets

• dust

• wipe down the door

• disinfect door knobs and light switches

We also have a little hanging area for jackets in our pantry. I’ll sort through the jackets/ coats and hang some jackets in our storage space if needed (there is limited space for jackets in our apartment, so we only store about 4-5 jackets in our apartment; the rest is stored in a wardrobe in our storage space)

Entrance:

• organize

• wipe down and dust the shoe drawer

• empty shoe drawer/ switch out shoes (we can only store about 12 pairs of shoes, the rest has to go to the storage area)

• vacuum the entry bench

• wipe down the mirror

• disinfect door knobs and light switches

Storage Space:

• check the expiration date of food stored in the freezer

• create bags with recycling/ paper/ plastic and bring them to the recycling place in our town

• just try to stay on track and organize a few bits and pieces since it somehow is always a bit of a mess

• disinfect door knobs and light switches

As I mentioned earlier, I have divided our home into five zones, of course, you could do more or fewer zones depending on the size of your home and the areas that need to be cleaned.

My zones are:

Z1: Pantry/ Entrance/ Basement

Z2: Kitchen

Z3: Dining Area and Living Room/ Great Room

Z4: Bedroom(s)

Z5: Bathroom(s)/ Powder Room(s)

For each zone, I have written down specific tasks that need to be done. At the end of the week, I ideally have ticked off all tasks and can move on to the next zone the following week.

Conclusion

This is only one way of keeping your home organized and clean. Other methods might work better for you and your life; however, I hope I have inspired and motivated you to try this method out if you are still looking for a technique that works for you.