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As a family who values hospitality and homeschooling, we use our home a LOT. Our kitchen is where we prepare meals, gather with friends, and conduct science experiments on any given day of the week. Our den (family room) is a landing pad for snuggling on the couch with a good book or movie, but also serves as a gathering place for weekly small groups and bible studies and functions as a study hall, board game parlor, and wrestling arena for the kids and cats.
All of this wear and tear, love and abuse, can make my head spin when it comes to keeping a clean home and a sane mind! I have struggled for years to keep up with caring for our home while cleaning behind three active children and two pets, all while maintaining an active lifestyle. I never want to be slave to cleaning and caring for my home, but it is something that needs to be maintained regularly, and I want it to be a haven for peace and calm.
For over a year now, we have settled into a few cleaning rhythms that have worked well for my family, and I'd love to share them with you today. Please do not misunderstand me--this is certainly not the only way, the best way, or a perfect way (what IS perfect?) to clean a home, but it has been a life-saver and a game-changer in our household. Before these rhythms were established, certain household tasks were often neglected (cleaning ceiling fans and kitchen appliances) OR when they did get done, they left me completely drained, exhausted, and dreading the next time I would have to tackle them (yes, I'm talking about you, windows!). In many ways, these cleaning rhythms have given me back time in my day, joy in my heart, and sanity of mind!
Now, I intentionally call these cleaning "rhythms" and not "systems" because in my view, rhythms work with your family schedule and are a natural outgrowth of routine habits. I give myself *grace* with these rhythms, and if you experiment with them in your own home, I want you to give yourself lots of grace, too. If something doesn't happen this week (or month), at least it is on my radar to complete at some point soon (instead of being neglected for--true confession--years). I have found these cleaning rhythms to be kind and gentle; I do not feel like a slave to them. Rather, they serve me as an unobtrusive guide to my days, weeks, and months.
There are two parts to these cleaning rhythms: daily/weekly and monthly/annually. Allow me to share about both in turn.
First, let's talk about our daily/weekly cleaning rhythms.
Over the years, I have tried a multitude of weekly cleaning schedules and lists (Pinterest and general internet searches will glean hundreds!) and they were all too complex for me to realistically make into a lifestyle. Instead, I do this: I keep a running list in my head--super simple, so that it is easily remembered, and super-doable so I feel like I can make progress towards keeping a clean home.
My weekly rhythm looks like this:
- Monday: Laundry (wash, fold, put away--kids do their share of putting away); water indoor plants
- Tuesday: Clean two bathrooms (sinks, toilets, change out towels, and empty trash cans only...I save showers/tubs/floors for a later time, but we will cover that in a bit)
- Wednesday: Dust and vacuum master bedroom and upstairs hallway; kids complete their room cleaning checklists** (Result: entire upper level gets clean at the same time--Ah-maz-ing!)
- Thursday: Clean other two bathrooms (my house has four bathrooms, so I divide this task into two days)
- Friday: Laundry (see Monday); scrub kitchen sink
Now, you might be thinking: that sounds like a great start, but how does your living room get dusted and vacuumed, dishes washed, trash taken out, etc?
Great questions.
Many of these daily tasks are either done in the moment as needed (ex: loading the dishwasher after a meal, taking out the kitchen trash when the can is full) OR handled by the kids. (If you missed my previous post about cleaning with kids, be sure to check that out here.)
Here's our current cleaning rotation for the kids (ages 8,10, and 12):
- Empty dishwasher (daily)
- Dust and vacuum main living areas (den, living room, foyer) (weekly)
- Clear the kitchen table after meals (three times a day)
As you might have noticed, more time-consuming duties happen less often, while quicker jobs happen more frequently. For the past two years, this rotation has worked well for our family, and it seems to be a fair distribution of responsibility for the kids, regardless of their month's particular tasks. They also clean their own rooms weekly (as noted above) and clean out kitty litter boxes, too.
So that covers the daily/weekly stuff.
The second cleaning rhythm in our household involves deep-cleaning and includes monthly, seasonal, and annual cleaning tasks. Each month, I jot down seven cleaning tasks on the side of our family's monthly calendar (which is in clear view in our kitchen). When there are a few spare minutes in the day, I (alone or with a child) will tackle a task and scratch it off the list. (If the task gets completed twice in the month, awesome. But at least I know that it will get done once and that is enough for me at this stage of my life. You may look at this list and feel differently; that's perfectly OK--you do you, as the saying goes.
Here's our monthly list right now:
- Steam mop the kitchen floor and foyer
- Steam mop bathroom floors
- Change and launder kids' sheets
- Clean master tub and shower
- Clean kids' tub and shower
- Vacuum carpeted stairs
- Dust/vacuum finished basement
Now, for the annual cleaning tasks. For each month of the year, I've chosen a particular room to deep-clean that makes sense to me, depending upon the time of the year (this is an idea my sister shared with me, given to her from a mentor, so I take NO credit for it!). For example, I deep-clean our dining room in November to prepare for holiday entertaining, and the den in December after our Christmas tree gets tossed since we are already missing a piece of furniture and the carpet is covered with pine needles. See how that works? This is easy to remember (but I do write it down!), and it fits into our lifestyle.
So what does "deep-cleaning" entail exactly? For us, it involves pushing all the furniture to the center of the room and wiping down baseboards, vacuuming wall-to-wall, wiping down ceiling fans or chandeliers, taking window treatments down (I throw them in the dryer on an air fluff cycle and then rehang), washing comforters/bedding, cleaning windows, dusting thoroughly, and decluttering/donating (as needed).
Here's our annual tasks at a glance:
Jan—Foyer and stairwell chandeliers (new year, new lights!)
Feb—Master bedroom (Valentine's month)
Mar—Living room
Apr—Kitchen (includes appliances—fridge, oven, microwave)
May—Windows (any that have not been cleaned as part of other rooms)
June—School room (school is out of session by now)
July—One child’s bedroom (kids have lots of time to help)
Aug—Two other children’s bedrooms (ditto)
Sept—Storage area (in time for fall neighborhood yard sale)
Oct—Garage and outdoor shed (sweep out those leaves)
Nov—Dining room (holiday entertaining)
Dec—Den (cleaning after Christmas morning extravaganza)
What I love most about these cleaning rhythms is that they allow for REST. What do I mean by this? Let’s say I have a few spare minutes on a Thursday afternoon. Unlike when no cleaning rhythms were in place, I am no longer riddled with guilt or indecision about what I could be/should be cleaning in that moment. Should I get some laundry done? Is the bathroom presentable for small group tonight? I can, with peace and confidence, brew a cup of coffee and sit down with my feet up. Why? Because I know the toilet just got cleaned yesterday and the laundry will get done the next morning. Or, if I knock out two bathrooms on a Tuesday morning (either alone or with the kids' help), I know that I am DONE with household cleaning for the day. Awesome.
Keep this in mind, too: start slow and like I said before, show LOTS of grace to yourself, and your children, as you all establish cleaning rhythms in your own home!
I hope this post has been helpful for you, dear friend. I am the kind of person who wants to share anything and everything I discover that helps me keep my household running well, redeems my time, and fosters rest and sanity. If any of this feels burdensome to you, by all means, don't use it! But I have found these rhythms to be just the right amount of structure and flexibility to serve my family well.
(**Hey friend! As mentioned above, if you missed my previous post about cleaning with kids, be sure to check that out here. I love to use natural cleaning products when I can, so check out this and this post to learn more.)
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