I love spending time at home with my family, but one thing I don’t love is a dirty home.  I cannot function when there is mess or dirt so I have a daily schedule that has worked for me for many years.  I purpose to do these tasks while on my two 15 minute breaks or my lunch break from my job (I work from home).

Monday:

• Laundry (clothes) – I start the day off putting a load in before I start working and from there I consistently wash and dry until I am done. 
• Clean Master Bath & First Floor Restroom – Since I have children who are responsible for cleaning their own bathroom, I clean mine and the first floor restroom. This includes the tubs, toilets, floors, sinks and baseboards.
• Clean Dish Washer – After the dish washer has been emptied from Sunday night, I mix 1 cup of vinegar and 2 tablespoons of salt, then I pour the mixture into a short wash cycle.  Vinegar is a wonderful household staple for so many reasons.  I will write a separate post on all the ways I use vinegar in my home.

Tuesday:

• Laundry (towels & sheets) – Once everyone is gone from the house that morning, I remove all towels and sheets from every room and bathroom. Once a month, I take our comforters to be professionally cleaned and I wash our mattress and pillow protectors.

Wednesday:

• Surface Cleaning – My eleven year old is responsible for a portion of this, mainly our upstairs so I normally do the downstairs.  This is surfaces that can be cleaned by dusting, mopping, vacuuming or wiping.  Windows, floors, furniture, baseboards, etc. This process takes a little longer so I do this in stages throughout the day.
  

Thursday:

• De-clutter – I file, sort and discard.  I also use this day to straighten up things like underneath the sinks, closets, etc.  Take up the 20 pairs of shoes and gym bags that have been thrown in the hall closet by my awesome off-springs. Truthfully, this is not a lot because I do try to do this daily.  

Friday: 

• Surface Cleaning & Dusting – I go through the house with my swifter and damp towel and dust TV’s, furniture, pictures, anything that dirt could have accumulated on since Wednesday. This is normally something I can do fairly quickly. 

There are certain things that happen everyday in our home that I did not want to duplicate on the schedule, but I have added them below:

• Make bed (the kids make their own bed…sometime) – there is nothing like getting in a fresh-made bed every night. 
• Clean Kitchen – no dish left in the sink overnight is my motto. This includes dinner table cleared and cleaned off, and kitchen floor swept.  I do the dishes because I know they will be clean and put up the way I want them. Everything else in the kitchen is handled by the kids.

So that’s it!  I try my hardest to stick with this schedule, however there are times when my work, business and/or personal schedule will not allow me to, and that’s OK.  I start where I left off and on some days when time allows me to do multiple tasks, I do it.  Also, I have older children who contribute to house cleaning as well, so that makes life a little easier for me.

Clean life, happy wife!

~ Lisa