How to Make Life Easier With a Weekly Cleaning Routine
Everybody wants a clean home, but who has time for all of that cleaning? Between, work, errands, kids, and the other demands on your time, housekeeping doesn’t always make the cut. Here’s a weekly cleaning routine you can finish in less than 30 minutes a day.
I know what you’re thinking. You read that last paragraph and exclaimed ‘Pfft, 30 minutes a day?! There’s no way I can keep this house clean in just 30 minutes a day!’ Yes, you can, and the good news is you’re about to find out how!
Let’s start by agreeing that any cleaning routine needs to fit your lifestyle and your definition and degree of clean. If this weekly cleaning routine doesn’t work for you, tweak it until it does.
Degrees Of Clean
Start by defining your degree of cleanliness. Not your mother-in-law’s, not your neighbor’s who has a full-time housekeeper, and not Martha Stewart’s. YOURS!
What do I even mean by ‘degree of cleanliness’? The level of cleanliness (or lack of) that you are comfortable with. It’s different for each of us. What is clean to one person, may not be to another.
Here are the degrees of clean as I see them, you can define them to fit your needs.
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1. Sanitized
Sanitized is ‘hospital clean’ and completely necessary if somebody in your home has severe allergies or a compromised immune system.
It requires a lot more time and cannot be achieved with the instructions in this post. For tips on this level of cleanliness, please read allergy-proofing your home.
2. Spotless
Spotless is very clean and something a lot of us dream of but don’t have time to achieve. Everything is out of sight, and all surfaces are white-glove, sparkling clean.
The entire house smells lemony fresh and ready for a Martha Stewart Magazine photoshoot like it just had a good spring cleaning. I personally LOVE spotless as long as I’m not the one getting it that way!
3. Clean
Clean is a place for everything and everything in its proper place. It means that all surfaces are visibly clean and the house smells inviting even if it’s due to scented candles or potpouri.
This is the degree of cleanliness I prefer, and it’s the one that this weekly schedule was designed for. It’s “company ready“, comfortable, and homey.
If a friend calls to say they’re dropping by, you’re ready. There’s no need to panic and speed clean the common areas before they arrive. You might even have time to freshen yourself up and make a fresh pot of coffee.
4. Lived In
Lived in is a little more relaxed than Clean. It’s an empty coffee cup on the table because you haven’t gotten up yet, and a dirty pan on the stove while you’re eating dinner because it needs to cool down before you can wash it.
It’s a few dust bunnies hiding behind furniture and a random smudge on a glass surface, and minimal clutter in high-traffic areas.
Lived In is a common degree of clean and one that most families are comfortable with and can maintain. It’s perfectly fine unless you panic the minute surprise company rings the doorbell.
5. Dirty
Dirty is, well, Dirty! It’s tons of clutter everywhere. It’s weeks, months, or years of built-up dust and dirt.
Dirty is toothpaste splatter caked on the bathroom mirror, and moldy leftovers hiding out in the fridge! Dirty is what happens when you get too busy to fit a cleaning routine into your schedule at all.
You’ll need a different approach to clean a really dirty or messy house the first time.
GET YOUR CLEANING DONE DURING THE WEEK!
Join thousands of VIPs for cleaning, decluttering, and organizing tips sent straight to your inbox. As a welcome gift, we’ll send you this FREE printable Weekly Cleaning Checklist that lists exactly what to deep clean in every room of your home.
Weekly Cleaning Schedule Checklist
A weekly cleaning schedule checklist will help you track your routine and check your tasks off on a regular basis.
If you can stick to a weekly cleaning routine, the cleaning tasks will get easier and easier in the long run because they’re being maintained on a regular basis. There won’t be any chance for excess buildup that’s harder to clean.
Some people prefer to break their weekly cleaning routines up by tasks. That means they might dust their entire house one day, then clean the floors the next day, and so on.
I tried that and always felt like I wasn’t finishing anything. I prefer to clean my rooms in their entirety on a specific day, so that’s the way this list is arranged.
If I happen to have extra time or get in the zone and finish quickly, I just keep moving on to the next room. This weekly routine is flexible so tweak it how you like to fit your own home.
Monday – Clean Your Kitchen
I do a lot of my cooking and meal planning on the weekends, so Monday is the Kitchen day of the week. Once it’s clean, it stays that way through most of the week because the majority of our food prep is already done.
If your kitchen mess is overwhelming, it will make a significant difference if you set aside a full day to do a thorough declutter and deep cleaning. Once you do that, your weekly cleaning will be easy peasy!
- Clear the surface clutter
- Check refrigerator, freezer, and pantry and toss any expired or old food
- Spot clean the insides of the refrigerator, microwave, and oven
- Dust cabinet faces, tops, counters, and any other flat surfaces
- Spot clean and polish exterior of appliances
- Spot clean windows and glass
- Take out the trash
- Disinfect counters, sinks, and trash can
- Vacuum and mop kitchen floor
- Disinfect light switches and door handles
Tuesday – Clean the Living Room & Dining Room
- Clear the surface clutter or set aside time to declutter the entire living room
- Dust all decorations, tables, and flat surfaces
- Spot clean and polish furniture
- Spot clean television, windows, and glass
- Vacuum and/or mop floors
- Disinfect light switches and door handles
Wednesday – Clean Your Laundry Room, Utility Room & Mud Room
- Clear the clutter
- Dust all outer surfaces of cabinets, washing machine, dryer, and flat surfaces
- Take out the trash
- Vacuum and/or mop floors
- Disinfect light switches and door handles
Thursday – Bathrooms
- Clear the clutter unless you need to set aside time for a full declutter
- Dust or vacuum the exhaust fan cover
- Dust all outer surfaces of cabinets and flat surfaces
- Spot clean mirrors, windows, and glass
- Take out the trash
- Disinfect the shower, tub, toilet, the wall behind the toilet, and the trash can
- Vacuum and/or mop floors
- Disinfect light switches and door handles
Just like the kitchen, a thorough declutter and deep clean can make a huge impact on the time it takes to complete your weekly cleaning.
Friday – Bedrooms & Office
- Clear the clutter
- Change the Sheets
- Dust all outer and flat surfaces
- Spot clean mirrors, windows, and any other glass surfaces
- Vacuum and/or mop the floors
- Disinfect light switches and door handles
If the bedroom’s taking forever to clean, give it a good declutter and deep clean to speed up the weekly cleaning process.
Saturday – Garage & Outdoors
- Clear any clutter
- Disinfect light switches and door handles
- Do your seasonal chores and yard work as needed
Sunday – Self-Care and Family Time
Sunday is my favorite day. There’s usually very little or no cleaning involved and my focus is on my family.
- Spend time with family
- Rest, relax, and recharge
Pro Tip: Get your family involved in the household chores by assigning simple tasks to the younger kids. If they can reach a light switch, they can wipe it off with a disinfectant wipe.
Good Habits for Daily Cleaning
Make cleaning easier the next week by developing some daily habits to help keep your house clean and tidy. A few simple tasks done as a daily routine will reduce the amount of time needed for the weekly tasks.
Make Your Bed
Making your bed instantly makes a room look tidy and it’s a quick task that can set the tone of accomplishment for your entire day.
Squeegee The Shower
After each shower, run a squeegee over the walls and doors, or spritz with hydrogen peroxide and rubbing alcohol. This prevents soap scum from building up and makes weekly cleaning easier. Still not convinced, check out the pros and cons according to the professionals.
Tidy and Wipe Bathroom Counters and Sink
When you finish with makeup and toiletries, put them away and remove all extra items from the bathroom counter. Then wipe down the counters, sinks, and fixtures with a microfiber cloth.
Wash the Dishes and Kitchen Counters
When you’re finished eating, take care of the dishes. Either wash them or rinse them and place them in the dishwasher. Wipe down the counters, sink, and fixtures.
Do a Load of Laundry as needed
Keep up with laundry by washing one or two loads a day a needed. If you wait until the end of the week, you’ll have so much to do it’s likely to take all day.
Declutter Dump Zones
Clutter gives the appearance of a messy home. Clear out any dump zones or place items in a wicker storage basket on a daily basis. I have a rule that any time I head to the master bedroom located in the back of the house, I grab something that needs to be put away.
Once you’ve incorporated the daily cleaning tasks into a normal routine, they’ll just become a habit. You won’t have to think about them and will just automatically do them.
Need to do a thorough declutter, check out these related decluttering posts on how to declutter your kitchen, your bathroom, and your living room.
Take Out the Trash as needed
You can take out the trash as needed or on a daily basis – whichever works best for you. I take mine out when it fills up, or if I put something in it that has the potential to get stinky.
Weekly Cleaning Routine Checklist
So that’s it! It looks like a lot when it’s in writing, but it’s really pretty quick and easy.
Keep in mind that most of the tasks are spot cleaning tasks, so if it isn’t dirty, there’s no need to waste your valuable time cleaning it.
If you miss a day, skip it completely that week. One week isn’t going to make that big of a difference.
If this routine doesn’t work for you, tweak it so it does. Mine didn’t start this way. It has morphed over the years and continues to do so.
We adopted two rescue kitties, and it turns out one of them is a Mainecoon, so now I am vacuuming more often than I ever have.
GET YOUR CLEANING DONE DURING THE WEEK!
Join thousands of VIPs for cleaning, decluttering, and organizing tips sent straight to your inbox. As a welcome gift, we’ll send you this FREE printable Weekly Cleaning Checklist that lists exactly what to deep clean in every room of your home.
My Go-To Cleaning Supplies
I won’t bore you with the entire list of supplies that I use, but I couldn’t finish this post without suggesting some of my favorite cleaning supplies.
Glass Cleaner
I’ve tried every glass cleaner on the market and haven’t found a single one that works better than HOPE’S Perfect Glass. It leaves my glass clean and streak-free with very little effort.
Grime Cleanser
Bar Keepers Friend is my go-to cleaner for sinks, glass stovetops, the grease burnt on bottoms of pots and pans, and the cutlery scuff marks on my white dishes.
Cleaning Cloths
I absolutely love these Zwipes Microfiber Cleaning Cloths for all cleaning tasks. They come in a 24 pack with 3 different colors. I use the green cloths for mirrors, windows, and stainless steel appliances, the yellow for flat surfaces, countertops, and interior surfaces, and the blue for floors, tubs, and toilets.
Mop
I think I have also tried every mop on the market, and none works as well as the O-Cedar Easy Wring Spin Mop. It has a foot pedal wringing feature that enables me to control how much moisture stays in the mop. I can leave it a little wetter for the kitchen tile floors but wring it pretty well for the hardwood floors in my living room.
Vacuum
I mentioned earlier that I have 2 long-haired cats and that I vacuum every day. That couldn’t happen without my Roomba. This thing keeps me sane and my floors clean.
Related Article: Dirtiest Things You Should Be Cleaning, But Aren’t
Multi-Surface Cleaner
A multi-surface cleaner can save you a ton of time if you have hard surface floors instead of carpet. This Bissell can cut your cleaning time in half.
What’s In Your Weekly Cleaning Routine?
So that’s it, my weekly cleaning routine checklist, daily habits to help keep it that way, and a side of my favorite cleaning supplies. Let me know what you think and how you manage to get your cleaning done with your busy schedule.
Tanya do you use that glass cleaner in your cars as well? That is the place that gets me the most as far as streaks are concerned.
Great question! I do use it on the inside of the windows, but I use RainX on the outside.
So how do women who work 8-12 hours outside the home have the time/energy to do all the listed weekday chores, particularly when there are children to get ready for daycare/school/help with homework/prepare meals for, yard/car maintenance, and oh, try to exercise/take care of ourselves? It isn’t that we don’t know *what* to do, it’s that we are trying to do it all, getting little if any help, and being shamed by not doing all of it up to the standards of others.
Great point! I’ll start by saying ‘You do You’! The only standards that matter is yours and shaming is not ok. Some shortcuts that I use include running my Roomba every day and using a Swiffer Wet Jet when a quick mop is sufficient. I also keep a microfiber cloth handy to do spot cleaning while I’m cooking dinner. I find that quickly cleaning small messes as they occur significantly reduces my cleaning times. I also don’t do the cleaning all at once. I slip single tasks in throughout my day. I hope some of that helps.