Stay at Home Mom Cleaning Schedule
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to create a stay at home mom cleaning schedule that would actually keep my house under control. It never sticks. Usually not even for a few days.
I hoped having a cleaning schedule would turn cleaning tasks into habits that just came to me naturally.
Instead, the opposite happened.
What I realized is that having a regimented cleaning schedule actually made me hate cleaning more.
Every time I walked past my fridge that proudly displayed my cleaning schedule, I had this sense of guilt.
I felt lazy because I couldn’t stick to a cleaning schedule even though I was home all day.
How could I possibly be lazy when I hardly sat down all day long?
I fell into bed exhausted every single night while the house continued to fall apart around us.
Let me let you in on the secret stay at home mom cleaning schedule that changed everything.
The secret isn’t a schedule.
It’s a list.
Also read: How I Got My Disgusting House Under Control
Stay at Home Mom Cleaning Schedule for Moms That Hate to Clean
At the beginning of the week, I do this on Sunday nights, make a list of everything you want to accomplish that coming week.
Most weeks this is going to be a bunch of repeat tasks with a few extras.
For example, every week I want to mop our kitchen floors, wash the sliding glass door, scrub the toilets, and maybe just maybe wipe down the baseboards.
Every few weeks I want to vacuum our patio and maybe scrub the carpets.
Now here’s why this works:
Life doesn’t happen in a vacuum, so having a regimented cleaning schedule is just setting yourself up for failure.
I’ll do anything to avoid that pesky guilt that comes with breaking yet another schedule I wasted time to put together.
The beauty of a list instead of a schedule is that it allows life to happen.
If on a Monday you just have nothing left to give, but you’re faced with this daunting schedule that tells you you need to get down and wipe down your baseboards – how likely are you to keep going?
You’re not.
If instead, you have a long to do list, but you know you can muster wiping down the mirror in the bathroom after you shower – you get to be exhausted AND productive without feeling guilty.
Does this seem like something you can get on board with?
Here’s my list that repeats almost weekly:
Kitchen Cleaning Checklist
- Wipe down counters
- Wipe out kitchen sink
- Vacuum floor
- Mop floor
- Wipe down the top of the oven
- Check if microwave needs cleaned
- Clean baseboards
- Spot clean walls and outlets
Living Room Cleaning List
- Remove anything that goes to another room (basket for this and I ask the kids to put it away)
- Vacuum
- Clean baseboards
- Vacuum couches
- Spot clean walls and outlets
Bathroom Cleaning Checklist
- Wipe down the mirror (if you do this after a shower, no cleaner is required)
- Clean the toilet
- Mop the floor
- Clear off the counters (usually just putting things under the sink in a basket)
- Wipe down the sinks and counters
- Spot clean walls, doors, and outlets
- Spray down the shower with leave-on cleaner
(we have two bathrooms, so I just copy and paste this twice and reprint my list each week)
Bedroom Cleaning Checklist
- Pick up all laundry and take to laundry room
- Make bed (yep, we have a made bed about once a week and I’m fine with that)
- Vacuum floor
- Spot clean TV
- Spot clean walls, doors, and outlets
- Clean baseboards
- Dust blinds
We cosleep, so we only have one bedroom on our checklist.
Playroom Cleaning Checklist
Our kids handle their playrooms.
At their age, this looks like them putting their toys into bins when I ask (six or seven times) so that one of my boys can vacuum the floor.
Daily Habits to Keep Your House Clean
There are very few cleaning tasks that have actually turned into habits, but there are a couple.
This is exactly what I do to keep our house under control with 4 kids under age 6.
Every day I aim to load the dishwasher and run it at night so I have clean dishes ready for breakfast.
When I’m cleaning up from breakfast, I put away the dishwasher. This takes 3 minutes – yes I timed myself.
My 6 year old has now started to help load the dishwasher now and then.
If he doesn’t do it, it takes me about 5 minutes.
I try to wash a load of laundry every day.
Some days it happens, some days it doesn’t.
I aim to put away laundry when it’s done, but more realistically, I’m putting away a bunch of laundry bins about once a week.
Yes, it looks like a lot and completely overwhelming when I start.
I put on music, have the kids help me with my “no fold systems” and it takes about a half hour.
Yes, seriously.
Daily Cleaning Habits Homeschool Mom
We homeschool, so we seem to have a never ending amount of homeschool stuff laying around.
This is tricky because I don’t want to put it away if we’re just going to use it again tomorrow.
It’s also the number one culprit of clutter on my counters.
I decided to just keep a homeschool basket of ongoing things in the corner by our couch.
It looks decorative, and it fits all of our daily things (like our number rods, our base ten set, and our moveable alphabet) without us having to go dig them back out each morning.
Cleaning Essentials
There are only a couple of items that are must-haves in my cleaning arsenal.
We try to be as Montessori-minded as possible, so it’s very important to me that my kids can help me with cleaning chores around the house.
The first is a vacuum all of the kids can operate.
We’re incredibly tough on vacuums, but this is my current favorite.
I also always have stick vacuum on hand that my daughters (ages 22 months and 3) are able to operate to clean up small messes.
We’ve had this one since my boys were tiny and it’s still going strong.
Mopping is the number one job everyone fights me to be able to do. It’s a winning combo of playing with water and the spinning wringing function that ours has. I’ll never own another mop – this is the one our whole family loves.
Until they’re big enough to understand how much wringing is necessary to not flood the floor, we always have swiffers on hand.
I don’t buy the disposable cloths. Instead we use these microfiber cloths and I just wash them when they’re done cleaning.
I love this spray on shower spray for between scrubs.
I only use Murphy’s Oil soap on our floors because the smell is one of my favorite things ever.
For everything else, I almost always just use a combination of vinegar and baking soda, but this ECOS all purpose spray smells so good that I’m going through a bottle every pay period – so there’s that.
Oh and for your tiniest cleaners that are in the just watching phase, we have this Melissa and Doug set plus this little cleaning caddy.
It makes sure that everyone gets involved so someday my husband and I don’t have to do all of the cleaning on our own!
Cleaning for Overwhelmed Moms
If you have young kids like I do, let me give you some very important advice.
I want you to lay down the idea of a perfectly clean house or instagram-worthy toy rooms.
Instead, be the mom that plays with her kids, even if there are dirty dishes in the sink.
A million times a day I say to myself “what do you want them to remember.”
Let that be your barometer for what cleaning tasks need to be completed.
I truly don’t think you’ll ever look back and wish you spent more time cleaning.
I already know I’ll look back and regret the times I thought I was too busy to sit on the floor and play with my babies.
Keep perspective and just keep going. The best cleaning schedule is one that works for your family without making you feel like you’re lacking in some way.
Work your list and remember, the mess will still be there tomorrow!