My Easy Weekly Cleaning Routine

Something I feel is highly important and underrated is maintaining a clean home.  I've written several blogs about organization, but that is only half of the picture.  Once you have all your personal items organized, keeping your home clean is the other way to maintain a healthy and welcoming living space.

Having a bucket like this is helpful for storing all your cleaning supplies.

Today I'd like to share with you my easy cleaning routine.  I do this every Monday and I actually look forward to this day because it's when everything is fresh again.  You can use this as a loose guide and customize it to your own needs.  Maybe you can't dedicate an entire day to these tasks and that's okay.  You could do one every day until you finish.  Also, if you're someone who dreads cleaning, check out my blog, 5 Tips For Making Cleaning More Enjoyable.

Step One: Prepare the Spaces for Cleaning

The first thing we need to do is prepare each room for cleaning.  I usually remove all the towels hanging in the bathrooms and kitchen, move the rugs, and move anything else off the hard floors to prepare for vacuuming and mopping.  

Step Two: Start the Laundry

I do laundry about twice a week.  I do a dark load and a white load on Mondays and usually on Thursdays I'll have enough to do another dark load.  On Mondays I start with the dark load and make sure I wash all the dirty towels.  I'll also throw in blankets, pillow cases, and anything else I know needs a wash.  Laundry is an easy thing you can start early and work on other things while it's washing and drying.

Step Three: Tackle the Kitchen

At this point I will usually do any cooking I need to do for the week.  I'll make my breakfast smoothies, lunch, desserts, or snacks.  That way when I actually start cleaning, I can wipe up messes from the cooking I just did.  I use Young Living Thieves household cleaner to wipe down my kitchen counter tops.  It kills germs and smells amazing.  I wipe out the microwave, toaster, and anything else that looks like it needs to be cleaned.  All the crumbs land on the floor waiting to be vacuumed up later.  I also organize the pantry and refrigerator, throwing away any old food from the previous week.





Step Four:  Dust and Clean Glass Surfaces or Mirrors

I always dust each room with Endust next because once again, everything will fall to the floor and then it can be vacuumed up.  I also use Sprayway glass cleaner on any glass surfaces or mirrors, especially in the bathrooms where splashing may occur.

Step Five: Scrub the Bathrooms

I use rubber gloves for this step because I'm using products that contain bleach.  I scrub the bathroom sinks, toilets, and showers with an old white wash rag.  I use a toilet wand to scrub inside the toilets.  Make sure you move your toothbrushes and other items out of the way so they don't get sprayed with bleach.

Step Six: Check the Laundry

At this point I usually switch the dark load to the dryer and put the white load in with my bed sheets.  I think it's very important to wash your sheets every week because of all the sweat and dirt that accumulates.  I don't start the whites until I'm done with wiping down the kitchen counters, dusting, and scrubbing the bathrooms because I throw the cleaning rags in there as well.

Step Seven: Vacuum and Mop

For this step I vacuum all the hard floors first and then mop them.  That way, when I'm waiting for the floors to dry, I can vacuum the carpet and not worry about stepping on the wet floors.  The best mopping equipment in my opinion is a Libman mop and white vinegar.  Don't waste your money on expensive cleaning products because they really don't work as well as cheap white vinegar.  I got a gallon jug for less than $2 and you only need to pour a small amount into the kitchen sink with a little bit of warm water.  It disinfects your floors and dries super fast!  Just make sure to disinfect the sink with bleach when you're done, or just use a bucket.

Step Eight: Finish the Laundry and Put Everything Back in it's Place

I can usually fold and put away the darks at this time and switch the whites to the dryer.  I put all the rugs back and clean towels in the bathrooms.  Once the whites are dry, I fold them and make the bed with fresh sheets.  

Step Nine: Take Out the Trash

I make taking out the trash the last step because I usually have garbage from cooking, lint from the dryer, emptying the vacuum cleaner, and so on.  It feels good to put a fresh trash bag in at the end of the cleaning day.

If you make this a weekly habit your home will be easier to clean.  You'll maintain that level of cleanliness.  I thoroughly enjoy cleaning days so I tend to take my time and enjoy it.  But if I really needed to do it quickly, I could do this whole routine in about two hours.  That's not that much time per week to spend on making sure your home is spotless!