Do You Have a Cleaning Schedule?

If you are like me, you work Monday through Friday.  Then...on the weekends you are busy cleaning house and catching up.  My Saturdays always feel as if they fly by.  Some weeks I do strip the beds, vacuum in the middle of the week and try and keep the laundry caught up before Saturday arrives.  Afterall...even though I am working here, I am able to toss a load of laundry on....or vacuum a room.  It's sort of hit and miss.  I need a schedule.  I want to take my Saturdays back and feel as if I actually have a weekend.  I have my best thinking moments after midnight.  I've usually woke up for the first time around midnight and then I lay there with visions of cleaning schedules, etc. going through my mind.  It's kept me awake the last 2 nights....so down on paper "persay" my thoughts go.

Let's break down the household chores:


 ~Laundry-I usually do one or two small loads per day.  I have found that doing small loads each day is better than larger loads every other day.  It takes very little time to fold or hang up a few pieces.  Sorry energy efficient people....this works for me and I've been able to go to bed with only what was used that day and tossed in the laundry.  I do wait on my whites to wash every other day.  My colored clothes are done daily.  I usually hang up most of these clothes and not use a dryer anyway.  I'm being efficient in that way, right??  Laundry will go down as a daily duty for me.  Key is to stay ahead.

~Vacuuming-  For most people this is a weekly job.  I can remember when I worked outside the home, I vacuumed every Saturday morning.  Of course, no one was here to require any other vacuuming during the week.  Now that I'm home and I have a lot of kidlet traffic, I have to do a mid-week vacuum to our family room and kitchen.

~Bathrooms-I usually do a good wipe over every day or so.   There's just something about mirrors in our household and toothpaste.  I have threatened to have a camera placed in the bathrooms to actually see the process of slinging toothpaste everywhere.  So...my swipe over is usually after I've cleaned the mirrors and then I just spray the sink area with windex.  I can't stand a toothpaste splattered mirror.  On Saturdays, I do my big bathroom clean up. That means on my hands and knees around that awful toilet.

~Kitchen-Even though I clean my kitchen everyday, it's a hit and miss in those little nook areas.  I don't pull everything off the counters and do a general overhaul.   I need to at least once a week bleach my counter tops and wipe down everything that sits on the counters. 

~Linens-I do this weekly.  There's bed bugs you know! and skin and stuff...yuck!  On my bedding I have a light weight white blanket and a coverlet.  I don't wash these weekly.  I do need a schedule to do these though.  I think this could fall under a monthly schedule.   I would like to change these 2 beds on certain days during the week.  I'll have time to catch up the sheet washing and not have so much to do on MY Saturdays. Maybe Thursdays on one bed and Fridays on the second bed?

~Dusting.  Well...I dust.  Not everyday like my mom.  Yes...she dusts all of her furniture Every. Single. Day.  I know, right?  I do think I should dust twice a week.  Dust seems to find my furniture everywhere I live.  I seem to dust the family room more than anywhere else in the house.  I suppose it's because that's where everyone is.  I'd like to see this on a schedule.

~Mopping.  I hate to mop.  Not sure why, but I do.  I usually mop once a week unless a spill happens.  The only places that need to be mopped are my bathrooms, laundry room and kitchen.  I feel like I should mop these areas after I vacuum.  So...I'll have to coordinate that with vacuum days.  I think once a week is enough of that silliness!

~Sweeping the outside areas.  Another job I just hate.  I need to get this done though.  I have a front and side porch, along with a back patio area.  The patio I normally hose off.  I should really consider assigning this outdoor job to hub, right?!  I think it needs to be done at least once a week.  I'm horrible at this.  I have a tree with a zillion leaves in front of my front porch and well...if I swept daily it wouldn't matter.  I hate that tree.

So there you have weekly things that need to be done around the house.  There is so much more that could be done.  Monthly cleaning.  The dreaded places in your house.  Those baseboards....windowsills......ceiling fans...light fixtures...lamp shades....dusty walls.  I just can't get around to all of that as often as I should.  Perhaps if I put it down in writing on a schedule, I could get these things done. 

I'm going to work on a cleaning schedule and then let you have a look at it in a later post.  I've got to wrap my head around times, days and such to put this all together.  I have a small window in the afternoons that I could get some of these things done.   I'm sure I've forgotten some things...but I'll take one room at the time and get a cleaning schedule of each room of my house.

Am I a neat freak nut?  Why yes I am.  Thanks Mom.