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1123 sharesIt can feel impossible to keep your home tidy. Especially if you have kids. But I’ve got good news: one of the best strategies to keep your home clean with minimal effort is to use a realistic weekly cleaning schedule.
Because instead of feeling like you have to clean ALL THE THINGS every day, using a weekly cleaning schedule allows you to break up household chores across the whole week.
And so I’ve created an awesome weekly cleaning schedule printable template that you can grab for free at the bottom of this post. It includes a realistic and simple cleaning schedule that you can actually stick to. Plus a blank template you can customize to create the perfect weekly
cleaning routine for you.
In this post we’ll go over everything you need to use your free printable cleaning schedule template.
So if you’re ready for a cleaner home in less time, keep reading.
(If your home feel like a complete disaster and you want a bit of a fresh slate before starting with the free weekly cleaning schedule, then check out How to Clean Your House When It’s a Disgusting Mess with the free House Cleaning Checklist.)
Because you spread out household chores over the whole week, you can usually keep your home cleaner with the same amount of time and effort.
Or even less. Because it’s all about spending your time where it counts the most both in the tasks you do daily and the ones you do weekly.
At the top of the weekly cleaning schedule, you’ll see the recommended daily tasks that you’ll want to complete on a daily basis. This daily cleaning schedule includes:
Make Bed
I highly recommend making your bed every day. This starts your day with a quick win & helps your room look and feel nice.
Unload & Load Dishwasher
Making sure the dishwasher is unloaded allows you to load it later in the day. While you may not get to the whole kitchen, running your dishwasher each day keeps the kitchen and dishes in check.
Wash & Fold 1 load of Laundry
Doing just one load of laundry each day, instead of trying to cram it all into one day, will actually save you time and energy. This 15 minute laundry method is a game changer–especially if your have kids.
After the daily cleaning tasks, you see the specific cleaning tasks for each day of the week. These are the different tasks that need to be done on a weekly basis. This weekly cleaning routine includes:
Monday: Bathrooms – You’ll start the week cleaning your bathrooms. If you are short on time, clean the toilet bowl, use Clorox wipes to wipe down surfaces, and vacuum the floor. Even a 5 minute clean can keep your bathroom sanitary.
Tuesday: Living Areas – Your focus is your living areas like the living room, TV room, or anywhere that people (and messes) tend to congregate.
Wednesday: Bedrooms – Ideally, everyone in your household is responsible for their own bedrooms/
Thursday: Kitchen -While ideally you’re tidying the kitchen daily, the reality is there’s a lot that we can’t get to when balancing a million other things. So on this day, you’ll:
Friday: Floors & Dust – On Friday, you’ll vacuum all floors and spot mop problem areas. You’ll also dust anything you missed during the week. Or you’ll simply do what you can!
Weekend: Miscellaneous tasks – Like washing and changing sheets, yardwork & planning the next week. Weekends might also be when you give more chores to your school-aged kids who don’t have time during the week. For example, in our home, my kids are responsible for cleaning their bathrooms, cleaning bedrooms, dusting, and other tasks on Saturday.
While the free printable weekly cleaning schedule is a great basic cleaning template, you may need to customize it more for you to keep a clean home. Which is why I also created the blank weekly cleaning schedule that allows you to make your own cleaning schedule.
This has space to customize:
Here’s how you can customize that weekly cleaning template to work best for you:
1. Think about your schedule & cleaning needs.
First, you’ll want to think about your weekly schedule like:
You’ll also want to consider your unique cleaning needs. For example, if you have a hairy dog, you might need to vacuum more frequently. Or if you have lots of bathrooms, you may split cleaning bathrooms over 2 days.
2. Decide your daily tasks
Next, decide which tasks you need to do every day to keep your home in check. WHile the ones on the sample checklist are generally a good start, perhaps you want to add to these.
3. Sketch out your weekly cleaning schedule
On a scratch piece paper or in a google doc, sketch out your weekly cleaning schedule.
First list your daily tasks.
Then decide your daily chores (bathroom, kitchen, bedrooms, floors etc)
Below each day, list the individual tasks
I recommend using the sample weekly cleaning schedule template provided to give you ideas. You may need to edit and adjust as you work on creating your schedule. This is why we start on scratch paper!
4. Customize the Blank Weekly Cleaning Schedule
Once you’ve finalized your custom schedule, fill out the blank weekly cleaning template including in your free download.
5. Laminate & Post in your home!
I recommend also laminating your finished schedule and checklist so you can reuse the cleaning checklists week after week.
#1 – Build it into your schedule
While this is a realistic cleaning schedule, the fact is that it’s simply a wish list unless you actually figure out when you’ll complete each task.
Look at your schedule and figure out when you will fit in your everyday cleaning tasks as well as your daily chore. Are mornings or evenings better? Will you divide it up over the day? What makes sene for you?
#2 – Shoot for 75% completion.
Let go of the idea that you have to complete each task perfectly. Instead, shoot for somewhere around 70 to 80%.
One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever heard (especially in the face of perfectionism) is to “Lower your standards and keep going.”
Honestly, so much of success in life isn’t doing things perfectly…it’s forward momentum. And so if you’re short on time or energy, do what you can.
Frankly, half-assing it is better than no-assing it.
For more ways you can shift your mindset to actually get more done, checkout 4 Mindset Shifts That Will Help You Crush Overwhelm & Get More Done
#3 – Set a timer
I’m a huge fan of using timers. Because it gives you a time limit, so you’re not despairing over spending ages doing something. And it’s a great way to make it easier to focus on the task at hand.
As an adult with ADHD and parent of children with ADHD, timers are life around here.
#4 – Laminate & Use Dry Erase Marker
This way you can reuse your weekly cleaning list week after week. Check off the items on your printable cleaning checklists with a dry-erase marker as you complete them and wipe it clean at the end of the week.
If you want an editable version of this checklist, along with a bunch of extra cleaning checklists and schedules, check out The Ultimate Cleaning Schedule & Checklist Bundle in my printable shop.
This editable cleaning bundle includes:
You can customize these schedules & checklists to meet your needs. This includes detailed deep cleaning tasks and monthly cleaning calendar. Perfect for spring cleaning.
If you’re looking for more free printable cleaning checklists, you’re in the right place. My whole goal with The Incremental Mama is to make it easier to keep your home and life in order. And checklists are a great way to do that.
Ready to keep your home clean and tidy with minimal effort? Grab the free Weekly Cleaning Checklists which include:
Here are some more resources you may enjoy:
