Guest Post: Have a Clean Home in Minutes a Day

Rolling out the welcome mat today for Kristin of Living Graciously. She’s here to spread some wisdom about creating a cleaning routine to make the most efficient use of your time, plus some other gems in her post that inspired me to try some new ideas. Welcome, Kristin!

Cleaning. The word that makes us all leap for joy, no?! I do get anxious right around this time of year though to spruce things up around the house. Getting rid of all the cobwebs, wool, and coziness of winter feels kind of liberating, doesn’t it?

Today, as a part of Carrie’s series, I thought I’d share the cleaning schedule that helps me keep my home manageable, neat, and ready for company at a moment’s notice.

My overarching inspiration comes from The Flylady whom you can find at Flylady.net. You will see some of her concepts throughout my routine.

Everyday: clean up hotspots (areas where junk accumulates: by doors, kitchen counters, around the phone, etc.) before bed. Don’t go to bed with a dirty house! –

After Dinners: make a quick spot-sweep of the kitchen floors a part of your after dinner clean up routine.

Mondays: I dust the house with my Swiffer or feather duster (fast paced loud music helps this normally mundane chore go by much more quickly!), water house plants

Tuesdays: Vacuum the whole house and clean the bathrooms

Just implementing these few habits religiously, and of course training your family to observe the basic “when you use it, put it back” philosophy, your house can generally be kept in a presentable condition.

In order to keep laundry from accumulating, I also wash one load of laundry a day. Usually, I bring it to the mudroom even before breakfast. Then after breakfast, switch from the washer to the dryer. – I TRY (although I don’t always succeed) to get a whole load taken care of (washed, dried, ironed, and put away) before lunch. You’ll be surprised at how easily you can stay on top of the ever growing wash pile by just doing one load each day.

Also from Flylady, I will sometimes focus on one room or area for an entire week (Flylady’s Zones), and do some deep cleaning little by little. For example, take the kitchen. Here is what zone cleaning might look like:

Monday: Empty and clean out the fridge

Tuesday: Scrub down the cabinet fronts

Wednesday: dust and wipe baseboards and lighting fixture

Thursday: Empty and re-organize silverware and junk drawers

Friday: Go through pantry and throw out expired food

I set my timer for some of these tasks, and just tackle whatever I can in a 15 or 30 minute window. Then I give myself a little reward break for 5 minutes: maybe a coffee break, some quick blog reading, or a brisk walk outside.

Lastly, since we were on the subject of the kitchen, a few things that I have found really help keep my fridge in decent shape is to:

*Wash and prep fruits and veggies right away, and display in a nice bowl or baskets inside the fridge so people can find a healthy snack quickly and with minimal effort.

*Store leftovers in small see-through containers. If you can SEE your options, you are more likely to eat them!

*Don’t push things to the back of your shelves. Out of sight, out of mind…until they start to smell that is…

*Every time you plan to go grocery shopping, go through your fridge before you leave for the store. You might even find ingredients that you already had that you were going to re-buy! Throw out anything questionable, and give the inside of the fridge a quick swipe with a warm soapy dishcloth.

I hope some of these cleaning tips can help inspire you to come up with (or keep pressing on with) a cleaning routine of your own. A working routine looks different for everybody, but just having one is what will keep your house from going to the dogs :-)!