The Housekeeper I Try to Be
Let’s be honest, this schedule may not even last through the month, but I have to try! My mind always feels less cluttered when my house is tidy.
Less mess, less stress.
It has taken me a while to accept that with a toddler in the house all day, if I clean up it lasts all of 30 seconds before everything is strung out again. I straighten up during nap sometimes but most of the cleanup happens after he is in bed. I realized that at least by cleaning up at night, I got to wake up to a clean house and enjoy my coffee while it gets destroyed. Haha!
Mom tip: If your toddler wakes up to a clean house, they will let you drink your coffee while they destroy it.
Mondays are for cleaning the kitchen. Weekends are either busy or lazy so I’m bad about letting the sink build up and then waking up on Monday morning to a sink full of dirty dishes and stuff on the countertops. Monday’s have become a reset for me because I can make coffee and refuse to sit down until the kitchen is cleaned. That’s mostly consisting of emptying or loading the dishwasher, wiping down the counter and stove top, cleaning out the refrigerator, and sometimes organizing a cabinet or drawer if it needs it.
Tuesdays are the days I try to dust. Not necessarily deep cleaning but wiping everything down and vacuuming because with two cats and shaggy carpet, dust collects quickly. The fans and baseboards are my least favorite thing to dust so I’m going to try my best to dust them every other week since I probably won’t get to it every week.
Wednesdays are for cleaning the bathrooms. I hate a cluttered and messy bathroom but I’m terrible about staying on top of cleaning it regularly! In a small bathroom there’s always something on the counters and a towel in the floor. This year I am going to clean the bathrooms even if it means setting a timer and not allowing myself to have coffee until it’s done.
This year I decided to prioritize straightening the bedrooms. Typically, if I start to notice they are getting bad I will just stop what I am doing and clean them quickly but that is going to change. Straightening the bedroom is a great task for my toddler and he already loves making his bed because he loves throwing all of his stuffed animals on top. As far as the master bedroom, it’s so worth going out of the way to make the bed and straighten up so when I get in bed at the end of the day the space is decluttered.
Friday is my least favorite cleaning day because I strongly dislike doing laundry. If it were on the main level of our house, I don’t think I would mind it as much. However, having to leave my toddler and sneak downstairs every time a load needs switched, or having to carry a heavy basket up the stairs makes the task that much harder for me to accomplish. If I can make myself get everything cleaned and out of the dryer, then I try to get it all put away on Saturday. It’s not my favorite day to have loads of laundry but doing all of it helps us make sure we have whatever we will need for the following week.
I don’t have Windex for windows and mirrors, pledge for dusting, or a strong spray for wiping things down, but I do use this all-purpose cleaner concentrate. I dilute it based on what I am using it for. More dilution for windows and mirrors, more concentrated for kitchen and bathroom, normal dilution for dusting other household surfaces, etc. Click the box below to check it out!
Now to see if I can stick to this schedule for 2024. We will see! If it doesn’t seem to be working a few months in, I can change it up! Do you have any cleaning tips or favorite cleaning products?!
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The Shark Rotator is my favorite vacuum! It took us buying a few cheap ones before we realized it was worth it to put our money into a good vacuum that would do the job I wanted it to do.
I hate toilet brushes because I can’t stand that it sits in my bathroom after I clean the toilet with it. I love that this wand has the Clorox brush that you can throw out after each clean! The refills are affordable, and the set is genius!
