How to Keep Your House Clean
Keep reading this post to learn:
⋒ How to simplify your cleaning routine
⋒ What habits and routines you can implement to make cleaning less overwhelming
⋒ My full (and updated) cleaning routine
A few years ago, I shared my cleaning routine but that was before I became a mom so my season of life is totally different now – and you know what we do around here… we tweak our routines to support our season!
So this blog post is all about my full, updated cleaning routine!
Now y’all know that our schedules and routines are tools, not chains – this routine doesn’t happen perfectly every day BUT following pretty close to this helps me keep our house clean without feeling like I’m chasing chores all day, every day.
I can truly say that I don’t feel overwhelmed by housework and I don’t feel like I’m always behind when it comes to cleaning. I have created routines that help me maintain our home in a way that supports us.
Before I get into sharing my cleaning routine, I want to lay some groundwork:
~ What works for me, may not work for you.
Take the fish and spit out the bones. If something doesn’t make sense for you, don’t stress about it – move on and figure out something that can work for you.
~ I’m a naturally tidy person.
Chaos in my home causes my anxiety levels to go through the roof so I am highly motivated to keep my home orderly.
~ I’ve determined what matters to me in a clean home for this season.
For reference, I have a husband, 2 big dogs, and a 1-year-old. We live in a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom 1,500 square foot house. A clean house to me in my current season of life isn’t shiny baseboards, fingerprint-free mirrors, and 0 dog hair on the floor. That’s not sustainable for my season of life. I’ve had to decide what “clean enough” is for me in this season and mentally decide to let go of what doesn’t matter to me or else I would feel like I was chasing chores all day, every day.
~ I’ve designed this routine to support me.
This routine does not stress me out – it actually does the opposite. It gives me peace of mind because I know that mostly everything that needs to be done to manage and maintain my home has a built-in place in my schedule. I’m never wondering when things are going to get done and I also never feel guilty when I’m chilling on the couch reading or playing outside with my daughter thinking I should be doing X, Y, Z instead.
~ Last note before we get into it: my husband is in charge of all of the outdoor chores at our house so you won’t hear me talking about any of those – mowing, weed eating, raking, picking up the dog poop, pressure washing, etc.
So as you listen to me share my cleaning routine – keep these things in mind. This is what works for me and my family in our season of life and I hope that you glean some inspiration from it!
So I’m gonna break this down into time categories so it’s easy to follow along and kind of imagine. We’ll do daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly.
Oh and before I forget, I went ahead and created a Hustle Sanely Home Cleaning Routine template to go with this post that you can snag for $10 – it’s an editable Canva document so you can change it to fit your own needs.
Okay, let’s get into it!
YEARLY:
These are tasks that I do once a year. I pick a day in December every year to do these tasks. I do them all at once since they’re only done once a year.
Tasks:
~ Deep clean washer/dryer
~ Flip mattress
~ Declutter digital files and paper files
QUARTERLY:
These are tasks that need to be done once a quarter. You’ll see where they fit into my schedule in the monthly section. I don’t do them all at once.
Tasks:
~ Declutter clothes (March, June, September, December)
~ Declutter cabinets/drawers (January, April, July, October)
~ Wipe fans/light fixtures + washing curtains/windows/blinds + deep clean the couch + rugs (February, May, August, November)
MONTHLY:
These are tasks that need to be done once a month but I don’t like doing them all at once because that’s too daunting and time-consuming. Like I said about my laundry and dishes, I prefer to do shorter tasks more often than longer tasks a less amount of times. So every weekend, I do one of my monthly revolving tasks. They take me 30-60 minutes depending on what it is. You’ll get a better idea of how this fits into my weekly schedule when we get to the weekly section!
Monthly Revolving Tasks:
~ 1st week of the month: Deep clean showers
~ 2nd week of the month: Wipe down baseboards and doors/doorframes
~ 3rd week of the month: Deep clean fridge/pantry/stove/ freezer
~ 4th week of the month: Quarterly task (I shared these earlier – decluttering clothes, decluttering cabinets, wiping fans + washing curtains/windows, deep cleaning the couch + rugs)
WEEKLY:
I only have 2 pieces to my weekly cleaning routine since my daily tidy for 15 minutes knocks out so much, which you’ll hear about in the next section. The 2 pieces of my weekly cleaning routine are:
01: Home Reset Routine
What it is: Once a week, I take like 30-40 minutes to reset our home.
When I do it: I currently do my Home Reset Routine on Fridays
Tasks:
~ Tidy all rooms (as in, put away anything that isn’t where it belongs) - this takes around 5 minutes
~ Water plants (I do this every other week) - this takes around 10 minutes
~ Wash all bedding (If I’m out of the house, I’ll communicate to Adam that I need his help switching the loads around)
~ Empty trash cans into the big bin - this takes under 5 minutes
~ Plan meals + order groceries - this usually takes me 15-20 minutes
I have an entire podcast episode about my Home Reset Routine if you want to check that out!
02: Revolving Task
What it is: Once a week, I do one of my monthly revolving tasks.
When I do it: Either Friday or Saturday
Tasks I do:
~ 1st week of the month: Deep clean showers
~ 2nd week of the month: Wipe down baseboards and doors/doorframes
~ 3rd week of the month: Deep clean fridge/pantry/stove/ freezer
~ 4th week of the month: Quarterly task (I shared these earlier – decluttering clothes, decluttering cabinets, wiping fans + washing curtains/windows, deep cleaning the couch + rugs)
So these take different amounts of time, but I’d say on average I spend 45-60 minutes a week on the revolving task. The revolving task is usually one of my Focus 3 tasks on the Friday or Saturday that I’m doing it on.
DAILY:
There are 3 main pieces to my daily cleaning routine:
01: Hustle Sanely 5 Tidy for 15 Minutes Routine
02: Home-Opening Routine
03: Home-Closing Routine
Hustle Sanely 5 Tidy for 15 Minutes Routine:
What it is: Tidy for 15 minutes is part of a daily routine called Hustle Sanely 5 – if you’ve never heard me talk about that (you must be new here, hi, lol) you can listen to episode 169 of the podcast and it’s all about it. But the tidy for 15 minutes habit is one that is my saving grace for keeping my home clean without having to dedicate hours to cleaning on the weekend like I used to. I literally set the timer on my phone for 15 minutes and whatever area of my house I’m focusing on that day, I do as much as I can in that room in 15 minutes.
When I do it: I usually do my tidy for 15 in the mornings but I don’t have a specific time. Just wherever it makes sense in the flow of our mornings.
Here is my weekly HS5 Tidy for 15 schedule:
Monday: Bedroom + Bathroom
Tuesday: Kitchen + Laundry room
Wednesday: Everly’s Room + Bathroom
Thursday: Office
Friday: Home Reset Routine
Saturday: Living + dining room
Sunday: Rest
So if it’s a day where I focus on multiple areas, like Mondays I focus on our bedroom + bathroom area, I flip which of the 2 spaces gets my best attention each week. So one week, I’ll set the timer and focus on the bathroom more (probably like 12 minutes of the 15). I’ll wipe the toilet, the sinks, the shower, the mirrors, the cabinets, the floors, boom, boom boom. Then I’ll do a quick dust and vaccum of the bedroom and I’m good to go.
Then the following week on Monday, I’d focus more of my energy on the bedroom – I’d wipe the mirror in there, dust the papsan chair and the shelves in my reading corner, etc. then spend like 5 minutes quickly wiping the toilets and sinks in the bathroom.
And so on for the rest of the rooms of the house. I literally set the timer and just get to work and do whatever that room needs…wiping mirrors, dusting tables, swiffering floors, wiping cabinets, wiping the stove, etc.
Most people think that 15 minutes isn’t enough time to get anything substantial done but you would be amazed at what you can accomplish in a focused 15-minute period.
I actually got a DM on Instagram a few weeks ago that I want to share:
“Just wanted to say thank you for creating the best planners. 2024 has been the year I’ve been slowly implementing HS5 and it truly is crazy how much cleaning you can get done in 15 minutes. I get so overwhelmed sometimes that I don’t know where to start and setting the timer for 15 minutes truly helps. I’ve been working out consistently and taking more time for me, and I just wanted to say thank you.”
Shout out to you for making my day, Emma!
But the part I want you to take away from that is the part about how she was amazed that she is able to get so much cleaning done in a focused 15-minute period! Don’t knock the 15 minutes a day until you try it! It really adds up and keeps me from having to spend 3-4 hours deep cleaning all at once every weekend like I used to have to do before I started doing my tidy for 15.
Home Opening Routine:
What it is: A few tasks that I do in the morning to help our home be more peaceful
When I do it: Right after I finish my morning routine – it usually takes me 7-10 minutes total
Tasks:
~ Start a load of laundry
~ Unload the dishwasher
~ Start our essential oil diffusers
~ Make beds (Adam makes ours because he gets up last and that’s our rule, lol)
~ Run the robot vacuum
Home Closing Routine:
What it is: A few tasks that I do in the evening to help our home be more peaceful
When I do it: After Everly goes to bed at 7 – it usually takes me 10-15 minutes, depending on if I have a load of laundry to fold or not.
Tasks:
~ Put away any loose items
~ Start the dishwasher
~ Swiffer the floors
~ Fluff the couch
~ Sort any mail that needs attention
~ Fold and put away laundry (if my husband isn’t working - he works 2 nights a week, I’ll do this while he is cooking dinner but if it’s a night he works, I do this after Everly goes to bed usually)
I personally like to run the dishwasher every other-ish night and do a load of laundry every other day – because then it doesn’t take much time to put dishes away or fold clothes and put them away. I like having smaller loads of things and doing them more often throughout the week than having fewer, bigger loads of things. That’s just what works best for us!
2 other things that we do as a family throughout the day that are worth mentioning:
01: After each meal, we wipe the kitchen counters, Everly’s high chair, and put all of the dishes from the meal in the dishwasher. We don’t even think about doing these things, they’re just a habit at this point.
02: Right before Everly’s nap, we pick up any toys that are around the house and put them up otherwise our dogs will chew them up and/or we’ll trip on them, lol.
So to recap, day-to-day I have my home-opening routine, Hustle Sanely 5 tidy for 15 minutes, home-closing routine, nap-time pick up, and kitchen cleaning throughout meal times. In total, I’d say all of this usually takes 45-50 minutes. But since it’s spread throughout the day, it doesn’t feel overwhelming, It’s a few minutes here and there instead of one big exhausting chunk of time.
And there you have it – my entire updated cleaning routine! I hope this was helpful and don’t forget to download the new Hustle Sanely Cleaning Routine Template!
Hustle Sanely Cleaning Routine Template
You asked, and we delivered - our Hustle Sanely Home Cleaning Routine Template is now available! 🫧🧼
The best part? It’s completely customizable so you can create a cleaning routine that best supports your life! 🤗
Loved this blog post? Tune into the full podcast episode below!
