Keeping a Clean House---You Can Do It!

The husband and I recently bought at house at the end of the summer. I ended my career working full time at a university and started the adventure of full time mom. Going from a 2 bedroom apartment to a full on house left me overwhelmed with cleaning. Husband and I are clean by nature so I wanted to keep the house clean, but I felt overwhelmed at such a big house. 

Before the feminists go crazy, please know that husband is awesome. And frankly, probably wouldn’t care if I didn’t do a darned thing all day. He always comes home and does what is needed if bottles need washing, or trash needs to go out. It is my personal feeling that as the stay-at-home wife, I should do my best to keep up on the house. There are days where I don’t if we are busy or I’m less motivated, and other days are rocking. I’m not perfect at it, but nor do I feel like my sole job is to keep a clean house.

I decided it would be easiest to break everything down via list. So I wrote down everything that needed to be done for the weekly upkeep:

·         Toilets

·         Showers

·         Vacuuming

·         Floors swept/mopped

·         Counters

·         Sinks

·         Mirrors

·         Sheets

·         Laundry

With kidlet being less than a year old, my cleaning only gets done when he is napping. So I pulled out vacuuming and showers and decided those could be done on the weekend with husband’s help.

Then I picked which days to do what chores. Note: As a stay at home mom of one, I realize this may seem impossible to those with more kids, or where other days are busier. I recommend assigning chores to days they are doable. Or if you have older ones, get their help on some of it- especially their own bathroom.

We have 3 bathrooms but only use 1 regularly. So once a month I clean the other ones  and replace towels etc, but on a weekly basis, I just clean ours. I also did not account for daily things like trash out, dishwasher loaded, etc. Those just happen when they need to.

So here’s the weekly breakdown:

·         Monday: Floors & Laundry  (I sweep every week but mop only every other. For busier households you may need to mop every week. Also our laundry always gets off and most ends up getting done over the weekend. So Monday I make sure it’s all caught up and then throw in a load as needed)

·         Tuesday: Sinks, Counters, Mirrors (kitchen & bathroom)

·         Wednesday: Toilets (as a reward, this is the only one. It’s an easier day, or a catch up day if you missed something else!)

·         Thursday: Dust, change sheets, kitchen counters

·         Friday: fridge clean-out, high chair cleaned, relax or catch up before the weekend (This is more in-depth than the daily clean you might do. I lift up the cover, get all the grime and crumbs that collect, disinfect the tray etc)

·         Weekend or as needed: Showers, Vacuuming

Obviously this is not an end all list. Your home may need more or less chores. Encourage older kidlets to clean their rooms on certain days, or before bed each night. Laundry can be folded with their help, or left on the couch for them to pickup and put away when they get home from school.

Happy Cleaning!