Use this cleaning routine checklist to create the ideal schedule for household chores that fits your family.
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Cleaning is probably not anyone’s favorite thing to do. Having a clean home, though, I think we can all appreciate.
A regular cleaning routine will keep you from being overwhelmed, avoid panic when guests are on the way, and make it easier to tackle deep cleaning tasks. While cleaning is a chore, it doesn’t have to take all day.
If you don’t have a regular cleaning routine or want a new one, this printable cleaning routine checklist will help.
What is a clean home
I need to get up on my soapbox here for a minute.
There seems to be some drama in the parenting community about what a clean house is. The idea of “Pardon the mess, we’re making memories” implies that if your house is clean, you’ve neglected your kids. On the other hand, you have others saying a messy house is just laziness.
Ironically, cleaning has become a dirty word and some seem to think you need to spend a ton of time doing it a certain way if you’re doing it right.
So let’s stop using the word clean here. Your house should be sanitary. When guests come over, you probably want it to be tidy. It does not always need to be organized and clutter-free.
Toys on the floor and craft supplies on the kitchen table while the kids are using them are normal. Food from a week ago molding under the sofa is gross. Nobody cares if there is dust behind your television, but if literally, every piece of underwear in your house is dirty on the bathroom floor, your routine needs some adjusting.
And truly, we all go through seasons where the house is very near the gross point with kids. Kids can be gross. It just can’t be like that all the time.
A messy house will cause you more stress, which just perpetuates a cycle.
How much time to spend cleaning
You define what clean is in your house. When my kids were both preschoolers, a clean house looked a lot different than it does now that they’re tweens.
Fortunately, I’ve found a cleaning routine that keeps my house sanitary and relatively tidy in about 30 minutes per day (for a total of around 2-3 hours per week).
*In 2017, there are 4 people (2 adults, 2 tweens) and zero animals in my 1400-square-foot house. That’s 3 bedrooms and 1.5 bathrooms. If your house is different, your routine probably needs to be too.
*In 2024, there are 3 people (2 adults, 1 teen) and 2 dogs in my same house. The dogs make more mess, but the kids make less. Now I do less cleaning during the week and more on the weekends. It adds up to roughly the same amount of total time.
My cleaning routine
I keep my cleaning routine page in a section of my household binder.
I divided my routine into daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. There are other things I do as needed or only once per year when I remember to do them, so this isn’t a 100% foolproof list.
Every day I spend about five minutes going through the house, picking things up and putting them where they belong. I do 1-minutes tasks throughout the day when making the mess instead of cleaning up later.
- I wipe out the bathroom sink when washing my hands instead of waiting for buildup and scrubbing it later.)
- I wipe down the kitchen counters in the evening after I’ve loaded the dishwasher from supper.
For weekly tasks, I focus on one room per day and spend about 15-20 minutes doing the chores listed for it. I’m not going for meet-the-queen clean; this is the bare minimum for a comfortably clean house.
On my checklist, my kids are responsible for their bedrooms. If your kids still need help, you’ll need to work that in on a weekend or a Friday when the monthly tasks are quick.
When I have time, I add the monthly tasks wherever they make sense during the week, like dusting the ceiling fan in each room before I vacuum it on its designated day. That makes Friday chore-free.
Sometimes things pile up and I spend a Saturday doing a week’s worth of cleaning. Many Saturdays are for outdoor work like washing cars, mowing the lawn, and pulling weeds.
*In 2017, I needed to do 1 load of laundry per day to keep up. In 2024 I only do a few loads on Saturdays.
How to create your own cleaning routine
Start by making a list of tasks that you do daily, weekly, monthly, and annually. There is a page in the 36 life organization printables, or write it on notebook paper.
Use the When did I last…? tracker to schedule the annual tasks throughout the year
Use the blank weekly cleaning routine to sort the daily and weekly chores. Pick one day a week to do the monthly chores.
Update your cleaning routine often! When it doesn’t serve you, it becomes hard to do.
Bonus: If your kids are of an age where they can do chores, use highlighters to mark which ones they are responsible for on the weekly list.
Get the printable
Download the weekly cleaning routine and print it on 8.5×11-inch paper. There are 2 versions included: one filled in with my routine and a blank version so you can create your own. All printables are for personal use only.
What’s next? Try these other fun and creative ideas on One Mama’s Daily Drama:
I really enjoy finding new tips in blog articles, learning about what makes sense to others. I’m on a journey to simplify; declutter as they say. The info provided thus far has been insightful! I would lije to complicomp your style of writing, very relatable! Thanks so much~
Thank you, Kim! I try to be as helpful and practical as I can. Nobody has time for silly elaborate ideas that don’t really work. 🙂
would like free printable cleaning checklist
Hi Rhonda! If you sign up through the email for my newsletter, you’ll receive the link and password to The Printables Library.
Would love the printable cleaning schedule
Hi Stephanie! There are 2 ways to get the printable. If you subscribe to receive email updates, you can have it sent to your inbox. If you’d rather just get the printable and not receive emails, you can purchase the cleaning schedule in this sample pack in the shop.
I so appreciated your disclaimer at the beginning that clean looks different in different phases of life!! I’ve gotten to the point where I need to start doing a more intense daily clean, instead of just waiting around to clean before a floor resurfacing project or something like that haha. I’m so excited for your cleaning checklist, I can’t wait to add a bit more structure to my routine!
Thanks, Amelia! It’s very true. I have dogs now, so my cleaning routine is a bit different than when I originally wrote this post. So much more vacuuming, lol!