My Cleaning Schedule

For years now I have used the same cleaning schedule. It works well and its easy.
It involves daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, biannual and annual chores.
I only go to town one afternoon a week. None of this running here and there all the time. Just makes me so far behind. I like to keep the house tidy enough that if an unexpected guest arrives, I am not running ahead of them down the hall shutting doors or picking up things. I am not a cleaning fanatic, there is often stuff like craft projects or books laying on the coffee table.
I am not a slave to my house, but enjoy it tidy and organized. The schedule I follow is one I have used for over 20 years. Thanks to a More Hours in My Day seminar by Emilie Barnes when I lived in California.
The afternoons are mostly free to do hand work or read.
I do my outside chores before I start on the house. When milking goats, that is done before breakfast even.


If however your house is just full of STUFF and there seems to be no way to get around all the STUFF but you want to do some sort of schedule, it might be best to start off with a month long program of de-cluttering.

Here is a good way to start.
Label 3 HUGE trash bags
1. THROW AWAY
2. GIVE AWAY
3. PUT AWAY

start at the front door and go through the entire house, use as many bags as you need ! Do the living room first, then bedrooms. End up in the kitchen. Go through drawers, closets and shelves. BE RUTHLESS !

My daily schedule is this...
make the beds
do dishes
clean bathrooms
pick up rooms
pick up kitchen
and cook three meals !
(when the children were home and we were homeschooling, I did once a month cooking. Saved money and freed up my time )

My weekly chores are...
Monday...........laundry, water plants, make up menu for the week and my shopping list, bake bread
Tuesday..........ironing and shopping
Wednesday....sweep, mop and wax floors
Thursday.........is my sewing day. If I had carpet I would vacuum on this day
Friday..............dust and change bed linens
Saturday.........yard work
Sunday............family day

My monthly jobs
Week 1 clean refrigerator
Week 2 Clean stove top and oven
Week 3 Mending
Week 4 Clean woodwork and baseboards

Quarterly jobs for me are...
Drawers, windows, closets, clean behind furniture, china cabinet and cupboards and make soap.

Seasonal things for me are putting away last seasons clothing, and changing out curtains. This means washing and ironing last seasons so they will be put away clean.

Biannual, clean the woodstove and the window screens

Annual jobs are.... washing walls in the living room and kitchen.

Most chores are covered in this schedule and when something comes up during the week, I just skip that job and do it the next week. Works out fine.
This week I had to switch Monday with today as I went shopping yesterday. Not a big deal except the sky is threatening rain so not sure laundry will get done today