Let’s call it like it is: Deep cleaning a house when you have kids can be a REAL chore. So many times we push our cleaning routine to the weekends, because the weekdays are just too busy. Between work, getting kids to school, and trying to keep everyone fed, maintaining a clean house can be so tough!

Cleaning before kids!

Before I had kids, I looked forward to my cleaning routine marathon on Saturday mornings. I would put in my headphones, listen to a great podcast, and clean. After a long week, it was almost therapeutic. (Yes, I’m one of those people and you can be too!) I’d work my way from the back of the apartment to the front of the apartment while Emily simultaneously worked on other household tasks. In a few hours, we would have a perfectly clean apartment that we could enjoy for the weekend, and the cleanliness could be maintained until I cleaned again the next weekend.

Now that we have three little girls at home, that same cleaning routine is no longer possible. First of all, Emily and I can no longer work at the same time on tasks without closely monitoring the girls, so the few hours it once took to clean the apartment quickly multiplied!!

Transforming our cleaning routine!

Several months ago, Emily and I had a conversation and discussed how we could realistically streamline some of our household routines, in order to enjoy more family time and make our chores more efficient. We both agreed that we were willing to put in a bit more work during the weekdays so we could have larger free blocks of time during the weekends to spend together as a family. We also realized the optimal time to complete most of our tasks was when the girls were sleeping.

I brainstormed the idea of starting a daily cleaning routine where I could clean a little bit of our home each day instead of cleaning everything on the weekend. I decided to start shifting my sleep schedule to wake up a bit earlier, and it seemed like adding cleaning to my morning routine would be a perfect solution.

Weekday Cleaning Routine

Emily scoured the internet for resources, and while several exist, they are most certainly for large space dwellers. We took those resources, and thought about our own space and the cleaning tasks required weekly. We developed a weekday cleaning routine that breaks tasks down by area and by time. I’ve broken down the daily tasks, weekly tasks, and monthly tasks.

The kitchen, bathroom, living room, bedrooms, and miscellaneous rooms (for us, it’s the playroom) each require a different set of cleaning tasks, so it’s nice to have the list organized in an efficient way. I spend about the same amount of time cleaning each week as I did before, but now I have my cleaning routine time broken up across the week instead of all concentrated on one day!

Weekday Cleaning Checklist

I’ve put together a resource to help keep my daily tasks organized! If you want to try adjusting your cleaning routine too, you can download the cleaning checklist and post it somewhere where you can see it every day. I’m also sharing links to my favorite cleaning tools and items!

Before you embark on the journey, here’s the most important thing we’ve learned: SET A TIMER before you clean! I set my daily timer for 15 minutes and work as diligently as possible for that amount of time. I consult my list of cleaning routine tasks by area, and then complete the extra tasks if I still have time remaining.

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