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 cleaning chores to the weekend, 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!

Before I had kids, I looked forward to my cleaning 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 two little girls at home, that same 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!! 

Several months ago, Emily and I had a conversation to realistically think about how we could 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. 

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 that were required weekly. We developed a weekday cleaning routine that breaks tasks down by area. 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 time broken up across the week instead of all concentrated on one day! 

I’ve put together a Tidy Dad Weekday Cleaning Challenge to help keep my cleaning 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. 

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 30 minutes and work as diligently as possible for that amount of time. I consult my list of cleaning tasks by area, and then complete the extra tasks if I still have time remaining.

June 15, 2019

The Case For A
Weekday Cleaning Routine