Simplified Cleaning Routine
Do you feel like you clean all of the time? A simplified cleaning routine can help simplify your life. There are so many benefits to simple living which include less stress and anxiety, less stuff to keep up with, better creativity and productivity, more time to do the things you love to do and be a blessing to others. These benefits can’t be enjoyed if you are constantly cleaning.
Simplified Cleaning Routine: Clean As You Go
Right out of the gate, I am bringing out the big guns. This is one of my biggest secrets to keeping my home clean. No matter what your routine looks like, your workload will be drastically reduced by implementing this one habit. Again, I can’t stress enough how much of a game changer this is. This is one of those things that I could shout from the rooftops to whoever will listen.
Cleaning as you go means doing those meal prep dishes while you are in the kitchen waiting for the dinner to finish cooking or putting that plate in the dishwasher instead of just putting it in the sink to deal with later. This means putting your dirty clothes in the hamper while you already have them in your hand. I could go on and on about the game changing impact that this habit will have on your life.
Simplified Cleaning Routine: Teach Your Kids To Clean After Themselves
This is another one of my secret weapons and has been a life saver for me. Starting to teach the kids to be tidy and pick up after themselves when they are young is very important. Most little ones are quick to learn and love to be helpful, so this is the perfect time to teach them tidy habits. The 2 secrets to success are to be consistent and to practice what you preach because they will call you out if you do what you are trying to get them to stop doing like eating in the living room. There are more tips on tidy kids here.
Simplified Cleaning Routine: Evaluate Your Current Routine
For me simple living is about aligning your goals and values to your life by aligning them with your routines. This means looking at your home and life and make some decisions about what is working and what isn’t. This is a very important step because you want to fix what is not working and keep what is. Your cleaning routine should work for you. Here are more routine resets that will help you live that simple life that you are longing for.
I love to look at other people’s routines to see if any of the things they do might be a good fit for me. There are so many cleaning routines out there that have some great ideas, but some seem to be complicated or very regimented. For me, I needed something simple, doable, and flexible. When I find a tip or idea that I want to try, I write it down and put it to the test. Keep in mind that your cleaning routine will be a work in progress until you get the kinks worked out. It’s all about those baby steps.
Take some time and write down the things that work and don’t work in your daily cleaning routine.
Things that do work for you might look like:
- Kids help clean kitchen after dinner.
- All house trash is collected and put out the afternoon before trash day.
- Your kids do their own laundry.
Some common non-working things might be:
- Laundry always on the floor.
- Always too much laundry to do
- Dishes are always left in the sink
Simplified Cleaning Routine: Problem Solve Non-Working Areas
I am going to use the non-working things listed above for my problem-solving examples. The first two things listed have to do with the laundry being left on the floor and that there is too much of it.
Problem: 1
Too Much Laundry. When there is too much laundry, there is usually two issues. The first issue and the most important one is that you probably have too many clothes. The second issue is that your laundry routine needs to be tweaked.
Solution: 1
The first step to success is to declutter your family’s clothes. Note: Let your other half go through their own clothing. Donate the clothes that no longer fit yourself or your kids and get rid of all of the ones that have stains and rips. All of the remaining clothes should fit in dressers or closets where they belong. If they don’t, keep getting rid of clothes because you still have too many. Keep a basket in the bottom of all of your clothing closets for donations so they don’t end up back in the drawers or closets.
Solution: 2
The next step would be to put a laundry basket wherever the laundry usually lands on the floor. It needs to be just as easy for everyone to put their dirty clothes in the hamper as it is for them to throw them on the floor, so my suggestions are in the bathrooms and their bedrooms. It might be helpful to explain to your kids that you will only be doing the laundry that is in the hamper and not on the floor. Here are the laundry baskets that I use.
Solution: 3
After you have gone through your clothes, now let’s talk about your laundry routine. Remember, you need a fix that is doable, so you don’t want to tell yourself that you will just do it all on the weekend. By the weekend, your laundry pile will look like Mount Rushmore, and it will probably still be there on Monday morning because you were too busy over the weekend.
The best way conquer that laundry pile is to do one load of laundry each day. To keep from sorting the laundry as it comes out of the dryer, I just do one person’s laundry every day. I put it back in the same basket and take it back to their room for them to put away before they go to bed. Yes, I said before bed so that it doesn’t end up on the floor and back in the laundry basket to rewash.
Problem: 2
Dishes Always Left In The Sink. If there is always dishes in the sink, The dishwasher may need to be unloaded and put away or someone is being lazy by not putting them in the dishwasher when finished.
Solution: 1
Always empty the dishwasher first thing in the morning so that there is some place to put the dirty dishes. If you see a dirty dish that was put in the sink, find out who it was and let them put it in the dishwasher immediately. It won’t take long for them to get tired of you coming to find them to fix the issue and they will stop.
Now see if you can come up with some possible solutions for the things that aren’t working for you. You might need to make a few adjustments to get it just right for your family.
Simplified Cleaning Routine: Resetting Your Routine
Now that you have a list of things that do work and a list of things that don’t, and some possible solutions to the things that aren’t working, let’s do a routine reset to get to that simplified cleaning routine that we all crave.
There are some things that you need to do every day to keep your house tidy and ready for company and some things that you only need to do once a week. These things also need to be combined with other things like working or hauling the kids to school or practice. Let’s start by making a list of things that we need to do every day to keep the house tidy and weekly to dos. You will also need your planner.
Here is an example of the things that I do every day and once a week. I am going to also break mine down into morning and evening for you because it just works so well for me, and it makes my day run smoother. It is also listed in the order that I do them in.
Morning Simplified Cleaning Routine (Each thing should only take 5 minutes)
- make your bed (kids should make their own beds as soon as they are old enough)
- refresh bathroom (wipe my bathroom sink and tidy the toilet)
- put a load of laundry in the washing machine (don’t forget to switch to dryer)
- Empty the dishwasher
- Refresh downstairs bathroom (wipe bathroom sink and tidy the toilet)
- dust or sweep floor as needed in main rooms
- declutter something (Yes 5 minutes will make a difference)
Evening Simplified Cleaning Routine (Most things take about 15 minutes)
- clean kitchen after dinner (don’t forget to start the dishwasher)
- tidy hot spots (any place that you lay stuff)
- finish laundry (fold and put away)
- get ready for the next day (lunches, clothes, coffee, back packs and shoes by the door)
- before bed tidy (go around the house and tidy for 15 minutes)
Weekly To Do’s
- trash (empty all trash the day before trash day)
- clean out refrigerator (the day before trash day)
- change bed sheets (whatever day works best for you)
- mow grass (I like to mow mine on Friday so that it looks nice for the weekend)
- clean car (Do this after you mow the grass, I speak from experience)
- clean purse (you can even do this in the car line at school)
- pool maintenance, If you have a pool. (I usually put chlorine in the pool on Thursday or Friday to get ready for the weekend)
- meal plan & grocery shop (I do this any day but Saturday or Sunday. The stores are too crowded on the weekends for me)
A simplified cleaning routine means just that. If it is too complicated or too much, we aren’t going to do it. These routines run smoothly for me because they are chopped into manageable bits and are flexible. If you don’t have time one day to do everything on your list don’t beat yourself up, catch it the next day. If something just isn’t working for you in the morning you might move it to the afternoon or evening, but the evenings are rough for most people. Practice makes perfect and consistency is key.
Use your planner and your lists to make a rough draft cleaning routine for yourself. Test drive your routine for a week or so to see if anything needs tweaking. If you want to test drive my routines to see if they work for you, I would be honored. Just remember to include those daily things that will keep your mornings running smoother, your house tidy, and your heart happy.
