A Simple and Easy Cleaning Routine That Won’t Overwhelm You

Inside: How to keep your home clean enough with a simple and easy cleaning schedule that works when life gets busy. For beginners and the overwhelmed.

There are a lot of cleaning schedules you could use, but sometimes you just want someone to tell you what to do because you’ve overwhelmed already. Lucky you, I am bossy. And the answer is not fancy spreadsheets or color-coded schedules. That just leads to more overwhelm and less, you know… cleaning. Just follow this super basic schedule, and stick to it.

The Daily Ten Minutes

Every day, before you settle in for the evening, spend just five minutes each in the kitchen and bathroom. That’s it! (This does not include cleaning up after meals.)

Just a quick, focused effort to keep things in check.

Kitchen

You’ve done the dinner dishes and wiped the counters. Now, set a timer for five minutes. Sweep, get a damp paper towel, and wipe down anything that needs it; tidy up one fridge shelf and wipe it down super quick. You get the idea. Something small. Tomorrow, maybe you’ll have time to pull out the coffee maker and clean around and under it. We’ll see.

There are many days in your life, and doing a tiny task in each will add up over time.

Bathroom

Spend your five minutes wiping down the sink, giving the toilet a quick brush, and tidying up the counters.

Tomorrow, give the mirror a quick polish or straighten up the towels. The key is to keep it simple and focus on the areas that make the biggest impact.

I don’t want you to make a list or a system or thinking about this too hard. I want you to set a timer and clean something.

Weekly

Once a week, set aside some time to dust and vacuum every room in your house.

One other set time per week, tidy up your personal space (your bedroom and closet usually).

If you’re still thinking about a day, Friday is your day to dust and vacuum. Sunday is your day to clean your personal spaces. Wasn’t that easy?

Vacuum and Dust Everywhere

I know you know how to do this. Sometimes you’ll have the energy to move all the furniture, take out the weird attachments, and dust the baseboards too. Sometimes you won’t. But every week, you must dust and vacuum.

The Personal Space Reset

One final routine. Before your next week starts, reset all your personal spaces a bit from last week. Every week, do the following:

• Clean out your purse
• Throw out trash from your car and entryway
• Change your sheets
• Tidy up the space you get ready in (bathroom counter, etc.)

Isn’t that better?

It’s Okay to Keep it Simple

Is this an all-encompassing routine that would make your mother-in-law proud? Absolutely not. Is it good enough for super busy seasons? It sure is.

There is no magical way to make your house sparkling clean without time and effort. It takes a lot of time every day. But for now, this will do. Really.

It’s okay to keep it simple. If you’re someone who loves a super tidy home, by all means, add more tasks to your schedule. But if you’re just looking to keep things under control, stick with the basics.

Start Today, Not Tomorrow

The best time to start your new cleaning routine is today. Not tomorrow, not next week, not when the stars align and your favorite shirt is clean. Today.

Moving Beyond this Routine

The goal of this article was to take away the overwhelm for those of us who need simple and easy right now. However, there are many ways to tackle a cleaning routine. Here is a weekly cleaning schedule already set up for you, and here’s how to create your own cleaning routine. But not yet.