[day 13] 15 mins a day

While fall cleaning is one thing, routine "maintenance" cleaning is another. I hopped over to a few more of the 31 Day Challenge participants the other night and found a few dealing with cleaning. Clean Mama's 31 Days to a Cleaning Routine and Organizing Made Fun's 31 Days to Cheaply Organizing your Home are just two that I clicked on for a little motivation.

My current "plan" of action is to wash laundry on Mondays (& then an extra load either Thursday or Friday). That is pretty much the only chore set in stone. Kitchen vacuuming has to happen multiple times a week (due to my toddler's less than neat eating habits), but carpet vacuuming is spontaneous, as is mopping the kitchen floor. Bathrooms don't happen on a set day, but instead get done every 1-1.5 weeks, with a wipe-down or two between full cleanings.

I think what I'd like to try, though, is an approach where I do a little every day. That way, I could have a set time and then also have some set chores for my daughter as well. My house isn't very large... 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, hallway, eat-in kitchen, & living room. With the chores all divided out, it'll be no more than 15 minutes a day. That will leave time for me to tackle a fall cleaning chore too. Ugh, but that's another list to compile.

Ok, no more excuses... time to write out a schedule. I just cleaned, vacuumed, mopped yesterday, so I can at least begin the routine with a clean house!

I am going to use Becky's (from Organizing Made Fun) for a jumping off point. The link to the above schedule is here. Honestly, I don't need to change it much. I am going to try it as is. I like vacuum day being Monday - good to clean up after everyone being home all weekend, going inside and outside with dirty feet. That's also an easy chore while shuffling laundry from washer to dryer.

I think I will make cleaning time just after snack time, after school, before homework time. Lynn and I will joint tackle these. It'll also give us some time to talk. Usually snack time is her time with her brother, giggling back and forth at each other.

During the day I will work to de-clutter (something I feel like I do constantly anyways) and fall clean.
Daily, already, about 15 minutes before Mr. H is due home we have a "clean sweep" time where we basically put all the childrens' stuff from the living room and kitchen back into their rooms, tidying up the main living areas from when they had their stuff out playing.

Ah, a plan is step one. Now onto putting it into action!

What does your cleaning routine look like? A little every day or do you have certain days of the week that you focus on cleaning?

edited: I'm adding in a link to another great resource available for personal-use download. Tidy Mom has posted a resource, breaking cleaning into: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly. Her daily/weekly is more like what I've done in the past. No set days divided out, but it's a great checklist to consult. Her yearly is what caught my attention. Instead of making everything a "spring" or "fall" cleaning task, she has divided it out. By the way, I am using the 15 minutes a day schedule and it's going great!