Saturday, August 7, 2010

Cleaning Schedule

Alright, dear friends. Sometime ago I mentioned putting together a cleaning schedule to try out. Well, after much procrastination, I finally did it and will be putting it into effect this week. Before showing you precisely what the schedule is, let me share a little bit of my thought process that went into the making of 'The Cleaning Schedule.'

My natural tendency when it comes to cleaning is to wait for things to pile up and do everything at once. Generally, I think it's fair to say that 'deep cleaning' is what comes most easily. However, I've found that this approach to maintaining even our lovely little apartment just doesn't work. There's always something that needs to be done, and waiting for it to pile up for a purging session makes cleaning an incredibly daunting task. So I'm taking a que from my mother.

My mom stayed at home with my sister and I growing up, and in doing so, came up with a fairly regimented schedule that she still sticks to today. She did 'deep cleans' every-so-often, but they never took very long because she had a daily schedule of smaller things that helped keep tasks reasonable. Since I'm currently unemployed, I figured now would be the perfect time to get into the habit of doing things on a daily basis to continue even when I am employed. Without any further ado, here's 'The Cleaning Schedule.'

Mondays: Scrub kitchen sink, counters, and dining room table, and disinfect the dish rack
Tuesdays: Laundry
Wednesdays: Sweep and mop apartment (we have wood floors or tile throughout)
Thursdays: Clean bathroom
Fridays: Pick up clutter and file papers
Saturdays: Dust
Sundays: to be filled with whatever needs to be done, even if that's nothing
And most importantly: dishes every other day (with Husband taking the days opposite me)

I implemented the dishes schedule two weeks ago and it has been working quite well, though I've done most of the dishes this week - including everything from the potluck we hosted on Thursday. Not that I'm keeping track, or anything. :) But I'm quite excited for the rest of the schedule, too, as I'm hoping it helps us maintain a semblance of order without going crazy. My problem is, at least while I have lots of time on my hands, I'm much better at creating messes than getting rid of them.
Anyone else have that problem? It's terrible, let me tell you.

Do you have any kind of a cleaning/organizing schedule? 


~ Ms. S

1 comment:

  1. I'm with you, the more time I have on my hands (ie, during the summer) the less motivated I feel to do the cleaning chores. It's much easier during the school year, for some reason. Probably a momentum thing. (Also, this heat helps NOT at all!) But it is true, if you do small things every day, it's much easier to keep up with the bigger picture, so to speak. But, then, there's always ice cream to make and books to read . . . Oh - and family blogs to read . . .

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