I research and evaluate all recommended products and services. This post may contain affiliate links. If you click on links, I may receive compensation. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Please see my commercial disclosure by clicking here.
Like having a clean house but hate that cleaning takes up big chunks of your time? This may sound soul-destroyingly dull, but a weekly cleaning schedule can make cleaning your family house much quicker and easier. Use the weekly cleaning checklist below to create your own schedule.
Creating a weekly cleaning schedule aims to divide all the cleaning chores over the week so you don’t have to do it all at once.
A weekly cleaning schedule also makes it easier to divide the chores between all capable family members, which is another great way to ensure you don’t spend hours cleaning.
Who isn’t going to love having a cleaning checklist to help get the cleaning done?!
CREATE A REALISTIC WEEKLY HOUSE CLEANING SCHEDULE
Simplicity is the key to creating a schedule that everyone can stick to. However, you also want to keep it realistic.
For example, not every cleaning job needs to be done every week, and the house doesn’t need deep cleaning every week. You can create a separate monthly cleaning schedule to tackle deep cleaning.
You must also be realistic about how long it takes to clean your home based on its size and the number of family members living there.
This cleaning company post on how long it takes to clean homes of different sizes is useful to gauge how long it should take to clean each week.
So, for example, it should take around 4.5 hours per week to clean a family house with four bedrooms and a couple of bathrooms.
Add on time for laundry, and that means that if you use the weekly schedule outline below, you can expect no more than an hour of cleaning per day over six days.
Everyone’s cleaning schedule will be slightly different. So I thought I’d share an example of a simple weekly cleaning schedule you can use to create a cleaning routine that works for you.
A SUPER SIMPLE WEEKLY HOUSE CLEANING SCHEDULE
I’ve divided the cleaning chores into daily tasks that fit together on each day of the week. Tackle the chores yourself or share the daily cleaning tasks out.
MONDAY – TIDY AND DECLUTTER
Mondays are hard enough without involving any real cleaning. So use Monday as a day to tidy and declutter after the weekend.
- Get all the kids to bring any crockery that has been languishing in their bedrooms to the kitchen and the dishwasher before heading off to school.
- Put sofa cushions and throws back where they belong.
- Recycle any papers, magazines or junk mail that’s lying around.
- Tidy away toys and games.
TUESDAY – KITCHEN BLITZ
Tuesday is a great day to give the kitchen a good surface clean.
- Wipe down all the surfaces
- Empty the toaster crumb tray
- Clean the sink
- Give the outside and inside of the oven a quick wipe
- Blitz the hob
- Check the fridge and clean up any spills
WEDNESDAY – DUST AND VACUUM
Wednesday is a good day to tackle dusting and vacuuming. Why both? Because there is no point vacuuming if you haven’t dusted first.
- Dust all the surfaces room by room – I find a feather duster is the quickest way to dust.
- Shelves and the stuff that’s on them
- Door frames
- Pictures on walls
- Lights
- Ceiling fans
- Vacuum all the floors.
- Quickly mop floors that need it while they are dust-free – bathroom, boot room and kitchen floor.
THURSDAY – BED LINEN, BATH TOWELS AND WINDOWS
The best way to tackle laundry is to divide it into household laundry and clothing. So use Thursday to tackle the household laundry.
Given that a big part of laundry happens in the washing machine, this is also a good day to tackle cleaning the inside of windows.
- Wash and tumble dry towels (towels are the only item that is pretty much essential to tumble dry to ensure they stay fluffy) and bath mats.
- Strip bed linen, wash and dry it.
- Make the beds with fresh bed linen.
- Clean windows
FRIDAY – BATHROOM BLITZ AND CLOTHES LAUNDRY
Friday is a great day to clean bathrooms, so they are sparkling clean for the weekend. This is also the best day to tackle the clothes laundry.
- Bleach and clean the toilet
- Wash down the shower and clean the bath
- Clean and shine the shower screens
- Mop the floors
- Wash and dry school uniforms and all other clothes that need washing.
SATURDAY – BASIC BLITZ
Nobody wants to wake up on Saturday knowing they have hours of cleaning chores. If you’ve stuck to the schedule, you should find you only need to spend a little time tackling areas of the house that need a little extra attention.
SUNDAY – DAY OF REST
Hurrah! Sunday is when you forget about cleaning and use the time to relax and enjoy being with your family. Safe in knowing that all the cleaning has been done for the week and that the house is clean enough.
NOW IT’S TIME FOR YOU TO CREATE YOUR WEEKLY CLEANING SCHEDULE
I really hope this post has helped you work out how best to tackle cleaning your family house and put an end to spending hours of your time cleaning it at the weekend when you could be relaxing instead.
One final tip: Ensure you are always stocked up on cleaning supplies. It’s so much easier to whizz around and get the cleaning done if you have everything you need to hand. I’ve got a free printable housework supplies checklist you might find useful.
Luci is the founder of Mums Make Lists (Est. 2011). Over the last decade or so, she has used her experience as a mum to create useful guides to organising family life. During that time, she has found the most joy in creating lists of ideas and inspiration to make it easier for busy parents to plan and host kids’ parties and find great gifts. Read more.