Out of all the responsibilities that come with motherhood, keeping a tidy home every week drops further and further down the priority list when mothers are constantly putting out fires throughout the day.
Regardless of whether they are stay-at-home or working moms, parenthood tends to fall on their shoulders.
A messy, disorganized home is likely inevitable when you’re playing carpool, nursing a newborn, and chastising teens. Unless you have a plan that’s easy to stick to each week, a stay at home mom cleaning schedule is a must!
How do busy moms clean their houses fast?
Busy moms who are successful at keeping messy houses at bay don’t wait for all their house chores to pile up or skip routine cleaning frequently.
They’re consistent and responsible with following a tight-knit schedule that allows them to tidy up living spaces throughout the day.
Many stay-at-home moms know how to keep their cleaning routines simple, brief, and know which chores to delegate.
Identifying at least 3-5 main rooms that you want to keep clutter-free at all times is the ultimate key.
Depending on the size of your house or apartment, some of them will likely include the following:
- Kitchen
- Bathroom
- Bedroom
- Living room
- Office
There’s no need to deep clean your home every week. Unless you’re an extreme germaphobe, try to reserve deep cleaning for at least twice a month or on a bi-weekly basis.
Busy stay-at-home moms manage to clean their houses fast because tidying up is incorporated into their daily routines.
Discover how you, too, can create a stay at home mom cleaning schedule that will keep your home spick and span daily.
Kitchen
The kitchen is the number one place families tend to utilize most often and should be kept clean at all times.
Leftover food particles, soiled dishes, and old dishwater can attract unwanted pests you never invited into your home.
An unclean kitchen can also result in unpleasant odors and rotten food when unmanaged.
The kitchen should be a top priority of every stay-at-home mom’s cleaning schedule. Some stay-at-home moms have a time when the kitchen opens and closes.
Who wants to wash extra dirty dishes after putting a sink full away after dinner? Making other of-age family members in the household accountable for washing their soiled utensils and dinnerware helps.
Washing dishes after dinner can also be assigned as a weekly household chore. Feel free to remove a few tasks off your plate!
Choose your favorite products or all-in-one cleanser to get the job done. Pine-sol, Lysol, or a little fresh lemon and water go a long way. Sweeping or wiping off the floors are essential cleaning tasks you don’t want to skip. Save mopping for the days that you deep clean.
The less clutter on the counter the better. Try to use organizers or designate drawers for specific mail, appliances, and doo-dads you don’t need.
Last, but not least, remove the garbage if it’s overflowing or has old, smelly food that requires disposal.
Related Post: How To Declutter and Organize A Messy House In One Day?
Bathroom
Maybe this should’ve been number one!
Aside from the kitchen, we all spend a significant amount of time in the bathroom.
We use restrooms as a place to bathe and freshen, but they should also be kept clean and inviting.
Don’t forget to make it smell nice, too. On average, most homes come with at least two or three bathrooms.
The upkeep of your bathrooms shouldn’t be strenuous.
You don’t have to scrub down toilets every week. In fact, it’s one of the least favorite house chores many people opt out of completing altogether.
As a stay-at-home mom, keeping bathroom areas relaxing and fresh should be fairly easy.
I’ve outlined a few things every bathroom needs for a little T-L-C on a daily basis:
- Rolls of tissue
- Air freshener
- New hand towels
- Empty waste baskets
- Lysol wipes to clean the sink and toilet seat
- Windex for any mirrors
- Instant shower or tub cleaner for daily upkeep
Use the above as a checklist and you’ve pretty much covered the basics.
Bedroom
If you don’t do anything else before you start your day – make up your bed.
A good night’s rest can turn into a magnificent morning simply by pulling back the sheets and throwing on a few throw pillows to make your bedroom look cozy and inviting.
Sometimes, I imagine my bed while I’m out during the day and can’t wait to get home to jump back in it.
Try making your bed before you do anything else goal-friends, I promise you it’s a game changer.
Now it’s the first accomplishment of my day and the one habit I can no longer break.
There’s something about a freshly made bed in every room that improves your mental state almost instantly.
Another tip is changing your bedding no more than once a week to cut back on laundry if you can.
For those who enjoy walking and waking up to mess, cut it out.
To keep all bedrooms in the house clean you need to set rules and boundaries.
Try a few of the rules below to simplify your stay-at-home mom cleaning schedule:
- No food allowed in the bedroom (snacks included!)
- Clothes belong in the hamper or laundry bag (not on the floor)
- Beds should be made first thing in the morning
- Use organizing bins to keep clutter to a minimum
- Dusting should be completed at least 3x per week
- Vacuum the carpet or sweep the floor at least once a week
Stay at home moms deserve a break. Implement these strategies to make less work for yourself and get the rest of your family onboard.
And remember, it’s the little things that make a huge difference in the cleaning schedule for moms.
Related Post: Weekly planning routine – How to plan the week ahead without losing your mind?
Living Room
Are you tired of picking up toys and tripping over video game consoles every night? If you have enough space, identify areas for play in your home whether it’s the bedroom, designated playroom, or basement.
The living area should be shared for entertainment, but it shouldn’t be an extra hassle to keep things clean.
Reserve the living room for family gatherings, movies, or game nights. If it’s a space that your family uses often, put a minimal mom cleaning routine in place.
A no food or drinks rule will minimize the frequency with which you have to vacuum or upholster furniture.
Keep the area sanitized and fresh by using a handheld vacuum and rotating the couch cushions if need be.
Fabric freshener kills any odors from pets, so keep Febreze handy. Also, make a habit of wiping off the coffee table and television for your home to remain dust free.
Wash any decorative pillows and throw blankets. Yes, they need to be cleaned! Use baskets and foldable storage bins for any extras.
Office
The office is for all the stay-at-home working moms!
I don’t know about you guys, but nothing makes me less productive than a messy desk.
Desk organization has been a lifesaver. Trust me, it’s an area you want to keep clean.
Dirty coffee mugs, loose paper, notebooks, and planners you don’t use but have accumulated over time can attribute to low productivity on the job and in your business.
How can you think clearly when there’s a stack of dusty books and old junk staring back at you?
There’s no room to place your laptop or write. Eventually, your cluttered desk will repel you from sitting down and getting to work.
That’s why it’s important to incorporate tidying up your desk and office into your stay at home mom cleaning schedule.
Life with kids can get hectic, but if cleaning your office isn’t added to your schedule it will rarely get used.
A clean desk and office space help with staying focused and motivate your mind to get to work.
A rule of thumb I recommend when it comes to office spaces is don’t eat at your desk or use it as a substitute storage desk for unopened mail, trash, or laundry.
At the end of each workday set aside ten minutes to close up shop just as you would at a normal office job.
Put papers away, keep your books and stationary organized, use coasters, shut down the computer and turn off the light.
Doing so will allow you to be prompt and eager to start the work day off right the following morning.
What is the 20 10 Rule cleaning?
Rachel Hoffman developed the 20/10 rule for cleaning.
A concept that maximizes how much you can get clean in a twenty-minute span when you’re focused on specific tasks within each room.
The 20/10 cleaning rule stands for the twenty minutes you take to deep clean and the ten minutes you take afterward to rest.
I like to think of it as a batch-cleaning process. Rachel’s technique is effective and efficient because it applies the Pomodoro technique to our everyday lives.
After creating your stay at home mom cleaning schedule, consider following Hoffman’s 20/10 rule to make cleaning your cluttered house less overwhelming.
There are various strategies to make cleaning up an enjoyable, relaxing part of your day.
Where do I start cleaning when overwhelmed by clutter and mess?
Stay-at-home moms with messy houses won’t always be able to clean their homes from top to bottom in a 24-hour period.
We get it, it’s just not realistic.
Hoarding and negating tasks that come with a monthly deep cleaning is an undertaking that may require multiple people but it can be done.
If this describes your situation in any way, a stay at home mom cleaning schedule won’t be the only answer to your problem.
You need to select one room and a cleaning crew. Select a few hours each day or take the weekend to restore the room back to its original state.
Write down a list of cleaning supplies that you need and delegate roles.
Maybe it’s packing boxes and moving them into storage, submitting an order for carpet cleaning and upholstery, or throwing out old furniture to free up more space.
Sometimes, it’s washing windows, cleaning the curtains, or holding a garage sale to get rid of items you no longer use or need.
Take this approach and apply it to every room that causes you overwhelm.
You’ll need to put a cleaning plan in place and then follow it up with a stay at home mom cleaning schedule to keep your home tidy moving forward.
How many hours a week does it take to keep a house clean?
According to Stacker.com, on average, people over the age of 15 spend at least 2-3 hours on household chores per day.
Give or take a little more, of course.
But there’s always an exception to every rule though, right?
Twenty minutes is a sweet spot for many people to focus on tasks whether they are work or school related.
Any more time than that requires the brain to put in much more effort.
If Hoffman’s 20/10 rule is applied to the 3-5 primary rooms of your choice to clean, those 2-3 hours of daily cleaning are cut in half.
Imagine cleaning five rooms total in your lovely abode for 20 minutes each.
That’s only 1.5 hours out of your day!
Cleaning doesn’t sound so bad now does it?
How much housework should you do a day?
The answer to this question would require you to assess what your home needs and your ability to be flexible, too!
- Is the laundry overflowing with clothes or can it wait until the assigned day on your cleaning schedule?
- Did life get in the way and prevent you from cleaning the kitchen the night before?
- Or maybe you’re too exhausted to complete an hour’s worth of cleaning and will get away with doing some minor tidying instead?
No matter the circumstances, seek additional help from your family and only focus on low-hanging fruit like clearing off the table, disinfecting the kitchen, folding laundry, sweeping, vacuuming, or beating down rugs.
Not every room needs to be scrubbed down with soap and a sponge.
Base how much housework needs to be done based on the size of your home.
A two or three bedroom home should take no more than 2-3 hours to clean with a daily stay at home mom cleaning schedule in place.
Also, factor in which rooms require your attention.
Which rooms can forego daily upkeep until it’s time for a monthly deep cleaning?
How do you start cleaning when you are overwhelmed?
Now, this one is a bit tricky, guys.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who knows a stay at home mom who uses cleaning to de-stress.
When some mothers are anxious, depressed, or find themselves overwhelmed, decluttering (internal link) their intimate spaces or the smell of fresh scents or linen instantly becomes a form of relaxation.
Cleaning takes your mind off of what may be worrying you in the present.
Then there are others, like me, who feel completing household chores is another layer of added stress and draining.
I’m not a fan of cleaning when I’m stressed, but I also don’t prefer to wallow in mess either.
It’s not relaxing for me, which is why I always opt to tidy if I don’t do anything else.
It’s the 21st century, we have plenty resources we can use.
My favorite is the dishwasher or take-out for dinner!
Nothing would make me more overwhelmed than waking up to a sink full of dirty dishes.
Lysol spray, emptying the garbage, and a quick dusting may be the only chores you get out of me on a bad day.
Too much laundry in the basket? I’m sure it can wait.
Living in filth is surely something we should all stray away from, but your mental health is way more important.
But don’t be so hard on yourself, housework will always be around.
Make sure you’re flexible with your stay at home mom cleaning schedule, and don’t be afraid to move your cleaning days around.
What is a good stay at home mom cleaning schedule?
Your stay at home mom cleaning schedule should be practical and easy to complete no matter which weekdays you choose.
Prep (10 minutes): Gather your favorite cleaning supplies and identify which primary rooms and living areas you’ll be cleaning for the day
Bedroom (20 minutes): make up the bed or replace it with new bedding, empty the hamper and throw a load in the washer, declutter
10-minute break
Bathroom (20 minutes): disinfect the sink, scrub the toilet, replace hand towels and tissue, wipe down the shower and bath, add new air freshener scent
10-minute break
Kitchen (20 minutes): Sweep and mop the floor, wash the dishes and set them out to dry, clear off the table, disinfect the kitchen counter, put away items into appropriate drawers
10-minute break
Living Room (20 minutes): vacuum the carpet, rugs, and couch, dust the lampshades and tables, and launder blankets and throw pillowcases, if needed.
Make your stay at home mom cleaning schedule your own or get a head start by developing cleaning habits with the daily routine planner!
I teach entrepreneurs how to simplify their life and business with less + own their time and maximize productivity towards their personal and monetary goals.
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