Maintaining the Tidy... guest post Vintage Lemon

I'll be the first to admit, I'm not a perfect housekeeper. Between working, raising a baby, and cleaning up after a husband I often let the house go in order to stay saine. And other days I feel like I spend my entire day cleaning up after the little mr, and making up for those days when I let my house go, that sometimes I despise cleaning.

But lately I've noticed I can't function very well with a messy house. Everything seems much more chaotic, especially me. I'm extra frazzled, little things that normally don't mean much bother me, and I cannot think clearly.

On Pinterest a few months ago I happened to stumble upon some "organize your cleaning" tips, from daily chore charts, to weekly cleaning schedules.  I came up with a list of spaces that need to be cleaned daily, and another list of spaces that don't need to be tackled as often. 

I used that list to create a 2 week cleaning schedule, with some chores on the list daily, some chores weekly, and other chores every other week depending on what we needed. It equaled out to be about 20-30 minutes cleaning a day. For me, its much easier to keep a clean house clean, then to tackle a messy house and hope I don't lose interest half way through.

Sometimes I feel like certain areas of our house become "dumping gounds" and if I don't tackle them often, we loose important things like our keys, my left shoes, and sometimes our puppy. 

A few things that I determined needed cleaning every day at our house include:

making beds (simple. MAKE THE BEDS. Every MORNING. no excuse)

cleaning all surfaces (wipe counters, put away mail, etc)

clean the kitchen (do dishes, put away everything that has been left out)

Other area needed cleaning every few days such as:

vacuum the floors (hallways, major rooms we spend time in)

laundry (fold laundry and put away right as it comes out of the dryer)

Once a week cleaning needed to be done on areas such as:

bathrooms (clean sink, toilet, shower, counter, floors)

take out all trashes (ALL trashes)

mop all tile (including bathrooms)

de-clutter 1 area (a closet, the pantry, any area that needs a little extra attention)

Some areas only need to be tackled every other week:

garage (keep it organized and clutter free)

back and front yards 

master bedroom (de junk night stands, make sure everything goes back in it's place, clean blinds and baseboards, etc)

baby's bedroom (vacuum blinds, organize toys/books, clothes, etc)

front room (vacuum blinds, floor, clean baseboards, couches, fans, etc)

kitchen (clean appliances; outside and inside, tidy up shelves, pantry, etc)

I have been using this cleaning schedule for a few months now, and let me tell you, it totally works.

My life, and house is much more organized, clean, and happy.

I love only cleaning for a short amount of time, tidying up a clean house vs tackling a disaster.

It's so much easier, and a huge time saver.

Here is a blank cleaning schedule printable that you can customize to your cleaning needs:

Get it here

Happy Spring Cleaning {sissyprint} readers!

Come join me over at The Vintage Lemon!

xo,

marci

{the vintage lemon}