Why Having a Household Cleaning Plan Works

You might be like me and plan to clean your house only to put it off for days or weeks simply because you don’t feel like it and nobody is coming over to add the necessary pressure to motivate you to actually do it.

And then before you know it, your floors are covered with crumbs, dog food bits, dust, and who knows what else. Every horizontal surface has a layer of dust (fine or not so fine, depending on how long it’s been). You avoid sitting on the floor because you know you’ll see all the hair all over it. You suspect there are dust bunnies hiding under your furniture. And you don’t even want to think about the grimy dusty coating on your ceiling fan blades. So you just don’t look. If you don’t see it, then it’s not there, right?

Can anybody else relate?

When I got married last year, I moved into my husband’s home, and I’ve since been making some changes to make it ours. I’ll be the first to admit I’ve been slacking in a lot of the bigger cleaning projects and maintenance categories. If left to my own devices, those just aren’t high on my priority list. But I know they’re important, so I’m on a mission to change that.

I’m a bit of a neat freak, so my home is always tidy. But friends, let me tell you: there is a BIG difference between tidy and clean. They are not the same thing.

Tidy vs. Clean

Tidy means I don’t leave piles of laundry on the floor.

Tidy means there aren’t tons of dirty dishes in the sink or on the counter.

Tidy means the throw pillows on the couches are close to where they belong and not 100% squashed.

Tidy means the mail has been opened and sorted, and junk mail has been recycled instead of living on the counter.

Tidy essentially means everything looks like it’s in its place, that the space looks clean— until you get up close and personal with it.

Clean means the counters have actually been cleaned of all the spills and stains and microscopic crumbs.

Clean means the floors have been swept and vacuumed so you can walk on them barefoot without worrying about what you’re going to feel under your feet.

Clean means the bathroom mirror is free of spots and splashes.

Clean means the stovetop doesn’t look like you intentionally cooked food directly on it and left it to sit for all eternity.

Clean means the laundry room isn’t making the whole basement smell like the funk of unwashed workout clothes.

Do you see what I mean? Tidy is great (I live for tidy!), but clean is also important.

But it’s also more tiring and nit-picky. I mean, who really cares if you’ve cleaned the inside of your oven in the last six months? Probably nobody. But neglecting it is just going to make it that much harder to tackle when you do finally attempt it.

So what’s the solution to achieving not just a tidy home, but a clean one? And maintaining our sanity in the process? Because, let’s be honest, most of us don’t want to spend every weekend deep-cleaning our homes. We have lives, jobs, plans, friends, family, hobbies, and plenty of other things vying for our time. We don’t have the time to clean everything every week.

Enter the yearly household cleaning plan. (You can get a free printable of it here.)

Why Use a Household Cleaning Plan

When you have a plan, you get to spread the work out over a longer period of time without worrying about forgetting tasks entirely.

You also get to decide when the best time is for certain tasks. Winter probably isn’t the best time to climb on a ladder to clean the outside of your windows, for instance.

Having a plan also reminds you to do the tasks that you would otherwise likely have forgotten about, like changing furnace filters, rotating your mattress, or replacing your shower curtain liner.

I’m the kind of person who always feels like I’m forgetting things if I don’t write them down, so having a printable cleaning plan helps me focus on the task at hand and rest knowing I’m not neglecting something.

THIS HOUSEHOLD CLEANING PLAN INCLUDES…

Weekly and monthly tasks just as little reminders for the more regular cleaning tasks to keep your home at a base level of cleanliness. I like this approach because if I’m busy or falling behind on my month-specific tasks, my house still doesn’t look like it’s falling apart. I have still gotten the basics covered, so I’m not embarrassed of the state of things.

Recurring items like rotating mattresses, changing water pitcher filters, and washing your curtains. Because I hope I’m not the only one who forgets these kinds of things without reminders.

Monthly focus areas so you’re not too scattered trying to get different tasks done in every area of your home. It’s more satisfying and efficient to concentrate your efforts in one area (or on one type of task) at a time. I tried to group the tasks together in logical categories and rotate through them according to the seasons.

Make it your own

You don’t have to do all the tasks I put on the cleaning plan. If you don’t have a car, skip maintaining it. If you live in an apartment and have less square footage to cover, you might be able to knock out more tasks at once! You do you. I’m not the boss of you.

You can also do the tasks at different times in the year if that works better for you. Especially if you live in the southern hemisphere, your seasons will be the opposite of mine here in Minnesota, so that could affect some of the more seasonal tasks.

Of course, you can add any tasks specific to your home that aren’t included on my list as well.

This is meant to help you simplify your cleaning so you can have a clean home without feeling overwhelmed. If it helps, that’s great! Take what works and forget about the rest. And make sure you give yourself some grace for the days, weeks, and months when life is crazy and busy, or when you’re too tired or too overwhelmed or too whatever to clean— nobody is perfect, and your home certainly doesn’t need to be perfect, either.