My cleaning schedule.

Being a stay at home mom has its rewards and challenges. One of the challenges I ran into was getting everything I need to done in a day. After entertaining children all day, making meals, and picking up toys it seemed very difficult to keep up with my daily cleaning. When I was working I usually spent the better part of every Saturday cleaning and catching up from the week. But my house wasn't really being "lived" in when my husband and I were both working and our kids were at daycare. Now I'm home with the kids everyday and our home is really being "lived" in. This is a wonderful thing don't get me wrong, but boy oh boy does this house get a lot messier! So now the question comes up, "where do I squeeze all this extra cleaning in?" Of course I could spend my nights cleaning and tidying up but spending quality time with just my husband is a MUST for me! So after doing some trial and error I found that dividing my cleaning tasks up throughout the week instead of trying to squeeze it all into one day was a much better way of doing it. I found a customizable printout on the web that was exactly what I needed to remind me on what days I do what tasks. Here's a look at my cleaning schedule.

The printout is divided into two columns, the left is our daily to do which is where I typed in our daily routine. This includes making beds, emptying the dishwasher, sweeping, and wiping down counter tops. The right side is where I typed my weekly to do list. This includes things such as vacuuming, laundry, dusting, cleaning bathrooms, yard work etc.

The daily to do section is broken up by parts of the day. Before breakfast is when I get myself and kids ready, make beds, unload dishwasher and make breakfast. After breakfast is when we do 30 min T.V. time, circle time, free play, quick 10 min. pick up and make lunch. After Lunch is when we bring Dyl to school then have nap time for Blake, I do my daily chore while Blake is napping and Dyl is at school, we pick Dyl up from school, have snack, and free play. Before dinner is when I allow another 30 min T.V. time for the kids, my husband is usually home by now so he takes over daddy play time while I prepare dinner. After dinner consists of a 15 min family clean up, settle down time/baths, stories then bed. Yep that's pretty much how our days run.

My weekly to do list is broken down by days of the week. Each day has a different task assigned to it.

My cleaning tasks for Monday and Tuesday. On Monday I dust then polish our furniture, vacuum and steam clean the floors, and vacuum our basement (this is where we do circle time and a lot of play time since our play area is downstairs), Tuesday is our trash day so this is more of a reminder for my hubby to take out the trash and recyclables (wink wink) I do laundry on Tuesday's and also a thorough kitchen cleaning which includes cleaning out my fridge wiping down appliances and cabinets, and also clean the microwave.

My husband has Tuesday's and Wednesday's off so Wednesday is my day off from cleaning to enjoy our family time. Thursday is when I do laundry.

Friday's are my bathroom cleaning days and I do my floors again (vacuum and steam clean) Saturday I do more laundry and clean my windows. Sunday is my day to do outside work. Any yard work that I can do without my hubby's help and I also clean out our cars. (If you have kids then cleaning out cars on a weekly basis is a must! I'm sure you understand!)

And there you have it my basic cleaning schedule. I follow this pretty religiously unless of course there is a need for the floors to be vacuumed on a day I wouldn't normally vacuum or something like that  for example. Creating a cleaning schedule and breaking my tasks up throughout the week keeps me focused on what needs to get done and helps designate a time to do it. What is your cleaning schedule like and what helps keep you on task?