If you have followed me for a while, you will know that I am always on some sort of decluttering or cleaning mission.
I don’t love cleaning, but I do love a clean house.
I wrote a post about why having less stuff is good for all mums and why I do it here.
Before Christmas I am always ready for a really good sort out and deep clean before all the new things come into the house and before all the decorations go up. I think a lot us get this urge at different stages throughout the year – like in the spring time, or after the kids go back to school after the summer.
While it’s tempting, and it can be quite satisfying to do a huge entire house declutter in one go, it can be extremely overwhelming, and we can power into it with the best of intentions but all of a sudden the house is completely upside down, we lose our motivation and momentum and it’s hard to get it all finished.
And while I do sometimes do this, I do have a routine in place that helps me keep on top of the decluttering all year around so that it doesn’t turn into a huge overwhelming thing.
You can read all about how Routines are helpful here.
I try and do a bit every week.
My decluttering routine
As much as I try to be the sort of person that cleans a bit everyday, it just doesn’t work for me.
What works the best for me right now is to block the morning off on a Monday morning to do a ‘home reset’ – I dust, hoover, mop, clean the bathrooms and do the basics.
Then on a second day of the week – usually a Wednesday, depending on how my week is looking, I will do a deeper clean of one room in the house.
Sometimes I will do it all in one go.
Sometimes I will spread it out a bit more over the week, for example I might declutter on the Monday and deep clean a bit everyday over the week. It usually depends on my motivation levels, how my week is looking and when the last time I gave the room a declutter was.
When I am in a season of keeping on top of things and every room is getting done every 8 weeks, I usually do it in one go because it’s not that dirty/cluttered and I would rather just get it done in one go.
How it works
We have 8 rooms in our home – 9 if you count the small bathroom/laundry room but it’s so small I usually just count it as either kitchen or bathroom.
Every week I focus on one of those rooms, so over a period of 8 weeks/2 months every room in our house gets a deep clean.
While it might seem like thats a long time, every room is having a surface clean every week on my home reset every Monday, and the deeper cleaning stuff is done every 8 weeks – so that would be things like cleaning the oven or cleaning the skirting boards, hoovering under furniture and de-cluttering.
I like the routine because it feels like cleaning isn’t taking over my life – it’s only two days where cleaning is centre focus of my day but at the same time our home always feels on the whole clean and tidy.
It’s not perfect – at the end of the day there are five of us living here (and a dog), but it is taken care of.
Done is always better than perfect.
How do you keep on track of which room is what week?
There is an app called Home Routines, which I used to find amazing because it will work it out for you. I don’t use this anymore, but it might be helpful for you!
I just have it added to my google calendar on repeat for every 8 weeks, so each week I can see what this weeks focus is.
If I don’t get around to a room because it’s extremely busy, I don’t move it to the next week, I will just get around to doing it the next time it comes around (unless it’s something that seriously needs cleaning! then I will just slot just that thing in somewhere).
Done is better than perfect.
I think at some point you have to accept that if you live in your house it is going to be impossible to have a magazine perfect house and that takes SO much pressure off.
My Cleaning/home Routine
I love seeing how other people do things, so I will write out our routine here. This isn’t a do what I do post, but if you are feeling a bit stuck and like you can’t keep on top of your home you might find some inspiration here.
My routine is loosely based on Flylady, mixed in with a bit of CleanMama routine too.
Monday – Home Reset (1.5 – 2 hours ish) This isn’t a deep clean, it’s just the high traffic/surface cleaning
- Dust surfaces
- Clean Mirrors
- Hoover
- Mop
- Clean Bathroom
- Empty Bins
You may find the idea of doing an hour and a half of cleaning absolutely horrendous and you may prefer to break things up into Monday – Bathroom, Tuesday, Dust or Monday – Bathroom, Tuesday – Living room etc – There is no right or wrong, do what suits you.
If you are a bit stuck read this post I wrote about routines that has some different cleaning styles you can do.
Tuesday – Desk Day
Kids come with an insane amount of paperwork, and I have found that having a set day that I sort it out on makes my life a million times easier.
It helps me feel more in control too, I know that I will get to anything that needs doing and nothing will fall through the net.
Things I do on a Tuesday are:
- Sort out my emails – reply/delete/add anything that needs to be done to my todo list
- Sort through mail – file things away/take action/add to my todo list
- Fill in any forms
- Make sure dates from school letters/hospital letters added to the calendar
- Contact anyone that needs contacting
- Make sure my todo list is up to date
- Meal plan for next week
Wednesday
My Zone Day – where I focus on deep cleaning and decluttering one area of our home
Thursday
I don’t really have anything specific on a Thursday.
Friday
Friday is usually my catch up and get things done before the weekend day.
Weekends can be a bit hit and miss on whether I manage to get anything done, so I try and get the most important things done out of the way on a Friday so I can just focus on family time.
- Go to Tesco and get groceries for the weekend (inc packed lunch Monday)
- Hoover and tidy up the house before the weekend
- Get anything done that needs to be done before the weekend/didn’t get round to this week
- Fill in my tesco order for next week
Saturday/Sunday
The only thing that gets done on a weekend is change the bedding on the beds.
Although now the kids are becoming teenagers and sleeping until lunch time, weekends aren’t working as well for us – so this will probably be changed to a week day soon.
And I have a tendency to strip the beds and realise after coming home after a day out that I have to remake them, so it’s time for a switch up I think!
It’s not perfect but it helps me feel more in control of all the housework and decluttering and I know that at some point everything will get cleaned.
Do you have a routine? Let me know in the comments.
Beth x
