For those who have decluttered quite a bit already in their homes, they have no doubt seen the benefits of reduced time spent in general household upkeep and cleaning. With fewer items around the house, it makes it much easier to wipe flat surfaces down quickly, vacuum without first needing to clear the floor and finish laundry in a reasonable amount of time instead of turning it into an all day affair.
After the initial bulk of my decluttering was finished and we had sold, donated or thrown away over 60% of our belongings, I began to fall into a somewhat natural cleaning routine that has been fine-tuned over the years and keeps our home tidy and kept up on a daily basis. We no longer need to have day long cleaning sessions before company comes to visit, nor do I feel overwhelmed by daily household upkeep that seemed to always be a stressor before we simplified.
Today, I’d like to share my daily cleaning routine which takes me around 20 minutes to complete. This routine includes household cleaning that we all do on a regular basis. This schedule isn’t meant to include seasonal cleaning tasks or major cleaning sessions, but WILL help you maintain order and cleanliness in your home on a daily basis. I recommend that if you have areas in your home that need deep cleaning, such as kitchen tile grout or showers, you schedule a time to take care of those more intense, but less frequent tasks. Last year I also wrote a post about cleaning in 30 minutes a day, however with more decluttering I have been able to shave off 10 minutes!
I’ve included a PDF download at the end of this post for those of you who want to customize your own cleaning schedule or you can fill it in using the one I’ve supplied. As a side note, depending on the size of your home, this may take you a little longer than 20 minutes. Our home is roughly 1,900 square feet, and I do not clean my children’s bedrooms, so that probably cuts it down to around 1,500 square feet, to give you an idea of how much time it may take. You can check out pics of our home to get an idea of how well this guide works, and yes, it looks this way 90% of the time!
Monday- Sweep the kitchen and bathroom floors. Use an old toothbrush to spot clean dirty grout. Put in one load of laundry.
Tuesday- Wipe down bathroom mirrors, counter tops and clean toilets. Replace towels with clean ones. Put in load of dirty towels to wash.
Wednesday- Empty all garbage in the house. Vacuum living areas and dust mop if you have tile or wood floors.
Thursday- Spot clean walls with a Magic Eraser or other wall cleaner. Put in one load of laundry to wash.
Friday- Wipe down all kitchen counters, pull out any counter top appliances and wipe under. Wipe down front of large appliances and inside of microwave and refrigerator shelves. Wipe down outside of cupboards as needed.
Saturday- Dust throughout the house. Put in one load of laundry. Thoroughly mop or vacuum as needed.
Sunday- Lightly scrub and wipe down tubs and showers. Put in one load of laundry.
There are several ‘keys’ if you will, to making this guide work for you. –
You have already decluttered or are in the process of decluttering a significant amount of your possessions.
You adhere to the ‘Leave No Trace’ rule, meaning you put everything away in its proper place as soon as you are done using it.
You follow the guide, even if the area is mostly clean. This is a big part of maintaining your home. If you lightly clean it, even while it is pretty clean already, it will never become overwhelmingly dirty, and it will take you even less time to clean the next time it comes up on the schedule.
You do seasonal or regular deep cleaning sessions such as cleaning baseboards and door jams, scrubbing grout, wiping out windowsills, washing windows and continue to declutter regularly. I like to do these projects in 30-60 minute time frames throughout the month. I don’t plan a certain day, just as time is available, I will choose one to complete. I’ve included an extra area on the guide for these tasks.
As long as you include these keys in your life, this simple 20 minute daily maintenance guide will serve you well and keep your home nice and tidy everyday.
