Finding The “Perfect” Cleaning Routine: And Why You WON’T Find It Here

As a stay at home mom who struggles with her mental health, keeping house is a constant battle for me. I often fantasize about having a home that looks like the ones on HGTV or in magazines. You know, the ones that are aesthetic; where all the storage bins match and everything is beautifully organized? It can be easy to fall victim to comparison. I'd be a better mom/wife if only my house looked like THAT!

I would find myself spending hours on Pinterest searching things like "best cleaning routines for a SAHM" or "how to be a happy homemaker" and then I would follow these routines to the letter (or at least attempt to). Typically, this is how it would go:

• Spend hours looking over other people's routines

• Finally settle on one that I am now convinced will change everything for me

• Copy + Paste that person's routine into my life

• End up feeling frustrated and defeated when that routine doesn't work for me

Rinse. Recycle. Repeat.

Does that sound familiar? If it does, I want to tell you something I've only just recently come to realize: IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT!

You are not broken. You are not a failure. You are a unique human being in a home that is unique to YOU! In short, the "perfect" cleaning routine DOES exist, but I (or anyone else) can't tell you what it is. It's something you have to put together for your own unique life. But don't despair friend! I promise I'm not gonna leave you to fend for yourself. I may not be able to tell you what the perfect routine will look like for you, but I CAN tell you what mine looks like and how I came to find it!

Before I just jump straight in and lay out my cleaning routine for you, I need you to promise me something...like for real pinky promise that you won't get discouraged if you try this routine and it doesn't work out for you.

The biggest thing I've learned about cleaning routines is that there is no magical, one size fits all, routine. I mean really, think about it, you are an entirely different person than I am, living your own life. It would naturally make sense that what works well for me, may not work for you. What I've found is the best way to create a routine is to build it around your own circumstances. With that said, here's how I came up with mine.

Map Out A Typical Week

I started by sitting down and really thinking about what a regular week looks like for me. I'm a stay at home mom with a 6 year old in kindergarten and a 4 year old in head start. Monday through Friday my mornings are spent getting ready for school. Maybe I'll write a detailed post about my daily routine in the future, but basically it boils down to me being home alone (except for the pups) from 8:30am to 2:00pm every weekday.

My husband is a school bus driver for a district that is an hour away from where we live, so he's gone from 4:00am (he wakes up extra early to go to the gym before work) till about 6:00pm. During the week, we really don't get to see much of him except to have dinner and maybe an extra hour before the kids go to bed at 8:00pm. This means that the weekends are our main family time.

Then I also needed to factor in my therapy appointments every other Wednesday from 11:00am to 12:00pm.

So for me, a typical week looks like getting the kids to and from school Monday-Friday with an appointment every other Wednesday and family time on the weekend.

Now, before we go too much further, I want to note that this is not the end all be all weekly schedule. Life happens and sometimes things come up where my appointments need rescheduling, or the kids are home sick from school, or they're on a break (don't even get me started on how summer vacation can turn things upside down). My point is, as you're thinking about how your week usually looks, don't get too hung up thinking that this is how things need to be ALL THE TIME in order for you to develop a successful cleaning routine. Allow room for life to happen.

Decide What Tasks To Do Weekly

Once I ironed out a typical weekly schedule, I then had to think about what tasks I wanted to get done on a weekly basis. I started by making a list of all the areas in my house. My list looks like this:

• Kitchen

• Living room

• Upstairs

  • Bedroom

  • Kids rooms

  • Hallway

• Bathroom (our bathroom is also upstairs, but it gets it's own category)

Next, I listed out all the tasks that needed to get done in each room and weeded out what absolutely needs to be done every week, what could honestly be done once a month or every few months, and some things I bumped up to a daily list. This list ended up being incredibly long, so I'm not going to share the whole thing, but here is what ended up on my daily/weekly lists.

• Daily

  • Make my bed

  • Wash the dishes

  • Wipe kitchen counters

  • Quick living room tidy

• Weekly

  • Kitchen

    • De-clutter table

    • Vacuum/mop

    • Clean stove top

    • Clean out fridge

  • Living room

    • Vacuum/mop

  • Upstairs

    • Pick up kids rooms

    • Vacuum all rooms and hallway

  • Bathroom

    • Clean tub/shower

    • Clean sink

    • Clean toilet

    • Wipe down floor

Other things that I realized also needed to get done every week, but didn't necessarily fall into one specific area of my house were laundry and grocery shopping.

Decide When To Complete These Tasks

Now that I had figured out what exactly I wanted to get done each week, I had to figure out where these tasks would fit in my weekly schedule.

This might seem a little silly, but I actually started in the middle of the week with Wednesday. I thought this was the most logical place to start since I am already out of the house every other Wednesday for my therapy appointment. I decided that Wednesdays would be grocery days. It was at this point that I also decided I wanted to start meal planning. I can write a more detailed post on that later, but basically it finally clicked in my brain that grocery shopping would be much easier if I actually knew what we needed when I walked into the store.

On therapy weeks, I'm out of the house from 11:00am till about 5:30pm. In that time frame I go to my appointment, go out for lunch with my aunt, pick the kids up from school, and then go grocery shopping. This makes for a pretty full day, so if I was going to get any cleaning done on Wednesdays, it would have to be something I could do relatively quickly before leaving for therapy. We only have one bathroom in our house, and it's pretty small. If I'm focused in on the task, I can get my whole bathroom cleaned in about 20 minutes, and so it became that Wednesdays are errands/bathroom cleaning days.

I then looked at the rest of my week, and used a similar thought process to assign tasks to the rest of the days. When I finished, I made this cute little graphic purely because I like pretty things and looking at it makes me feel more motivated to actually follow through.

It has been three weeks since I sat down to map out this routine, and I am proud to say my home is functioning much more smoothly. In fact, implementing this routine is what finally gave me the freedom to start blogging again. Yep, this isn't my first attempt at a blog. Maybe someday I'll write about my blogging journey, but for the purpose of staying relevant to this post, I'll just say that my previous attempts ultimately failed because I just couldn't shake the mom guilt. I felt like there was always something else I "should" have been doing with my time. Now, when that mom guilt starts to creep in, I can say to myself "I did all my daily tasks. Everything else will get done later in the week. It's okay for me to sit down and do something fun for me." It truly is so freeing.

Something Else To Keep In Mind

I also feel it's important to note that this is what works for me in my current phase of life. I used to get so frustrated with myself when I'd have a routine that had been working and then all of a sudden I'd find myself falling behind again. I thought it meant that I was failing or just not trying hard enough to make it work. In reality, what was happening is my phase of life had changed. What worked for me as a newly-wed with no children wasn't going to work once I added a newborn to the mix. In the same way, what worked for me as a mom with one child no longer worked when our second came into the picture. Growing up doesn't stop when you turn 18.

Even as adults, we are constantly evolving and our circumstances are forever changing. If you use this process to design your own routine, and then find yourself struggling to keep up down the line, don't get discouraged. All you need is to repeat the process to make things work for your current life season. So go ahead and save this post somewhere you'll be able to revisit when life throws you a curve ball.

I truly hope this post helps you find a routine that will work for you, and leaves you feeling a little more in control of your life. Much love to you friend!

Xoxo, Terrin