Coming home to a clean house is a wonderful feeling, but it does not last forever. Stick to a tried-and-true house cleaning schedule that covers everything from daily to annual chores to keep your home neat and tidy.
Cleaning Tasks You Should Do Every Day
When a small amount of untidiness is not cleaned up, it can quickly become a large mess. Daily cleaning tasks are intended to be simple, easy-to-complete chores that leave your home in a basic state of cleanliness. Taking care of minor messes right away prevents the accumulation of dirt and grime and makes deep cleaning easier for weekly, monthly, and yearly house cleaning tasks.
Completing daily cleaning tasks will also make you feel less overwhelmed by housework. There is a connection between mess and stress. It’s easier to unwind at home when everything is in its proper place. Taking a few minutes each day to complete simple tasks keeps a home clean enough to live in.
A Quick Vacuum or Sweep
A fast way to quickly tidy your home is to pass a broom, electric broom, or vacuum over the floors. In exchange for a quick few minutes, this task prevents dirt build-up, pet hair, and dander accumulation, and limits the dirt that finds its way under furniture and into cracks and crevices.
Clean Dirty Surfaces
In the kitchen or dining room, clean, damp cloth can do wonders. After dinner, a quick wipe of counters, the stovetop, or the dining table prevents spills and food from hardening and becoming difficult to scrape off. Clean surfaces make a huge difference in a home’s visual cleanliness.
Place Everything in Its Proper Place
When everything has a place, everything looks neater in general. To keep your home clean and clutter-free, put your dirty gym clothes in the laundry hamper, empty your lunch bag in the kitchen, keep your grooming items on a shelf or in a drawer rather than on the sink, and find a place for the rest of your belongings.
Do The Dishes
An overflowing sink full of dishes with caked-on sauces and leftover food is one way to attract pests and create foul smells in the kitchen. Unloading your dishwasher each morning enables you to put dirty dishes in the dishwasher throughout the day to keep your counters and sink clear.
Disinfect the Kitchen Sink
It may look clean, but the kitchen sink plays host to many germs and bacteria, especially when meal prep involves raw meat. Use a disinfecting soap or spray to wipe down your sink each night after you’ve finished washing dishes.
Cleaning Tasks You Should Do Every Week
Where daily cleaning tasks address simple messes and maintain a reasonable amount of cleanliness, weekly cleaning tasks require a bit more attention–but not enough to have to tackle these tasks every day. Doing small cleaning tasks every day means that the weekly cleaning schedule should be easy to accomplish.
Weekly cleaning tasks help freshen up areas of the home that guests don’t see, and provide a deeper clean than the baseline daily tasks. Items on this list tend to address areas of the home that are more intimately familiar to the people who live there and cleaning these areas well each week contributes to the health of the household.
Clean the Sink and its Surroundings
Cleaning the sink and nearby surfaces should be done every day; however, these areas—in both the kitchen and bathrooms—require a deeper clean at least once a week. Scrub all of the nooks and crannies, wipe down the faucet, and clean any items in the surrounding area. This is also a good time to clean the dish drying rack in the kitchen, which tends to collect dirt and grime.
Take on the Microwave Disaster
Even if it appears clean, this minor task is best completed on a regular basis. Cleaning the microwave on a weekly basis keeps the mess from accumulating and turning a minor chore into a terrifying task.
Sweep and Mop the Floors
A quick daily sweep can only do so much. Each week, get into the nooks and crannies of your house, moving furniture out of the way, so you can sweep and mop every flooring surface. Moving your couch or large chairs is also a great opportunity to clean any hidden treats or toys hidden by a child or pet. Always use products designed for the type of flooring in your home.
Launder the Towels
Have a dedicated day each week where you put your bath towels through the wash. Towels can pick up a lot of dirt when hanging on a bathroom hook. Washing towels helps prevent the buildup of dirt or worse, mold–which thrives in moist environments.
Wash the Toothbrush Holder
Toothbrushes are kept in the dirtiest room in the house. Cleaning your toothbrush holder every week helps prevent the buildup of germs and bacteria. A neglected toothbrush holder can spread germs to your toothbrush, which can cause you to get sick.
Vacuum Rugs and Carpets
This is another daily task that benefits from a deeper clean once a week. Carpets tend to pick up smells and hide hair and dirt if they aren’t clean; doing a thorough job with a vacuum (and perhaps some deodorizer) can improve the smell of your home. Remove any obstacles and remove as much dirt as you can.
Dust Furniture
Regular dusting and brushing your furniture keeps them cleaner and maintains their condition for longer. Proper dusting is also better for your health, as it prevents dirt from remaining in the air, improving the air quality in your home.
Strip and Launder Bed Sheets
Few things feel as wonderful as freshly washed sheets. Knowing what’s on dirty sheets may inspire you to make laundering your bed sheets a priority each week. Even if you shower at night, dirt, dust, dead skin cells, dust mites, sweat, bacteria, pet hair and dander, and all sorts of other things can find their way into your bed
Cleaning Tasks You Should Do Every Month
Monthly household cleaning gives attention to more of the nitty-gritty details of a home that are less noticeable unless they’re under scrutiny. From tucked-away areas to places that need a longer reach to properly wash, monthly cleaning goes deeper than a surface level clean. Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean that the dirt, grime, or bacteria doesn’t exist.
In some cases, a monthly cleaning schedule is as much about safety as it is about keeping the house clean. These monthly inspections of specific areas and appliances serve as a preventative measure to avoid larger messes or costly repairs in the future.
Dust Areas Above Your Head Weekly
furniture dusting only covers areas within reach. Higher-up areas still accumulate dust, but cleaning them on a weekly basis may be too time-consuming. This category includes areas such as above the cabinets, the blades of a ceiling fan, and on top of the refrigerator. Dust that settles higher up can eventually fall onto cleaner surfaces or people in your home.
Deep Clean the Furniture
You spend a lot of time and money selecting your furniture, and their cleanliness can be deceptive. Upholstered furniture can trap smells, inadvertently making your house appear to have an aroma. All furniture collects dust; deep cleaning your furniture pieces extends their longevity and makes them look and smell fresh again.
Clean the Windows
When the sun shines, there are no secrets about the cleanliness of a window. Clean windows let in a lot more natural light than grimey windows, which can appear cloudy. Cleaning the windows each month helps prevent dirt buildup and brightens your home with more natural light.
Clean Out the Closet
It feels good to get rid of clutter and help someone else in the long run. Go through your closets and get rid of clothing pieces that are seldom (or never) worn. These pieces can be donated for someone else to enjoy, and you can use your closet for wardrobe items that you actually wear.
Wash the Trash Can
Sometimes, the smell from the trash can is not because the trash needs to be taken out. The inside of a trash bin is a breeding ground for germs, bacteria, dirt, and the smells that go with them. A dirty trash can is often left off the cleaning list because a trash bag liner theoretically keeps the gross stuff out, but there can actually be deeper stinkier issues.
Cleaning Tasks You Should Do Every Year
Annual cleaning tasks are generally more involved, taking more time to complete than tasks done more frequently. These areas and action items have a year to accumulate dirt, grime, and clutter, but they need to be cleaned less often if homeowners keep on top of their daily, weekly, and annual cleaning schedule. Yearly house cleaning tasks are wonderful because they can wait to be done, but they shouldn’t be neglected. They are a necessary part of a thorough home cleaning routine.
Clean Behind the Appliances
Appliances are large and heavy, making them perfect for trapping dirt. Find someone who can help you move appliances like your fridge, oven, laundry machines, etc., so you can sweep and scrub the floors and walls behind them (and give the appliances a once-over too!). This removes dirt and bacteria and helps our appliances run more efficiently.
Shampoo the Upholstery
Any soft material should be deep cleaned yearly, such as sofas, chairs, or cushioned ottomans. Fabric material, especially if it’s a dark color, does an excellent job of hiding stains that can seep deeper than the surface and into the furniture. Deep clean and shampoo the upholstery to remove any hidden dirt, stains, or smells.
