Don’t we all love it when our house is spick-and-span clean?

Don’t we all love it when our house is spick-and-span clean?

Unfortunately, for most of us, that can be a rare occasion. Cleaning a whole house and getting everything done from one end to the other can be a daunting task. But, it’s not impossible. By breaking tasks down into an organized schedule, we can get it all done a little at a time. Let’s look at how you can develop a cleaning schedule for the entire year and have the well-maintained home you’ve always wanted.

Make a List

The first thing you want to do is to walk through your house and identify the things that you’d like to get done. Many items are common for most any household.

Some items are best done on a weekly basis, while others only need attention on a monthly, quarterly, or occasional basis. The key is to create a schedule based on your needs and preferences.

To help you along, here is what works for most people:

Daily Do’s

No matter how busy you are, when you clean up a little each day, it goes a long way to staying ahead of the task. Some of the things you’ll want to tackle are:

• Wash the dishes after each meal. It’s easy to put it off and before you know it, there’s more than you want to deal with. Keep up with the dishes as you go along and you’ll feel less stressed and more relaxed. You’ll feel your home is tidier just by having the dishes done.
• Pick up once a day. It’s an easy thing to do that doesn’t take much time at all. The best time to do so is before you retire to bed in the evenings. Starting with a clean slate in the mornings can make you feel more ready to face the day.
• Air out and wipe down your bath and shower. I don’t know about you, but one of the things I hate the most is when grime and mildew accumulate in the bathroom. By wiping the walls down after showering or bathing, it helps to prevent build-up. Leaving the shower door or curtain open after using it also allows the shower to air and dry faster.

Weekly Chores

Most of us have a weekly cleaning routine. Saturday mornings have always been the time I’ve set apart to get these basic chores accomplished:

• Dust away. Feather dusters are great for hard-to-reach places, but for basic furniture, it’s best to use a soft cloth that is slightly moistened with your favorite furniture cleaner. This helps to prevent the dust from recirculating the air and landing right back where it started.
• Clean the bathrooms. Implement a weekly chore of a leave-on bathroom cleaner where you can spray it and walk away. Then, after an hour or so, wipe it all down. It’s also a good time to thoroughly clean the toilet after swooshing it with a toilet bowl cleaner. Consider using a brand that has a disinfectant to kill germs.
• Get those floors clean to a shine! It’s a good time to sweep and mop your floors. Very few of us have carpets anymore, but for those of us who do, a weekly vacuuming ritual is also in order.
• Change the sheets on your bed. There’s nothing quite as refreshing and rejuvenating as climbing into a clean and freshly made bed after a hard day’s work. It’s about the little things.

Monthly Tasks

Monthly tasks are those many of us dread, but in the end, make our lives so much easier and more efficient.

• Thoroughly clean the refrigerator. This means going through and throwing out spoiled foods. Read labels to dump anything that’s past the expired date.
• Give the hood on your oven a good cleaning. Grease accumulates fast around stoves and it’s best to keep it in check before it becomes overwhelming.
• Wipe clean ceiling fans and light fixtures. It’s amazing how quickly dust can accumulate on those spots.

Quarterly to Yearly Maintenance

The beginning of each season is a good time to get these quarterly or occasional routines done. Getting ahead of these chores is one step closer to achieving an efficiently-run home. These can be done quarterly to yearly at your discretion.

• Maintain the exterior of your refrigerator. This includes cleaning the coils and removing the toe grille. Sweep away dust and lint from around your refrigerator, pulling it away from the wall if need be.
• Clean your windows to a sparkling shine! Don’t forget to pay attention to the window sills, as well. Nothing brings light into a home like clear, shiny windows.
• Clean behind furniture. Pull furniture away from walls and clean floors and baseboards.
• Steam clean your rugs and furniture, if need be. Don’t forget to lift rugs and clean the floors underneath.
• Clean out the pantry and deep freeze. Throw out expired items and organize and sort for easier access.
• Clean out air conditioning vents and vacuum where needed. This will help your unit to run more efficiently and keep your home cooler during the summer months.
• Go through your closets and sort items out. Give away unwanted items or items that don’t fit anymore. Each season, you can also put the clothes you’ll wear the most where they are most accessible while placing other items in the back of the closet.

These are some of the basic things you can do to have a clean and tidy home. When you develop a cleaning schedule you can utilize throughout the year, the tasks become less daunting. Check out these quick tips to clean big stains in your Chicago home!

Get a plan together today and have the family get in on the action. Teamwork can help you get it all done faster and takes the pressure off of doing it all yourself. You may even want to think about hiring a cleaning company to help out and free up some of your time.