How To Reboot Your Cleaning Schedule To Keep Your House Clean

At the start of every season I sit down and take a look at my cleaning schedule and give it a reboot based on my motivational levels as of late, and where I might be having difficulty with tasks that need to get done. This year is a little bit different because I am making some pretty big changes in my life.

As I’m sure you already know, from your own personal experience, 2020 was not a fun year in the slightest. While my family was lucky enough to have already set up working from home and we survived pretty well, it was tough staying home all the time.

Between trying to keep the kid entertained and never having quiet time for myself, my mental health declined a lot. I didn’t really deep clean my house at all, we spent too much money on food delivery, and I spent a lot of time playing video games.

So this Spring I decided to take some time to ease back into a normal and more productive schedule. I need to make changes, I need to get back to working the way I used to, and quite frankly I need to deep clean my house more often.

However, before I can do all this I need to find my motivation to do so. So let’s start this off with a few things that worked to help motivate me to get things under control.

cleaning bucket with microfiber clothes and cleaning sprays

Cleaning Motivation

One of my biggest problems was actually finding the motivation to clean my house. Sure the dishes got done, the garbage was taken out, and I’d vacuum weekly. But I wasn’t scrubbing walls, cleaning the light fixtures, cleaning out cabinets, or any other big jobs.

It all felt like just too much effort. Most of my energy was going into just dealing with never leaving the house or anyone else leaving the house. I was spending loads of time working with my kid getting him ready for Kindergarten. What time I did have was spent playing video games as a way of escaping from the hell we were all living.

Every time I would think about deep cleaning the house or doing anything of that nature I would see the projects as a whole instead of individual tasks. I’d immediately feel overwhelmed and then not do any of it.

I had to find a way to get motivated to clean my house, and I found it in a pretty surprising place. Motivational cleaning videos on YouTube. Watching people declutter, organize, and clean their houses from top to bottom helped me to get motivated to do the same.

While I’m a sucker for food and recipe videos I never thought I would actually take an interest in cleaning videos. I was pretty shocked when a few lifestyle vloggers I subscribed to did some cleaning videos and it hooked me.

If you are looking for some motivation to clean your own home watching cleaning videos might help to motivate you too.

YouTube channels I enjoy on cleaning:

Find Your Cleaning Weaknesses

We all have cleaning weaknesses. Be it cleaning the bathroom, making the bed, loading and unloading the dishwasher or dusting the house regularly, you likely have a cleaning weakness and you need to find it.

For me my cleaning weakness is absolutely my kitchen. I procrastinate on cleaning my kitchen every single day. I almost always put it off as long as I can.

However, I love when my kitchen is spotless. I stand in it and a smile comes to my face when my kitchen just looks perfect and is organized. That’s what I imagine in order to break through my weakness and get motivated to clean it every morning.

To tackle your own cleaning weakness try imagining the room or task when it’s completed and how good it feels to have it done. Use that as motivation to push through that one task you just hate to do.

Pick Four to Six Daily Tasks

If you are like me the last thing you want to do is spend hours cleaning your house daily. So in creating your cleaning schedule I recommend only picking four to six daily tasks. 2-3 for the morning and 2-3 for the evening.

My tasks are:

Unload the dishwasher
Pick up toys
Gather garbage
Load the dishwasher
Tidy up random objects
Wipe down counters

By unloading the dishwasher every morning I can stay on top of loading it throughout the day. After unloading and loading the dishwasher I typically scrub down my counter tops to get them spotless.

Picking up toys is mostly done by my 6 year old but I do have to stay on top of him to make sure he completes the task. While he cleans up his toys I go through the house and throw away garbage, gather plates and cups, and do a general tidy.

Pick One Big Daily Task

With my ADHD I will often see a task that needs to be done, then see 12 other tasks that need to be done, lose all my motivation, and not complete any of the tasks. So instead of constantly having that battle with myself I only allow one big task a day on my cleaning schedule.

Now if I feel motivated enough to do more after that one task is done then I obviously will do more. By eliminating all the other tasks and only needing to do the one I eliminate the feeling of overwhelm that keeps me from doing anything at all.

My one task per day looks like this:

Monday – Litter Boxes
Tuesday – Dust
Wednesday – Vacuum
Thursday – Litter Boxes
Friday – Bathrooms
Saturday – Quick Vacuum and Mop
Sunday – Laundry

washer and dryer with a load of towels in the front loading washer

Plan Out Your Monthly Chores

Now the way to do this might vary based on your schedule, your motivation levels, and what you like to do for your monthly chores in your cleaning schedule.

Every month I like to clean my windows, dust out the inside of our computers, disinfect the entire house, and clean all my appliances.

I do all of this on the 6th of every month. You may say the first weekend of every month or split it up and do one a week throughout the month. However you decide to do your monthly chores is completely up to you.

I prefer to pick a day where I do nothing other than these deep cleaning chores. I never schedule appointments or any other tasks for the 6th of the month and leave it to make sure I don’t skip these chores.

While these chores do not typically take all day, it does feel nice to know that on this day that is all I have to do. Again, I try to avoid the feeling of overwhelm in my cleaning schedule that prevents me from accomplishing anything at all.

Pick Your Seasonal Chores

Now because seasonal chores happen so infrequently I don’t have a set day that I do them. I typically combine these chores with other chores I’m already doing.

Changing out filters is pretty easy and convenient to do while I’m doing laundry so that’s just an easy seasonal chore to add to my cleaning schedule. Sometimes I will bring the vacuum and clean up the basement so that I can get rid of the cobwebs and dust in the basement.

My other big seasonal chores are scrubbing the baseboards, window sills, cabinets, and light fixtures. So when I am vacuuming the floors or getting rid of cobwebs I open the windows and clean out the window sills.

Likewise when I’m mopping the floors on Saturdays I will take a little extra time to actually scrub my baseboards. When I clean the kitchen I’ll throw in cleaning all the cabinets and backsplash.

Again this keeps me from feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work that needs to be done because it’s just a small extra task to do while I’m already doing something similar.

Sticking To The Cleaning Schedule Reboot

The hardest part about a cleaning schedule reboot is sticking to that new cleaning schedule. The first week or two you have the motivation, you like that your house is staying clean, and then you start losing your motivation.

While this cleaning schedule allows me to skip a day here or there if I’m busy or just need a lazy day I want to caution you to not let that one day turn into two or three days. Skipping more than one day can leave you feeling overwhelmed by the tasks that need to get done for a clean house.

The trick here for me is to remember, I only have to do seven things today. My 6 daily tasks that are spread out throughout the day and are easy to do, and that one big task. I try to tackle my kitchen and the one big task directly after getting my work done.

By the time I finish the kitchen and my one big task it’s just easy for me to tidy the house, get toys put away, and sometimes do an extra task.

Use a reward program for the days when you just want to skip your cleaning schedule. Tell yourself you’ll allow ordering out tonight if you do these tasks or that you can treat yourself to a Starbucks or some other treat.

Have you ever done a cleaning schedule reboot? Let us know in the comments below. Follow me on Pinterest for more like this and pin this to your favorite cleaning boards.

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