Having a clean house with young children can quickly become overwhelming. It is a never ending job. As a mama of two littles, I have found a helpful way to not let the cleaning tasks pile up and overwhelm me quite as much.

Each Cleaning Task has a Day

When I look at my house there are times when I have literally been unable to complete any cleaning due to the pure overwhelming feeling of the house is a mess and I don’t know where to start. That is when I decided that you can’t look at the house as a whole, but rather assign a specific task to a specific day and that is when slow and steady wins the race kicks in. Slowly the house will come back together and the overwhelming feeling will begin to fade.

Little By Little

There are some tasks though that are in themselves huge and overwhelming, eh uhm… laundry. The piles continue to grow and the folding process is never ending. However I have found, one load a day makes a HUGE difference. I am able to fold one load a day and the baskets don’t seem to ever get to the overflowing state we dread. Of course there are always days that do not go as planned and we may miss a load that day, but generally speaking, one load a day makes this dreaded tasks manageable.

Daily Cleaning Tasks

Some tasks just need to be completed every day. Some of these daily tasks include; wiping the counters, sweeping the floor, cleaning up toys, and dishes. Out kitchen floor needs a good vacuum every evening after we have cleaned up from dinner. Little hands make lots of little crumbs. Spraying those counters and wiping them down after each meal makes a huge difference on the amount of time we spend cleaning up in the evening. We have finally established a great routine that would have helped years ago, turn the dishwasher on every night! In the morning when preparing breakfast I unload it and the day is started with clean dishes and an place to put all the dirty dishes.

Cleaning up toys can also fall into the category of never ending tasks. I have discovered that my toddler uses cleaning up toys as a stalling method for putting off bed or naptime. Not a bad technique on his part! I have learned through this that, even though he is only 16 months old, he in-fact knows where every toy should go. I try to start the cleaning processes about 10-15 minutes before it is time for him to sleep. He thinks he is putting off sleep and I end up with a clean living room, win win!

Cleaning Schedule

This is where my cleaning tips become more customizable to fit your own needs. Each room or area will be different depending on your house and layout.

Monday– Focus on the living room. Tidy it up, vacuum/sweep/mop, and dust. I also include cleaning my entryway on Monday due to them being rooms that flow together, I will dust and vacuum/sweep/mop the floors.

Tuesday- The day for the dreaded bathrooms (at least they are dreaded to clean in our house). The bathrooms include cleaning the tub and toilets. Wiping down the counters and cleaning the mirrors. Vacuuming/mopping the floors. Washing the towels and rugs. Finally, taking out the trash.

Wednesday- Time for the bedrooms. I still have young children so I also clean their rooms on Wednesday also. I will dust the rooms, vacuum/mop the floors, tidy up things, and wash the bedding.

Thursday- Kitchen time! On Thursday I use this time to really clean the kitchen deeper and I am always surprised at how much it needs this every week. I will wipe down the cabinets, clean the appliances, clean out the refrigerator, mop the floors and scrub the sink.

Friday- This is my extra day. We have a screened in lani so I will spend some time sweeping and straightening that space. Also, our small office space needs some dusting and clean floors once a week. Additionally, I like to spend a little time cleaning the laundry room and vacuuming around where we keep our shoes.

Small Bites

I hope this helps you feel encouraged rather than overwhelmed by cleaning your house. Littles bits at a time make such a difference to how to keep up with the never ending tasks of cleaning. I have attached a link to the cleaning schedule I post in my house to help keep me on track. I have laminated it and just simply use a dry-erase marker to check off the tasks as they are completed, gives me a little encouragement and sense of accomplishment when I see it checked off.

Special Offer

I have a digital download available for this cleaning schedule. There are three different variations of it available in the store. If you would like to download any of them to help keep your cleaning on track use the promo code BLOG25 to receive 25% off any purchase in the store. Here is a link to the most popular variation of the checklist.