Practical Cleaning Routine for busy Moms

Whether you are a stay-at-home mom or a working mom, you are still full-time mama. Motherhood is a balancing act. We wear so many hats and must juggle so many roles simply to keep our home functioning. Keeping a clean house is a struggle that I know I’m not alone in. So, I have created a practical cleaning routine for busy moms.

I like to take a macro approach when it comes to cleaning. In order to make a routine practical, it must be realistic.

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Practical Cleaning Routine for Busy Moms

Bi-Monthly (every two months) practical cleaning routine for busy moms

There are certain areas in your home that you only need to focus on every other month. These are areas that you can put on the calendar, so you can mentally and prepare for these intentional days.

*For me, I rather make a cleaning day out of it and finish everything at once. For you, it may be easier to choose one or two things a day and spread it out. Remember, these are things you do every two months.

Monthly cleaning

When you plan your monthly cleaning, try to pick a day that you can consistently do it each month. For example, you can do your monthly cleaning on the second Tuesday of each month.

* I have added a color-coded calendar example at the bottom. This allows you to visually see what cleaning is coming up in the next month as well.

Bi-weekly (every other week) cleaning

These routine cleanings should also be on a set day, however, make sure it isn’t on a day you chose for other routines. These are also good places to insert chores. The majority of weekly and bi-weekly cleaning can be done by your children as well. I suggest breaking this up into two days, every other week. Try making chore chart with the date on it that these should be completed. When everyone in your home knows when to expect things, you will notice more effort.

Weekly Cleaning

Weekly cleaning routines are good to catch up on anything you didn’t get done during the week. I do my weekly cleaning on the weekends. This is a great time to implement weekly chores for your children. Personally, I do my “weekly cleaning” on Sundays. It helps start the week off on a productive note. It also gives me the chance to make sure everything is set for the next week.

Daily Cleaning

Daily cleaning is probably the most overwhelming. You have to find your threshold of what you can manage as well as what absolutely must be done for day-to-day living. That being said, once you determine these boundaries it is very important you are consistent with them in order to establish routine.

For me, making sure the dishwasher is running over night is a must. The first thing I do in the morning is unload the dishwasher. This means that for the entire day, I can clean the kitchen as I go and put things straight in the dishwasher. I make sure to run the dishwasher in the middle of the day when needed.

Vacuum Routine

We used to do vacuuming weekly (as stated above). Now we have a Robot Vacuum which is really nice because we can run it at night automatically while everyone is asleep. In order to utilize this convenience, we have to make sure everything is picked up in the common areas before we go to bed for the night.

Try using baskets or bins that are just for quick pick-ups. Then you can sort them into the correct places in the morning. 

Something else to consider when creating a cleaning routine, is focus areas. Think about all the areas in your house that need cleaning, and the type of cleaning they will require. Common focus area’s are:

• Kitchen
• Bathroom
• Living Room
• Dining Room
• Bedroom
• Family Room
• Playroom
• Game Room
• Office
• Basement

Blank Weekly Printable Schedule

This will help you organize your day-to-day cleaning based on your schedule. I hope this is helpful for you and gives you an idea of how you can spread out cleaning. Is it easy? No, but what in motherhood is? Is it practical and realistic? yes. You can do it!

Surviving the day,

Erica