House Cleaning Master Plan

With my summer canning finished, my next goal is house cleaning. I've been working at at it a little bit at a time. I would love to fly into the job feet first and wildly clean for a week. Part of my all-or-nothing personality, I suppose. But at this point, with little ones to take priority, baby steps seems to be the best plan. It doesn't feel as fulfilling as accomplishing large tasks at one shot but it is the best for the family sanity level! I've learned to only pull out what I can easily put back in fifteen minutes or so.

To help keep me moving forward in the house cleaning process, and to satisfy my love of check lists, I made a simple chart. Across the top of the page I listed every room of our house. Along the left side I listed every area that could possibly be cleaned in a room, floor, wall, windows, baseboard, closet, lights, door, etc.

As I work through an area of the house I just check off the areas I complete. Of course, some rooms have no closet, and another has no doors. I have found that I'm much more likely to use an extra fifteen minutes of time to clean an area since I can check it off the list! Instead of waiting for that perfect week for house cleaning that never materializes, I can at least find time for a project or two. My goal is to at least make it through the list once in a year. But some of you probably do housecleaning spring and fall, or even monthly!

I'd love to hear your house cleaning tips!