Daily Cleaning Schedule And Checklist: A Guide To Saving Time

• There’s a service industry term that you may or may not be familiar with: “full hands in, full hands out.” (If you’ve ever worked in a restaurant and are still perpetually haunted by those in the weeds nightmares, this is probably ringing a bell.) This saying encourages staff to maximize efficiency by using each opportunity they enter or leave the kitchen to either deliver food or clear dirty items away from finished tables. You can take this phrase and apply it to your daily cleaning regime.

• If you train your brain to see clutter and debris and react to it naturally and often, that clutter and debris won’t have the opportunity to build up and turn into piles that ultimately evolve into mountains ... which then become intimidating and annoying, causing you to feel overwhelmed and defeated, therefore initiating stress and procrastination ... and then you’ve got a really dirty house. And no motivation to do anything about it. Catch our drift?

• Anyway, check out our daily cleaning schedule and checklist. Once you turn this daily cleaning practice into a basic routine, you won’t even have to think about it—or hardly even notice that you’re doing it! We’ve done you the solid of divvying up the tasks room by room to make your life easier.

Daily cleaning schedule + checklist

Living areas

• Pick up your stuff.

  • How many pairs of shoes do you have occupying corners and lurking beneath tables?
  • What’s up with all those cords? Are you actively using them to charge anything? Designate them a drawer or basket (anywhere but that dreadful tangled nest on the floor).
  • Why all the water glasses? Try to use the same one all week, we dare you. Bring the rest into the kitchen, wash them and put them away.
  • Laundry. Do it, and actually put it away. The putting it away is the hard part.
  • Organize unruly piles of accumulated mail and papers.
  • Teach your kids to put away (most of) their toys at the end of the day. They likely won’t stay organized long, but enjoy that brief, blissful moment while they are.

• Mind your couch.

  • Shake out, fluff and/or refold blankets and pillows regularly, especially if you took a recent couch nap, had company over or your pet’s been spending long hours on them.
  • Hit the couch, pillows and blankets with some Febreze Fabric spray to freshen up the scene.

• Un-smudge the electronics.

  • Are there fingerprints all over your television, iPad, laptop screen and remote control? Give them a gentle wipe down with a microfiber rag and some DIY window cleaner. (*Never spray cleaning solution directly onto your electronics!)

• Manage pet hair + dander.

  • Staying on top of cleaning up after your pet is crucial to having a reasonably clean home. Hit their beds and favorite dwellings with a handheld vacuum or vacuum hose attachment often.
  • If you’ve got carpet or rugs and also pets, you should run a quick vacuum over it every day (or at least every other day!).

Kitchen

• Wash all your dishes.
  • It’s really easy to just toss the dishes in the sink and walk away, but you don’t want to wake up tomorrow morning to yesterday’s dishes. That’s just a bad habit.
  • We recommend washing your dishes as you go, or at least loading them in the dishwasher and running it at the end of every day, if not after each meal.
  • Make it easier on yourself by using Dawn Platinum Powerwash Dish Spray in place of regular dish soap. It’s designed to clean as you go—just spray, wipe and rinse!