My Cleaning Schedule - The What and Why

Monday 

On Mondays, I do my grocery shopping. I've shopped on Fridays before, but I like planning on Sunday, which makes Monday the most logical for shopping. I also have other things I like to do on Fridays for different reasons.

When I get home from shopping, I try to clean my produce in the sink, cut up vegetables, cut up and freeze any meat I don't have immediate plans for, and put away all the groceries.

Tuesday 

Tuesdays I finish up anything I didn't finish Monday with cutting up produce and vegetables. I usually have at least a little leftover that I either didn't have the time or energy for (or the kids just got restless and wanted my attention). If I don't have anything to finish, I just don't have to do anything! Just kidding. I just don't have to do a major project this day.

Wednesday

Wednesday I don't have anything specific planned. Sometimes I do a deep cleaning or make food (like ketchup or granola). Sometimes I don't worry about it.

Thursday 

Thursday is my laundry day. I randomly chose it between Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I have a laundry system in our new house that works really well for me. I have four baskets in our master closet, one each for lights, darks, whites, and towels. I do one basket at a time and put the basket away when I'm done. I have two baskets in the laundry room that I fold the clothes into as they come out of the dyer. I put away Ben and my clothes as soon as the new load is started and put away the girls' clothes when the darks and lights are through.

I try to finish all the laundry on Thursday so that it doesn't bleed into my other days (though sometimes we're going places or I'm feeling sick and the clothes don't all get put away on the same day. I always get all the loads through though).

I've tried doing one load of laundry each day. A lot of people love that system. It doesn't really work for me and my personality. I like to get it all done and then not think about it again for another week. With my system, it never feels overwhelming to me either, like I have a mountain of laundry to do. (I also try to keep the amount of clothes we own down to a minimum, which always helps with laundry, and to put away clean clothes rather than washing them).

Friday 

Friday is actually my biggest cleaning day. I used to save this for Saturday, but I found Saturdays were too busy (especially since Benjamin and I decided to do date night on Saturdays instead of Fridays). We also do movie night on Fridays and often invite people over for that, so it's nice to have a clean house Friday night.

This day, I clean the bathrooms (we currently have two that we use), vacuum and sweep and mop the floors, and take out all the trashes. The bathrooms generally aren't too bad to wipe down, the biggest deal is the floors (we have a much bigger house to keep clean now than I was used to in our apartment). I try to do all the chores except for sweeping and mopping while the girls are awake so they can "help" me. I save sweeping and mopping for while they're asleep because it's honestly worth having them out of the way for it.

I also have to note that I love having Friday as my big cleaning day because if there is something I don't get to on Friday, I just do it on Saturday and our house is still clean for Sunday.

Saturday 

Saturday is reserved for getting ready for Sunday. The priorities are getting the girls and myself ready first. We bath the girls and cut their nails (and often paint their nails because they love that). I shower (we have 9:00 church and with two little kids, this ensures we get to church on time). We also get any lessons ready if we haven't yet.

Next priority is house and food. If there's food prep I can do on Saturday, I try to do that and I like to do a sweep of the house and have it clean for Sunday as well, but honestly we don't always have time. If we do baths and family time in the morning and date night in the afternoon/evening, the day is gone.

Sunday

Sunday is my planning day. I love planning my week out on Sundays. It is a way I can set goals and recharge so that I'm ready for the upcoming work.

I go over my calendar, looking specifically for holidays, birthdays, and events that I need to plan for. I write down my meal plan, go through Smith's electronic coupons and sales, and make a grocery list off of that. I also go over our budget. If it's the end of the month, I make our budget for next month (I have a great system for that too, using Google Docs) and if it's the middle of the month, I balance our budget.

If I have extra time after that, I will clean off my phone or organize my computer, write letters to people, and get any birthday or holiday cards ready.

Conclusion

I really love my schedule and the way it is set up. I never have to worry about chores except on the day that I'm supposed to do them. I never feel overwhelmed with too much cleaning to do because I have it all balanced out (I've also tweaked it and changed things as time has gone on and found this is what really works well for me). I also feel very motivated to finish my work on the assigned day so that it doesn't bleed into the rest of the week and get me feeling overwhelmed.