How to Create a Tailored Cleaning Schedule for Busy Moms
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Now, let’s get more profound for practical and realistic tips you can use immediately in your daily life by learning how to create a tailored cleaning schedule for busy moms.
In our previous blog post on “How to Make the Best Cleaning Schedule for Busy Working Moms,” we unfolded a realistic cleaning routine. We shared how to ease the daily hustle for bustling, focusing explicitly on busy working moms.
Today, let’s delve in and disclose how you can embark on a mindfulness voyage amidst the daily chores, crafting peacefulness in the routine and making the clearing no longer a burdensome task of your tired and busy day.
2 Tips on How to Start Your Realistic Cleaning Journey
The motivation to continue following your cleaning schedule has two main elements: one is that you get rewarded for all your hard work, and two is that your plan is realistic for you to continue following. The reward will come naturally, as you can enjoy your tidy home with your family. However, a real plan is what you need to pay attention to.
So, how do you make a realistic cleaning schedule?
Tip 1: Realistic assessment and listing tasks
When assessing your house, you will check on each space, room by room. Make sure to list what needs your attention. Divide your list into two sections: one for the tidy-up and quick cleaning you can do each day and two for deep cleaning. That’s where you start.
Tip 2: Identity how you want to clean each room
Now you have the list you have created for each room. Prioritize the cleaning schedule based on the frequent-use areas that need your attention, as the children’s playroom, kitchen, dining area, and living room are at the top of my list that need my attention each day to tidy up. This room-by-room breakdown is crucial for creating manageable tasks
5 Steps on How to Create a Tailored Cleaning Schedule for Busy Moms
Your unique lifestyle creates a unique cleaning schedule. So, how do you execute your cleaning schedule? Let’s unfold it step by step.
Step 1: Frequency setting for your tailored cleaning schedule
Determine the cleaning frequency based on your family’s routine and your unique lifestyle. The key is creating a cleaning schedule that supports your lifestyle, not against it.
Here is a free, simple weekly cleaning schedule template to write down what you should tidy up each day and what you should deep-clean with your customized frequency.
Step 2: Know your cleaning style
Determine what your cleaning styles for each task are. Meaning that, is this dust swipe? Are these vacuum cleaning tasks? Are these organizing and tidy-ups? Is this water or steam wiping work? Does this require soap and detergents? This information will help you to divide your cleaning tasks depending on your capacity. For example, you will not perform the steam cleaning when you only have 10 minutes in the evening. So, the steam cleaning task shall not be listed on your cleaning schedule for a weekday evening. Also, if you know that you have about 30 minutes between your first and second appointments, you can put a short cleaning task in your spare time to complete one task of the day!
Step 3: Setting up your tailored cleaning schedule
Based on the frequency setting and your cleaning style for each task, you can prepare your cleaning to be more effective and efficient. In your customized cleaning schedule, you will describe what is required for each task to ensure you have what you need on the go and predict how much time you need to stick to your cleaning schedule. This is an example that I use. You can download the clean version to customize it for your needs. Click here to download.
Step 4: Try and refine your tailored cleaning schedule
When setting up your cleaning schedule, assess whether the cleaning plan is realistic. So, treat your first two weeks as your practice period. Include both small tidy-up tasks and deep cleaning tasks. Then, evaluate how it went and learn what you can do each day or week. This will give you a good idea to plan a long-term clearing schedule.
Step 5: Monthly evaluation and enhancement
Note that your cleaning style, skills, and wishes will evolve. So, it is essential to keep enhancing your cleaning schedule. Every month, evaluate how it went, and change your plan to fit your lifestyle better. Remember, the cleaning schedule serves you, not the other way around. Keep tweaking your cleaning schedule until it fits like a glove!
Pro Tips on Being Motivated and Stick to Your Tailored Cleaning Schedule
When you are cleaning after your busy day, you feel exhausted and wonder, why am I doing this? You are a competent and confident mom, and these tedious tasks sometimes make you feel like you are doing something useless. So, how can you be motivated to continue this habit?
Firstly, did you know that cleaning benefits your mental health? According to the article in Forbes, there are five mental health benefits of cleaning: A sense of order and control, Familiarity and consistency, Released endorphins, Improved focus, and Regulated emotions. Cleaning is actually what you can do to improve your mental health. Some people also declared that cleaning is an excellent method to release stress.
Now, as we learned the importance and benefits of cleaning for your mental health, let’s make the cleaning more enjoyable and easy for you.
Create an enjoyable cleaning habit
Choose the room you adore the most: It is my daughter’s room for me. My daughter doesn’t make too much mess in her room. So I need to pick up one or two, and with a 5-minute quick tidy-up, the room stays clean and beautiful. This is a quick accomplishment to start my cleaning routine.
Listen to something that makes you happy: Podcast, music, Audiobook, or meditation guide. Listen to anything enjoyable during the cleaning. While you are cleaning, you don’t have to overthink. Let your body execute the cleaning tasks, and let yourself deep in a listening session. I enjoy using my Headspace app for this. I can set lovely music, happy quotes, meditation guidance, or a pearl of daily positive wisdom that inspires me. This will make you enjoy your cleaning time. If you are interested, click here to subscribe for a 7 to 14-day free trial from Headspace and enjoy your guided meditation program.
Set a goal: Who doesn’t like to achieve a goal? We set a goal in the new year when we start a new job or when we want to lose weight. The goal makes you motivated and disciplined to achieve it. So, let’s set a goal for your cleaning routine. Stick to your schedule and reward yourself. I get a massage when my month is up and stick to at least 90% of my cleaning schedule. Of course, it is paid for by my husband!
Efficiency is the key
Organization and assignment: The most efficient and fast cleaning and tidy-up can be born from an effective organization system. Give everything a place to be stored (Amazon link). For example, we have an IKEA toy cabinet (Trofast – Amazon link) with a name tag (Amazon link) for each drawl. Children know where to put the toys after playing, making the tidy-ups much easier and faster. Assigning objects to a place where they can be stored and organized is a great tip to make cleaning easy and efficient.
Daily decluttering: After having a lovely dinner with your family, you forget to wipe the dining table. Your child accidentally spilled a spaghetti sauce on your table, but you didn’t know. The next day, you notice the sauce and try to clean it. But it dried up and was more challenging to remove than when you cleaned up immediately after dinner. So, what’s the point? Do immediate decluttering and cleaning when you can. This will ultimately save you time and is a more efficient cleaning method to reduce your work later. Also,
Get a cleaning caddy: Get yourself a cleaning caddy (Amazon link). With this, you will effortlessly carry your cleaning supplies from room to room. Remember, it is about making your cleaning routine easy, accessible, and efficient.
Final Thoughts on Creating a Tailored Cleaning Schedule for Busy Moms
When it comes to cleaning, at least to me, it doesn’t feel effortless. I have a lot of other essential tasks to complete each day, and cleaning was never on the top of my list. However, regardless of whether I enjoy cleaning, our family and my mental health must stay organized and tidy, and it was my motivation to continue. You can make your cleaning routine more mindful when you are on top of what needs your attention daily. As you set up the tailored cleaning schedule, you are on top of the cleaning tasks, making you feel in control. Through a well-thought-out tailored cleaning schedule, find your unique path to a serene, well-organized, and ordered, calm home life.
Did you enjoy how to make a tailored cleaning schedule for busy moms’ guides?
If you are a working mom and haven’t read my article How to Make the Best Cleaning Schedule for Busy Working Moms, go ahead and check it out. It is all about the tips working moms need for the best cleaning schedule.
Also, if you are looking for other mom tips, click here to learn more.