The Secret to a Consistently Clean Home (Without the Weekend Frenzy)
Tired, busy, overwhelmed? If you’re tired of trying to figure out how to keep your home clean while living a hectic life, I have a tried and true method that works in just about any situation. The Clean Mama Routine is for anyone and any schedule – really!
Skeptical? Not sure if the Routine could work for you? Let me share a success story that just might change your mind.
Last week, I received this email from a new follower, just one week into the Clean Mama Routine:
“I’ve used your system for just a week and – excuse the hyperbole – this feels life-changing! I’m a business owner, and would typically spend the better part of Saturdays cleaning and doing laundry. This past weekend, I had a REAL (normal) weekend! I had TIME. I got to relax, take long walks in the snow with my dogs, bake a cake, and even take on declutter projects that have been bothering me for months. In the past, all that got done was a ‘weekend reset’ – just get the house back to ‘zero’ for the week. Rinse and repeat the following week. Nothing more ever got done (without a long weekend) because that was all the time and energy I had for the house. Now I can envision not only more time to relax and have fun, but I can see actually taking on home projects that might make life better. Taking on those daily tasks seems do-able knowing the reward is getting my Saturdays back (plus a consistently clean house). It’s so simple, and it’s brilliant. I’m beyond grateful!” – Michelle
If you haven’t tried my cleaning routine yet, I always say that anyone can do it with any schedule. I’m guessing you might be skeptical – I’d love for you to give it a try and see how it can change your home and life.
I created the routine years ago, but perfected it during the busiest season of our lives. I was working full-time (with travel), pregnant with our 3rd baby, and running Adam Cleaning. I promise you – with a little commitment and a little time every day, weekends do not have to be devoted to cleaning.
The Clean Mama Routine: 4 Simple Components
I created my cleaning routine years ago out of necessity. I was sick of cleaning all weekend long and living with the crazy during the week. Once I started using a simple routine, I realized that just a little bit every day was helping me keep things clean most of the time.
Then came three kids, different work schedules, traveling for my job, running a business…and guess what? It still worked.
The Clean Mama Routine has 4 components, but don’t start with everything at once. The dirt will still be there when you’re ready to implement the Routine to the fullest – start with the DAILY TASKS.
These are things you’re probably already doing – you can even just start with one a day for a week. Add a second task the 2nd week and keep going until you feel like you have a good grasp of the Dailies.
These five tasks are essential to the Clean Mama Routine and the secret to getting started with your clean home:
- Make the beds
- Check the floors
- Wipe the counters
- Tackle clutter
- Do a load of laundry
These tasks should only take 10-15 minutes once you get in the swing of the routine.
Weekly Tasks: Divide and Conquer
After you’ve successfully implemented the Daily Tasks, it’s time to learn the Weekly Tasks. These are the deeper cleans that are easier to fit in when you break them up:
- Monday: Clean the bathrooms
- Tuesday: Dust
- Wednesday: Vacuum
- Thursday: Wash the floors
- Friday: Catch-up day
On Fridays, we tackle anything we didn’t get to during the week. No guilt, no making it up – just move on to the next task.
Rotating Tasks: Conquering the Deep Cleans
Once you feel good about the Daily and Weekly Tasks, it’s time to learn the Rotating Tasks. These are those deep cleaning projects that are so hard to fit in.
The Clean Mama Routine incorporates these simply by assigning them to a Friday or the day of the week that makes the most sense. These Rotating Tasks are fully available in the Homekeeping Planner and the Homekeeping Society subscription.
Monthly Focus: A Slow, Steady Approach
After you’ve got the Daily, Weekly, and Rotating Tasks down, it’s time to tackle the Monthly Focus. There is one focus for every month, with the intention of organizing your entire home throughout the year in a slow, steady approach.
The Monthly Focus is mentioned on the blog, but only fully available in the Homekeeping Planner and the Homekeeping Society subscription.
Customizing the Routine for Your Life
Every home and every family has its own set of challenges and hurdles to work through. I can speak from experience as someone who has done the Routine through every schedule – as a work outside the home mom, a work at home mom, a stay at home mom, with babies, littles, and now, a kid at every school grade level (elementary, middle, and high school).
There are always going to be challenges. Every situation brings new challenges – whether you’re home with your kids all day or at work until 6pm. But this isn’t about what is or isn’t difficult, it’s about figuring out strategies to make it work for you and your family.
The goal? A clean home most of the time in the least amount of time. And you know what? It’s a privilege to get to do that.
Working Outside the Home
If you work outside the home and get home late or leave early (or both!) and are exhausted with no energy to put a cleaning routine into place, my best suggestion is to start small.
Commit to just 5-10 minutes before you leave for work and 5-10 minutes when you get home. Start with the daily tasks and work on completing them every day. If the daily tasks are overwhelming, just start with one – one load of laundry from start to put away, pick up clutter, check floors, or wipe counters.
Add one every week and before you know it, you’ll have built a little routine into your schedule. Once you feel like you’ve got a good handle on daily tasks, start adding the weekly cleaning tasks – Monday is bathrooms day, Tuesday is Dusting Day, etc.
Set a timer for 5-10 minutes and do what you can in that amount of time and forget the rest. Keep going and before long, you’ll have added this step to your routine as well. If you feel like you can add more time, and get more accomplished, increase your time to 15-20 minutes.
Here’s the secret: If you keep up with the routine (even if it’s half-way done every week), by keeping up with it consistently, you’ll be making progress. After a couple months (or less), you’ll not only have a routine, but you’ll have a clean home most of the time.
Irregular Work Hours/Schedule
An irregular schedule is difficult for so many reasons. Some have overnight shifts, 3 days on and 3 days off, or even 12 hour shifts. My best advice? A cleaning routine can be accomplished, but give yourself grace while you’re trying to figure out what works best.
You might need to double up tasks and tackle two or three on your days off so you don’t have to do much on the days you’re at work. For instance, if you work on Thursdays but have Wednesday off, do Wednesday’s task (vacuum) and Thursday’s task (wash floors) on the same day.
Some weeks might be weeks where all you do are the basic daily cleaning tasks (make beds, one load of laundry, wipe counters, clutter, and check floors). Some weeks you’ll be able to conquer the world and get everything done. Take it all in stride and remember that something is always better than nothing.
Babies, Young Kids, and Exhaustion
When the kids were little, we reset the area we were playing in multiple times a day. This helped them learn to clean up as you go, and it made it so much easier to clean up a little instead of a lot.
Kids like to be involved in cleaning – show them and let them help you. The same principle can be applied to the entire home: as you’re preparing dinner, be putting the prep dishes in the dishwasher. Instead of leaving toiletries on the bathroom counters as you’re getting ready, put them away as you’re getting ready.
Clean up as you go. Be intentional through the day – it’s always easier to tidy up as you go rather than try to clean everything up at the end of the day.
Limited Mobility or Illness
There are times in your life when your cleaning routine is the last thing you’re concerned about. I’ve experienced a handful of instances where I couldn’t pull it together to keep up with my routine or I was told by a doctor not to lift or do any exerting (torn ankle tendon and three c-sections).
I understand that feeling of hopelessness because you know what should be done, but you just can’t do it. Each of those instances was 6-8 weeks, and through them, I learned how to manage the musts and let go of the rest.
My advice? Focus on the essentials. Do something. And then do something else. A little bit goes a long way. Embrace the mess, live life, and have a system in place to keep it clean most of the time.
The Beauty of the Clean Mama Routine
The most effective part of the Clean Mama Routine is that you will not feel overwhelmed by the routine. You’ll feel like it’s helping you get your home to a manageable place where just about any real-life circumstance can be thrown at you, and you can still get the bathrooms clean.
Every day of the week has a task, and if you don’t get to that task, guess what? You SKIP it and move on to the next day. No guilt, no making it up, just move on.
For a perfectionist, this is a really difficult concept to embrace. Most weeks, I don’t get to everything on my list. This can feel defeating unless you have a plan and expect that not everything will get done. Accept it, set goals, and don’t worry about the completion of that list. Simply do your best and do what you can – it’s that easy.
So, are you ready to give the Clean Mama Routine a try? Start small, be consistent, and watch as your home transforms from a source of stress to a peaceful sanctuary. Let me know how it goes!
