Creating a house cleaning program, plan or schedule is the right answer if you are having trouble doing the whole home maintenance work or just have this feeling or being overwhelmed by the amount of work that requires to be done and the limited time that is available. Don’t worry. In this post I’ll share a few house cleaning tips that you’ll remember your entire life from this moment on. Just have the patience to attentively read everything and you’ll understand things better. What you are required to know at this moment that having a to-do list when trying to get your place in order is compulsory if you are a person who knows the value of time. That’s why an organized way to do house cleaning is so necessary. It is called running a cleaning schedule. I’ll help you figure out more about it. Have you ever heard about the get things done method? Well, if you attentively implement it in this activity, you are not going to be worried about what should be cleaned today, tomorrow or next month since your organizer will constantly suggest you the next available, necessary or programmed move. Your checklist is extremely important since it will directly point out those tasks that are necessary to be done and this way you’ll not only fell free, but also have that attitude of being in charged and managing to control the whole previously “overwhelming” type of activity which cleaning appeared to be.

When I was preparing and writing down my house cleaning schedule, several years ago, in San Diego, I was always doing my best to identify and organize those things that need to be done daily, one a week, several times during a month and maybe even yearly. This helps you realize that no matter what happens you are still going to ease your work somehow by finding the available priorities first and getting them done as fast as possible and having this general view on all programmed activities. I strongly suggest that you guys break down all your necessary home cleaning tasks into real to achieve chores and group the according to the frequency of special maintenance that your house needs from time to time. You should always start with the daily “to-do list”. For better performance I would always suggest you to transform your “should” into “must”.

So the things that you include in the “daily to-do” list are the cleaning tasks that need to be done DAILY.

Your bed needs to be straightened each and every morning. Not doing so will show that you don’t simply care about your room and don’t have the responsibility that a professional homeowner needs to have. So why not make your bed, in just several minutes, as soon as you get up. This must be the very first thing that you do each and every morning after opening your eyes, smiling and thinking what a beautiful day it is. If you follow these guidelines you won’t have to think about it for the rest of the day. Isn’t this wonderful?

Dishes in your kitchen need to be washed and sparkling because the more you ignore them, the more they add up and soon you’ll have pyramids of dirty dishes in the sink that need to be cleaned but there is no one to do it. One of the very first kitchen appliances that most contemporary houses has is the dish washer, a very useful invention that saves homeowners approximately an hour each day. If you fail to clean the dishes in time, you’ll be amazed by what might follow. Dirty dishes can attract various types of bacteria and germs, unwanted insects and even pest. Just don’t be lazy and leave your dishes without monitoring. Better to clean every single spoon, fork and cup immediately when you are done eating. This is called prevention and is going to help you in the long run.

Clean and pick up things as you go around your house. Don’t get used to leave things thrown all over the place. Anyone who enters your house will immediately realize what kind of person you are after the mess in your house and vice versa. When dealing with small kids, you should always suggest them (and sometimes even insist) that they take care of their toys and not spread them all over the place. Help maintain your house clean while contributing to their education as well. Always return your books to the proper shelves after finishing your read because otherwise you’ll end up with tons of interesting books and journals spread around your place. So, no matter how you do it, I suggest following a very strict cleaning schedule. When I was living in San Diego, I usually did this “picking and cleaning up” for various things usually after each meal and usually in the morning after waking up. Doing it daily will save you a lot of time and will prevent them to gather up in huge amounts that are hardly bearable afterward.

Taking out the trash should probably become one of your most important “rituals” that need to be done maybe daily or once in two days, depending how much trash you produce that requires to be taken away. Think about it properly. I suggest doing it early in the morning since you don’t want it to smell bad all the daylong in your cleaned house till you get back from work. Besides getting rid of the unpleasant odor that might appear after a while, cleaning up the trash cans also keeps certain insects (as ants for example) away.

When I was doing my San Diego house cleaning I had a “weekly to-do” list as well. Read further to see which the most important chores usually were. TIP: I suggest performing your weekly tasks on the same day of the week, whenever possible. This will certainly help you become much more organized.

Your floors need weekly vacuuming and mopping in order to be maintained clean and to look good. It’s important that you perform the two above mentioned tasks one after another, in the exact order as they appear. Select an appropriate day for this activity and take into your vision all the existing floors inside your house. Don’t forget about kitchen!

The rugs and carpets around your house also need vacuuming several times a month and that is approximately once per week. As mentioned previously, choose one day and just do it. However, you should start to think on your own and decide whenever all carpets need to be cleaned so often or only those in high traffic areas. I recommend to vacuum the carpet in front of your main door and in the living room (or any other places that you think deserve it) at least once per week. When I lived in San Diego my husband was suffering from a special form a dust allergy and I had to perform this carpet dust vacuum cleaning several times per week sometimes, in order to keep him safe.

Wooden furniture around your house needs to be polished if you don’t want to exchange it each several years. If you are looking to get its shine back I suggest using wood furniture polish liquids together with a free cloth that you can find around your house. If you have some really unique wooden expensive furniture there I really suggest doing it from time to time. Don’t over exaggerate. Once a week is perfectly fine!

You need to get rid of dust in your house. Clean your shelves, moldings, corners, table tops, tops of the doors, frames of the pictures, your ceiling fans, etc. This way you’ll eliminate the dust from all those hardly accessible places inside your house where dust usually tends to accumulate more often.

Clean the kitchen and always start with the refrigerator because statistics show the people usually forget out doing it if it is left as a final task. Sanitize everything that you can!

The importance of cleaning the bathroom was carefully analyzed in some previous post here on this San Diego house cleaning blog that I run so I guess it won’t be necessary to mention it once again. Just make sure that you take off and wash the shower curtains. You can even throw it into the washing machine. Also scrub the flooring in your bathroom, the walls, the sink, the bowl, the bathtub, EVERYTHING. I’m not directly referring to the mirror and all the other fixture since you guys are grown ups and know that these should also be wiped out from dust and properly cleaned and washed.

You should change and wash your bed sheets at least once per week during the cold season and two times per week (recommended) during summer.

Your windows needs to be cleaned weekly. The cheapest and the most effective way to clean a window is to use warm water and old newspapers that you no longer need. If this is the first time you are doing it, you are simply going to be amazed how wonderful the results are, in comparison with the cost with is basically ZERO. My San Diego house had its windows cleaned with newspapers all the time, both when I was doing the cleaning myself and when I started to hire Margareta (a very good local maid that worked for a famous cleaning company).

Wash and iron your clothes. This must be done weekly if you don’t have at least one hour to do it daily. The time required to finish doing the laundry depends on the number of people living in the house. If you spot stains on someone’s clothes don’t hurry to apply bleach, use a simple stain removal first and try to wash them.

Do not forget about the “monthly to-do” tasks that have to be accurately written in your cleaning schedule. These are not so many and you need to always follow them. I strongly suggest finding a single day, like the 10th of every month and always doing your monthly tasks that particular day.

Even if some people claim that cleaning the refrigerator is a task that needs to be done once a month, I don’t agree and recommend everyone to do it a little bit more often. Sometimes food can spoil much faster!

Your oven needs to be cleaned as well. If you use it often, use a special cleaner to wash it. However, a more rarely used one can be moved to seasonal tasks that we are going to talk about a little bit later.

If you have a powerful vacuum I recommend using it on your coach in order to get rid of all the dust. Take all the removable cushion covers and launder them. This process is required to be done at least once a month since your coach tends to accumulate dirt and dust so vacuuming it once a month is more than simply necessary. It is a must!

Did you know that curtains are dust magnets? Well, this is the truth and the next monthly task in your to do list is to wash your curtains. You are going to need to learn how to do it, depending what type of curtains you have.

There are plenty of other things that need to be done and could be done, both indoor as outdoor. However, taking into consideration that we are basically looking at indoor house cleaning activities at most, I won’t bother you with other like basic gardening, lawn care, etc. However, you might want to take a look at air filters and change them once in thirty days, maybe clean your light fixtures and check the smoke alarm batteries. Doing it will save you a lot of headache. Remember the prevention is one of the most important aspects no matter what type of cleaning you do!

Seasonal jobs are probably the most important ones and I strongly recommend them. If you tend to ignore these tasks you are going to transform your house in a total mess.

So make sure you clean the closets and all your existing drawers. During this “seasonal to-do” schedule you can find a lot of items that you can throw away, donate, and recycle. Cleaning your garage sounds like a good idea as well. Use your vacuum cleaner to vacuum all the mattresses. Launder your pillows and cushions, wash them and properly dry them afterward. You can also clean your walls, gutters, the roof (maybe paint it all over again), ceiling, vents and many more!

However, even my San Diego house cleaning program, which is basically a schedule that I made up on my own, is not the only one that you should look at. However, I strongly recommend that you use the above mentioned daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal “to-do” lists and follow them while adding some of your own tricks and small improvements. I believe that each house cleaning process is individual and needs to be modified according to the existing priorities. I was cleaning my house in San Diego because it was both my living palace and my office so I needed to keep it perfectly clean – always. Having a schedule is a must if you are serious about cleaning, otherwise you are simply going to feel terrible overwhelmed by what you got to do and give up to early. When understanding how to implement the “get things done” program and write down a smart schedule, you’ll manage to fix your house cleaning faster that you imagine. This way all the things you need done become less time consuming, enjoyable and doable.

Eveline
Cleaning Your House in San Diego Blog