A Daily, Weekly and Monthly DIY Cleaning Schedule
Split the housework into daily, weekly and monthly jobs, and no single day has to carry all of it.
This is a DIY task schedule. To decide how often to hire help, read how often to book professional house cleaning.
Housework gets put off because it looks like one big job with no time set aside for it. The fix is to divide household cleaning into daily, weekly and monthly tasks, and give each tier its own place in the week or the month.
The three schedules that follow are a starting point. Keep the tasks that fit your home and your week, and drop the ones that do not.
Daily Cleaning Schedule
Before we begin, it's important to understand that personal schedules differ from person to person; therefore, a daily cleaning schedule that suits your day-to-day routine may not necessarily fit into someone else's. In other words, you need to find what works for you and your everyday schedule.
Use this daily cleaning checklist to build a realistic cleaning schedule for yourself:
Do the Dishes
Instead of letting dishes pile up in the sink, where they leave it grimy, rinse them straight away and load them into the dishwasher. Run a cycle once it is full, which is usually the end of the day.
Empty the Dishwasher
While your morning coffee is brewing, use that time to empty the dishwasher so that you can load your dirty coffee mug and other dishes into it after breakfast.
Make Your Bed
Get into the habit of making your bed as soon as you get out of it in the morning.
Wipe Down Kitchen Counters
Clean up spills and crumbs from your kitchen counters as soon as they occur. If needed, give counters a quick wipe down before you head to bed.
Declutter
Once you get decluttering started, it's easy to keep it rolling. Tackle clutter as and when you see it; it only takes a minute or two to put things away, or discard them if it's rubbish that you're dealing with.
Tidy Up Rooms
Straighten out rooms before you leave. For example, if you're done watching TV for the next few hours, straighten out the cushions, put things back in place, and pick up after yourself.
Wipe Down Bathroom Surfaces
Keep a sponge and multi-purpose cleaner in your bathroom to quickly clean and wipe down bathroom surfaces.
Wipe Bathroom Floor Splashes
Wipe up splashes after a shower and leave the floor dry. Do not flood a bathroom floor: most household bathrooms are not designed as wet rooms. Follow the flooring manufacturer's cleaning instructions.
Dust Furniture
Plenty of people dread dusting. When the house stays tidy and surfaces stay clear, though, a daily dust of the furniture takes a few minutes.
Weekly Cleaning Schedule
Your weekly cleaning checklist mixes small tasks with big ones. If your weekends are freer than your weekdays, put the bigger, slower jobs on Saturday or Sunday and spread one or two smaller ones across the rest of the week.
Clean the Floor
This should definitely be a weekend chore because cleaning the floor of every room in the house can take some time (at least a thorough job does). Moreover, floor cleaning includes vacuuming/sweeping and mopping which can be tiring to do on a busy day.
Vacuum Rugs and Carpets
Get rid of a week's worth of dust, dirt, and possibly pet hair settled on your carpets and rugs.
Stay on Top of Laundry
If time permits, do at least two loads of laundry to keep dirty clothes from piling up.
Clean the Stove
Scrub down the stovetop to remove grease and grime. If cooking is a daily activity in your household, you might want to consider a daily wipe down of your stovetop.
Clean the Toilet
While you are maintaining the rest of your bathroom on a daily basis, the toilet will need thorough cleaning once a week.
Wash/Wipe Windows
If you can get away with a wipe down to keep your windows clean, go for it, otherwise, a quick wash may be in order.
Vacuum Upholstery
Dust and crumbs build up in upholstery over a week. Go over sofas, chairs, curtains, bedroom benches and other upholstered furniture with the upholstery attachment.
Clean the Bathroom
This is usually a quick weekly task, because the daily wipe-downs keep bathroom surfaces fairly clean. Once a week, also wash the wall tiles and scrub the sink and shower area.
Pro Tip: Vacuum upholstery with the upholstery attachment and work from the top down: cushions first, then the frame, then the floor under the sofa. Dust falls as you go, so the floor comes last.
Monthly Cleaning Schedule
A monthly cleaning schedule is easier to fit around the rest of life than the daily and weekly lists. Pick one day in the month for each extra task, and it is done for the next four or five weeks.
Dust the Ceiling Fan
A microfibre broom with a flexible head is perfect for cleaning ceiling fan blades quickly and efficiently; otherwise, the old-fashioned approach using a ladder and damp cloth will suffice.
Wash the Curtains
Bed linens need washing more often than once a month, but curtains can go on the monthly list.
Clean Kitchen Appliances
The microwave, oven, coffee maker, toaster and refrigerator are easy to overlook. Give each one a clean inside and out once a month.
Remove Cobwebs
You may or may not find cobwebs in your home every month but there's no harm in doing a monthly inspection. Oftentimes, cobwebs can be found behind furniture and tall cabinets as opposed to just ceiling corners.
Wash the Garbage Bin
Wash the kitchen garbage bin inside and out once a month, and let it dry before a new bag goes in.
Create Your Perfect Cleaning Schedule
A schedule only works if it survives a bad week. Build it around what your household does rather than an ideal version of it: pick the two or three daily habits you will keep, put the weekly work on a day that is reliably free, and let the monthly jobs float within their month rather than fixing them to a date.
Expect to revise it. The first draft is usually too ambitious, and the fix is to cut tasks rather than to try harder — a short list you follow beats a complete one you abandon in February. If the weekly tier is the part that keeps slipping, that is the part a cleaning company can take over. Duty Cleaners' recurring cleaning in Edmonton and recurring cleaning in Calgary cover the floors, bathrooms, kitchen and dusting weekly, bi-weekly or every 4 weeks, while laundry, dishes and the daily habits stay yours. What a visit includes is set out on what's included.
Want help with part of the routine?
The team brings all supplies and equipment, and you do not need to be home: most customers leave a key, a lockbox code or smart-lock access, and the team locks up. See the price for your home before you book.