my {household} weekly routine

Truth be told, I love a schedule…but what I really love is structure. I need a loose structure to my days and weeks, otherwise I don’t feel productive or settled. I’m not really concerned WHEN something gets done, as long as it gets done…do you feel me on this? My home is no exception to this-I thrive off of structure and if that is what will make my home embody a sense of calmness and serenity, I’m all for it. I want my home organized, clean, and calm.

I shared some of my weekly home habits in my Post-Partum Rhythms post. You can read about that here.

Since writing that post, my twins are now16 months old, and my daughter will be five this Fall. Yes, it’s pretty busy around the Sloop Household! What has helped me stay on track with everything needed to run our home has been making changes to the how and when I tackled household chores.

I started following the Clean Mama about a year ago…I was so intrigued by her “routine” but I bucked at it, because I liked how my current cleaning schedule, which outside of daily chores (making beds, wiping counters, laundry, and vacuuming the kitchen daily!!) all “real” cleaning happened on the same day. That wore me out and also made me feel accomplished all in one.

Well guess what? When you have three kids running around, you don’t have hours to devote to one block of cleaning time per week. Hence, I finally embraced the Clean Mama’s routine.

And I love it.

The “dailies” she mentions in her schedule were already part of my typical day, so that wasn’t something hard to nail down when I first started her routine. They include making the beds, picking up clutter, wiping countertops, sweeping the floors, and doing a load of laundry each day. Done and done.

(If this is not part of your regular routine, she recommends starting here. Once you’re in a rhythm with these daily tasks, you can then add on your daily chores mentioned below.)

Embracing breaking up the weekly chores into specific days is what took some training. Here’s her lineup:

• Mondays-bathrooms
• Tuesdays- dusting
• Wednesdays- vacuuming
• Thursdays-mopping
• Fridays- catchup

(You can find the Clean Mama’s full routine here)

To me, I couldn’t get past the dusting one day and then vacuuming the next. Like what?! Isn’t all that dust just sitting on the floor now? Yuck. Obviously it works, because thousandssss of people use this routine. I’m clearly the outlier with not getting on board with it.

So since I couldn’t get past it, I made some tweaks of my own and then tweaked some more as we started school schedules and enrichment class schedules.

• Mondays- bathrooms, plus mopping those floors
• Tuesdays- no daily chore; we have a full schedule!
• Wednesdays- dusting and vacuuming second floor
• Thursdays- dusting and vacuuming first floor
• Fridays- mopping hardwoods

For the first three weeks, I was still unsure about it all. If you have kids, you always feel like you’re cleaning anyway. It was at about the fourth week that it all started to *click*. The house hardly seemed to need the cleaning I was about to do, because it had been specifically cleaned in ((most)) areas so routinely, that ending that first month of this new rhythm actually felt REALLY good.

I would say the ABSOLUTE best part of embracing Clean Mama’s routine into my household flow was that I spend a MAX of 30 minutes a day cleaning instead of a 2-4 hour chunk of time (it always varied based on schedules and how much I was interrupted…) like I previously would spend.

There’s free printables and guides to help you on her site and even a Home Keeping Society to really help you dive into organizing your home. For now, the change in cleaning schedule has done wonders, and I know it will eventually lead me to be able to tackle other home organization and clean-out projects. The Clean Mama has some pretty amazing content, and I fully appreciate her branding. #nerdalert

Before signing off, I want to mention that I also embraced her DIY cleaning recipes which have also been a huge game changer. No more harsh chemical smells and feeling like I’m going to pass out in the shower when cleaning! OMGosh, sometimes, I would feel so sick from the chemical smells from other products.

Vinegar and alcohol are champs, and I’m here for it! I mix the recipes in these bottles and have ditched the paper towels. I use these towels instead…yes, I’m motivated by pretty things.

Finally, if you’re also wanting to up your Home game, I recommend this book: The Lifegiving Home: Creating a Place of Belonging and Becoming . It’s so wonderful.

I’d love to know what helps you create a calm, clean, and organized home for your loved ones! Please share!

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