weekly and monthly cleaning schedules

hey all.  so, similar to the weekly meal planning post, i wanted to write about my cleaning schedule.  i have actually shared this with a few people because they had asked how i clean the house with the kids.

first of all, it took me a long time to figure this out.  likely because with little ones, everything is changing.  but we all got to the point where the kids can play together and keep each other a little more entertained throughout the day, and ava is still napping.

secondly, for our family, or at least for hubby and i, having a fairly clean and tidy house is a priority.  hubby is very much a clean freak, and i have become more of a clean freak.  especially with little ones.  having toys and clutter all over the place stresses me out these days.  partly because people get hurt tripping over or stepping on stuff left on the floor.  and also it's not visually pleasing.  aaaaaand, i want the kids to be tidy, and clean up after themselves.  so the most effective way to teach that is by doing it, right?

i used to run around after z, cleaning up toys and whatnot several times a day.  and then ava became more active and with the two of them spreading toys all over the place, it just became too much.  additionally, i thought it was about time that z should be learning to clean up after himself.  so the first thing i did was to stop running around cleaning up after the kids multiple times per day.  i will clean up the toys and stuff two times per day, once in the afternoon and once before the kids' bedtime.    i make the kids help.  if there are times (like right now) where there are a bunch of toys on the floor that are harmful to step on (like legos), then i ask them to pick them up.  we are also working on putting something away after they are done with it and before they can get something new out to play with.

alright, about the cleaning schedule.  first off, i have to say that my hubby is so good.  he comes home from work and just does whatever needs to be done.  if there are things on the floor, he picks them up.  if the garbages need to be taken out, he does it.  if the cloth diapers need to be washed, he will start the load.  it is so helpful, and takes a lot of stress off of me when i just can't get to all the things.  and i don't have to nag him.  but at some point awhile back, it seemed to both of us that we were spending our precious weekend time on chores; grocery shopping, cleaning the house, laundry, and not on anything fun.  so in an effort to change that, i decided to make myself a weekly cleaning schedule.

i'd like to say something about that first----i am a stay at home mom and homemaker.  hubby and i have talked about this situation at many different times; before we got married, and at several points after we got married.  we talked initially about who does what chores, since we both worked full time, we pretty much split everything.  and then after z was born things had to be modified.  and then after ava was born things had to be modified again.  but recently it has been a little easier for me to get things done around the house because we are just in that season of life where the kids are gaining independence.  don't get me wrong----i still have to constantly keep my eyes on them, and they tear this place up like a tornado ripping through a trailer park, but i can get one chore done per day usually.  anyway, since i am at home i take on most of the daily house stuff, or that's my goal at least. so the basics that need to get done everyday are to make the beds, tidy up the rooms that need it, keep the kitchen clean throughout the day, do laundry (there is always laundry to do whether it's washing/drying a load, folding or putting away, and honestly this has been the hardest thing is keeping up with the damnnnnnn laundryyyyyy!), and making dinner.  then on top of that are the chores to keep the house fairly clean throughout the week.

i follow this awesome gal on instagram and her blog, clean mama, and it has been super helpful for me.  she has a monthly cleaning calendar that i download and use as a guide for my own schedule.  if you are interested, check it out here.  anyway, i downloaded her calendar initially and made up my own version.  this is a multi-step process for me, hahaha.  because first, my goal was to get on a cleaning schedule and stick with it.  i have, for the most part stuck with it although sometimes it doesn't work out that way because of illness or whatnot.  but in general, it is as follows:

monday: dust surfaces, water the plants
tuesday: clean bathrooms
wednesday: vacuum all floors
thursday: mop all hard floors
friday: free day

this is flexible, so for instance, i might not get to vacuuming all the floors on wednesday so i will do it on thursday when we have no preschool that day and are at home.  and since nothing is scheduled for friday, that's basically my catch up day.

my goal is that soon i can put together a monthly plan as well to do things like dust the cobwebs from the chandeliers, etc, clean the baseboards, and other random stuff that i never think about until i happen to look at something and think, "yuck!  that needs to be cleaned!  who is in charge here?  oh......yea." so at some point i will figure out what those things are.

oh, and i have a daily/weekly/monthly planner that i use everyday and so i write down what my daily basic chores are and then the specific chore for that day.  so i didn't actually print the calendar from clean mama, but you totally can if you want.