There is something about having a clean home. Having my home clean and organized brings great contentment and feelings of accomplishment. This simple cleaning routine checklist is one way to intentionally work at keeping your cleaning one day at a time. There is a version for homes with kids and a version for homes without kids.
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Keeping a Home Clean
I wish I could honestly go on about being someone who was naturally ‘untidy’, but I can’t. It would honestly make introing this cleaning routine PDF a little bit easier. However, I am a person that is very conscientious about my home being picked up and tidy at almost all points of the day. I am someone who never leaves a project out until the next day. I am someone who literally cannot leave my house unless all the toys are picked up and placed in the correct spot.
I have been like this since I was a little girl, it’s just the way my brain ticks and truthfully it has brought me a lot of anxiety over the years. There have been times when I thought there was something seriously wrong with me. Why couldn’t I just leave the DIY home project out until the next day?
It took years for me to finally embrace who God made me and just roll with the punches!
My husband loves to tell the story of when we were first married and he decided to intentionally place a leaf on our entryway rug and see how long it took me to notice it. I remember the look of shock on his face when I entered the room and my eyes immediately noticed something was ‘out of place’.
However, life circumstances change and eventually, kids entered our lives.
Keeping a Home Clean with Kids
When I was pregnant with my first child I remember listening to a podcast where the host was chatting with another mom about keeping a home clean with kids. They both declared that they were a clean person when they didn’t have kids but with each kid, they added to their home and became less and less tidy. What was more shocking to me was that they claimed that with each kid they cared less and less about how their home looked.
If you can relate to their story, then keep reading because I have some tips for you. However, their story left me with a feeling of dread in my stomach. I couldn’t imagine a world in which I didn’t care about the tidiness and cleanliness of my home.
I’m three kids into this whole motherhood thing and I can confidently say that I still care about the state of my home 100% the same as I did pre-kids.
So where does this leave us?
If you are reading this post chances are you are looking to have a cleaner home, but I want to get something out of the way first.
Wherever you land on the ‘clean’ scale it’s okay. In fact, it’s better than okay, I want you to embrace who you are! Maybe you are not a clean person, maybe you are. Maybe you were clean before the kids and now the tasks of motherhood leave you with little care for the state of your home. I want you to know at the end of the day that motherhood is messy, chaotic, and beautiful; and no matter where the journey has left you, it’s okay. Embrace who you are, let go of the mom guilt and take action to get where you want to be.
Here is my number one tip for keeping a home, develop a cleaning routine checklist.
Creating a routine is the number one way to keep a home clean no matter if you naturally desire a clean home or not.
A routine will help you stay consistent and once you develop the routine it can serve you for years to come.
Two Versions of the Cleaning Routine Checklist
When we started having kids, I noticed that I needed to regularly schedule cleaning times instead of just letting it naturally happen. Eventually, I got into a routine of each day having ‘everyday tasks’ and a room that I especially focused on.
How to use the checklists:
My favorite way to use these types of printables is to print them out, laminate them with my favorite laminator (might just be the best $25 I’ve ever spent), and then use a dry-erase marker to check or cross the task off week after week.
Even my kids get in on the action sometimes and help me cross tasks off! They also have their own chore chart but is helpful because I can often delegate items to them, I let them know that mommy has a chore chart and you do too!
Download the cleaning routine PDF below. The PDF contains both cleaning routine checklists.
