Do you feel like you’re constantly tidying and cleaning? Do you feel overwhelmed by it and wish there was a better way? This was me too in the past! I was tidying up after my toddler destroyed things all the live long day. But then I had a wakeup call in realizing that it doesn’t always have to be this way, this routine of constantly tidying. Today on the blog, I’m sharing about how to develop cleaning and tidying routines in 4 simple steps.

It’s more about periodically cleaning certain areas vs. having the house spotless in every area at all times.

If you’re wanting to create a simple cleaning routine for yourself, my best piece of advice I’ve learned is that it’s more about periodically cleaning certain areas vs. having the house spotless in every area at all times. That became to me over time to be near, if not fully impossible.

How to develop cleaning and tidying routines in 4 simple steps

Aspects of my simple cleaning routine that you can take to create your own cleaning and tidying routines:

  1. Loop planning - creating a set of tasks that you can loop through at your own pace.

    What’s a loop plan? Take a circle. Inside the circle are various pieces of pie or tasks within a schedule. Essentially you have a set of tasks within a loop and loop through the tasks. You start at the beginning, move through the tasks one at a time, with no regard to the timeframe. If you miss a day, no biggie. Pick up where you left off! Read more about loop planning on my blog here.

  2. Setting certain tasks on a day.

    We have certain things we do on Saturdays, for instance. Weekly blitz tidying on Fridays as well as tidying and clean upstairs Saturday afternoons.

  3. Involving the kids - what can you include them in for your cleaning and tidying routines? Check my blog on chores and involving children here.
  4. Setting your non-negotiable bare minimum daily tasks. Ours are 100% doing something with the laundry and the kitchen (or just the dishes).

Your simple cleaning routine is going to look different from mine, but hopefully these 4 steps to develop cleaning and tidying routines will help you out.

As amazing as the 4 simple steps are above, it’s always good to keep in mind too that we are not robots. We can’t keep up with all things at all times, cleaning and tidying included.

Having a family means that there is always cleaning and tidying to be done. No kidding, right? I think I was at the number of two kids that I felt stressed out by the house. I remember a good friend of mine laughing, telling me it’ll eventually come crashing down (or something like that). She was right. I’m at four kids now and I’ve finally realized that nope. I cannot (and will not) stay on top of all things in the house. Unless I wanted to make that my life’s work. And I have other things that are life giving to me than that.

SAVE FOR FUTURE REFERENCE:

Someone with cleaning gloves on washing a wall.

FREEBIE: master cleaning task list

If you like the sounds of a master cleaning task list and want to try it out for yourself, I created a simple blank master cleaning task list printable for you to fill in. You can download it here.

SIMPLIFY YOUR HOME LIFE: a course for busy moms

And if you’d like a deeper dive into creating your routines for your home life, you’ll find a unit just on routines in my course: Simplify Your Home Life: a Course for busy moms. You can find more about the course HERE or take my free pre-curser class: 10 Questions to Help You Simplify Your Home Life.

The Simplify Your Home Life: a course for busy moms is a six week flexible online course designed to help busy moms explore how to simplify home life in many key areas such as daily routines, decluttering, and habits. Participants gain access to course units (both text and some video) as well as a course guide full of guided printables, journal prompts, resources, and more.

Review:

“I really enjoyed Kelly’s course! I think it’s perfect for busy moms trying to find ways to organize their home, create systems and better routines! My favorite module was the time management lesson! But every module gives practical and easy to follow tools to better your home life! Such a great course!” - Shelly

Other blogs of mine you may enjoy reading:

Hi, I’m Kelly! I’m a mother of four children - three boys, one toddler girl - and our family lives on the beautiful east coast of Canada. I’m a past elementary teacher, turned stay at home, work at home mom eight years ago after I had my second child. I’ve found that the busier I’ve become and as my children age, that it’s become even more important to figure out what is most important to me and us as a family. Living a simpler lifestyle has helped us in so many ways in our home life - from better routines to faster tidying up times. It has been through my children that I have been inspired to learn how to effectively manage my time and to simplify in all areas of my home and life. I enjoy helping busy moms simplify home life by teaching flexible planning methods and skills. Enjoyed this blog and think it would be helpful to others? I'd love if you shared it. Thank you!