How do you spend your Saturdays? Mine are spent blogging, but also tackling cleaning & decluttering routine tasks in between. I remember the days when I lived alone, was single and could clean my kitchen floor with a few antibacterial wipes. My house was spotless, like a show home. I’m thankful I experienced this level of cleanliness because I feel like I will never reach this level of perfectionism again.
These days, I have a messy toddler and spend my Saturdays removing paint stains from the carpet with my steam mop. It’s hard work, for two adults who work between 30-40 hours per week, each. Just to pay bills. And now we have a hamster to add to the messy bunch. However, she is currently my bestie and the only person who listens to me in this house.
Anyway, rant over. I wanted to take you through some of the cleaning jobs I do in the house, over an average month. More importantly, how I break these tasks down, so it’s more manageable, than trying to tackle them all in one day. This blog is all about taking small, achievable steps each day.
Reminiscing about the time when I used to hoover once per week. No chance now, with a toddler running around. Yes, I am one of those people who hoovers at 8.30 am and also 8.30 pm – please don’t hate on your parent neighbours. Toddlers can cause a huge mess at any time of day and sometimes only a hoover will rectify the carnage.
Daily cleaning tasks
Change the bins
We have quite a small area to store the main rubbish and recycling bin in our house. Therefore, it needs emptying daily. We try and recycle everything we can, in an attempt to add to our sustainability effort. We even watch the Cocomelon recycling episode with our little one, to teach her how to do this. She now knows the difference between the main bin and the recycling bin.
Febreeze & freshen up if needed
As we live in an open-plan living space, we must keep the area smelling fresh. Especially when we are cooking greasy food. Or the bins become a bit smelly.
Therefore, I loved scented candles, air fresheners, and febreeze. I recently steam-cleaned the sofa, added some febreeze, and also sprayed every other material surface in the house. It is complete heaven and freshens everything up for a while.
Washing & drying clothes
With a messy toddler running around, and muddy puddles here in the UK, we have a lot of washing. Therefore, I try my best to keep on top of washing clothes and ensure it is more manageable.
To ensure freshness, I used a fabric detergent and also softener. We have a tumble dryer, which is amazing and I also use dryer sheets. Occasionally I febreeze the items we need to hang up to dry.
Dishwasher
I’ve had a dishwasher in every place I lived, since moving out of my parent’s home. I’m incredibly thankful for it, because, honestly with this long list of cleaning tasks, work, mum duties and blogging, I really couldn’t face washing up. When we move house, a dishwasher will be top of my priority list.
Hoover if needed
Reminiscing about the time when I used to hoover once per week. No chance now, with a toddler running around. Yes, I am one of those people who hoover at 8.30 am and also 8.30 pm – please don’t hate on your parent neighbours. Toddlers can cause a huge mess at any time of day and sometimes only a hoover will rectify the carnage.
Wipe as we go with a messy toddler
I practice daily damage limitation and always have my antibacterial wipes on hand. We also use towels over the little one when eating at, table cloths, and encourage her to use baby wipes. Sometimes limiting messy play is also something we have to do. Yesterday I got a glitter print on my arm, from leaning against one of her paintings and it wouldn’t come off.
Weekly – either Thursday / Saturday or across both days
I use my “days off” to clean. It is more manageable when I allocate a small amount of cleaning over the two free days I have. Mentally I find it easier to complete a cleaning task in between. I am usually at my laptop blogging and then take a “break” to tackle one cleaning task in between.
Hoover whole house
On my main cleaning day, the Dyson gets turned up to full power and the carpets and surfaces get a good clean. We have a lot of dust in our house and therefore it requires constant maintenance.
Steam mop
I love my steam mop. Therefore, we bought a really good one a few years ago. As we have mostly tiled floors, it’s amazing. These days I find myself steaming paint and drying Weetabix off the floor, but I feel even more like I’ve accomplished something when the house is nice and clean.
HANDY TIP – although the steam mop does take a pre-loaded solution, it is quite expensive. I opt for a spray bottle instead and buy large bottles of floor cleaner, which last me ages.
When making up the solution, I also add a few drops of essential oil to my spray bottle. We sometimes have a particular problem with spiders. Therefore, I use peppermint and eucalyptus oil, also adding a bit of lemon. If there is no spider issue that month, I use something scented, like lavender or bergamot.
Clean the bath & shower
For the bath and shower, I love a foam spray, which easily rinses off. I also use a shine spray for the shower, after use. Which keeps it fresh during the week, until cleaning day. I am on the lookout for sustainable alternatives to the current products I use. Shout up in the comments if you know of any.
Toilets
We have two toilets in our house, a man and a toddler who is toilet training! Therefore it is essential to keep on top of cleaning them. To do this, I use toilet bowl fizzers, good old bleach, and gel pads to keep it smelling fresh throughout the week.
Sinks
Let’s just say the sinks in our house arent the best quality. As with most newish build houses. Therefore, we must keep them fresh. I put bleach down the sinks once a week. I am also finding we don’t get a horrible smell in the kitchen if I put cleaning solution down the drain, followed by boiling water and a bit of fairy liquid. Try this hack, let me know what you think.
Antibacterial wipe all surfaces
Who doesn’t love an antibacterial wipe? I was using them long before covid and I now make a point of wiping every surface in the house as often as I can. Anyone with children will know, the nastiest of bugs get passed via toddlers when they touch surfaces in the nursery setting. I plan to take precautions to reduce the transmission of invisible diseases. We also have hand gel littered all over the house. Again, I was a huge advocate for this, even before covid and luckily had a lot of it in my house when it all sold out. Maybe it’s from working in office environments during my career.
Clean out the dryer filter
Listen up condenser dryer owners. We recently had to pull ours out and fish out all the excess fluff which was stopping it from working and flooding the system. This is your reminder to do the same. We now make a point of cleaning it out weekly, to avoid this happening again.
If your dryer stops adding water to the tray, it means it isn’t functioning properly and the filter needs washing out.
Clean microwave
They get very dirty. Has anyone ever worked in an office environment, where they took the microwave away because the staff weren’t keeping them clean (please reply in the comments and tell me it isn’t just me)?
There is a fine line, between the beans being hot and juice popping all over the sides. I still haven’t figured it out. Therefore, I ensure mine is cleaned out at least once a week and I put the moveable parts through the dishwasher, for good measure.
Clean toaster
I’m just going to have a rant here. Why in 2022 have we not figured out how to make a toaster that doesn’t expel more breadcrumbs than went in it? If such a product does exist, please add the link in the comments and I will buy it.
Download your own cleaning checklist, to keep on track of the tasks and ensure they are manageable for you!
Bi-weekly
All glass in the house (we have a lot)
Mould spray round windows & in bathrooms
Change bed sheets
Monthly
Flip sofa – steam mop, carpet clean, clean sofa
In our house, we have a lovely rug under the sofa, but it collects bits, as does the sofa. Therefore it is essential to clean the whole area regularly.
Steam clean the sofa
Steam clean cupboard fronts in the whole house
Steam clean the oven
Hoover all corners, skirting boards, walls
Toy clearout & reorganise
Pull out units (yes, we now find mouldy toddler fruit under there)
Summary
I am looking for some sustainable alternatives to my cleaning products. If you have any suggestions please let me know in the comments below. Happy to use affiliate links!
Good tips! I need to follow this! You’re so organise. Thank you for sharing.
Great advice! I really need to get back into the swing of things to try and control my schedule a bit more. Even my blogging is all over the place at the moment!
This is really nice. I think sometimes being practical is better than trying to do everything all at once. Thanks for breaking it up like this it seems easier to tackle and manage! Great post thanks for sharing!
Wow, props to you! I don’t have a toddler and yet I struggle to keep on top of everything. Cleaning is overwhelming for me, but it’s great to have a read of someone else’s schedule to get an idea of how you do things and how often etc 🙂 thanks for sharing!
glad you found the post useful. I sometimes struggle with it all, but I feel mentally better when I have done a good clean. Although these days, I stress about doing it a lot less.
This is such a good monthly schedule for cleaning and decluttering. Thanks so much for sharing it!
Thank you x
So true about the toaster!! I definitely need all the decluttering help I can get, thank you for sharing.
Glad you found the post useful. I love toast, but not having to clean it!
Great ideas and things to do. I don’t have much as I’m living alone but will definitely find a way to manage to clean and declutter.
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I loved living alone. My house was so tidy, haha! It’s great to have a routine to get things done.
Having a cleaning schedule and routine can be really helpful to stay on top of everything. I have tried it before. But going to give it another go. Thank you for sharing how you stay clean and decluttered in your home.
Lauren
Thank you & good luck with the cleaning schedule.
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Your daily cleaning router is huge, I barely do one or two of those a month, let alone daily. That must take up so much time and energy
Unwanted Life recently posted…Journaling To Better Mental Wellbeing This Christmas
It takes up so much time. Having a messy toddler in the house is not easy 🙁
I try so hard to keep to a daily cleaning routine, but it’s a struggle, I think your post has definitely motivated me to keep some mind of cleaning routine. Excellent post.
Thank you – even writing the post helped me realise the work in takes and the importance of breaking it down.
I don’t have kids yet, and I’m already struggling to manage keeping our house clean. Every Saturday it takes two hours to do a superficial clean of the house, and by Tuesday it looks like it needs a clean again! It never ends ….
I feel exactly the same. It never ends. I sometimes take pictures of my house when it’s lovely & clean – just so I can look back when the mess takes over, haha!
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