I love having a clean house and I really love cleaning. I’m not even kidding right now. I love the process and the think time. Seriously, I love opening the windows on a warm summer morning, cranking up some music and cleaning. What’s better than a clean house in the evening? I know, I’m weird.

I’ve always wanted to have a home that is clean when people show up unannounced. I’ve also always wanted a million dollars and that probably wont happen either…

Anyway, I’ve spent many hours thinking about cleaning my house. I’ve wondered how to maintain it without it consuming my life. It’s taken me 40 years, but I’ve come up with a PLAN!

It is super easy and a great way to have a clean and organized home without spending a gazillion hours working at it. I have to mention here if you have a housekeeper and/or you don’t like a schedule or planning things out, this may not be the post for you.

Here are my three steps to getting this done:

1. Grab a note pad and walk around your house. Make a list of all the jobs you have to do. Example: clean bathrooms, wash sheets, change the cat box, water the plants. Write down every job you want completed in your house for you to feel like it’s clean. For some this will be the basics. For me, it was a time to write everything I ever wanted to do as a job. I’m talking, clean the baseboards, dust the blinds, and vacuuming behind the furniture.

I list all weekly, monthly, and seasonal jobs.

2.  Next, take a look at your jobs and divide them by the number seven. This will tell you how many jobs you will have each day of the week.  Lay out a week calendar and place the jobs in the days of the week. For example, if you found that you have 14 cleaning jobs you need to do every week, then you will divide your week of cleaning into two jobs a day.

Days of the week.

Filling in the jobs on your calendar.

3. Now get started and do your first cleaning jobs for that day. Then, do the cleaning jobs each day for the rest of the week. By the end of the week your house will be clean. You will begin to notice that your home is staying clean and you aren’t spending long hours maintaining it. I also like to schedule more cleaning jobs when my husband is at work and less or no jobs on his days off. You’re the boss you get to decide how it goes. Maybe you don’t want to clean anything on Saturday or Sunday! But make sure to keep it spread out or you’ll just be back to spending a whole day or two cleaning house…

As much as I LOVE paper, pencils and a clipboard, I don’t always want my lists and schedule out in the open. I put the info into my Apple iCalendar program. This way I can have it on my computer, iPhone, and iPad and file my paper lists away. The program makes is super easy to duplicate my jobs and place the monthly and seasonal jobs. Putting these items on a calendar removes it from your immediate thoughts and frees up space for better stuff in your brain. I don’t have to worry about the schedule all month and the last Sunday of each month I fill out the next month.

Cleaning schedule in iCalendar

BONUS: Once I realized how well this method works I started using it to plan the activities I wanted to do too! Here’s how that looked: I wanted to make sure I kept up on my business books and emails. I also wanted to get through my magazines, and make sure to take care of my personal care and favorite hobbies. So, I made another list of all the things I wanted to be able to do during the week. I even been known to schedule a time to visit with girlfriends, play video games (yes, I’m a geeky gamer) and watch movies!

All my hobbies and stuff I only think about doing is now on my schedule!

Here is my final calendar.

I know this looks insane but seriously, most of the things on here take about ten minutes to complete.

This will be a little bit of a process in the beginning. But once it’s done you don’t have to do it again. Next month I’ll share how I break the jobs up between family members! This is just getting better and better, right?