The Ultimate Bare Minimum House Cleaning Schedule

By The Cleaning Lady

Introduction

If you’re like me, you hate house cleaning. I know, it’s what I do for a living, but that doesn’t mean I have to enjoy it. Do people who sell insurance enjoy what they do? No offense to any insurance salesmen or women.

That being said, everyone wants a workaround to actually doing the work of housekeeping. Some people’s workaround is hiring me. According to the team from Fantastic Cleaners of Kuala Lumpur, hiring professionals can drastically reduce the burden of house cleaning. Their expertise ensures that cleaning is done efficiently, giving homeowners more time for other pursuits.

But a lot of people can’t afford a cleaning service, so they look for easy and realistic daily and weekly house cleaning schedules on Pinterest. Then they have anxiety and have to go lie down.

There are thousands of daily and weekly cleaning lists out there that are as long as your arm. These people are either Martha Stewart, or they assume that you don’t have a life and want to spend an hour a day scrubbing your grout with a toothbrush. Try my method for a clean house in just 30 minutes a day.

I’ve said many times that it is ok to be a bad housekeeper. Seriously, if a house cleaning schedule has 20 daily tasks to complete and 15 columns of add-ons, the author may be deranged or pulling a Lance Armstrong, if you know what I mean. It’s easy to get discouraged when you read these lists. Especially if you suffer from ADHD or depression (read my tips for Cleaning with ADHD here.) I’m here to tell you it’s not real life. That’s why I have created The Ultimate Bare Minimum House Cleaning Schedule for those of us who want to do something other than clean all the time. It’s a reasonable cleaning schedule that is easy to follow. Also great for people with disabilities or seniors.

This list of short daily and weekly cleaning tasks is intended to be used to maintain some semblance of order in your house. I’ve taken into account the aspects of hygiene and sanitation. This list is the very least cleaning you can do to keep your house under control. There are certain minimum requirements to keep a house safe from germs that may make you or others sick (not talking COVID here). I don’t care what level of filth you can live with, I’m not here to judge. I clean Midge’s house and sometimes I do want to wear a HAZMAT suit. But I will not mislead you that it is healthy to have mold growing everywhere. So let’s dig in!

Once A Day Chores:

Pick up trash

Go through the house and throw away all the trash. That includes fast food wrappers, packaging, any trash on the floor, counters or tables. Carry a small wastebasket with you to make it easier. Pro tip: Keep wastebaskets in every room of your house for easy cleanup.

Put dishes in the sink and rinse

I’m not even going to tell you to do the dishes everyday. But you want to get all the dishes in the sink and rinse all the leftover food off of them so mold doesn’t grow. If you have a dishwasher, go ahead and stick them in if you want.

Throw clutter in a basket

Keep a basket handy to throw clutter on tables, floors and counters into. You can empty it later. This is also a method I recommend in my posts House Cleaning Tips for ADHD and How to Make Your House Look Clean Fast.

Wipe up any floor spills

Go ahead and wipe up that milk you spilled on the floor in front of the fridge. And any other spills throughout the house. This includes the bathrooms. As I’ve said before, having a clean floor is the easiest way to make your house look clean.

Um, that’s about it for daily.

Once a Week Chores:

Wipe down bathrooms

Wipe down countertops and sinks. Clean the toilet. Just pour in some cleaner and swish the toilet brush around if you’re not feeling it. Spray shower with a bleach solution and let sit for 20 minutes then rinse. If there is mold you may have to let it sit for longer until the mold disappears. I like using the Clorox Cleaner spray. If you don’t want to use chemicals, a simple solution of white vinegar and water kills mold and disinfects as well. Just mix 1 part water with one part distilled white vinegar. If your shower is particularly dirty, use straight vinegar. Put in a spay bottle. There’s no need to scrub. Just let the cleaning solution do its trick. You may have to scrub your bathtub if there is a lot of soap scum in it. Magic Erasers are frankly magic for soap scum.

Wipe down kitchen

Wipe down all the kitchen counters and do those dishes if you haven’t already. Wipe out the microwave and clean off any stains on the cabinets.

Sweep or Vacuum

I suggest using your vacuum on all floors and rugs if you have one. Most vacuums have a bare floor setting now and it’s a lot faster than sweeping. You can use it in the bathrooms too. If not, sweep high traffic areas.

Once a Month Chores:

Dust

Dusting is probably the easiest of all the household chores. You may want to do this once a week if you are prone to allergies. Just dust all the surface areas in your house. Don’t forget ceiling fans and window sills. I like the Extendable Swiffer Duster. It gets hard to reach spots. NOTE: After you dust you are going to want to vacuum as all the dust is going to fall to the floor (that’s gravity for ya). So you might want to incorporate the monthly dusting with the weekly vacuuming.

Mop Floors

Time to mop! Mop all the hard surfaces in your house, especially the kitchen and bathrooms. If you want mop the bathrooms and kitchen once a week, you go for it! If you have wood throughout, mopping too frequently will actually do more harm than good to your hardwood. Spot cleaning and sweeping / vacuuming is the way to go for hardwood while mopping occasionally. If your floors get constantly dirty with children or kids, mopping high traffic areas more frequently is ok.

Additionally…

When the trash gets full you should probably take it out. Also, when the sink gets full of dishes, go ahead and clean them (likewise with dishwasher).

So that’s about it. This Bare Minimum House Cleaning Schedule will keep your house functional. Once in a while you’ll probably want to do a deep clean. But that’s a post for another time. Happy bare minimum cleaning! I even made a nice Pinterest pin for you. And to help out more, check out some cool gadgets that will clean for you!

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