Weekly Cleaning Schedule

Several years ago I stumbled across the Fly Lady when a friend mentioned she used the Fly Lady’s cleaning techniques to keep her house organized. I really liked the program. At the time, it helped me to get an established schedule for cleaning. Focusing on one area of the house each week of the month really helped to "zone" in on each area and get it up to par. Though the program does work, I don’t follow the Fly Lady program to a “T” anymore. I just don't have the time to be as meticulous with my cleaning as I once was. We now focus on cleaning basics and get the nitty gritty when needed. Because of this, I have created a somewhat modified program that meets my family’s needs a bit better.

Rather than divide the rooms of the house and concentrate on one room each week, as in the Fly Lady’s method, we focus on a different room of the house each weekday. I do the major cleaning, and the kids help with some of the smaller tasks in addition to their other daily chores.

Monday – Kitchen (mop; wipe cabinets; clean microwave; wipe out fridge)
Tuesday – Bedrooms (vacuum; dust; wash sheets; clean off dressers)
Wednesday – Office (pay bills; file papers; organize desk)
Thursday – Great Room (dust; mop; organize book shelves)
Friday – Bathroom (scrub; wash towels; organize under sinks)

Each day I will look to see of any additional organization or cleaning needs to be done, and will do them as needed. Sometimes a drawer will be unruly, so I’ll spend Fly Lady’s fifteen minutes and get that drawer organized. Basically, each area of the house is getting the same amount of cleaning time on each program; I just like to see things done on a weekly versus monthly basis. We can usually have each room (and all of the daily chores for that matter) done in two half hour sessions during the day.

We have been using this schedule for a few years now and it is nearly second nature to us now. The kids’ daily chores are tailored to meet the “room of the day” (i.e. Jakob chose wipe cabinets as one of his daily chores…and did a fine job I might add, and tomorrow they will strip their beds and vacuum their rooms).

The schedule helps keep the house clean and ensures that everyone works together as a team to get the job done.