Why cleaning schedules don’t work

I know we all want to find the world’s most perfect and doable cleaning schedule. We dream of a clean house- preferably one that cleans itself… am I right?

But here in the real world, that’s not happening and we have to do it ourselves if we want it done. Yet, we don’t even know where to start or how to keep it up. So we search high and low for the perfect cleaning schedule that will help us keep our homes immaculate.

We search and search on Pinterest for the right one for us.. All these Pins promising that their cleaning schedule is the best in the world. Eventually, we find one and plan to try it out.

Laundry on Saturdays, baseboards on Tuesdays, polishing the chandelier on Wednesdays…

This is brilliant and we give it a go. Only to realize that on Wednesday we are exhausted from work and life and we don’t have three hours to devote to polishing each little part of the chandelier. So we skip it and we never get back on schedule.

Why does this happen over and over? Because cleaning schedules don’t work. Cleaning routines work. Let me explain.

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Cleaning Schedules are Unrealistic

You can’t tell me that every Thursday afternoon I am going to go home and wash the walls in my house because that’s what is on the schedule for Thursdays.

I just won’t do it. I don’t want to do it. It’s unrealistic to think that this is a viable option for working moms. Especially when a lot of us don’t get home until after 7 pm. How in the world am I going to vacuum the whole house when I’m just walking in the door at 7:30 pm from a 12-hour shift?

No freaking way.

Cleaning Schedules Don’t Consider Every Family

As I mentioned above, after working 12-hour shifts, I’m not going home to do an hour of chores. I’m going to go home, shower, maybe eat and then go to bed.

Perhaps moms who work part-time or stay-at-home moms who can get a bit to themselves during the day can manage these schedules, but for those of us who work away from home, I guess our dryer isn’t getting cleaned out every Friday.

Cleaning Schedules Don’t Keep Your Home Clean

There is no maintaining a clean space when you have a schedule. If I plan to do all the floors every Monday, then what happens for the rest of the week? I don’t have time to do it on Tuesday when I already have to spend an hour and a half washing the baseboards.

If the floors had been maintained during the week, there wouldn’t be a need to dedicate so much time to catching up on it.

Maybe you only need to wipe the counters in the bathroom once a week, but not me. Those counters must be wiped every day because my kid is notorious for getting toothpaste on every single square inch. So when do I clean the counters? Every morning. Every single morning while I’m brushing my teeth, I brush and wipe. Two minutes and I’m done.

I add little chores to the things I’m already doing. That is what keeps my house clean.

Cleaning Routines Keep Your Home Clean

Scheduling weekly and monthly chores don’t work for me. Putting stuff off that long makes it significantly harder to do when it’s time and it takes so much longer. I don’t have time for it.

But keeping the house clean daily makes a huge difference. My cleaning routine changed the way my home functions.

The house stay’s clean all the time without getting out of control. The laundry never gets backed up because I do it every day. My dishes don’t get overwhelming because they’re done every day.

Routines are habit. Habits are done without a second thought. When I let my dogs out in the morning, half asleep, I switch the clothes over to the dryer. Without even realizing it.

Wiping the counters in the bathroom while I brush my teeth is just my normal thing, It doesn’t even feel like cleaning at this point. It’s just natural. It is routine.

Schedules are forgotten and changed. Routines are lifelong habits.

So there are my thoughts, friends. We don’t need schedules. We need routines. And good ones. Unless we can change our habits, we aren’t doing ourselves or our home any good.

Find yourself a good cleaning routine that works for you and your family and watch how your home can transform.