Maintaining a steady and consistent cleaning routine can sometimes be difficult for a stay-at-home mom who is always on the go. Taking care of things like doctor’s appointments, soccer practices, grocery shopping, and other daily routines are necessary.

That makes it hard to keep up to date with a strict cleaning schedule.

Not to mention how much of a struggle it is to find time to clean when your little ones are attached to you constantly. It can feel overwhelming at times, but we have got you covered with helpful tips, tricks and ways to better manage a cleaning routine. 

Studies say that maintaining a clean house is good for a person’s mental and physical health. This makes for a strong argument for maintaining a good cleaning schedule, even for the busiest of moms. Our list of basic tips will help get you started.

Create Your Own Schedule

​When it comes to having and managing a cleaning routine, you must first have a cleaning schedule. There are many different ways to figure out what time you can clean and what you should focus on cleaning the most.

However, very few stay at home mom cleaning routines will be the same. This is because there are so many different factors in stay at home moms lives that finding time to fit in for cleaning is like fitting pieces of a puzzle together.

Reflect on and implement some of these tips to help you find your best cleaning routine.

Prioritize What’s Most Important

The perfect stay-at-home mom cleaning schedule prioritizes what needs to be done in a cleaning routine. Whether it be doing laundry, keeping the main living ​area tidy, or unloading the dishwasher, there are certain things that each mom will prioritize as a part of her cleaning routine at home.

Of course, every mom has different priorities. This makes every stay-at-home mom’s cleaning routine a little different. Prioritizing will ensure the most important duties are done. This will also make creating the schedule (and following it) much easier.

Prioritize Tasks

​If you are unsure of what to prioritize then focus on the rooms or tasks that seem to be the messiest. If your kids are constantly playing in the living room then this room should take priority in the quieter times to be straightened.

Laundry is another big task, especially when you have multiple people residing under one roof, ​especially if you have multiple curtains and linens to take care of. Instead of overwhelming yourself to get it all done in one day or less, create a laundry schedule that you adhere to daily, just don’t neglect to give yourself one day off from the laundry, stay at home moms need breaks too.

Prioritize Your Schedule

​Just because you are a stay at home mom doesn’t mean that you don’t ever leave the home. Especially if you have older kids that have after school activities such as soccer and the like, you may hardly be at home during the afternoons and evenings.

Instead of trying to figure out your daily cleaning schedule, take a minute to jot down your daily on the go schedule. If you are in charge of pickups and drop-offs, then early morning tasks may not be a great fit for you.

• 8:00 am – leave for school
• ​8:30 am – drop off older kids
• ​9:00 am – return home
• ​​Fit in some morning meal prep for dinner and get the most distracting chores finished while the kids are away​
• ​12:00 pm – pick up from preschool
• ​If you have an altered pick up schedule then instead of constantly cleaning all day, make time for a break or use this to run some errands.
• 2:30 pm – pick up older kids
• 3:30 pm – arrive home
• ​Do some easy chores while the kids are doing their homework. If possible have them work close to the kitchen/dining area so that you can be close by tidying the kitchen and finishing dinner.
• 5:00 pm – dinner
• ​After dinner, encourage your kids to chip in to help with dishes and a few chores. You can help motivate them with a chore chart or a special movie.

As you can see there is not a lot of time in the mornings for a lot to get done while trying to shuffle the kids out of the house. During this time you can get starter tasks going. Such as starting the laundry, running a robotic vacuum around the house and running the dishwasher.

These chores will run themselves while you are out of the house, so that no time is lost. After you drop off kids, walk in and switch the laundry over so it can begin drying.

Once you are able to see the demanding time table for your day, then you can see where the downtime is and what you will be able to get accomplished.

Personalize Your Schedule

The next step after prioritizing your main tasks and schedule is to create a cleaning routine that works for you and your family. 

Morning

​The morning is likely a hectic time for moms. From waking up to preparing breakfast to getting the kids up and sending them off to school, the morning can be quite chaotic.

The best way to get started on a cleaning schedule is preparing a to-do list. Moms should prepare a list in the evenings and look over it when they wake up. If there is time (even ten minutes will suffice) to finish one small task before waking the kids up, do it. This will increase productivity during the day and get the day started on the right foot.

Afternoon

​The afternoon should be the part of the day where most of the work and cleaning gets done. It’s also a great time to start making dinner preparations, as things can get hectic when the kids get home from school.

Refer to the short to-do list created the night before. Run through what needs to be done during the day. If it’s a large task, separate the tasks into subtasks so they can get done more efficiently and quickly.

A good cleaning tip to remember is to clean from top to down in a room. If cleaning a bedroom, start by cleaning the ceiling fan. Work your way down to the carpet or hardwood flooring, brooming and dusting any left over debris first and ending by cleaning the floor with a vacuum.

Evening

​After picking up the kids, preparing dinner, and doing all the necessary evening chores, do last minute touch ups. These include cleaning up after dinner, tidying up the yard or living room, finishing the last load of laundry, etc. Once this is done, prepare the to-do list for the next day.

Create a Short List

​If you are struggling with the overwhelming amount of tasks that you need to accomplish each day, then you can try the alternate route of creating a short list. ​

A short list is compiled with a few tasks, some that are grouped together such as tidying the living room which is comprised of:

• Picking up stray toys
• ​Re-situating pillows
• Folding throw blankets
• ​Running the vacuum over the floor
• ​Gathering stray items and putting them in their right place

Stay-at-home moms are always on the go. Writing a long list of tasks might not be a great idea. Instead, moms should focus on writing short to-do lists with three or four tasks.

You can even leave these tasks in each room the night before so that when you go into that room the next day, you know what needs to be completed.

Another idea is to rotate your cleaning to one deep cleaning room per day.

• ​Monday ​- Living Room​​​
• ​Tuesday​ – Bathrooms
• ​Wednesday​ – Bedrooms
• ​Thursday ​- Kitchen​​​
• ​Friday​ – Floor Cleaning Day​​​

You will still have to do daily picking up around the home to keep it tidy, but on each day you can focus on deep cleaning a room so that you can keep grime, dust and disorganization down.

These can help them stay organized throughout the day. That way, moms won’t be overwhelmed with the idea they have to complete countless tasks on a list by the end of the day.

Studies show people perform more efficiently when writing down a list of things to do. By writing down the three most important tasks or breaking big tasks down into mini-tasks, completing them will be much easier.

Make Cleaning Easier

​​Once you have a good routine that fits your home and family, then you can find ways to keep your routine running smoothly each day.

Eliminate Clutter

​A tiny amount of clutter can make even the tidiest of houses look messy. When rooms are decluttered and have been well organized they instantly look cleaner. One of the best tips a mom can follow and add to her cleaning routine is to declutter and eliminate or throw away any unnecessary items.

This includes throwing unused items out, putting things into storage, and donating anything that is not needed. This is a great way to free up space and reduce or eliminate clutter.

Eliminating clutter won’t happen overnight and it can seem like a too large task to add onto a busy stay at home moms schedule, but if you know that you will benefit from less clutter in your home, then you should begin to make steps to make it happen.

Start with just one drawer. Find a few minutes in your busy day to open a drawer and go through it. Take out everything and slowly begin to put the things back into the drawer. By touching each item, you are able to really give it thought to see if this is something important, out of place or just clutter.

If you are serious about decluttering your home then you should read a little bit more about the best way to effectively get rid of the clutter in order to keep your home better maintained. ​ The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo is a well known and highly praised book that has been helpful to countless households that needed a little boost in the decluttering department.

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Give Yourself Some Wins

​Being a stay at home mom has its moments of greatness and it has some moments of defeat. Stay at homes moms can get burnt out or overwhelmed with all the tasks to get done by caring for a house and kids.

While it is important to get things done, it is also just as important to set yourself up for success each and every day. We love these tips for moms to help uplift them and help to boost their mindset for each day.

Have a Wake-up Win

​When the alarm goes off, instead of jumping into the days task or going to start the coffee maker, stop and make sure that you have your first victory of the day.

It is as simple as making your bed. Some of you may already do this as soon as you rise, while others shrug at the messy bed realizing it will be unmade again at the end of the day so why bother.

Here’s why you should bother, studies have shown that making your bed every morning can help emotionally improve your life. This is because you start your day by completing a task. Your bed is straight and made. CHECK. Now you can tackle the rest of the day knowing that you have a positive beginning.

Have Quiet Time

​While you may not always wake up before the kids or your spouse, you should seek to find a window of quiet time in the mornings.

It is important to find this time before 10 am, because it is essential to boosting your mood for the day. Quiet time allows you to reset your mind and emotions by meditating, clearing your mind, reading the bible or just enjoying a cup of hot coffee without disruption.

A few different ways you can find quiet time are to:

• ​Wake up 30 minutes before the rest of the house does.
• ​Create the rule that kids are not allowed to come out of their rooms until a certain time. (This helps keep the super early risers in bed a little longer.)
• ​Give your little ones quiet time – let them know that for the next 10-20 minutes, they need to play by themselves in their room. (for babies, try to put them in something that entertains them close by like a swing or bouncer)

Try to Finish Before the Sun Goes Down

​This may not always be the outcome that you can achieve, but we’ve all felt that sigh of relief after the kids are in bed and the day has ended. It’s like a load has been taken off and you can finally break out the good snacks without having to share with everyone in the house.

While some tasks may not be 100% complete by bedtime, you want to do your best to reserve the evenings for family time and time for you to relax as well.

Having this downtime is great for giving you and your spouse time to enjoy each other, for catching up on shows or maybe you just want to go to bed early so that you can catch up on some much needed sleep.

Conclusion

Of course, cleaning schedules will vary and differ depending on a mom’s schedule and the day of the week. With the right idea of how to organize accompanied with the right mindset, a mom can stick to a cleaning schedule which works for both her and her family.