Cleaning doesn’t have to be long and drawn out or overly complicated. Just carve out 15 minutes and get everyone in the household involved and you’ll have your whole home looking tidy with this easy everyday cleaning routine.
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Easy Everyday Cleaning Routine
Your overall cleaning routine will depend on your family dynamics and schedules. If you’re a busy household full of kids you’ll want to make sure you do both a morning and after dinner tidy, for example. If your family is out of the home all day or its just one or two adults in the household you may be able to lump all your cleaning tasks into the evening.
Either way, adapt this plan to best fit your unique situation and needs. This is our step-by-step guide cleaning routine for our family.
After Breakfast: (5-10 minutes)
- Put away all food and dishes
- Clear off Counter
- Wipe the Counter
- Unload the Dishwasher
- Rinse and load breakfast dishes
- Quick wipe down personal bathroom (while getting ready for the day)
After Dinner: (10-15 minutes)
- Clear off Counter
- Wipe the Counter
- Load and Start the Dishwasher
- Pick-up Family Room
- Arrange couches, pillows, throws
- Tidy front entry
- Quick wipe down of main living area bathroom
- Sweep / Vacuum Floors
Easy Cleaning with
Arm & Hammer™ Essentials™ Disinfecting Wipes
I give my kids a cleaning cloth and spray to wipe down the kitchen and bathrooms in the home, and that helps clean up all the crumbs and spots, but they never do a perfect job. I still let them help as it teaches them how to clean and makes my job easier overall.
Then, I follow right behind them using ARM & HAMMER™ Essentials™ Disinfecting Wipes that make it SO easy to clean and disinfect in one step. These wipes are so cool because they clean without using any harsh chemicals!
What makes Essentials™ Disinfecting Wipes different is they actually use a citrus-based solution to disinfect your surfaces. They are able to kill 99.9% of viruses and bacteria including strains of cold & flu viruses, MRSA, strep, staph, e. coli, salmonella and kleb for pure and simple cleaning!
Arm & Hammer™ Essentials™ Disinfecting Wipes are my favorite to use in the bathrooms where I only need one wipe to clean the entire toilet to make sure it’s germ-free! Just start at the toilet seat and then work your way around the outside of the toilet. Just make sure you throw the wipe away, you should never flush cleaning wipes!
Another area where these Essentials™ Disinfecting Wipes are a dream is those difficult to clean areas in the kitchen. I use them in my microwave, on the stove top to tackle grease and spills, and in the fridge. Then, I go behind with a wet cloth with no extra cleaning solutions to make it ready for food prep and storage.
Tips for Making an
Everyday Cleaning Routine
Work for your Family
1. Everyone Helps – Cleaning isn’t just a job for mom. Everyone in the house should be involved and helping. Check our list of age-appropriate chores for kids or this list of household chores for ideas on how to get each family member involved.
Your youngest helper can help unload dishes or hold the dust pan or even clear off the counter. Kids really are capable of helping and by getting them involved will help them take responsibility for pickup up after themselves more often. My kids like to pick a room and focus on one area to clean so one will tidy the family room, another our dining table, and so on.
2. Set a Timer – You can get everyone to put in their full effort and quickly clean up by setting a timer. Keep it short, 15 minutes or less, and then everyone works hard for just that short window of time. We like to try to “beat the timer” and see if we can finish tidying up our space before the timer goes off.
When the timer goes off, that’s its! Leave anything remaining and don’t feel guilty about it. You’ll quickly learn what things to focus on first and which aren’t as important to you.
3. Clean as You Go – Take the extra 10 seconds it takes to put away the jelly and knife after you’ve used it or put away the toaster while you’re munching on your breakfast toast. Rinse your dish and load it instead of tossing it right into the sink.
Little tasks like these can go a long way towards a tidy house that doesn’t feel like a burden! You can multitask certain tasks to make cleaning an even more natural part of your everyday routines.
4. Don’t Over Do It – Keep your expectations realistic and don’t over do any one big cleaning projects in one try. You’ll get burnt out and likely quit completely.
If you’re facing a backlog of clutter piles or cleaning tasks, just do a little bit every day to get your home back in order. That might mean adding another 10-15 minute timer in the middle of the day or right before bed where you pick an area and focus on just that space until the timer goes off.
Like one day, I focused on cleaning out my desk drawers and the top of my desk. That’s it – just a small chunk of space. I was able to get it all organized and more effective for our family for virtual learning this year with minimal effort.
5. Deep Cleaning Day – An everyday cleaning approach will make it so you stay on top of most of the crucial spaces that need to be cleaned. But there are certain spaces in our homes that need a little extra attention and deep cleaning.
What works best for me is to pick a specific day of the week or keep it flexible and make sure you get to your cleaning tasks at least once a week. Then, deep clean the kitchen including appliances, all the bathrooms in the home, and bedrooms. Also take the time to mop the floors.
In my large home I can easily tackle all the deep cleaning in under 2 hours when I’ve kept on top of all the daily maintenance cleaning. If you’re a working parent, don’t be afraid to loop in the family to help tackle those cleaning jobs. Maybe make it a early Saturday family task that everyone helps with and you’ll be done quick!
Pick up Arm & Hammer™ Essentials™ Disinfecting Wipes at Lowe’s Home Improvement store or your local grocery store including Kroger, Publix, Meijer and many more. They’ll help you easily tackle your everyday and deeper cleaning tasks around the home. They’re also great for use in the classroom, cleaning car interiors, and disinfecting your home gym equipment and pet areas.
Salila Sukumaran
Sunday 11th of October 2020
Hi Janel, I love this, I am always procrastinating on cleaning. But when I do, I notice it only takes 15 minutes at the most and I am so much happier at the end of it. I love Arm & Hammer products, will check their wipes for the bathroom. Thank you for a well written, useful blog. Salila Sukumaran Ayurveda Health Coach https://salilaayurveda.com/
Toni
Thursday 1st of October 2020
This is such an awesome routine!! So easy to follow! Thank you so much!
Susan
Thursday 1st of October 2020
What a fantastic daily cleaning schedule... it really helps when you stay on top of the mess. And that's great you get the whole family involved. I'm guilty of doing most of the cleaning myself just to avoid complaints from teenagers. LOL
Ryan Escat
Thursday 1st of October 2020
These are such a helpful tips! Maintaining a cleanliness is such a hard to do.
Elizabeth
Thursday 1st of October 2020
Love this idea, I often put off cleaning because it can get overwhelming but this seems way more manageable! Great ideas to get the home staying pretty clean during the week!