Free Printable Cleaning Planner
Grab this free printable cleaning planner template to check off cleaning checklist items in style! Get daily, weekly, and monthly schedules that break your house into zones. Perfect for a home management binder.
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How it Began
I'm not exaggerating in the least when I say that these two printables changed my life.
In the summer of 2015, I was totally overwhelmed. I had a very active preschooler, was trying to run an at-home blogging business, and was beginning a pregnancy that left me either exhausted or nauseous 95% of the time. It was a lot for one person to handle.
Needless to say, cleaning was way, way down my list of priorities. I was aiming more for survival at that point. 😉 But, whether you like it or not, you have to clean your house every now and then, right? So, I whipped up a monthly cleaning schedule that changed the game.
With this schedule, I was able to keep my home neat and tidy with just around an hour of work a day. I set aside about 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening to dedicate to this plan. Within weeks, I could tell a difference in my home with a very minimal amount of work.
I am naturally a very scatter-brained person. I need something like this to take on bigger tasks like home cleaning. There are so many moving parts that can be daunting to keep up with if you don't have a plan. But, by simply sitting down and really organizing what needs to be done when, you're streamlining the process and taking away the stress of constantly second-guessing what needs to be done.
On The Blog
I knew my readers would love this system too. I published the post in June of that year to share it with the world. It absolutely took on a life of its own. I might have had a hunch people would love it, but I never expected the response it's gotten.
In my almost fourteen years of blogging, this is by far, no question my most popular blog post. It's been viewed and pinned hundreds of thousands of times. It also inspired my first ebook, Journey to Clean (more on that below), and prompted the creation of my publishing company and writing career.
I wasn't kidding when I said that this changed my life.
And, today, I'm giving away these printable cleaning checklists for free. Seriously, you don't have to pay a dime to get the two most popular printables in my arsenal.
Want access to these printables?
You can grab these pages (the daily cleaning schedule and the room of the week chores) by signing up for my free email newsletter. You'll receive download info in your inbox as soon as you sign up.
(Link not working? Click here.)
Here's how this cleaning system works:
You'll use both pages daily. On the daily page, I follow the morning routine each morning (usually right after I drop my kids off at school) and the evening routine (usually right after we put our children to bed). Each one takes about 30 minutes.
With the evening routines, you'll need to add in the daily chore in the right column and a few items on the “Room of the Week Chores” checklist.
Daily Cleaning Routine
Morning Routine
- Declutter for 10 minutes
- Unload dishwasher
- Make beds
Evening Routine
- Declutter for 10 minutes
- Do dishes, load & start dishwasher
- Clean kitchen (wipe down counters, spot clean floor, organize food)
- Daily Chore
- Monday: Outside areas
- Tuesday: Dust surfaces
- Wednesday: Clean fridge and pantry
- Thursday: Vacuum & mop floors
- Friday: Clean bathrooms (toilets & sinks)
- Saturday: Laundry
- Sunday: Rest day
- Two or three chores on the “room of the week” list (see below)
That weekly cleaning checklist can be found on the next page. It has 15ish tasks per week that need to be done in certain zones of the house.
I find that, by dividing the house into zones and tackling each zone weekly, you can consistently maintain your whole house with the least amount of attention and effort. This routine has worked for me for years, even though we've lived in a few very different homes (a garden home, an apartment, a ranch-style house, and now a two-story home). If you're consistent with tackling these cleaning tasks, it works!
Weekly Cleaning Schedule
Week 1: Kitchen & Dining Room
- Organize cabinets/clean cabinet doors
- Polish furniture & china
- Bwdw (baseboards, walls, doors, and windows)
- Organize command center (throw out old mail/paper, file other paper as needed)
- Wash kitchen linens
- Wash pet bowls
- Take things off of counters & wipe clean (including backsplash)
- Clean oven, stove, & microwave
- Clean all small appliances
- Clean fronts of large appliances
- Deep clean sink
- Clean trash cans
- Deep clean refrigerator
- Clean light fixtures
- Clean light switches/outlet covers
Week 2: Living Room, Playroom, Hall, Laundry
- Clean washer/dryer/deep freezer
- Organize cleaning supplies
- Bwdw (baseboards, walls, doors, and windows)
- Dust/spot clean curtains
- Dust picture frames
- Back up electronics/clean out files
- Clean & organize mudroom lockers
- Wash living linens
- Spot clean carpets
- Vacuum & spot clean furniture
- Vacuum stairs, clean banister/rails
- Clean light switches/outlet covers
- Organize all playroom toys
- Organize tv areas
- Dust tops of ceiling fans
Week 3: Bedrooms & Outside Areas
- Clean & organize end tables
- Clean light switch/outlet covers
- Maintain flower beds (pull weeds, fertilize if needed, trim bushes)
- Dust tops of furniture
- Organize backyard & porch
- Organize & wash cars (wash outside, spot clean inside, remove trash)
- Dust tops of fans
- Organize & sweep garage
- Wash comforters
- Bwdw (baseboards, walls, doors, and windows)
Week 4: Bathrooms & Closets
- Hang up & refold clothes
- Organize shoes
- Clean showers & tubs
- Wipe down surfaces (back of toilet, shelves, counter)
- Clean trash cans
- Clean light fixtures
- Clean bathroom mirrors
- Organize under bathroom sinks
- Wash toothbrush holders
- Bwdw (baseboards, walls, doors, and windows)
- Clean light switch/outlet covers
- Clean base of toilets & sinks
- Wash bath linens (show towels, mats, etc.)
Week 5: Odd Weeks
(This is a list for those months that have 5 weeks. This should be completed around 4 times per year.)
- Clean vents
- Clean outside of windows
- Clean out vacuum & filter
- Wash seldom-used blankets
- Clean elevated surfaces
- Clean out & organize closets
- Deep clean furniture & carpets
- Organize junk drawers
- Wash/purge bath toys
- Clean under furniture
- Deep detail cars (inside & out)
- Pressure wash house & driveway
(If you'd like to see my favorite cleaning supplies for accomplishing all of these tasks, click here!)
Who does this planner work for?
I get questions all the time about whether or not working moms can use these cleaning schedule templates.
Absolutely!
I specifically designed it to work around many different lifestyles. As long as you can carve out a chunk of time in the morning and a little bit of time in the evening, you can make this work for you.
(And, spoiler: if you only have an hour in the afternoon or late at night, you can make it work too! The secret to making this work for you is its flexibility. All it takes is about an hour a day, no matter when you can dedicate that time.)
(FYI – The printable you see pictured above is from an older version of this post. You might have found your way here because of that version. Just in case you wanted this older printable as well, it is still available in the printable collection! Just sign up for the newsletter to access that.)
Journey to Clean
Now, I said I would get back to Journey to Clean. Once that first cleaning printable post really caught on, I had an overwhelming request to expand it into a full home cleaning system. So, with every spare second I had, I got to work creating just that. In the summer of 2016 (with a 4-month-old baby), I published my first ever ebook – Journey to Clean 2016. This ebook took the original cleaning schedule you see above and expanded it. It's now a home cleaning system that walks you through cleaning your home every single day.
As of today, thousands of readers have tried and loved this system. We're now on our seventh edition of Journey to Clean!
In the latest edition, Journey to Clean 2023, you'll get a collection of eBooks that gives you absolutely everything you could need to follow the printable pages you see above. You will find monthly cleaning calendars for December 2022 – December 2023 that break the schedule down into easy-to-complete parts, tips on how to integrate this system into different lifestyles, and even a deep cleaning section that shows you how to really make your home shine!
I also have a light version of J2C that lets you maintain a clean home through busy months with simple, pared down calendars.
(Link not working? Click here.)
Thanks for stopping by!
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