Sunday is the day I reset myself to prepare for the week ahead. While some use their Sunday to rest, which I’m totally cool with, you do you boo, I need to know how my week is going to look so I don’t feel overwhelmed. With the holidays coming it’s especially important to me to have things go as smoothly as possible. For the next two months it’s nonstop events, one after another. Between school events, Halloween, Friendsgiving, Thanksgiving, 11yo’s birthday, Christmas, vacations, cookie exchanges, my yearly new year house purge… well, you get the picture. I just need to keep my shit together as much as possible.
The first Sunday of the month is food prep/grocery shopping day and the other three are dedicated solely to deep cleaning. Do I clean with the kids? Short answer. Hell no. Trying to accomplish anything with the kids is hard enough and takes twice as long, but I’ve come to terms with my anal tendencies and let them relax as long as they are out of my hair. That feeling of resentment when your family isn’t helping you the way you wish they would, or is totally derailing your day? Yeah, I don’t get that. I let that ‘ish go a long time ago and have been nothing but better for it. That’s not to say that I clean all on my own all the time. During the week everyone is expected to help maintain the cleanliness of the house and has a rotating list of tasks to accomplish.
Our number one reason for everyone cleaning is: You live here too.
So let’s get into it already.
Deep clean checklist:
- Do a walk through of your house (preferably the night before when you’re alone, or have a moment of peace) and write down all of the areas you’d like deep clean.
- Break each area down into a series of mini task. Example: Bathroom: wipe down counters, scrub toilet, clean out medicine cabinet, change curtain, etc.
- Set a timeline for each task. Example: Bathroom 1-2 pm: toilet 15 minutes, wipe down surfaces 15 minutes, scrub tub 20 minutes, sweep and mop 10 minutes. Why the timeline you ask? Well, the biggest reason people fail is that they underestimate how much time it’s actually going to take them to finish a specific task. When you break down your task and set a time you can set a realistic timeline for yourself.
- USE A TIMER. I can not stress this enough. Especially if this is your first deep clean. I know it’s not going to take me 15 minutes to scrub the toilet, but having a set amount of time keeps me focused and ready to move on to the next task. Stop the timer once you finish your task and write down how long it actually took you. This way, when you schedule your next deep clean you’ll know how long each room will take you.
- Once the timer rings, actually stop. If you didn’t finish the task just move on. If I’m doing dishes and don’t finish all of them in the allotted 30 minutes I don’t push myself to keep going. I know I’m going to be washing dishes again after dinner, so if it’s only a handful I just leave them for later. I know what you’re thinking, it seems counterproductive and half-assed. You’re not aiming for perfection, you’re aiming for accomplished, and you can always come back to it, but if you waste all your energy on one task you’re never going to finish. Which brings us to our most important tip.
- Take breaks every 45/60 minutes. The human body can only take so much, and unless you’re a cleaning machine robot (in which case you need to live with me), it’s easy to lose motivation or feel completely spent. Take small breaks and do things in sprints rather than trying to accomplish everything in one go. You are allowed breaks, hell, I treat myself to a piece of my kid’s Halloween candy when I finish a big task or an entire room. Appreciate what you’ve done.
- Give yourself credit. Even if you don’t finish the entire list, recognize that you did accomplish something. You wouldn’t slash your other three tires if you got a flat, so don’t beat yourself up if you didn’t get through your entire list. There are more Sundays ahead, and I promise you, that dirt isn’t going anywhere.
Bonus tips:
Cleaning hacks using dollar store products
Printable cleaning checklists (this is what we use during the week)
25 printables to organize everything
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Domesticated AF 