by Emma Riley Sutton

Created on: May 11, 2008   Last Updated: June 25, 2008

Without my house-cleaning check-list, I am afraid nothing would get done. I would be overwhelmed on a daily basis by all the little things that had to be done to keep our home clean and tidy. After several attempts to keep up with the household cleaning chores, I finally found a check-list that works for my family. We are all thankful we now have a method that works for us. We now use several check-lists - a weekly check-list for the entire house and check-lists for each of the rooms of our home that list daily cleaning chores. We do not have a monthly check-list.

The check-lists neatly typed and posted in each room. The weekly checklist is on the inside of the kitchen pantry door. I used the spreadsheet computer program I have to type it up and then I printed it. I use the same sheet over and over, just changing the dates as necessary. I also list all the cleaning products and supplies needed. Each family member is assigned certain chores and their names are next to their task. It is just me, my husband and our three year old daughter (yes, she has chores to do) so I do not rotate what is expected of each of us. I do the majority of the cleaning, seeing I am a stay-at-home and what my husband and daughter are limited due to time and age. As she gets older, her responsibilities will increase.

The weekly check-list is made up of the larger projects such as vacuuming, cleaning the refrigerator, and all the major bathroom cleaning. Each day has a different project for the different rooms in the house. I schedule the kitchen on Mondays. Mopping, cleaning the cabinets (inside and out), and the dreaded cleaning of the stove. Tuesdays is for the living room. All of the dusting, vacuuming, and cleaning of the windows and mirrors are done on Tuesday. Wednesday is for the bathroom, so on and so so forth. I originally scheduled the kitchen and bathroom on back-to-back days. This lasted one week. I needed a day in between to recover. Also on our weekly check-list is the outdoor and garage house-cleaning chores, such as mowing the lawn, cleaning any leaks off the driveway and sweeping the garage. The weekly check-lists will vary from household to household; only you know exactly what your family needs.

Making out the daily check-list for each of our home's room was a bit more time consuming than the weekly check-lists. I went into each room and looked around. I wrote down everything that I knew needed to be done on a daily basis. I then transferred this to my spreadsheet computer

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