Stay At Home Mom Routine and Cleaning Schedule

Managing what we have well is an important aspect of preparing for whatever comes next, but figuring out how to do that can be difficult. Stay-at-home mom cleaning schedules can be dependent on each mom’s lifestyle and schedule. It can be hard to find one that’s pre-made that works with your family. Here’s a look at how I manage our cleaning schedule as a stay-at-home mom of two plus some tips and advice I’ve taken in as a homemaker of 10 years. We also have a free cleaning schedule that you can download!

Why should I have a cleaning schedule and daily/weekly routine?

Knowing what and when things need to be done ahead of time can help you to stay on top of your responsibilities. A cleaning schedule doesn’t need to be rigid, and it doesn’t need to look the same week to week. Having a schedule and a daily/weekly routine keeps me in the habit of cleaning. It gives me time to do what needs to be done without making me feel stuck in a rut.

Why can’t I keep my house clean?

This is a question I’ve asked myself before and I’ve heard lots of others ask too. It doesn’t matter if it’s just a room, you’re newly in your place or have been doing it for years. Sometimes, you hit a rut and don’t feel like you can keep the house clean.

Reasons why you may feel like you can’t keep your house clean include: outside stressors like job changes or a packed schedule, not being organized, not knowing what you have to do, pushing off normal tasks, or just having too much stuff!

I have a system of breaking the day into three parts, morning, afternoon, and evening and assigning tasks to each portion. It helps me to not feel overwhelmed by a whole day’s worth of tasks plus it gives a general idea of the structure of my day without being so specific to the time I will complete each thing.

How to Start Creating A Stay At Home Mom Daily Routine:

Check out our free printable to help you create your daily routine and cleaning schedule.

Before you start filling in the daily routine and cleaning schedule, have your calendar out. Pay attention to the things that are going on with the people in your household on which days. This will help you know which days are better for certain tasks than others.

Next, list all of the tasks that are done in your home daily, or at least 3 days a week. In our household, this includes:

Laundry (wash, fold, and put away)
Pet care
Meal prep and planning
Vacuum/Sweep
Clean Dishes/Empty the Sink
Empty the Dishwasher
Make the beds
General tidying
Take out the trash
Large Projects/Maintenance

If you’re using our free download, in the bottom left, under daily/multi-day tasks, write each thing that you want to have done every day or multiple times a week. Then look at the schedule and assign each task to the days you think will be the most manageable to do them.

Maintenance

Maintenance for us is more detailed cleaning of specific rooms such as the bathroom or bedrooms or deep cleaning the kitchen etc. Large projects are projects that are temporarily ongoing like making gifts or re-organizing a section of the house. General tidying is the daily maintenance things such as wiping down bathrooms, refilling soaps, picking up after the children, weeding, and stuff like that. I place meal prep and planning in the morning because I like to do that while the kids are eating breakfast with me in the kitchen.

Next, at the beginning of the week, figure out the extra tasks that must be done. This can look like once or twice weekly tasks and sudden or new things for the week. List all of these in the bottom right box. For me, the week I was working on this post, those tasks looked like this:

Write thank you cards
Pack food for a day trip
Prep for a sourdough class
Change and wash kid’s bedsheets
Cut and dry mint

What if my schedule changes?

Give yourself grace! Both mentally and literally. Schedule changes are a part of life. Things come up, our kids get sick, we get sick, and the possibilities are endless! On our schedule, I build in at least one day at the end of the week that I keep light in terms of what I put on the to-do list. Now, if I run out of time or the schedule changes, I have a place to put the tasks that are not done yet. If you choose to follow your schedule, this will enable you to get things done without having to double up on your workload because of being unprepared.

Tips to increase your success in your daily routine and cleaning routine:

Minimize what you have. Check out our post on how to declutter when you’re overwhelmed!
If your kids are old enough, give them responsibilities. Initially, this may slow things down, but over time, their responsibility will develop and it will become helpful to you and their character as they grow! Here are some suggestions for household chores for toddlers!
Define your priorities. Before I got married, my priorities for cleanliness were a made bed and a tidy kitchen. My husband’s cleanliness priority is cleared surfaces. This is something that can be discussed with your husband at a family meeting. Figuring out your priorities will help you to know what to attempt to accomplish first each day because you’ll know it will most positively impact the people around you.
Identify some of the things preventing you from accomplishing what you want to. For me, I struggled with putting laundry away and a friend suggested re-organizing and tidying the drawers and cabinets. I realized that I was avoiding putting the laundry away because I hated the struggle of putting things in the drawers. Can you make the cleaning tasks that you avoid easier to accomplish? Once you figure out what is needed to make your tasks easier, you can add implementing those changes to your weekly routines as well!

I know that none of this information is new. Hopefully, the tips and free downloads help you look at your daily routine in a new light though. Let us know in the comments below what routines you use that work!

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