Cleaning Schedule

The first four months after Sam came along our house was a disaster. 
I guess that’s better than the year and a half it took to get my act together when I had Luke…
Anyway, it was more than a struggle to get things done around the house just to keep it looking decent.  My poor craft desk has just been collecting dust because I’ve been so busy trying to keep up on the daily maintenance around the house!
But I finally found something that is working wonders for me!

{click and print this for yourself!} 

I came across this great cleaning schedule from the Time Warp Wife.  I looked it over and thought that it looked pretty manageable and it made sense to me because it was similar to the way I was trying to do things but was a bit more efficient.  And since it’s easier to keep things clean than it is to really get down and clean them in the first place, it’s been working!  I just altered my own schedule just a bit to customize it more to our life and home.  {here’s a link to a more detailed explanation of her cleaning schedule}
The house stays picked up and free of clutter more days than none, and I usually get some deeper cleaning done every week since I can manage things a little better. 
The only thing I’m still working on is the laundry…I still manage to end up with huge piles lining up in my hallway to wash and giant piles to fold every week.  Probably because the idea of doing one load a day still hasn’t quite clicked and it’s easier to put it off.
I really hate laundry.
Getting started on this schedule takes a bit more time.  The first two weeks it takes longer to do everything because you are really getting into each area and cleaning it well the first time.  After that, though, it’s a lot easier because it’s not so much work—it’s maintenance cleaning.  The bathrooms took me ALL day the first day.  But each week it’s easier to clean them when I’ve kept them somewhat clean throughout the weeks.  Also, I alternate scrubbing the shower downstairs with the shower upstairs each week so they get really clean every other week.  And that is totally doable and much less daunting then trying to do it every week or taking an hour to scrub it once a month which is what I was doing before.
  
Let me know if you try it!

**UPDATE** 
Here are two more versions you can print off.  The one on the left just took off some stuff that was more pertaining to my daily life.  You can add your own details in those places.  The one on the left is totally blank for you to create your own schedule if you'd like.  Try loading this picture into ipiccy.com and using their cute fonts to add your own text!

To download the picture: Click the image. Then right click the image and click "view image", click one more time to magnify to full size. (it should look pretty huge on the browser screen) Right click, select "save image as" and save it to your computer before printing or getting it printed.