How I manage to keep my 4,000 sq ft home clean

        Cleaning, ugh an endless list of chores that stretches for miles and miles once completely written down. 

I absolutely don't like cleaning, yet I find myself constantly up off the sofa clearing up some random mess my family created while I enjoyed an episode or two of Gilmore Girls. 

With a home as big as mine its a never-ending cycle of sweeping, picking up trash and washing dishes. This is my weekly checklist for every room so I can attempt to keep my home clean but also practical. 

Sunday is the start of my week and the day I get most bulk of my cleaning done unless I had a busy weekend before and then I'll use Sundays to rest up instead. Here are the things I find best to get done at the start of the week. 
            1. Deep cleaning all bathrooms; I actually deep clean my bathrooms 2-3 times a week because they are one of the most germ covered spaces in our home. I start by clearing anything up off of the floors and soaking the toilet in cleaner while the rest of my chores are completed. 

We actually keep a basket for bath toys and a basket for dirty laundry. After the floor has been decluttered its time for the countertops. Most things on my bathroom vanity have a home in a cupboard or drawer but sometimes we just forget to take the 4 seconds to return an item to its place. Once the counters and floors have been decluttered its time to organize shower materials and start the quick soak of toilet bowl cleaner in the bathtub. I've found that toilet bowl cleaner removes the rust stains from my iron rich well water better than any other cleaner. While the tub is soaking, I take the time to wipe down all hard surfaces with either a bucket of soapy water or bleach wipes and then its on to sweeping and mopping the floors. Once the floors are dry from mopping, I can go in and scrub the toilet and rinse the shower. 

            2. After leaving my clean bathroom its on to the living room where my two children and adorable husband spend most of their time snacking, watching shows and playing games. Its the messiest room in my house even on a good day. Now I do a quick clean-up of this room every day, but Sundays is when we pull out the real cleaning supplies.  I start in this room the same way I start every room, picking up all of the trash, clothes and toys that don't belong. Next is clearing off any hard surfaces that require dusting, having four cats creates a lot of dust so pretty much every table, shelf and windowsill is wiped down. By this point the room is almost complete except for vacuuming. Once that's finished, I can straighten up the couch pillows and any blankets that have been pulled out can be put back in their crate in the corner. 

            3. Now the next areas I do usually depend on how crazy they look. We have two entrance rooms into our home. The first one is usually littered with random coats and shoes and needs a good vacuuming on the rug and nothing more. The second entrance room is where we feed our cats and collect the dirty laundry baskets. Both rooms have hardwood floors and are heavy traffic zones meaning I have to keep up on mopping. 

            4. Lastly is the kitchen. Now I know I technically have five more rooms to clean until I have a spotless house, but I usually take the other days of the week to tidy up those spaces little by little. 

This room seems to always be a mess so honestly take this with a grain of salt. 

I usually start by wiping off the "countertops". Im saying this is quotes because as of right now we are renovating our home and using a white fold out party table in place of a counter. It's not ideal but its only temporary. After the counters are finished, I move on to wiping down the stove top. Once a month the inside of the oven gets wiped down but today is not that day. Sweeping and mopping are next unless there are dishes to be done. If the cabinet doors are messy, I usually wait until the floors are dry and run a soaked rag over them. Sometimes the kitchen never feels finished so give yourself some grace on it.M

            Monday

• Collect dirty laundry and get as many loads washed as possible
•  Basic clean on bathrooms like throwing away any trash, picking up shampoo bottles that have fallen and organizing counter spaces
• Take any dishes to the sink from the weekend 

 Litterboxes 

            Tuesday

• Fold any laundry that was washed the previous day
• Load of dishes 
• Quick basic clean up of common areas 
• Quick clean up of playroom

        Wednesday

• Grocery pick up 
• Quick basic kitchen clean up before getting Paige 
• Finish folding laundry 
• Sweep all hardwood floors

          Thursday

• Cleanup in daughters' bedrooms 
• Litterboxes 
• Any leftover dishes 
• Wipe down windows, mirrors and hard surfaces 

        Friday

• Cleanup in my room 
• Choose one room that needs to be organized and spend 1 hour on it 
• Quick bathroom cleanup 

        Saturday

• Create grocery list for following week 
• relax a little

       Everyday

• All toys sent back to playroom
• throw away all trash
• collect doom piles of dirty laundry
• take any dishes left out to kitchen sink
• organize shoe area 

Now I've got to fill you in on a little secret. I do these same chores every day, every single week and my home still looks lived in and crazy most of the time. I have 3 other family members to clean up after and 5 cats who are always being mischievous and making their own form of mess somewhere. I know that my list isn't going to fit everyone's needs, it's just a list of chores I take care of in a way that fits best for my family. I do try very hard to keep a tidy home but if I constantly cleaned in order for it to be perfect I would never get any rest or time to simply enjoy the little things in life. 

Sincerely yours, 

Sophie