Weekly Cleaning Routine for Working Moms: Simple Tips To Maintain A Tidy Home
As a working mom, balancing career, family, and personal time can feel overwhelming. Add in the never-ending cycle of household cleaning, and it can become a juggling act that leaves you feeling exhausted.
However, keeping your home clean and organized doesn’t have to be daunting. With a simple, manageable weekly cleaning routine, you can maintain a tidy home without sacrificing time with your family or sanity.
Here’s a realistic and time-saving cleaning routine for working moms to help you stay on top of housework.
This post is about maintaining a weekly cleaning routine for working moms.
Manage Your Expectations
First, give yourself grace. As working moms, we already have a lot on our plate. So, it’s important to realize that your home doesn’t need to be spotless all the time. Focus on keeping things tidy and comfortable for your family. A bit of clutter is okay; you’re aiming for a clean, liveable space, not the perfect untouched, Pinterest-worthy home. And if you have young children, you know how unrealistic it is to have a perfectly clean. You’d probably spend your day cleaning up 183949 times a day and will drive yourself crazy! (ask me how I know lol).
Break It Up
The key to a manageable cleaning routine is breaking tasks into daily and weekly chores. Smaller daily tasks keep messes from piling up, while deep cleaning can be done weekly or monthly.
In my household, we have a few non-negotiable daily chores that have to be done daily. Of course, there are a few scenarios when I will allow for one or two of these chores to slip, but we usually try to get the following things done:
Daily Cleaning Routine
- Make the beds ( still working on this to be honest, sue me lol)
- Wipe down kitchen counters, table & counters after meals
- Unload the dishwasher & wash dishes ( we only use the dishwasher to dry)
- Sweep/Vacuum floors
- Do a quick evening tidy-up of the main living area
- Do one load of laundry, if necessary
These small habits, done consistently, can prevent larger cleaning tasks from piling up.
Weekly Cleaning Routine
Here’s an example of a weekly cleaning routine that you can use to tackle the bigger chores throughout the week without feeling overwhelmed.
Monday: Kitchen Deep Clean
- Wipe down appliances (microwave, fridge, stove)
- Scrub the sink and countertops
- Clean out the refrigerator of any expired items
- Sweep and mop the kitchen floor
Tuesday: Bathrooms
- Clean the toilets, sinks, and countertops
- Wipe down mirrors and fixtures
- Scrub the tub or shower
- Replace towels and take out the trash
Wednesday: Living Areas
- Dust surfaces, shelves, and light fixtures
- Vacuum or sweep floors and rugs
- Fluff and arrange cushions on the couch
- Tidy up any cluttered areas
Thursday: Bedrooms
- Change the bed linens
- Dust nightstands and dressers
- Tidy up any clutter (toys, clothes, etc.)
- Vacuum or sweep floors
Friday: Laundry and Floors
- Catch up on any laundry you didn’t get to during the week
- Fold and put away clothes
- Vacuum or mop the floors throughout the house
Related Post: Sunday Reset as a Working Mom
Time-Saving Tips for Busy Working Moms
Set a timer
Give yourself a 15-20 minute limit for each task. You’d be surprised at how much you can get done in a short time when you’re focused! I usually use my 15 minute breaks to do a quick clean of one of the rooms in the house.
Delegate
Get your kids involved. Assign them age-appropriate tasks like dusting, putting away toys, or folding laundry. It’s a great way to teach responsibility.
Use multipurpose cleaners
Invest in multipurpose cleaning products that can tackle multiple surfaces and areas, saving you time, effort and money.
Keep cleaning supplies handy
Store a small cleaning caddy with basic supplies (like wipes and spray cleaners) in key areas like the kitchen and bathrooms for quick clean-ups.
My Top 5 Favorite Cleaning Supplies
Below is a list of my staple cleaning supplies that I use to keep our house clean and organized:
- This All-Purpose Disinfecting Cleaner Spray is a staple in our home. With all the germs the kids bring home from school, I’m always spraying down our high-touch surfaces with it.
- Magic Erasers because kids are always into something. Kids drew on your wall? No problem, the magic eraser will take care of it!
- Multi-Surface Cleaner—This can be used on counters or floors. We love diluting it with boiling water to mop our floors! It will leave your house smelling divine and your floors shiny!
- Stain Remover—You NEED this! This is the best stain remover I’ve ever purchased. It can be used for carpet stains, upholstery stains, your couch stains, anything really!
- Little Green Machine—This is a must have if you have young children. I can’t tell you how often this machine has cleaned the most stubborn stains from my couch and area rugs!
Of course, there are several other cleaning supplies that we use to keep our house clean; however, these are the items that I can’t live without!
Final Thoughts
By breaking cleaning into manageable chunks and involving the family, you can maintain a clean home without it taking over your life. The key is consistency, not perfection. Stick to this routine, and over time, you’ll find that a clean, organized home is much easier to maintain, even as a busy working mom!
This post was about maintaining a weekly cleaning routine for working Moms.
