Weekly cleaning schedule template (FREE)

With this article and downloadable weekly cleaning schedule, you will have clear areas of what to clean and tidy and when to do so on a weekly basis. In this easy weekly cleaning checklist, you also have free space for your notes and additional tasks to adapt to your household. There is a blank option too that I created for you if you want to adapt it even better to your home, and the awesome thing is – it’s completely FREE!

I have been playing around with the ideas of the different cleaning lists for a long time. I have actually created a bunch of different versions for restaurants and cafés in my almost fifteen years of work life in the restaurant industry. There is not much difference between a checklist of a busy coffeehouse where several hands are chipping in the cleaning duties shared by shift managers and at home where the cleaning tasks are mainly driven and directed by busy moms with the whole family helping.

How to start planning your own cleaning checklist

Here are some things that I have noticed and tips that I have used during the years when planning and scheduling the cleaning to create a manageable cleaning schedule outline:

• Things that are used most need to be cleaned more often. Simple.
• It is important to pay attention to hygiene in places where you are handling and storing the food and to keep the bathroom clean too.
• Break down the tasks: If you have too many things scheduled for one day, nothing gets done. Fan out the cleaning tasks for several days into manageable chunks.
• Gather together tasks of different levels. Choose only one more demanding cleaning task per day and a bunch of smaller quick tasks to get the balance.
• Cleaning itself is not the main thing. The people (let it be family or the customer at the coffee shop) are the most important thing. Plan the cleaning around them. The good feeling at your home is a result of cleaning a bit every day.
• Do the cleaning at the right time. There is no point in doing a huge time-consuming deep cleaning when there should be lunch on the table in half an hour. Clarify the specific times that you need to be engaged in something else than cleaning.

What should be cleaned regularly?

Start thinking about your cleaning needs for your cleaning plan with what you use at home on a daily basis. Mostly the daily cleaning tasks are around one clear area: the kitchen. We make four to five meals a day so the kitchen is clearly the heart of the home but also the one that gets messy and needs tidying up daily.

In the daily cleaning schedule, you should have household chores that are quick to do, and that make an impact on the general well-being and feeling at home. You can use this printable template to start with or use a completely blank template to do your own markings straight from the start. When you need a deeper cleaning, read my tips on a simple spring cleaning.

Daily tasks

• Make bed
• Wipe the surfaces, the kitchen counters
• Clear sink, wash dishes / Empty/Load the dishwasher
• Sweep away crumbs
• Water plants when needed

What is a normal cleaning routine?

A normal house cleaning schedule includes daily and weekly rotating tasks that are part of the regular cleaning routine. Those can be stretched to a monthly schedule or a yearly checklist and also leveled up to the changing seasonal tasks. With an annual cleaning schedule, you manage the bigger picture of the tidiness of your home and with a weekly and daily schedule, you have the perspective of everyday management.

The tidying up becomes second nature – and the home gets cleaned like automation, with a clear cleaning routine. With that in mind, I have created the cleaning checklist for you to ease up the everyday cleaning management and make a clean house and a tidy home easier.

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Mindset for easy cleaning

First of all – your home doesn’t need to be perfectly tidy ALL THE TIME. Home should be a place where you see that a family is living in there. I myself know the limit of the amount of things I can and can clean up, and it is not much. For that reason, I have limited the amount of toys, throw blankets and pillows, kitchen utensils, and books to an essential level at home. You can find your limit easily: if you feel gathering the toys is the only thing that you are doing every day, try to every week declutter a few. It will definitely get easier over time.

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So how to use the cleaning schedules and cleaning checklists? Use them as your helper and guide not as your boss. You are the boss of your cleaning checklist. Lists are not something that you NEED to accomplish, they are your helpers. They are there to give you steps, to remind you and YOU choose what to follow and when, depending on your current situation and your lifestyle.

The most important thing is to change
the To-do -mentality to the Did I do it? -mentality.
Then you have less pressure and the checklist becomes your friend.

The most important thing is to change the To-do -mentality to the Did I do it? -mentality. Then you have less pressure and the checklist becomes your friend. The weekly cleaning schedule is for you to show what has been done, and where to focus next time. Everything doesn’t need to be done every day or every week. If the door knobs and light switches don’t need cleaning this week, great! Move to the next task. The weekly cleaning schedule brings awareness to check the different places and areas in your home regularly so that nothing stays unnoticed.

What should be cleaned once a week?

In your weekly cleaning routine, you can batch the different tasks with different areas to remember easier what to do and which day. Different days of the week have their own area to focus on. When repeating it comes as a second nature and you don’t need to check the list daily anymore. In the printable weekly cleaning checklist, I have shared the home with areas such as the kitchen, bathroom, living room & common areas, and entrance. One area has the main focus every day so that the cleaning is easier to manage.

Kitchen weekly cleaning tasks

In the kitchen pay attention to the overall cleanliness and hygiene of the appliances like the fridge, and coffee machine.

• Clean the coffee machine / water boiler
• Clean the stove area
• Organize fridge and wipe up handles and free space
• Wipe up the cupboard doors and handles
• Take out trash, wipe trash bins

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Bathroom weekly cleaning tasks

The weekly tasks should be maintaining the level of bathroom hygiene. Tidying the sink and mirror freshens up the overall look and brings a neat and fresh feeling to the bathroom. If you want to level up and do a decorative spa box, where you can beautifully arrange for example your bubble bath powder and bath oils!

• Clean the toilet & sink
• Scrub shower / tub
• Wipe mirrors
• Restock toiletries

Living room & common areas weekly cleaning tasks

Common areas are the ones that get out of order daily. Firstly focus on the big tasks and most visual things first to get a good feeling of the living room or dining room. Secondly, continue to the smaller less visible tasks to get a clean home the easy way.

• Tidy up and declutter common areas
• Recycle receipts and magazines & sort mail
• Wipe door knobs, light switches & mirrors
• Clean dining table and chairs
• Arrange and declutter the entrance / mudroom

Bedroom & general wipe-up as weekly cleaning task

The bed is the most visible and dominant part of the bedroom, so it is not a wonder that making the bed makes a huge difference! If making the bed feels difficult for you, skip the bedspread and reduce the number of pillows to make it easier.

• Change bed linens if needed
• Declutter night stand
• Tidy up wardrobe, clothes into laundry basket
• Wipe down the appliances

Laundry as a weekly cleaning task

In the weekly cleaning checklist, laundry has its own day. If your family needs to do laundry every day, do so and focus on the laundry day on changing linens and towels of the home to keep the routine going.

• Change towels and kitchen clothes if needed
• Do laundry & clean the dryer lint trap

Dusting and hoovering as a weekly cleaning task

If you are like me, that you don’t like hoovering or taking the hoover out from the closet (I really do hate it) use a brush and a dustpan in the kitchen daily and do once a week the hoovering of the whole home in one day. That way a daunting task is only an easy thing to check off from the weekly cleaning list.

Meal planning

I have added to the cleaning list as well a check box for meal prep and planning, as a reminder to have a glance at the fridge and the coming week.

Rotating focus on the monthly cleaning tasks

Every week focus on one area on a deeper level. In the weekly cleaning checklist, I have bolded some checkboxes. Those days are the focus days on the monthly tasks. One day of the week you can focus on one cleaning area and do a deeper cleaning. That way the deep cleaning tasks become second nature and part of your weekly cleaning routine.

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