If you are planning to get away for the long weekend, then a house that needs cleaning shouldn’t keep you. But leaving your home in disarray isn’t a wise idea. Nothing snaps you out of relaxation than coming home to mess that needs cleaning. Get yourself (and your home) long-weekend ready with this easy Monday to Friday cleaning schedule.
The clean you are aiming for in this plan is not a deep clean. You simply want to get your house to a level of cleanliness that will make you glad to be home when the long weekend is over. A little like what you would try to achieve with an emergency clean in preparation for unexpected guests. Tasks are scheduled so that you can achieve this by splitting chores into manageable daily goals.
The key to successful weekday cleaning schedule is to maintain the cleanliness of areas you’ve already worked on by cleaning as you go for the rest of the week. This means wiping spills up instantly, putting things away, and clearing up mess as it happens.
MONDAY: SCRUB THE BATHROOM
Start strong by tackling one of the more difficult tasks on the hardest day of the week – Monday. Today your focus should be cleaning the labour-intensive areas of your bathroom such as scrubbing grout, cleaning around taps and drains and washing the shower door.
Use a hard-working scouring scrub to clean bathroom scum and follow up with a natural bathroom cleaner. Keep the brush and spray in the shower so that you can quickly remove new scum before it builds up. You will come back to wiping up and finishing touches in the bathroom later in the week.
TUESDAY: DECLUTTER
The task for Tuesday is to go around your home and put any mess away. This includes tidying any miscellaneous piles of paper or clothes and straightening out items on bookshelves and tables. If you are really pushed for time, focus on visible surface areas around your home such as entryway tables, hall tables, coffee and side tables and dining tables. If these are in order, then at least you won’t come home to any obvious clutter.
WEDNESDAY: SCRUB THE KITCHEN
On Wednesday clean your kitchen with the same approach you took for your bathroom on Monday. That is to clean the more difficult things! You’ll want to wipe gunk off your stove top, oven, fridge and appliances. Again, keep your natural kitchen spray cleaner and microfiber cloth within easy reach for the remainder of the week.
THURSDAY: DUST AND WIPE
Today you should properly wipe up frequently used surfaces as you’ll be using them a little less before you go. Use a natural all purpose spray cleaner and microfiber cloth to clean the surfaces that you decluttered on Tuesday.
A microfiber cloth not only minimizes waste but can hold more moisture, so you won’t have to keep switching cloths. They also pick up dirt and dust rather than spread it which will make for quicker cleaning. Today you should also go back to your bathroom and kitchen to spray and wipe surfaces that you left out of your initial scrub such as cupboards, countertops and mirrors.
FRIDAY FINISHING TOUCHES
On Friday do a quick walk around your home and clear away any clutter you missed. You should also take the time to vacuum and spot clean dirt on the floor with a natural floor cleaner spray and microfiber mop. If you don’t have too much time you can skip vacuuming your entire floor and just collect visible dirt from the floors.
JUST BEFORE YOU GO
Try and anticipate the mess that you’ll make when you return from your trip. If you think you’ll come back with a bag of dirty clothes, make sure your laundry basket is empty. If you’re going to spend the weekend camping, make sure you have a clear space to air out your tent and an empty dishwasher or sink to properly wash your camping cutlery and cookware.
Go back into your kitchen and bathroom and put your cleaning products and tools away after checking for anything that needs cleaning one last time. You’ll also want to empty your garbage so that it doesn’t sit in your home for the entire weekend. Now your home is officially a long weekend ready!
If you’d rather not spend your weeknights cleaning, let us take care of your home cleaning for you!
