Cleaning Schedule

Keeping our house clean can be a struggle at times. I want our home to be a place where people feel welcomed. I want my husband to feel proud and happy to come home to a pleasing home. But there are days that the house is not picked up.  Not because it's a big house or because we have been invited to lots of events or even because we leave the house to travel a lot (but those are great reasons right?) no it's because at some point I stop caring about the 4 month old magazines on the coffee table or the dog hair in the corner of the kitchen. I figure people who love me come to see me not the pile of stuff on top of the fridge (beside there is only person I know tall enough to see up there!)  I make friends with short people just because of this. The biggest reason I let the house go is because - Hello Summer!  We don't get a very long summer around here so I want to spend my time here:

The back deck

Or here:

Part of our back yard

Or here:

Walking on our road

But not here:

Cleaning stash

So when I am trapped inside with no chance of escape enjoying the cooler weather of fall from inside my home, it's time to really clean!  At that point I take out my cleaning plan and whip the house back into shape in no time.

I have a spread sheet with a cleaning plan for the entire year. It's 2 pages long. One sheet (doubled sided) is the monthly schedule. This sheet breaks down each month into 4 weeks with something listed for each week. I can do this chore whenever I want as long as it gets done during the week.Some things include order winter heating oil or shampoo the rug. On a different sheet is the weekly schedule so that each day has chores to work on. This is only 1 page long and simply list the days of the week and the chores for that day. So for today the task is Family Room: Collect all trash and get it to the curb, swifter the floor, pick up after the family and freshen furniture. That's it.  By keeping this close and referring to it, we can get the house in order fast.   Some of the chores I do and others hubby does so it does really go fast! I've had a cleaning plan for years. It changes when we move to a new home to reflect the rooms in the new home.  It fits in a 3 ring binder for quick reference but mostly I have it memorized by now (at least the daily side). So even if I've let the house slip for lack of care for a bit, this plan gets me back on tract in no time.  Do you have a cleaning plan? 

One thing I am looking forwarded to do come fall, is painting our bedroom. We just got 2 new photos that we love so our bedroom will be getting a new coat of paint and I am on the lookout for some curtains. What goes with orchid colored walls?