5 Must-Do’s For Keeping a Tidy Home —Even with a Busy Schedule

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As much as I’d like a slow schedule, these past few months have been packed with things to do. Between homeschooling, helping my husband with his practice, and all the daily life things, I’ve been surprised at how I manage to keep a tidy home despite a busy schedule.

That’s not to say that it doesn’t take time to keep my home tidy. I have to make time for cleaning and tidying. The difference is that it’s become such a normal part of life that it’s out of the ordinary if I didn’t do it.

It’s one of several must-do’s for keeping a tidy home.

Here are 5 must-do’s for keeping a tidy home —even with a busy schedule.

Establishing rhythms

Staying on top of laundry, dishes, and tidying results from establishing good habits and rhythms. Some tasks are done every day. Others are done once or twice a week. 

We make the beds, wash dishes, and put things away daily. We sweep/vacuum the floors as needed.

I do laundry on Mondays and Thursdays. Thursdays are my whole home cleaning days.

These are the basic things that get done weekly. Having set days for doing them makes it easier to complete them.

As no family is the same, finding rhythms that fit your family is important.

Begin by establishing rhythms by using the 10-Minute Daily Rhythm checklist. Start with one or two tasks and add more as each habit is established.

Set goals

Since establishing my rhythms, I knew I had time to add more cleaning and maintenance routines. After owning our home for many years, I see the importance of maintaining appliances and deep cleaning areas.

One of my PowerSheets goals this year is to create a home maintenance plan/rhythm. I started small a couple of years ago by adding washing all our sheets to my Thursday laundry rhythm. Now that that’s an established rhythm, my new goal is to complete one extra cleaning or maintenance task every week.

These tasks have included:

• Cleaning the dishwasher
• Cleaning the oven
• Dusting light fixtures
• Cleaning under & behind furniture 
• Laundering rugs
• Laundering pillows
• Laundering quilts, blankets, bedding
• Dusting wall frames & decor
• Washing windows
• Rotating mattresses
• Decluttering
• Organizing

I’ve done these tasks in the past but never with as much intention. Since I know how long my regular rhythms take because I’ve done them so often. I can see that I can fit at least one of the “deep cleaning” tasks into my week.

I don’t have a set day for doing the extra task. It depends on when I have time to do them or if I need help to complete them, which I’ll get into in the next section.

Using time blocking

One of the new features of the PowerSheets (my goal planner of choice) is a “Weekly Rhythm” spread. Seeing my schedule in blocks of time on this spread has revealed where I have pockets of time to dedicate to projects, tasks, or play.

Most cleaning tasks take an extra 30 minutes to 1 hour (unless it’s a major decluttering project). Although I have a packed schedule some weeks, I purposely set aside time for cleaning tasks by time blocking. 

Learn more about time blocking in this post >>>

Establishing processes

Ever heard the phrase “Don’t reinvent the wheel”? The same goes for cleaning and tidying. As I mentioned, I know how long my weekly cleaning takes because I use the same process every week. It seems boring but I’d rather finish quickly and move on to what I need to do or want to do.

Doing things the same way every time eliminates decision-making and prevents skipping things that will cause a lot of extra work later, as you’ll see in the next section.

Frequent maintenance

I’ve noticed that the more often I do some deep cleaning tasks, the easier they are to do next time, or I only have to maintain them during my weekly cleaning. Cleaning and tidying more often results in less work over time.

For example, cleaning my dishwasher every 3 months keeps everything sanitary and will hopefully prolong the life of my dishwasher. It’s important to keep up with appliances because replacing them every couple of years is costly.

Keeping a tidy home with a busy schedule

These are the 5 must-do’s for keeping a tidy home:

1. Establish rhythms
2. Set goals
3. Use time blocking
4. Establish processes
5. Maintain frequently

By getting these 5 things under my belt, I’ve managed to keep my home tidy despite a busy schedule. I recommend establishing rhythms such as making the beds or doing the dishes daily to get started on your own journey.

Download the free 10-Minute Tidy Rhythm Tracker to get started >>>