This might sound like a bit much, but here is what I do to stay on top of my house cleaning. I work a regular 40-hour week like most people. When I get home in the evenings, most of the time I’m too tired to deal with doing a real cleaning to my house. So like some have mentioned on this list, I do the bare minimum each day in order to keep from having too much to do on the weekend. One thing that is always done before I go to bed is having my kitchen cleaned. There isn’t anything that I hate worse than waking up to a dirty kitchen. It’s so routine to me now, that I really can’t rest unless I know it’s done. But other than the clean kitchen, I give myself at least one chore a day to complete before I go to bed. Depending on how tired I am will depend on which chore I choose. Sometimes it’s just cleaning the floors (i.e. sweeping, and vacuuming.) And on light days it might something as simple as scrubbing the toilets and sinks.

My husband works nights and is of little help to me at all through the week and every other weekend, so I end up cleaning about 98% of my house all the time. Even when he does help me, I literally have to tell him what to do and how to do it each and every single time we clean together (and ladies don’t give in and make him think that your better off doing it yourself, that is what they want you to think.) So then on my weekends off I try to hit most of it on Friday night, especially if I’m doing it by myself. That way on Saturday and Sunday I can have most of the day to do as I please and I don’t have to keep dreading it for the rest of the weekend.

To me dreading the actual work is worse than doing the actual work. One big and helpful hit that I can pass along to anyone is my need to de-clutter. I am not the sort of person to keep stuff that is not being used and will most likely never be used. Each and every time I clean, I through stuff away, give stuff away, or donate stuff away. The less you have lying around, the less you have to clean up after. For example, I use to have a bunch of decoration items like pictures, candles, knickknacks etc… And every time I went to clean I had to pick those items up, dust them or wash them and the replace them. I finally decided I had too much. I had candles that had never been burned, knickknacks I didn’t even like anymore, and pictures that were extremely outdated.

So little by little I would start getting rid of the “junk” I didn’t want or use and most importantly, I stopped replacing it with new junk I would soon tire of. It’s nothing for me to go shopping and like something and put it in my cart, and by the time I get to the front of the store, talk myself out of buying it because I know that I will soon tire of it.

It has saved me money, and time, not to mention the aggravation of having to clean it and then get rid of it. I also bought several organizers such as those roll around plastic drawer things, and the smaller counter size ones. Everything in my home has a place and if it is in it’s place then I spend less time picking it up to put it back latter, or spending time to find it when I need it. So in conclusion de-clutter your houses, and then get organized. It may sound anal, but once you make this a habit, you will find yourself doing it without even a second thought to it, and you will spend less time on your days off cleaning your house.

Now I don’t have kids at home, but for those of you who do, teach them early how to organize and how pick up after their selves and they too will form a life long habit that will be very beneficial to them throughout their whole lives.