How to Create a Cleaning Schedule
Come learn how to create a personalized cleaning schedule for the important but overlooked tasks in your home.
See also: How to Get Your Kids to Help Clean – Easy Fridge Organizing Ideas – and – Printable Yard Work Chore Bingo.
Create a Cleaning Schedule for Your Home in 5 Steps
1. Take inventory of your home’s cleaning needs.
With a pen and paper, walk into every room of your home. List out all the things that need to be done, but leave out your weekly cleaning tasks. You don’t want to clutter up your cleaning schedule with tasks that are already part of your routine.
2. Get some more cleaning schedule ideas.
Some aspects of our home are often overlooked when we think about cleaning, such as the hot water heater.
Check out:
- 6 Common Cleaning Tasks You Probably Forgot from Remodelaholic
- Seasonal Cleaning Checklist from Remodelaholic
- Martha Stewart’s cleaning checklists
- A handy checklist from Apartment Therapy and
- Lifehacker’s maintenance guide
Add tasks that apply to you to your list, making note of how often they should be completed.
3. Divide your list into categories: biweekly, monthly, seasonal, biannual, and annual.
These categories will help you fill out your cleaning schedule. And if you do an annual spring cleaning blitz, you might want to create a separate category for that.
4. Add all of your cleaning tasks to a calendar.
Our Printable Cleaning Binder Pack is an all-in-one resource with daily, weekly and monthly cleaning suggestions. Use the pre-filled calendar of tasks for a quick start or fill out the blank one to create your own personalized cleaning schedule. 
You can also record your cleaning schedule on any type of calendar. Choose the one that works best for you. Use the type that you already use in other areas of your life, not something new that will require extra work on your part.
- Paper Calendar: Check out our printable calendar pack. Included is a perpetual calendar intended for birthdays but it will work wonderfully for a cleaning schedule! Hang it in your pantry or linen closet for easy access.
- Digital Calendar: If you prefer to use technology, add the cleaning schedule tasks to a calendar application, such as iCal or Google Calendar. Go to the middle of this article and find a few links to electronic calendars that already have some home cleaning tasks scheduled for you. Add them to your personal calendar and adjust to your preferences. So easy!
- Reminder App: There are also several apps that you can download on your smart phone or tablet. Remember The Milk is a popular app that comes highly recommended, since it will remind you of tasks that you haven’t done yet, even if the date has already come and gone.
5. Test out your new cleaning and maintenance schedule.
Follow the cleaning schedule as best as you can and test out the timing of your tasks. As you go, adjust your calendar — maybe you’re scheduled to clean out the refrigerator before it needs it, so you change it from biweekly to monthly. By next year, you’ll have a complete cleaning schedule that is perfectly suited to your needs and your home!
Happy cleaning, friends!
Check out all our Spring Cleaning ideas, and even more:
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Originally published 05.07.2014 // Updated 02.10.2021
I’m Elisa and I live in Austin, Texas with my husband and our two little girls. I used to teach reading and writing, but now I stay at home with my two kiddos and read and write in my spare time. I also love to undertake DIY projects, find new recipes on Pinterest, and dream about someday finally completing our home. Above all, I love to learn about new things and sharing my new-found knowledge with others.
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Cleaning Binder & Custom Cleaning Calendar
This 18-page editable cleaning binder printable pack will help you establish a cleaning schedule based on the custom tasks you actually need for your home. From the spring cleaning checklist to everyday cleaning recipes, this printable set is great for kick-starting a cleaning routine and staying on task with annual and semi-annual tasks, too.
