Daily:
1. Spot check each room in the house every morning and spend no more than a minute or two straightening key disaster areas. 
2. Spray and quick wipe down bathrooms to keep them presentable.

Cleaning Philosphy

I have learned that it’s very hard to keep a cleaning schedule which has me cleaning on my work days.  I think that the state of the house may reflect the state of the mind. At least in my case.

I think even if you create an elaborate cleaning schedule, you won’t be able to stick to it if you have no determination to keep your house clean.  Determination has to be a factor at some point.  That said, I do enjoy a clean house and am pretty determined to have a clean house.  I have dropped the rigid cleaning schedule and decided to focus on the following thoughts that I have:

• Keep a handle on “hot spots” — such as the kitchen table, floors, and den. 
• Do check the bathrooms daily.
• A tidy house allows for more enjoyment of everything — a nice candle, music, sitting down with a magazine.  A step in time saves nine.  It is easier just to keep things clean.
• Use tidying time each day to relax, exercise, and meditate, all at the same time.
• Simply, just do things when they need to be done.

Housekeeping Quotes

“The sunshine came in through the sparkling window panes, and everything was large and spacious and clean.”  Laura Ingalls describing Grandma’s house.  Little House in the Big Woods.

Miscellaneous Topics:
Kitchen Safety

View this video about how to handle a grease fire in the kitchen.

Making A Cleaning Schedule

If you absolutely must have a schedule, the simplest thing I have found is to take the number of rooms in your house and divide that by however many days a week you want to clean.  I don’t clean on Sundays, so my number was 6.  I also tried to group rooms together, for example having all the bathrooms on one day.  It might go something like this:

Monday:  Master bedroom, living room, den
Tuesday:  All three bathrooms
Wednesday:  Front porch, entry hall, pantry
Thursday:  Kitchen, back porch
Friday:  Children’s bedrooms
Saturday:  Office, garden area

In addition, I still recommend spot-checking the bathrooms and hot spots daily.  With a schedule like this, even if you miss a day, your home stays pretty neat and ready for company.

You can also declutter every day as you clean.  I keep a bag of donations sitting in my laundry room, ready to go out the door when it’s full.

Here a page on decluttering, with links to some of my other pages.