How to Develop a Cleaning Schedule for a Kitchen

You're more likely to complete your tasks when you write them down.

Cleaning schedules are a great way to get organized and efficiently keep your house clean. The kitchen is one place where messes never seem to go away, but what better way to maintain it than to develop a structured cleaning list? Follow the schedule, and you'll feel like your kitchen cleans itself.

Things You'll Need

• Paper
• Pen

Instructions

1. Figure out what needs to be done daily. For instance, the stove isn't going to clean itself, and the dishes will continue to pile up if you skip a night of washing. Decide what tasks need to be done nightly to make life easier the next day.

2. Make a checklist. Writing down all of the things that need to be done keeps you from forgetting and makes the tasks seem less daunting. Put the time it takes you to do each task next to that task on your checklist, and you will more likely start the task feeling empowered and more likely get it done. You might be surprised to see that some tasks can be finished quickly. For instance, if the dishes need to be done, you might look at them and tell yourself it will take too long and you don't have time. However, the real time it takes to load the dishwasher might be a mere three minutes.

3. Identify things that need to be done less often, like weekly or monthly, and plan a time to do them. For instance, you probably need to mop your kitchen floor only once a week, and cleaning your stove or toaster oven can be done once a month. Decide on a specific day to do these things. For example, mop on Sunday and clean the stove on the 15th of every month.

4. Don't forget the little things. It's easy to ignore the top of the range when you're wiping down your kitchen, or you might forget to throw out your leftovers in the fridge until they pile up and you don't have room for the milk. Keep up your focus on the little maintenance things in the kitchen, and you can avoid stressing over a big mess.

Tips & Warnings

• Stick to your list. Even skipping one day can result in abandoning your list altogether.

References

• Real Simple: Kitchen Cleaning To-Do List