Spring Cleaning! -- 30 Minutes a Day for a Month (a detailed plan for FlyLady Fans)

Spring is in the air!! Can't you feel it? My friend Anita, at Snippets from the Michelsons posted a great picture of her kids jumping on the trampoline and I realized, it would be way more fun just to pitch the dust mop and go join them! (If you drop by, tell her I sent you.:o)  Sigh.. but the fact is that with all that spring sunshine comes the very obvious fact, that things have gotten dusty over the holidays.  What I can't see doesn't bother me too much, but when the sun shines all over my dirty windows--Yipes!!  That's when I know it's time for some serious deep cleaning! It's Spring..for sure!

One of my friends, who was new to the FlyLady home management program, asked me if I could send her a daily reminder for what to clean in each area of the house, since she was overwhelmed by the long list of cleaning tasks. FlyLady's main premise is that you should work through one room per week (called a zone) and that you should declutter first--then worry about deep cleaning. Each Monday, you did a 'home blessing' which was an hour of surface maintenance to keep things acceptably clean while you had your house on this 'clutter diet' as I call it. It's a great plan that changed my life and my home.

But what about when your house really is decluttered--then what?  Well, she gives you a list of cleaning jobs for the main areas of the house, but there was no specific plan that you could follow on a daily basis.  Now, things may have changed recently and I am just not aware of it, but this seemed to be an itty bitty gap in an otherwise fantastic sytem for establishing order in our homes.

I had been asked that question many times while teaching workshops using the FlyLady system, so I devised a plan that helped Colleen and all my workshop attendees. This plan was incredibly popular! I could never make enough copies of it.  It is simply 30 daily tasks grouped  into five weekly sections, that amount to a a plan that allows you to clean the house from top to bottom in one month.. If you do each one, once a day, then by the end of the month, the house will have been 'deep cleaned'.  It's a great way to train your older teens the various jobs that it takes to truly deep clean the house. I call it my 'apprenticeship program' for older teen daughters who plan to make homemaking their main career, as I did.

Select and print out the list below and tape the page to the fridge.  Then just check off the jobs as you do them! Even if it takes a month and a half, at least you are not trying to do all of this in one weekend. I used to do this every week! No family fun on Saturdays for us!  Since I teach school all day  and cart kids to various activities every week, I couldn't afford to spend a whole day cleaning from top to bottom.

For those of you who work outside the home, or who have major home business, I think this would be a big help. We can't all afford a housekeeper, so this is a good option for us, I think.    Let me know if this works for you.

Monthly Deep Cleaning by the Week
     30 min to 1 hr per day

Week 1 -   Entryway, Front Porch, Dining Room 

O Dust: everything: ceiling fans, window sills, rafters, front door, especially cobwebs.
O Sweep and Mop floors and porch, shake rugs and mats
O Clean front door, switch plates and fingerprints from walls (409)
O Polish: Wash and polish diningroom table and chairs. Polish all wood.
O Glass: Clean windows,  pictures, knickknacks etc. (Windex)

Week 2 - Kitchen 

 O Empty and Clean Refrigerator
 O Clean stove and oven top
 O Wipe fingerprints off of switchplates, and walls  (409)
 O Wash cabinet fronts, polish if wood (Murphy's Oil Soap, Furniture Polish)
 O Clean small appliances, canisters knickknacks, window, light diffusing bowls     (Windex)  (Mop floor weekly)

Week 3 - Main Bathroom and Child's Room (or Office)  

 O Launder: Wash area rugs, curtains, (shower curtain if necessary), Bedspread, mattress pad, and dust ruffle (turn mattress)
 O Floors: Vacuum, sweep, scrub and/ or wax floors
 O Scrub toilet, shower door, tub (use Bathroom cleaner for water deposits and scum)
 O Dust high and low, (ceiling fans, floorboards,) cobwebs, polish furniture and wood
 O Clean windows, mirrors, switchplates, walls and doors, medicine cabinet, dresser tops (409/ Windex)

Week 4 - Master Bedrooom and bathroom 

 O Launder: Wash area rugs, curtains, (shower curtain if necessary), Bedspread, mattress pad, and dust ruffle (turn mattress)
 O Floors: Vacuum, sweep, scrub and/ or wax floors
 O Scrub toilet, shower door, tub (use Bathroom cleaner for water deposits and scum)
 O Dust high and low, (ceiling fans, floorboards,) cobwebs, polish furniture and wood
 O Clean windows, mirrors, switchplates, walls and doors, medicine cabinet, dresser tops (409/ Windex)

Last Few Days - Livingroom and/or Den 

 O Vacuum everything: furniture, under furniture, floors, lampshades
 O Dust high and low: ceiling fans, floorboards, picture frames, cobwebs, steroes, tv and other electronic equipment
 O Polish Furniture, bookshelves
 O Wipe all glass: windows, knickknacks, tvs, computer, stereo, pictures, telephone
 O Declutter magazines, end tables, bookcases, closets (Maintenance decluttering)

Happy Homemaking!