Stay-At-Home Housecleaning Plan:  Before You Start, Set Up A Plan 

Also see:  [ Housecleaning Methods ] [ Express Housecleaning Plan ] [ Working Person's Housecleaning Plan ]

   Systemizing housecleaning is one of the best improvements a homemaker can make to get her housework done in a timely manner.  This is approached on three levels:  daily jobs, weekly jobs, and deep-cleaning jobs.  Begin setting up a daily housecleaning plan by gathering about twelve blank, lined 3" x 5" cards.

    Decide which household tasks you want to do each morning:  make your bed, exercise, shower and get dressed, fix and clean up from breakfast, straighten the front room, get a batch of laundry started, sweep the kitchen floor, scrub out the bathroom sink.

    List each job that you feel is essential to your morning routine on a separate 3" x 5" card.  If you are in a complete mess and have had little success with daily housecleaning, limit the number of jobs to twelve.  This means that you will have twelve separate 3" x 5" cards prepared.  As you practice and gain confidence, you will be able to do more and more jobs each morning with greater and great ease.  Pretty soon you will be just like that "super" woman down the street who always seems to have an immaculate house.

    The goal for the first week is to complete all "twelve" daily jobs each morning.  This is how.  Get up in the morning and spread the cards out on your kitchen counter.  Choose one job to tackle, do it, and then turn the card over.  It is sort of a game, but is a wonderful "game" for two reasons.  1)  Many times a homemaker will get distracted with the needs of her husband and children.  When she wants to return to her chores, it takes alot of effort to overcome the current mood, possible weariness, and frequent mental distraction.  Having your chores listed on cards keeps you on track.  Off you go again to finish the next job, turn the card over, and on and on.  2)  Somehow, when you have previously decided what to do each morning and have listed those jobs on cards, the decision-making has already been done.  Just finish those twelve cards and you will be done with all the "daily" housekeeping you wanted to do this morning.  You don't have to decide each and every day what needs to be done, you can just get going and get the jobs done.

    Once you have successfully completed your daily jobs for one week, it is time to set up a weekly housecleaning system.  This is a bit more complicated to set up, but you will enjoy the freedom it brings.  Each and every week, if you do your weekly housecleaning jobs according to your housecleaning plan, you housework will be kept up.

    Here's how!  Gather or purchase a 3" x 5" recipe card box.  Purchase a set of Stay-At-Home Housecleaning Plan DIVIDERS (available on this web site) or label blank card dividers with the following:  Daily (which is where you will store the "daily" cards which you have already prepared), Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  (When your set up your deep-cleaning job system, you will need another twelve 3" x 5" card dividers which will be labeled January - December.)  Then purchase a Stay-At-Home Housecleaning Plan PACKET (available on this web site) or take about 25 blank, lined 3" x 5" cards and go to work.  

    Label one "Laundry" (in the top left-hand corner) and write in the upper right-hand corner how often you plan to do your regular laundry, i.e. "Monday, Wednesday, Friday".  Store this card behind the "Monday" divider for now. 

    Label a second card in the upper left-hand corner "Vacuum" and write in the upper right-hand corner how often you plan to do the vacuuming, i.e. "Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday".  Store this card behind the "Tuesday" divider.

    Label a third card in the upper left-hand corner "Dust" and write in the upper right-hand corner on which you plan to do the dusting, i.e. "Friday".  Store this card behind the "Friday" divider.  Continue with all the jobs you desire to do each week.  (Again, you may find it convenient to purchase a pre-made set of 3" x 5" Stay-At-Home Housecleaning Plan PACKET cards which includes daily, weekly, and deep-cleaning jobs already neatly printed on cardstock and the pre-printed Stay-At-Home Housecleaning Plan DIVIDERS.)  Once you have set up your weekly housekeeping system, you are ready to go again.

    Each morning, complete your daily housecleaning cards first, flipping each card over as the job is done.  Then put these cards away and get out your weekly housecleaning cards for that particular day.  Spread your cards and go to work again.  The daily cards are always completed first, then the weekly cards second, and finally one of your deep-cleaning cards is pulled out and that job tackled (if there still time).  But we will talk about that ...

    At a later date, we will continue the discussion of the Housecleaning Plan, particularly regarding deep-cleaning.

Find more helpful ideas in "House of Order" Handbook, Chapter 15 "Housecleaning Plan" or consider the "Stay-At-Home Housecleaning Plan" packet and the Stay-At-Home Housecleaning Plan DIVIDERS.  You may also wish to purchase clear, plastic 3" x 5" index card slipcovers to keep your cards clean and neat.

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