A Weekly Dive: Keeping My Home Clean

Many of you have been interested in what I use to keep my house clean. And some of you might be wondering how I manage my "cleaning schedule."

Since we are a couple with no children and I am currently unemployed, I don't find much offense to being the sole tidier of our home. Chris helps where he can, but with my controlling nature and him having a 9-5, I don't find his help (always) necessary.

I have found it tricky to find a cleaning schedule that worked for me. I used to plan to clean the upstairs on Monday's, the main floor on Wednesday's and the basement on Friday's. Giving me "Days Off" in between as well as the weekend to relax in my clean home.

However...when I started working from home, I found that schedule did not work for me. For whatever reason, my mind became somewhat overwhelmed and I told myself "if you don't clean today there's always tomorrow..."

Then, a good friend of mine told me her "secret" to keeping her house clean all week long. "Choose one small (cleaning) task, for every single day." Alliteration was involved as well, which was a HUGE bonus! I was also challenged by my wonderful Simplified Planner to start a load of laundry every morning, I categorized what I wash as we only have the two of us at the current moment!

Sit back, relax and let's dive into the week:

**I wanted to preface this section with the types of flooring we have throughout the house. Upstairs and basement are entirely carpet, with the exception of the bathrooms which are laminate. The main floor is half laminate wood flooring and half tile.**

Sweep + Swiffer Sunday

We do a lot of our "living" on the main floor so every Sunday this level gets a simple sweep through and then run over it again with our Dry Swiffer, to collect any Loki Hairs or extra dust that the broom missed.

Sunday's the day I wash all of our kitchen towels and rags.

Mop it Up Monday

Mopping is not everyone's favorite chore, and I have to say I am right there with you. At least, that is, until we welcomed this bad boy into our home! Meet "10 in 1 PurSteam Mop."

Light weight, easy to store and takes the stress out of mop-days! You can steam clothes, couches, carpets, as well as your floors (not recommended for HARD WOOD).

Check out the pictures below to see how clean it got our hard-to-clean crevices in our shower!!!

Monday's laundry load are Loki's blankets.

Toilet Tuesday

Over the last few years I have made it a goal to use only clean-cleaning products on our surfaces. A lot of people and companies are apart of this movement which has made it easier to consume and try out these different products. One of my favorite places to shop is Grove Collaborative.

A lot of the products are safe to use with a household filled with kids and pets and still gets the surfaces clean/disinfected. Did you know that our largest organ is our skin? So what we clean with (soaps, shampoos + household cleaners) is extremely important.

You can also find most of these products at your local grocery stores. My favorite toilet cleaner is from Method :)

Tuesday I wash our bedding and our first set of bathroom towels

Window Wednesday

Speaking of chemical free, brands like Norwex are huge with their water-only method of cleaning/polishing appliances and surfaces. I found this off brand version E-Cloth. It comes with a pack of cloths all designed to clean off different things: dusting, windows, mirrors, counter tops, stove tops, and stainless steel. It also comes with some polishing cloths. I have loved using this on my fridge, mirrors and occasionally my windows.

I don't have children yet, so window washing day is more focused on mirrors. However our dog, though smaller, still barks out of our front door window and gets his little nose-smears on the bottom two panes, but again that is an "as needed" task for now.

Wednesday's load is all of our couch pillow cases and throw blankets.

Trash + ("Thuck it Up") Thursday

I cannot take credit for the phrase "thuck it up" my friend gave me that for Thursday's vacuuming task!

I L*O*V*E using my Dyson Cyclone v10 vacuum! Another item that is light weight and uses no annoying chords. We store ours in the laundry room on it's charging station. It comes with many different attachments and it makes vacuuming the stairs a BREEZE.

Our trash gets picked up Friday morning, so I added taking the trashes out to my Thursday schedule.

Thursday's laundry is dedicated to all the bathroom's hand towels.

Feather Dust Friday

I make my own dusting spray. I love knowing exactly what is in my solution and found this "recipe" years ago on Pinterest from Hello Glow!

I use a standard sized spray bottle, so I have had to modify the recipe a bit, and now I just eyeball the ingredients:

1/2 cup water

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1/2 Tablespoon vinegar

5 drops of Lavender essential oil

5 drops of Orange essential oil

5 drops of Lemon essential oil

Extra Large Flour Sack Towels (rolled and stored in a giant Ball Jar container

The recipe calls for saturating the towels and then storing them, but I like to carry the solution around with one or two dry towels, shaking the bottle before every spritz, and dusting the house that way.

Friday's I wash our dirty clothing from that week.

I have loved using these new detergent sheets, rather than using big bulky plastic jugs. I also use a bleach alternative, which, when paired with Amway's Prewash Spray has been wonderful for getting out stains. I have also found these reusable dryer sheets to be a great way to abstain from waste.

Sinks, Counters + Shower Saturday

This is the day I like to clean up the bathroom sinks and countertops as well as our shower. I showed you what the steam mop can do for hard to reach creases, where buildup gets caked into. But for a general shower cleaner, and surface cleaner I like using anything from Meyers or Seventh Generation.

I also use these products for cleaning the exterior parts of our toilets.

A recent purchase has been these reusable, and laundry washable, bamboo paper towels. You have to check them out!

Saturday I wash our 2nd set of bathroom towels.

I also like to use these surface cleaners in my kitchen, which is an every day space that is tidied and cleaned ( we use it every day, so there is always some sort of mess in the kitchen) As well as the stainless steel and stovetop cloth, that I mentioned earlier.

During the winter months, where salt is being drug in from shoes, as well as leaves in the autumn, I vacuum up the entryways almost on a daily basis as well.

The only other major cleaning, right now, is Loki's bedding, which I try to wash 1-2 times a month.

Let me know if you have any recommendations or if you use any of these cleaning products! I always feel so good after my house is cleaned and even better when I know the products I am using are safe!

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Check out this video on how I get out a tomato stain on a white/cream colored shirt, with today's talked about laundry products: