Do you have a housework/cleaning routine? Please share what works for you!

[aperollingintotheweekend]

I’ll preface with the fact I have ADHD and therefore find a consistent routine to keep my house perfect to be an ongoing challenge! I want a physical routine I can follow that eventually becomes a habit, because otherwise my ADHD brain just wants to swerve this type of thing and deprioritise it.

To those of you with your shit together.. or somewhat together.. what works for you? Do you follow something like TOMM? Do you have a weekly or daily routine you’ve made yourself? I’d love to know what works for you - or maybe you’re all magicians that just do it all in your heads and keep on top of everything.. if so I envy you but don’t think I’ll ever get to that level of high functioning 😆

Would love any tips and inspiration on this! 🧼🫧

Yes I do but in fairness I'm retired now. It was nowhere near as easy when I was still working from.

However, here's mine:

(Only me and DH at home now)

Daily - wipe down the kitchen and utility, vacuum throughout downstairs and quickly use the feather duster around the main sitting room. Takes no more than 15/20 mins in total

Every Thursday - clean the whole of the upstairs, clean skirting boards and vacuum through. (4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms). Takes just over an hour.

Every Friday - Change bedding in master bedroom and any beds which have been used that week, clean the whole of downstairs, clean skirting boards and vacuum through. (Kitchen, utility, dining room, sitting room, hallway and stairs). Takes around 2 hours.

Laundry I just do whenever needed. I dry outside when possible otherwise I have a tumble dryer, dehumidifier and a very large airing cupboard.

Dishes - don't do dishes! 😀 I have a dishwasher which is used once daily.

Windows - we have stay clean glass so I only do them every 3 months or so. Outside DH and I do between us every few months as we have a large pole.

I think the knack is having less stuff. Less clothes so wardrobes aren’t overflowing and laundry doesn’t build up. A storage space for everything, train the dc to put stuff back if you have them. It’s much easier to clean clear surfaces than look at piles of stuff and not know where to begin.

I find it hard because if it cost me money I’m loathe to part with it. I’ve had some brutal clear outs and it’s given me back so much space. Try and give every room a clean once a week. It’s stuff that looks messy. Even if your sitting room is full of dust hair it doesn’t look thst bad if there isn’t stuff lying around. Shower spray helps prevent build up.

I tend to do regular stuff on the same days, changing the bedding and towels one day, laundry the next. Vacuum and dust next. Thursday, today I've ironed the few things I do iron (as few as possible). Tomorrow I will do big shop, Saturday i do some batch cooking and freezing meals. If you "chunk it up" you can spend less time finding excuses not to do it. 😊 As long as the kitchen and bathroom are cleaned I don't worry about it. Perfect will just stress you.

I have a schedule where I do a couple of rooms each day, otherwise I can’t keep on top of it. That way each room gets a full clean once a week.

Agree
declutter
everything has its place - and is put back there.
clean house once a week. - couple of hours
laundry once the basket is full
iron once a week

I also have ADHD, and find that "gameifying" it works for me.
Every household job has a set number of points assigned to it, depending on how hard I find it. Jobs that are easy for me, like unloading the dishwasher are worth 1 point. But jobs that I find really hard, like putting clean washing away, or changing the bed, are worth 7 or 8 points.
For every 50 points I earn, I get a prize. Just something small like a takeaway coffee. Seems to work for me.

I have a routine split into
daily jobs :
unload/load dishwasher
clean kitchen surfaces/ table
sweep kitchen
spray and wipe bathroom (sink, shower and toilet)
one load of laundry (wash dry and put away)
Every other day jobs:
hoover downstairs
Rotating daily jobs:
Monday living room
Tuesday Bedrooms and bedding
Wednesday bathroom
Thursday kitchen
Friday jobs that need to be done once a month like windows, weeding, radiators, under beds, declutter, skirting boards. I pick a couple of these to do every friday.
Saturday Ironing/ life admin
Sunday Free day

I like to watch shows like hoarders to motivate me, or timing myself for a job that I am procrastinating on (like the Tik tok how long does it take where the creator shows how long she has been procrastinating and avoiding a job vs the amount of time it takes her to do it), or watching trashy tv while I iron (I do like to imagine myself as a stew doing the laundry while watching Below Deck for example). When I am "stuck" I will also make myself do "just one thing". struggling to empty the dishwasher, just do one mug, or the top shelf, because more often than not I find myself actually doing the whole thing once I start and if I don't well it's one more mug or dishwasher shelf done more than before.
I try and abide by the one touch rule (once you pick up something return it to it's place not a random ever growing "pile of doom") or "if a job is going to take less than 2 minutes do it now", or "look around for 5 things that should be binned or tidied" when I am in a room at a loose end.