Daily Cleaning Routine Checklist
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Keep your home looking tidy throughout the week by adding this 20-minute daily routine to your house cleaning schedule.
A Daily Cleaning Schedule
You do not need to clean your entire home every day. The key is focusing your attention on areas that make your entire home look messy if they’re not dealt with, like unmade beds, a sink full of dishes, and trash left sitting around. For health reasons, it also includes disinfecting high-touch spots like faucets, toilet seats, and appliance handles, and wiping food preparation surfaces. If you have time, picking up clutter and vacuuming high-traffic areas come next. This daily cleaning routine addresses all of those areas and a few others to help your home look nice all week long.
Before you begin
Cleaning goes faster when there’s not a lot to clean. So, if you haven’t been in the habit of tidying, it may take longer the first time you go through this checklist. But the next day, things will go faster and after several days of repeating it, you can get it down to 20 minutes or so.
Bedroom
- Make your bed every morning. A rumpled bed makes even the cleanest rooms look like a disaster.
- Pick up all clothing. Fold or hang clean items and put dirty clothes in your hamper.
- Put away your jewelry, hand lotion, and other items that are on your nightstand.
- Check the floor: vacuum or mop high-traffic areas as needed.
Bathroom
- Wipe the sink basin clean after you’ve used it.
- Buff water spots from the mirror and faucets.
- Wipe the toilet seat and rim with a disinfecting cloth.
- Spray the shower, tub, and shower door/curtain with the homemade daily shower spray.
- Replace any makeup-stained towels or washcloths with clean ones.
- Check the floor — sweep or vacuum as needed.
Kitchen
- Empty the dishwasher if it’s full.
- Empty the sink of any dirty dishes, and give it a quick scrub.
- Get your kitchen sponge wet and microwave it for 2 minutes.
- Spray and wipe counters and appliance fronts.
- Put away clutter.
- Use a damp microfiber cloth to wipe up any splatters on the floor.
- Toss the dirty dish towel in the wash, and put out a clean one.
- Give the floor a quick sweep.
Living Room
- Straighten all pillows and blankets on the sofa, which is one of the room’s focal points.
- Neaten magazines, books, games, and DVDs that are sitting out.
- Wipe crumbs and fingerprints from tabletops.
- Check the floor. Use a carpet sweeper or hand vacuum to pick up any messes from the floor.
Laundry
If you’re fortunate enough to own laundry appliances, try to wash a room’s laundry on the day you clean it. You’ll find there’s a note on the daily cleaning checklist to remind you about this — don’t ignore it! Staying on top of laundry throughout the week can help protect your weekends, so you have more time for fun.
Example House Cleaning Schedule
If you’re in the habit of cleaning your home on the weekend, you’ll find it goes much faster once you’ve started tidying things daily. But if you’d rather spread cleaning throughout the week, you can do that by doing the daily cleaning tasks for the whole house, then each day doing the weekly cleaning tasks for one room.
Monday: Daily + Weekly Kitchen Cleaning
Tuesday: Daily + Weekly Bathroom Cleaning
Wednesday: Daily + Weekly Bedroom Cleaning
Thursday: Daily + Catch up on Laundry
Friday: Daily + Weekly Living Room Cleaning
Saturday: Daily + DIY / Outdoor Tasks
Sunday: Relax + Plan Weekly Menu
Printable Daily Cleaning Checklist
Note: The following checklist is for personal use only. Not to be distributed or sold. Copyright 2023 Katie Berry.
On desktop: download or print from the screen.
On phones and tablets: download then print from your device.
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I just want to say thank you! In all these years your methods of cleaning is literally the only thing that has worked consistently for me and easy to follow through and maintain without all the extras. I’m naturally all over the place and your system has been a great help to my family and home and things actually get done!
Katie thank you so much for all your wonderful tips I enjoy reading them and I enjoy doing them I look forward always to the next one when it comes out thank you so very much it’s always a pleasure just kidding wonderful ideas again I think you so very much
I recently found your site. I love it. It’s full of tips and tricks. Thanks for sharing. I have had to learn to clean by watching videos.
what is the spray you use on your counter tops? ty
I use my homemade all-purpose cleaner.
Both of these comments are so sweet to read. I will continue the use of this lovely woman’s site and will be investigating her books. How divine to read such a lovely back and forth. God blesd.
Do you do these in the AM or PM?
I stumbled onto this page one morning about 4am when I couldn’t sleep. We had just moved into a new house and it has all hard floors and vaulted ceilings. I wasn’t used to so much daily dust. It drives me crazy. So, Here I am… downloading the routine daily list. It is so very true about the daily making the bed and straightening the sofa pillows. It is such a little quick thing that makes big differences. Wish me luck folks. I’m excited to get started. Thank you to those who provide this page. I am happier that I found it. : )
I was searching for ways to be a better housewife, and I came across your blog. I’m so thankful I did. While in the middle of reading this post, I decided to go clean my kitchen, so we have a fresh start to our morning tomorrow. I will be returning to read some more content! 🙂
Katie, i’m so happy to have found your DIY suggestions here. You have so many things that are helpful to keep our homes clean and bug free. I have a comment for the lady that commented on the dead roach what is she doing to help us D clutter and get rid of our bugs? Keep up the good work you are helping all of us so much. Thanks, Janine
I just came across what you do, I think it’s awesome. I collected one of the printables (DAILY WHOLE HOUSE TIDY ROUTINE), good stuff to try. Want to mention your very positive and encouraging in what you say to people, our father in heaven appreciates that, he sees the things we do and the help we try to give to others. Keep up the good work. I have two kids and what you said, that having those circumstances, don’t expect your house to always be perfect, that just makes sense especially when you have children, thanks. And I’m sorry for the loss of your husband, you know the Bible talks about a time when suffering and even death will be done away with, it even tells about God’s promised resurrection were we can once again be with loved ones we’ve lost when God brings them back to life. So take comfort!!
Hi from England!
I purchased your book last night and was eager to get started!
So this morning I have started on ‘day one’ which is the daily house routine! I knew my house was a mess (work full time, two kids (6,2) and a cat) but never realised the full extent of how just how messy it had become. I keep cleaning it, but within 5minutes it’s back to square one! Well I got up this morning and started day one, it has taken me an hour and a half to do 3 out of 4 sections of the routine (granted with distractions in between) but hopefully tomorrow I can spend less time on it and achieve the same results! But the sections I have done are looking better than they have in a long time! Now onto the living room!
Thank you!
Congratulations on taking the first steps to get your home under control. I know it’s a lot of effort initially but, after a few days of following the Daily Routine, you’ll find it goes very quickly. Before you know it, the rest of your life starts feeling more under control, too.
Thanks you very much! It is very helpful.
Great and very helpful printable! I just moved to a new place and I’m currently trying to set a new routine for cleaning it. Your plan seems to work perfectly for me and I found some great reminders for places I often forget to clean. Thank you for sharing! I alredy made some copies for my sister and some friends too. Greets!
I Love this Cleaning Check List…..However I am certain my Adult Live at Home sons will have a very different opinion. Thanks for saring
oops sharing
My teenager isn’t a fan of it since I only have to point to the list rather than standing there arguing with him about his chores. But I definitely love it!
This is great, thanks for sharing 🙂
Thankyou for for this article, because being such a busy mom and nurse student, sometimes I just don’t know where to start. Plus your money saving ideas for homade products really come in handy because I already have the ingredients at home and being in colledge is pretty expensive. Thanks for sharing this.
You’re very welcome! And kudos to you for juggling college and raising kiddos. My mom went through nursing school while she was raising me so I know it’s difficult, but it’s going to be worth it. You’re setting a fantastic example for your kids! 🙂
I just found this page via a mother on Cafemom, I have been trying to get into a cleaning routine and I have found a few, but none that I liked… I am going to be giving this a try!! 🙂 Thanks for posting this!! 🙂
Thank you for the kind words!
Thank you for posting this I am excited to start! I am pregnant and falling into the blues. I have a large house and so much to do. We have recently done major home renovations and in addition to the daily grind I have to clean much of the left over construction grime. I also fell of the cleaning rhythm when the entire house was covered in construction materials. They were terrible and we ended up firing the company…so everything was left “as is”… a mess. I am going to take a deep breath, get out of bed, stop procrastinating and charge! It´s overwhelming but this gives me a place to start. Again thank you for sharing…I will be looking to your site for inspiration and tips on how to best accomplish the tasks ahead. 🙂
Lee, I think anyone in your situation would be feeling the blues. How awful that you had to fire the contractors! I’m glad you’re feeling motivated to get life back on track, though. That’s resilient! Take things slow so you don’t burn out, and at the end of every day be sure to make a mental note of three things you’ve improved so you KNOW you’re making headway. Best of luck to you!
Just found your site and out of all the “cleaning schedules” I have looked up and tried to use, these seem to be the most fun and planned out. I love the flow charts and it gives a clear start and finish vs. just do this and this and this with little to no direction.
I do have a question….why microwave the wet sponge?
Thank you for the kind words, Leah! I like flow charts because, as you pointed out, they have a clear-cut start and finish. Without them, I feel like my work for the day is never really done.
As for microwaving the sponge: those things are scary bacteria factories. If they’re not cared for properly, they can breed e. Coli and other things that we’re trying to get rid of. Microwaving a sponge sterilizes it and kills off those nasty bugs. Just be sure it’s soaking wet or you’ll start a fire!
Thanks for the tip on sponges. I never really knew how to maintain them before, but I’m going to start microwaving them now!
Thank you so much for making these kinds of things available for print. They have been really useful for me. It challenges me to clean things I pay little attention to, like “Vacuum under the bed” with the hose which has never crossed my mind and helps me actually sleep better since I’ve started using your charts. And because I’m so ADD, these act as an anchor for me and cleaning so I actually get a room clean all the way. In addition, I made an organizational notebook for my mom and best friend last year using these and they love them!
I’m so glad you’re finding them useful, Kim, and it’s really sweet of you to have taken the time to let me know that! 🙂
I am a big fan of the checklists too! Thanks for posting them. It is always nice to get someone else’s perspective on what is important to add to the cleaning routine. I am prone to missing stuff so this list is helpful!
My pleasure.