Recently, I polled my followers on Instagram about how much time they spend on cleaning-related tasks and chores for their home. There were a wide range of responses including things like, “Too much” and “Not enough” and even one person said, “Some days too much, some days not enough!”
Overall, I’d say most people are spending something like 30 minutes to 2 hours on cleaning-related tasks most days. That also depends upon whether you include laundry and dishes in that number! How much time are you spending on cleaning at your house? I’d love to hear!
I also asked for people to share what system they use to keep their home clean and organized, if they have one to recommend. I got SO many responses and there were eight systems that were mentioned again and again! I wanted to share them here for anyone looking for a new system. I’ve included some basic details plus pricing.
If you’ve used any of these systems, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
1. The Confident Mom Household Planner
This is a printable planner that goes through your home and gives you tasks to do each week and each day to keep your home organized and decluttered. There is one page per week and you can type in additional tasks and then print or use it digitally. You can get a one-week sample here.
Price: $19 (they sometimes have sales and you can currently get 2023 for just $5 since it’s October)
2. Flylady
I used this method when Jesse and I were first married. It revolves around Flylady’s babysteps: shining your sink, getting dressed to the shoes, a weekly home blessing, decluttering 15 minutes a day, and using a Control Journal. You can get tasks via email (if it’s still like it used to be, you’ll get a LOT of emails!) or there is now an app. The site and system is fairly antiquated as it hasn’t been updated much since I used it 20 years ago, but there is a still a lot of value.
Price: Free (but there are products you can purchase if you choose to)
3. A Slob Comes Clean
Dana White is the creator of the site called A Slob Comes Clean and her tagline is reality-based cleaning, decluttering, and organizing. She is very loved — especially by people who find other cleaning systems and checklists to be a struggle (I think many Type B personalities find her especially relatable!). She offers lots of blog posts, free printables, has written three books, and has a very popular podcast.
Price: Free
4. Clean Mama Routine
Clean Mama offers a home management plan that involves daily tasks, weekly tasks, rotating tasks, and a monthly focus. She outlines it all here in this blog post. She has a Homekeeping Society you can join for $19/month if you need extra encouragement and accountability, a Homekeeping Planner you can purchase with all of the tasks laid out for you ($58), a digital Homekeeping Planner ($28), and lots of printable guides.
Price: Varies (can use the free method outlined here or purchase products)
5. The Organised Mum Method
The Organised Mum is a system for home management that involves daily chores (called Level 1 jobs), Monday through Thursday jobs, and then weekly Friday Focus jobs. (See it all outlined in the free printables here). There is also a book, journal, podcast, and app.
Price: Free
6. Go Clean Go
Go Clean Go is probably one of the most well-known cleaning Instagram accounts (I mean, she has 2.4 million followers!) Sarah also has the BleachPrayLove.com website where she offers cleaning challenges, cleaning tips, sells her Cleaning Army Calendar, and has a Cleaning Course. She also has a YouTube channel.
Price: Varies (Cleaning challenges and her IG are free but her system costs $)
7. Motivated Moms
Motivated Moms is a “done-for-you checklist of chores that breaks down household tasks into smaller, more manageable bites.” You pay $2/month and you’ll get access to their app, the printable planners, and a private Facebook community. (You can also pay $19.99 for an entire year.) I used this one years ago and found it very helpful to know exactly what to do each day.
Price: $2/month
8. Passionate Penny Pincher Home Planners
My friend, Laurie, from Passionate Penny Pincher has a whole line of products designed to help you have more organization in your home and they come in physical products and digital products. Her Digital Home Planner and PDF downloads are the best deal on the system, but if you want physical products, she also offers the Home Planners which are beautiful and combine a home planning/cleaning system with your daily plan/to do list and more!
Price: $17-$59
Bonus: Adaptive Cleaning by Sarah McGlory
One of my followers suggested this cleaning system as a great system for those who have chronic illness or disabilities. I wanted to include it on this list as I thought it might be helpful to some of you!
Also, just for fun, here are a few of the other home management methods people submitted:
- “My plan is when I see something that needs to be done, I do it and then I write it on my list and check it off!”
- “If it’s dirty, clean it when the guilt is overpowering. Yep.”
- “Invite people over and clean like crazy!”
- “The I Get To It When I Get to It Plan.”
- “Wait until it gets so bad that someone else does it!”
- “My cleaning schedule is called ‘I can’t do everything so today I will tackle what is the worst and let go of the rest.”