Creating a cleaning routine that is customized to how you work will not only make the process bearable but something you can actually enjoy accomplishing. Cleaning is something we all love to hate or is it hate to love? We all want clean homes so our families don’t have to worry about getting sick, we don’t have to worry about dust and germs, and ants!

I wrote about creating your perfect cleaning schedule and you can read about that here. One of the routines I mentioned that works for me is doing a full cleaning of our entire first floor. The second floor is broken up into different tasks for the remainder of the week.

I chose my Mondays to be the day that I clean up everything downstairs. We can start off the week off on the right foot. We usually have people over at some point on the weekends and everything gets messy and dirty.

I like to think of Mondays as a reset for the week. The major tasks that I do are dust surfaces, clean glass/mirrors, vacuum/mop the floor, clean the bathroom, and vacuum the stairs.

I always start by our stairs and move along the wall in one direction making sure that I don’t backtrack my steps.

How to Create an Easy 5 Step Cleaning Routine

Need a quick motivation boost to help you out?

Step 1 | Pick up and put away

This is not my favorite step of the cleaning routine because I have to keep bending down and standing back up but it makes the entire process easier and quicker. Cleaning is less of a headache if all the toys and all the clutter is picked up and put away. You aren’t tripping over things or having to move everything. There are less obstacles in your way.

So, I will start by the front door and walk through the living room, dining room, and kids playroom and straighten up the pillows, fold any blankets that were left out, and put all the toys back into the playroom.

I have also started pre-treating the toilet and the sink in the bathroom. That way the disinfectant, which needs 5 to 10 minutes, can start working.

Step 2 | Dusting

Tools for Dusting

I use a microfiber cloth and an all purpose cleaner when I dust surfaces. The all purpose cleaner I’m currently using is Method in Clementine. It smells so good! It definitely leaves the area smelling fresh and clean.

Start dusting all the surfaces from top to bottom.

Start from the highest point and work your way down so that you don’t have to re-clean and re-wipe spots that you have already cleaned.

Work in the same direction

Whether you want to work left to right or right to left. The process is to move vases, frames, and all other decor over in the same direction (to the unwiped area). Then back after it’s dusted. That way you are not scooting un-dusted items into a clean area.

Step 3 | Glass

After everything is dusted, I will start back at my starting point and I will move on to glass. This includes vases, mirrors, the glass inside picture frames, and our lamp base.

THE BEST GLASS CLEANER EVER.

I use a mixture of half water and half vinegar in a spray bottle. For smaller areas, I will spray the solution into a cloth. For the mirrors I will spray directly on the surface.

This step is pretty quick because there aren’t too many items with glass.

Step 4 | Powder room

Finishing the bathroom

At this point, I have half of the bathroom part of the cleaning routine completed. There are two shelves with some decor that were already wiped down in the dusting step. We also have a mirror and picture frame that were cleaned when in the glass step.

The next thing for me to do in the bathroom is re-spray the toilet and the sink (remember they were pre-treated in step 1) and wipe the handles and the pedestal sink. Then I will scrub the inside of the bowl and wipe down the exterior of the toilet.

Using another cloth I will also spray and wipe the girls’ step stool.

The final task in this step is to empty out the garbage.

Step 5 | Floors

All the dust and debris is now on the floor.

The next thing I will do as part of my cleaning routine is vacuum. There are two different floor attachments that I use for my vacuum, one is for the carpet (motorhead), and the other is a dusting tool for hard surfaces (soft roller).
I will go through and vacuum all the carpeted areas first, which are the living room and the playroom. After that, I will vacuum the kitchen rug and mudroom next and then move them to the playroom so they are out of the way.
Then I change the attachments and come back to the front door and vacuum the wood floors. The soft roller cleaner is perfect for sucking up all the fine dust particles from hard surfaces.

Stairs

Switching back to the regular motorhead vacuum attachment, I will run upstairs and vacuum my way back down the stairs. While doing this, I’m making sure I’m getting each step and landing along the way.

After vacuuming comes mopping!

Finally it’s time to mop! I use the Bona laminate floor cleaner with the spray mop and start back at the starting line pick up all the rugs and work my way around again until all the floors have been cleaned.