Master Cleaning Schedule: Organize Your Home in Just 1 Hour Per Day

Wondering how to organize your home without losing steam or it feeling overwhelming? We all feel the stress that comes with a disorganized and cluttered home and having what feels like zero time to get things under control.  Luckily, we have a simple method to organize your home with as little as 1 hour per day! Following this step-by-step cleaning schedule and checklist by room makes this much easier to follow than other, more vague organization tips for the home. 

Why is Having a Cleaning Schedule Important?

While the thought of tackling your entire home or apartment is enough to overwhelm most of us, breaking it into a few clear, small, discrete tasks that can be done in very little time each day feels a lot more manageable. Sometimes we set ourselves up for failure by being too ambitious, when doing less might be the path to accomplishing more in the long run. How many times have you started on a massive decluttering project only to quit partway through? We’d like to suggest that it’s not you who failed, but the system itself. 

Join Our 7-Day Home Organization Challenge!

Our challenge to you? Accomplish more by doing less. Focus on one area each day and keep your cleaning time-boxed (1-2 hours only). Within a week, your home can be transformed with more organization with very little time lost from your day. If this schedule doesn’t get you where you want to be (ex: you have a larger home), you can do this in 2 or even 3 cycles. The key is keeping the amount of time you spend cleaning each day short and manageable so there are fewer excuses not to follow this master cleaning schedule for your home. Keep these cleaning sessions bite-sized and high energy, and you’ll be impressed with how much home organization can be accomplished with just 1-2 hours per day. Join us in this home challenge!

Ground Rules for Gradually Decluttering

Before we dive into the specifics of each day and each room, we need to set some ground rules for us all to follow. 

1. We will focus on 1 hour per day. Set a timer and get to work. We shall not Dilly Dally! The goal is to complete this challenge in 1 week.
2. We will focus on one space per day. You are welcome to adjust which room you do daily. There is some method to the madness we have set forth in what rooms are tackled on which days. But by all means, adjust to fit your individual needs
3. Be Intentional. This will only work if you are focused on really organizing.
4. This is not a time to deep clean. I know you will find dust on the floor boards or stains that the children have been hiding, but those are for another day and another project.  For this specific project we are going  to focus on the act of organizing and simplifying.
5. Have some fun and get some help! Bring your partner, children or even friends along on your challenge. Blast some music and make this a fun event. Maybe fun enough to complete each new year.

Now that we have got the logistics out of the way, remember, this is an intentional challenge to help organize and simplify your life to bring less chaos to your new year.

Day 1: The Kitchen & Dining Area

We are going to start off strong with beginning our challenge in the kitchen! For me, there is nothing more soothing than a sink void of dishes and the clean smell of a sanitized kitchen. 

Tasks: 

• Clear off all counters 
• Clean out that junk drawer (or cabinet…. guilty!)
• Go through your dishes and throw out anything that does have a match Example: make sure your tupperware has a lid that fits and if you can’t find one, then it is time to say bye-bye to that container.
• Clear off the kitchen/dining room table
• Open the silverware drawer(s) and throw out any dinged up utensils.
• Clear out old or unused cooking utensils.
• Go through appliances and get rid of any that are broken or unused.

Now, once you have gone through and purged your items you can put things back into the area with more space. Remember, this is about simplifying and bringing order to your area. You can organize things in a way that makes sense to you and your life and your individual space. And feel free to vacuum the cobwebs and crumbs that have been hiding in the back of those cabinets for some time. We don’t need to deep clean, but if your timer allows, why not tackle a few extra things on your to-do list. 

Day 2: Bathroom(s) 

Now, if you are like me and just live in a two-bedroom apartment with only one bathroom, then this day can be pretty simple for you.  But when I tackle my small bathroom, I also include my linen and medicine closet. Again, this is all about making this fit your home and individual needs. Now set that timer and get to work!

• Get rid of old /unused soaps, shampoos, and hair products
• Go throw towels and washcloths and toss those old dingy ones with makeup stains 
• Go through your medicine cabinet and throw away the expired medicines
• Empty trash
• Make a list of items that need to be replaced 
• Restock your toilet paper stash 
• Replace your plunger & toilet brush set 
• Wipe down the dust from the usually unseen places. 
• Reset 
• Use plastic organizational bins for cleaning supplies and Bath supplies for optimal chaos avoidance. These are the ones we use in our home! 

Day 3: Primary Bedroom 

Day three we are tackling the primary bedroom and closet space. 

• Take all clothes out of the closet
• Sort through all of them and toss out anything that doesn’t fit or that you haven’t worn in the last 3 months. 
• Organize clothes based on season.
• Use storage bins for clothes that are not in season but that you still want to keep. 
• All storage bins can go in your garage or your storage unit for optimal space in your primary bedroom closet. 

Day 4: Children’s Rooms & Play Area 

In our home the kids are responsible for helping do a clean up at the end of every day… or every few days. But I still like to focus on their bedrooms and play area specifically to get through the broken and junk items that they never throw away. 

• Get a trash bag and toss any junk items or trash
• Donate toys that are no longer used or have missing pieces 
• Gather all toys and sort them into basket(s)
  • I love the cube shelves and the plastic bins to sort toys with. We have a bin for each type of toy and the kids can easily help and tidy up at the end of the day
    • Example: Bin #1 is for animal toys Bin #2 is for magnet tiles Bin #3 is for puzzles. 
• One method is to use a rotating toy system and put out a limited amount of toys for 1-2 weeks before switching them for the next assigned set of toys. 
• Tidy drawers and bookshelves
• Change bedding

Day 5: Laundry Area

Laundry… my arch nemesis. No matter how often the washer and dryer are running, the laundry never seems to be done.

• Clear off the laundry from the table(s) and top of the units
• Dust the area- there always seems to be lint collecting in all spaces in the laundry space
• Put away all clean laundry
• Toss out any old/broken laundry baskets or empty containers
• Organize your “dirty” clothes system in the room.

This should be a relatively light day….. As long as you aren’t like me and always have a large pile of clean laundry at the foot of your bed. 

Pro Tip: Don’t be like me with laundry and just fold it as soon as you take it out of the dryer. 

Day 6: Closets

Closets can be a very satisfying area to organize and tidy up.  I like to utilize lots of small boxes and bins to keep things such as medicine, hair care, makeup, diapers and wipes, and much more. They are easy to label and it is definitely my favorite day of the week when I’m organizing. 

• Fully empty out the closet space
• Create piles for types of items
  • Ex: Hair care, Medicine, Towels, Bedding
• Take piles of items and place them in a size-appropriate bin or storage box
  • LABEL! You can use a fancy label maker but I love using painter’s tape and a permanent marker to get my labeling done. 
• Trash any expired or unused health and beauty item(s) 
• Donate old haircare tools that you no longer use
• Throw away or donate unused linens 
• Reorganize the closet(s) in a way that the bins are easy to access. 

Day 7: Office & Garage Spaces

• Sort through old mail 
• Clean out the junk drawers
• Ensure that all items are fully stocked in office space
• File away any important documents
• Toss out any old boxes piling up in the garage
• Sweep out the garage 
• Create designated areas in the garage to place toys, storage boxes, lawn equipment, etc.
  • This is a great place to utilize vertical space by hanging items or using shelves
• Clean up the tool area including putting away random screws and nails. 
• Dispose of any unused paint or gardening items. 

Not everyone is lucky enough to have a garage to keep their random household items of storage bins. If you do not have garage space but are limited on storage, we suggest taking a look at availability at one of our local storage facilities to help free up space in your home or apartment. 

Join Our Home Organization Challenge

Now that you have a detailed list of the challenge and how to easily organize your space in as little as 1 hour per day, NOW IT IS YOUR TURN TO GIVE IT A GO! Take the time to reset your home so that you can free up your mental and physical space to allow for more organized freedom this new year.