Written by Jamie C. Martin, editor of Simple Homeschool
This post is part one in a three part series about cleaning. You can find the second post here and the third here!
Late last year, I thought I had it made when I booked a local company to clean my house once a month.
Any homeschooling parent knows that a home needs more than monthly care, but I figured they would do the deep cleaning, and I could keep up with the rest. It sounded like a dream come true for this work-at-home mom.
But it didn’t turn out that way. The cleaning company were used to customers who worked outside of the home. Not a problem, I thought. The kids and I will just go out for a few hours, and return to a tidy house. But when the cleaners failed to show up on time, after I’d worked hard to get the kids ready, it started to frustrate me. And when they didn’t clean the way I wanted or return my emails, I decided to move on.
Then one day I had an epiphany. If the cleaners could deep clean my whole house once a month, why couldn’t I?
Turns out I can, and I’ve been doing so for the past three months.
Here’s how it works.
I searched online for a traditional cleaning checklist and created my own based on our home and what needs to be done every four weeks.
I only clean and care for the kids on monthly cleaning days–no formal homeschooling, writing, laundry, or cooking.
The focus for the rest of the month becomes keeping the house tidy and doing any essentials–wiping the bathroom or vacuuming the floor. It’s amazing how a tidy, uncluttered house can fool people into thinking it’s clean.
Hand-written? Yep, ’cause I’m high-tech like that.
Here are the benefits I’ve found in once-a-month cleaning.
1. It isn’t always on my mind.
By cleaning every four weeks, I’m only deep cleaning my house 13 times a year–hooray for that!
As a result, I’m not constantly thinking about when to fit in cleaning or how dirty something is. My calendar lets me know exactly when the house will be clean again. Nothing hangs “undone” over my head.
2. It reflects our family’s values and helps me combat perfectionism.
I honestly don’t want to be remembered for having an immaculate house. Changing the lives of children, loving my family–these are the reasons I get up each morning. But I don’t want to live in a pigsty either. Once a month cleaning feels like the right balance.
It also helps me combat perfectionism–by working this way I’m declaring that ‘this level of cleanliness is enough.’ I’m not striving for something that isn’t really important to me anyway.
3. I’m cleaning when it really needs to be done.
In the past, when I cleaned on a weekly basis, my rotation list would occasionally tell me to clean something that didn’t look dirty. I found it hard to get motivated.
But every four weeks I can easily see that the floor needs mopping, the tub needs scrubbing, and the bookshelves need dusting. This was especially noticeable last week after our vacuum died. Many thanks to those of you on Facebook who chimed in with recommendations for a new one! (If you’re curious, we ended up with this Hoover–so far, so good.)
4. The house shines and sparkles–for at least 24 hours.
My favorite part of having a cleaner? Returning to a house that sparkled and smelled clean.
Now, even though I’m doing the work myself, I still get that feeling. Even the microwave shines for a day!
5. It saves money and fits with our homeschooling lifestyle.
I hate having to abide by someone else’s schedule. I love that I can arrange my cleaning to fit with the rhythm of our days, without having to work around the timing of a cleaner.
Every four weeks on cleaning day, my husband brings takeout home for dinner. Even with this treat we save a considerable amount compared to what we paid for cleaning services. And there’s nothing like the reward of pad thai to keep me working through the afternoon slump!
If you haven’t yet discovered the right cleaning system, think it over and see if once a month cleaning might work for you.
Have you managed to find a cleaning system that works for your homeschooling family?
Love this, Jaime! Love the idea of not always having something hanging over your head (“I should be cleaning X…”) and also accepting a certain level of clean and letting the rest go. That said, my kids are still too young for me to be able to get all this done in one day! Maybe two though…
Love this idea! Though I had to laugh at this sentence: “I only clean and care for the kids on monthly cleaning days…” At first reading, it sounded like that was the only day you clean and care for your kids! =)
My house is definitely not super clean. I would like it to be better, but I am realizing that for me, there are some things that are more important than having a very clean house. I think I might try this idea and see if it helps.
I thought the same thing and chuckled too. that would really cut down on the cleaning at our house 😉
i’m working on the decluttering part of clean, I totally agree that an uncluttered house can fool people into thinking its clean. The opposite end is that a cluttered clean house never feels clean!
I had to read it a couple times before I got it too 🙂 Made for a good laugh!
10 years later, I’m still Once a Month Cleaning! I dedicate a cleaning day by clearing my schedule, warning my family that I will be unavailable (the kids are teens now and can manage on their own for the day), and making a list the night before. At the end of the day, i order takeout as a treat and enjoy my clean house. Once a Month Cleaning has been a game changer for me! Thanks so much!
Wow, Jamie- I think you just changed my life! I’m going to try it. I mean, formally try it. I guess the once-a-month thing has already kind of been happening, but more out of neglect than intention. Thanks!
I’m surprised that you think most middle income families have help with the housework! Maybe I’m the one who is wrong but no one I know has a cleaning service. That being said, I really need the help to do the big stuff like vacuuming and mopping. We have 5 cats and 2 dogs living with my husband and I as well as my son, my DIL and my grandson. They all work two jobs or a job and school so cleaning is up to me. Do you think it would be better to hire for every two weeks or once a month? I haven’t even mentioned this to my husband because I’m afraid it won’t be affordable on our monthly budget. I’d appreciate any guidance you can give. I’m 56 years old and run out of energy after cleaning one area these days.
This sounds like the answer I’ve been looking for! Thanks for sharing. Like you, I have certain things that I keep up with on a daily/weekly basis, simply because they’re areas that get insanely dirty if I don’t (bathrooms, vacuuming), but other things that I have on my weekly cleaning list don’t seem to NEED to be done every week (dusting!), so it’s hard to get motivated to do it when I look at my list and think “I JUST cleaned that!” Once a month cleaning would combat that problem, I would think, for me. I’m going to give it a try!
Love this too! How did you decide what day to do it on? Do you just pick a day about every 4 weeks?
Yes. My cleaners came every five weeks, but that was too long. So I just do it every four weeks, usually on Mondays b/c that seems to work best for us.
Yay! Ilove that I can now put an official name on what I thought was just a lazy approach. I probably clean more like once every 3 weeks- but other than that- just vacuum and wipe down surfaces. It definitely fits with our life and I think this month I am going to have a devoted “cleaning day” like you suggest instead of trying to cram it in amongst everything else we do, or spreading it out over 2-3 days. Thanks!
I meant to say “MY lazy approach”
Glad that others do it too and don’t see it as lazy 🙂
that’s exactly what I thought!! I do this approach too but giving it a formal name makes it actually sound legit and not “slack” 🙂 🙂
I prefer calling it “intentional” – always sounds better! 😉
Hmmm, I might have to adopt this philosophy…
I like it! Combating perfectionism and getting clean, keeping the ‘shoulds’ off my mind!! I’m on board.
Your monthly cleaning system paired with my major purge/daily maintenance purge (coming up soon!) is the perfect combo! I’ve done those “no school today” cleaning days before when company was coming, but I never thought about doing it on a scheduled, regular monthly basis. Thank you!
You’re so welcome, Sarah! – hooray for purges, too!
I’m going to give your idea a try.
I have been following the Fly Lady’s emails but I haven’t been able to dive in yet b/c of my school, the kids, school, and life.
I “follow” flylady too. I guess this should be a no-brainer, but because of her influence, I dress myself & my child, make my bed and wear shoes, every.day. I have been doing this for over 2 years. I haven’t gotten into the daily cleaning aspects. I know the idea of cleaning for only 15 mins a day should really appeal to me. But I can’t seem to wrap my head or my not-so-busy-schedule around it. I may have to try the Intentional approach 🙂
This is quite refreshing. This may change my whole outlook on cleaning. I have been cleaning one room a day every week and I try to get that done in the morning before we start lessons. I think the only thing that would bug me would be the dust. How do you handle the dust during that four week time?
If a surface is really dusty, I’ll wipe it with a rag. Otherwise it just waits until the official “cleaning day.” It seems to be only a few surfaces that get really dusty in between!
Love this! Think I’ll give it a try!!
I really like this! I may have to try it when I’m off bedrest and see how it works for me. Thanks for the idea! 🙂
I remember our cleaning lady conversations a few months ago but didn’t realize how everything had unfolded for you. One of the things I love about the way you share advice is your own ability to flex as life hands you new phases or you think through better approaches.
Can I just say, “You rock!” I love this idea. I have thought about it before, but wondered if I could really swing it. I’m so glad to hear a real life experience. I want to go clean now.
I, too, have wondered what it would be like to have cleaners come, so thanks for the reality check, too.
Once a month cooking, once a month cleaning. What’s next? Once a month laundry? 😉
Thanks, Jessica! And yes, I’m glad that I tried the cleaners, so I don’t have the whole “grass is greener” thinking.
Once a month laundry sounds scary, but who knows?!!
Great post! We’ve been doing a Saturday morning blitz with the whole family pitching in for about 2 hours to get everything done, but as we’re heading into baseball season our free Saturdays will disappear, so we’ll need another solution. I won’t be teaching on Fridays once June gets here, so maybe 1 Friday a month will be coming “cleaning Friday.” 🙂
Great post! We’ve been doing a Saturday morning blitz with the whole family pitching in for about 2 hours to get everything done, but as we’re heading into baseball season our free Saturdays will disappear, so we’ll need another solution. I won’t be teaching on Fridays once June gets here, so maybe 1 Friday a month will become “cleaning Friday.” 🙂
my kids are responsible for lots of the day to day cleaning – like vacuuming.
I dust when I notice, like onc
oh my.. not sure what happened there.
as I was saying I dust about once every 3 months. Wash floors maybe once a month, after supper one night. (my kids are older and aren’t regularly spilling food). Scrub the toilet every couple weeks and wash the tub/shower before having overnight guests or once a month.
I’m fairly informal about the big cleaning jobs and they just happen when necessary. The house is kept tidy on a day to day basis by the kids and I. Takes maybe 1/2 hour.
Cleaning with children living in your house seems nearly impossible sometimes because the house just gets dirty again, almost instantly. But I do value a tidy and clean home so I’ve trained the kids to do the basics and I fit the rest in wherever it works.
I’m glad you’ve found something that works for you. I know pad thai would motivate me also (we eat out almost every weekend after hiking and often go for thai food and I tell you knowing those saucy noodles await me after my work out helps me get my butt in gear!)
Love your laidback approach, Renee – I think we start having more flexibility in this area as the kids get older.
Do you get your pad thai with tofu and veggies? My fav!
Yep. Tofu and veggies – my fav.
I agree. Everything like this gets easier as the kids get a bit older. All that work I did when they were younger teaching them to help me with stuff – it’s starting to pay off. Now if only one of my kids would show more initiative in the kitchen I’d be all set (ha, ha!).
Everything in our house gets cleaned about once a month as well (except for an isolated few things that cleaned weekly or biweekly). My daughter isn’t at a point where she can handle me just cleaning all day long, so I set up a M-F four week cleaning schedule. I get a room done in one day (the eat-in kitchen gets two days as does the living because of all the bookcases). Our whole house requires mopping, so it gets its own day too. I have a day dedicated to outdoor/car catch-up. There’s a day each week for vacuuming the whole house (and I just sweep and wipe up spills as needed throughout the week, usually under the table!), and every other week the toilets and bathroom counters get cleaned. It’s been working really well for months now. I just check to see what my “chore of the day” is and everything is specifically timed to take no more than two hours per day so that there’s still plenty of time to spend with my daughter and husband. I only get the shiny feeling one room at a time, but it works great for us along with our daily basics (dishes, counters, laundry, and a brief before bed pick-up). My husband can’t believe that his non-domestic wife has finally turned into his definition of a “domestic goddess” 🙂
I really think the secret is definately finding what works for your family – isn’t it just like everything else? One size does not fit all. But it’s nice to know I’m not the only one who doesn’t mop EVERY week!
I do like you and try to do one chore a day. It’s not the end of the world if we don’t get it done, but it helps to keep things on a routine.
I have a friend who says she has never mopped her floor since moving into her house 4 years ago…uh, that reminds me to not take off my shoes in her house unless I have black socks on…she says that they just clean up spills when they happen, but seriously, I know how dirty mine gets just moping every few weeks and they have a cat added in the mix. EW!
So not mopping every week is fine as long as you don’t go 4 years! 😉
This sounds like just what I need! I often get overwhelmed by all that needs doing, but I love a good routine, so I think a monthly day devoted to housecleaning would work well for me. Thanks so much for sharing!! 🙂
Love this Jamie! I have been so struggling with the weekly chore list and feel like the house is never deep cleaned (so wrapped up in the day to day tidying). I am a bit envious of those who can afford to have people come in and clean (my friends, sister) but this might be the answer to my problems! Thanks 🙂
When our kids are older, I could definitely see us doing that. I’m almost embarrassed to admit this but we have cleaning ladies who come once a week. With a little one all over the floor all the time and two dogs, well, it just needed a little more care than I could do on my own. For years after we were first married, we had a cleaning lady once a month and it worked out great for us. We did a light to moderate cleaning in the middle of the month and let her do the heavy lifting.
I’m curious how often other people change their sheets if anyone is brave enough to share? 🙂 My husband cringes that I used to only change my sheets once every other week. I took a bath every night so I didn’t feel like they had to be changed weekly! Anyone with me? Or am I a repulsive slacker?
Don’t be embarrassed, Lise! I totally would have kept up with the cleaners if it had worked out for us. I know lots of people who have cleaners.
Sheets are on the four week rotation for me, unless someone wets their bed between. So you can tell your hubbie there’s someone more slack than you are!!
I’m a slacker like Jamie, only worse (smile). My kids only get their sheets changed once every couple months – for sure once every season. I change our bed every couple of weeks or when I remember. Having no dryer forces you to evaluate how much you really need clean sheets, especially in the winter when all that laundry has to hang to dry indoors.
Sheets every other week. I mean, we keep our bodies clean nowadays don’t we? The only reason to change more often is bedwetting (thankfully extremely rare) and if someone is ill with a fever, then I usually change very day. We don’t use the dryer for sheets, we hang them and iron them (I know, I’m bad when it comes to bedlinen….)
We do have a cleaner come in every week to do the cleaning and no I’m not at all embarassed about it. we both work full time and have two kids and I don’t want to spend my free time cleaning, I want to be with my kids. We want the kids to learn how to clean though so we do daily decluttering sessions and they take turns to clean the surfaces in the bathroom and kitchen every other day. Best of two worlds!
I do sheets about once a month, though I try to remember to do pillow cases a little more often. On my son’s toddler bed with guard rail, it is difficult to change the sheets, so MIL & I made a few “exact-size-comforters” to lay over the mattress…kind of like a mattress protector, but it goes over the fitted sheet and it is in patterns/colors he will like. If he has an accident, I just swap out the comforters easily in the night (on that rare occasion I will wash the fitted sheet underneath the next morning). And I can just wash the comforter when it needs it.
From reading the replies, I am very happy to hear the responses….I would ideally like to change mine once a week (since my husband sweats sometimes while sleeping) but the reality is more like every other week or once a month at the most. My two kids sleep together right now in one bed and the youngest is still in diapers and I find the sheets get an ammonia like smell (even with no diaper leaks) eventually so I try to do those sheets every other week.
This is SUCH a great idea!!!! I may have to try this!
How inspiring! I am also a perfectionist, but I tend to let things slide for way too long when I’m discouraged. I will see if I can do this! Thanks!