The Ultimate Easy Cleaning Guide For Busy Moms

Life as a mom is busy and difficult at times. Cleaning is just another thing on our long list of to-do’s. That’s why I wanted to create an easy cleaning guide for all of those busy moms out there. Which is most definitely you!

I have also added tips from other moms at the bottom of this list on how to get cleaning done and removing certain stains that kids manage to always leave in their path.

I didn’t realize life as a mom would be so difficult and busy till I became one. My life is taken over by our little son. Things that I was able to get done every day are now on the back burner.

Having a clean house is most definitely one of those things. And as a work from home mom things rarely get done.

That saying “Please excuse our messy house we are busy making memories” is all too real to me now.

I find it difficult to find the time to get everything done that I want to do unless its in my schedule or my plan for the day.

There are daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly things that you can clean that will make your life feel a little more put together.

Let’s be honest I don’t always have my house clean. I would be lying if I said that I did all of theses items all of the time.

I can honestly say though that when I accomplish the items on this list I feel so much better. My husband and I feel more tense when we don’t have a clean house so my goal is to be better at following my own advice!

My hope in telling you these little tips is to help you feel a more sane as a busy mom.

What mom doesn’t want to feel some ounce of sanity in her life?

If you would like to learn how to become a stay at home mom, so you have more time in your day to get things done, I have a post on how I became a stay at home mom even on a low income.

Easy Cleaning Guide for Busy Moms

You can grab your free cleaning checklist below so you can print it out and check things off everyday! It feels so satisfying brings able to mark things off your list!

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easy cleaning guide for busy moms

Daily

This list of daily things you can do will help you feel like you have your life more put together and have a clean house.

Having small things you can accomplish daily feels so satisfying. Especially when everything else feels so out of control.

If you are anything like me though I often forget, get to busy, or just to lazy to accomplish these things every single day.

Sometimes though I will get to anxious with the messy house that I will try to crank it out in one day. My husband usually will get concerned and ask me if I’m doing okay!

Having daily items to do will help you feel less stressed because you are tackling small things at a time, but if you don’t do them Jeanette from jeanettegiselle.com gives greats tips on how you can clean your house in an afternoon.

If you like having a daily checklist of things to accomplish Rebecca from Busy Mom Smart Mom mentions 11 daily tasks to clean your house quickly.

Her tips are to:

  • Do one load of laundry a day
  • Only vacuum high traffic areas
  • Clean as you cook
  • Sort mail as soon as it comes in
  • Sweep daily
  • Use gadgets to clean faster or skip certain chores
  • Set a timer and clean one room
  • Keep cleaning wipes handy
  • Give your kids daily age appropriate chores
  • Organize your cleaning supplies
  • Open your blinds or windows

I also have more items that you can do to keep your house clean daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. At the end of this post I have gathered more tips from other moms and ways to remove stains that kids seem to leave everywhere!

One Load of Laundry

woman doing laundry

Doing a load of laundry a day can make things feel more put together. Now this tip is something you have to figure out what works best for your schedule.

Some people find it easier to have one day to do all of the laundry and some do a load of laundry a day so they don’t feel so overwhelmed.

I try to get a load of laundry done a day, or whenever I need it, because it’s easier for me to fold a load of laundry instead of several loads.

Folding the laundry is actually the toughest part for me to accomplish. Which makes it feel more crazy in my home having baskets of clean laundry everywhere.

So whenever you plan to do laundry make sure you have time to fold it.

If not it will usually sit there and then get mixed with the dirty clothes, at least this is what happens in our home. Or my husband will dump the whole basket out trying to find something and then I have this pile of clean clothes sitting on the floor.

Make Your Bed

Making your bed helps your room to feel more put together.

Figure out if it’s easier for you to make your bed in the morning right after you get up for the day. Or right before you get into bed.

I like to make my bed right before I go to sleep at night. I know that sounds silly but I like to go to sleep in a freshly made bed.

My mornings are hectic so I don’t make the time to make my bed in the morning.

So whether you make your bed in the morning, during the day, or sometime at night making your bed feels good.

You also don’t have the sheets and blankets all twisted and turned, which is annoying in the middle of the night when you are trying to sleep.

Do Dishes

woman doing dishes

I have had moments when I do the dishes every single night and moments when I leave them for several days till they are stinking in the sink. Gross right!?

We don’t have a dishwasher so all of our dishes are washed by hand.

When I did wash the dishes every single night it felt so good and it only took about 5 minutes to do.

When I wait till I really have to do the dishes then it takes about 30 minutes.

Which sounds easier, doing them daily or spending a lot of time on one day?

If you have a dishwasher, which most people do, you can load the dishwasher whenever you use a dish, run it, then unload in the morning.

Sweep/Vacuum

Sweeping or vacuuming can be done every other day. Especially if you have a little one crawling on the floor. Having a clean floor is a must.

We have two dogs so I try to vacuum the high traffic spots every day or at least every other day.

Our son luckily isn’t crawling yet, but when he is my plan is to vacuum every day so he isn’t crawling to much in dog hair.

Carpets gather a lot of dust and dirt so vacuuming every other day or even every day helps to keep your house feeling more clean.

Wipe Down Counters

A lot of stuff happen on your counters and table. Kids playing, eating food, preparing food, and many other things.

Wiping down the counters after each time you do something on them or every day will help with the bacteria that is gathered.

You should always wipe down the counters after preparing food, especially if its raw meat.

You can also organize the counter as you wipe it down.

Reset House

woman picking up house

Resetting the house can be done first thing in the morning or right before you go to bed.

Now resetting the house means putting everything back into place. Cleaning up from the day you had will help you feel more peaceful right before you go to bed.

I always feel like I’m a little more put together especially when everything else feels crazy and out of control.

Resetting the house makes me feel more controlled and helps you to have a clean house daily!

Weekly

Tubs/Showers

Tubs and showers can grow mold, have hard water stains and get all gross if you don’t clean them out often.

I know when I was growing up we rarely cleaned out the shower and it would get slimy in the corners of the tub and be pinkish orange color.

Sound familiar?

Whenever I would shower in a dirty bathtub I never fully felt clean. I felt like I needed another shower after I showered.

The shower is where we clean our bodies so it makes sense to clean our bodies in a clean area.

Cleaning your bathtubs and showers weekly will help you not have mold growing or get hard water stains. Heck even doing it monthly will make a difference.

Sometimes when I’m low on time or frankly forgetful I will scrub down the shower right before I take my shower.

It kills two birds with one stone!

Bathroom Mirrors

woman cleaning bathroom

Bathroom mirrors get an abundance of things on them.

Toothpaste and water stains are the biggest culprit.

When I think of dirty mirrors my mind goes straight to social media mirror selfies. It’s rare that I see a clean mirror in one of those selfies.

Let’s be honest it’s hard to get ready in a dirty mirror and for me I feel like my bathroom is dirty when my mirror and sink are dirty.

If I’m forgetful, which happens often, I will wipe down my mirror with towel I dried my hands on. Usually the towel needs to be changed so I will just throw it in the dirty clothes afterwards.

Wash Sheets

You either fall into two categories with changing sheets.

There are the people who change them religiously and the people who change them very rarely.

For us we try to change them every week, if not at least every other week.

Sheets should be changed out weekly because they contain dead skin cells, dust mites, and bacteria.

No one wants to sleep in that!

Wash Towels

Towels can smell mildewy after a while. Is mildewy even a word?

Anyways washing them weekly helps with them not smelling and getting grimy.

Its crazy to me that towels smell weird because you only dry your body off with them.

According to Health line though “Towels absorb a lot of water and remain damp for hours, which is the perfect breeding ground for unwanted germs. That’s why towels should be washed every three uses.”

I frankly don’t want to dry my freshly clean body off with a towel that has a lot of bacteria in it.

You can do your one load of laundry for the day and wash your towels. This includes hand, kitchen, and body towels.

Wash them all!

Mop

woman mopping

I can’t tell you how much food and sticky stuff I drop on the kitchen floor on a daily basis.

Most of the time my dogs just lick the crap out of the floor when I drop things, but the floor still needs to be mopped.

If you have kids that crawl around or are walking mopping is a good idea to do at least weekly to get rid of that dirt and grime.

Clean Out Your Car

Whenever I think of mom cars I imagine a van with a ton of food and wrappers on the floor. Food crusted in the seats and toys everywhere.

When it gets this bad it takes hours to clean it all out and frankly as a mom we do not have hours to clean our car. We have minutes if we are lucky.

If you find it hard to have a few minutes a week to clean out the car you can always do it while you gas up your car.

You can kill two birds with one stone and most people gas up their car every 1-2 weeks so that should be enough.

Throw Out Leftovers

throwing out leftovers

I’m so bad at this, I just let my leftovers sit in the back of the fridge till my fridge is too full.

Then it smells super nasty when I finally decide to throw out the month old leftovers. Let’s just say it’s the worst day of the month for me.

If you throw out your leftovers as soon as they go bad and wipe down the fridge you will be able to avoid the monthly moldy mess.

This is my new goal right now!

Monthly

Deep Clean Oven/ Stove

Many things drip in your oven or under the burners on your stove. Well maybe it’s just me, but I’m always dropping things especially on my stove.

Under my burners I get a lot of food or sauce that fall onto those stove drippers. It happens so often that the next time I cook, the burner will get smoky.

Maybe that says something about my cooking, but I try to make it a habit to clean the drippers once a month or after I drip a lot of sauce.

Just to make sure my smoke alarm doesn’t go off, which has happened several times!

Honestly though my cooking is good, but I’m a messy cook.

Cleaning your stove and oven monthly will help you have your smoke alarm go off less. Or even help with you not having to scrub the crap out of the oven or the stove drippers.

Dust Intensively

woman dusting

Dust can gather super quickly, mainly on those surfaces that don’t get touched very often.

For us it’s mainly the bookshelf and pictures that gather a ton of dust.

Dusting monthly can significantly reduce the amount of allergens that are in the air and improve the quality of air in your home.

Every three months you should move your furniture and dust in all of the nooks and crannies of the house.

It will blow your mind how much dust can gather in your home in such a short period of time.

Wipe Down Walls

If you have kids, which I’m guessing that you do if you are reading this, you should most definitely wipe down the walls.

Kids can be messy and dirty. If their hands are all sticky and they are touching the walls that means that your walls can be gross and dirty.

I hate touching my walls and feeling something sticky because I have no idea where it came from and how long it has been there.

If you don’t want to wipe down the walls monthly, just spot treat your walls when the kiddos touch their sticky hands all over them.

To me having clean walls makes my home feel more clean. I know when I see stains or stickiness on my wall my house feels more gross and dirty even if everything else is clean.

Check Smoke/Carbon Monoxide Alarms

No one realizes how important smoke or carbon monoxide alarms are till they go off and protect your family.

No one expects to have a fire in their home or to have carbon monoxide poisoning.

But you can plan for when those things could happen. Sometimes alarms stop working and if you aren’t checking them monthly they may not be working when you need them to.

Wipe Down Fridge

woman wiping down fridge

Have you ever opened the fridge and it smells gross? Or looked down and you see sticky drops on the bottom of the fridge?

I have way too often.

Cleaning out the fridge monthly by getting rid of expired food and wiping down the fridge will help you not to have these sticky moments.

Another helpful thing you can do is wipe down the sticky stuff as soon as you see it.

It makes it much easier than wiping it down a month later when it’s stuck on the fridge really good!

Wipe Down Microwave

Our microwave gets used so stinkin often and things splatter all of the time.

Unless you are one of those awesome people that have a microwave cover. I didn’t even know they existed till I met my husband. His family uses them all of the time.

We just used paper towels growing up.

Nonetheless microwaves still get dirty from time to time and it’s important to wipe them down often.

Declutter One Room

I hate clutter and having a ton of stuff we don’t need!

We live in a little one bedroom place and with a baby and it feels tight. When we have the place cluttered it feels even more tight and overwhelming.

We get grouchy when things are cluttered and stuff is everywhere.

Monthly you should declutter your house and get rid of stuff that you don’t need.

I’m mainly talking about the papers, pencils, crafts, and toys that seem to be everywhere.

When you declutter monthly it makes your home feel more organized and clean. You should have a place for everything.

And you should most definitely go through that junk drawer that seems to be spilling things out everywhere!

Kelly from Life Sprinkled with Joy shows you how to declutter your home in a whole afternoon! Which is a lifesaver!

If you also want tips to keep your home decluttered and organized with systems Adriane from Raising Kids with Purpose gives Simple Systems to Keep Your Home Organized and Clutter Free.

She gives great tips on a laundry system, sweeping, and fantastic ways to declutter your home.

Yearly

Go Through Storage

go through storage

I go through our little storage shed every 6 months.

Storage collects a lot of things especially when you just toss things into your shed or your garage. Things gather very quickly because its easier to put it out of sight instead of donating it or throwing it away.

I know it’s a large task, but trust me if you do it at least once a year or every six months it only takes a couple hours.

I will go through all of my boxes and decide if I want to get rid of it. It helps me a ton because as I don’t use things I grow less attached to them and feel more inclined to donate them.

Going through your stuff will make it feel more clean in your storage area and also when you move you have a lot less of extra crap to move.

Donate Clothes

You know that pair of jeans that are sitting in your closet from ten years ago that you will hopefully fit back into one day? Donate them!

My mom has a closet full of items she has from 15 years ago that she keeps just in case she will wear them again.

Don’t just keep clothes in hopes that one day you will wear it.

Your body changes, style changes, and your taste in clothes will change.

Having a closet full of clothes where 80% of them you don’t wear makes it more cluttered in your closet.

Plus if you donate clothes you make more room to get things that you like now and things you can wear now.

Wash Outside Windows

Outside windows get so dirty and your don’t realize it till you clean them.

When I open up my curtains and see clean windows I feel happy.

A way to make this quick is you can use a hose and a squeegee to clean your windows.

You could also get those wands that you see at the gas station. The ones with the sponge on one side and the squeegee on the other. This will make window cleaning much easier and faster.

Wash Curtains/Drapes

Curtains and drapes gather lots of dust. If you don’t clean these at least yearly it’s dust that you are breathing in.

If you have curtains or drapes just take them off the rods and throw them in the wash.

It’s a quick and easy thing to do that will make the air quality better in your home.

Wash Carpets

wash carpets

We do this every six months especially since we have dogs.

When our dogs were being potty trained we did it almost monthly.

Carpet gather a lot of dirt and grime, pee and poop from animals or kids, stains from food or drinks, and many other things.

A lot happens on your carpets and you want them clean for the moments where you just want to lay on the floor or for when your kids play on the floor.

You could either rent a carpet cleaner and spend a weekend cleaning your carpets or bring in a professional carpet cleaner company.

Either way you should have all of your carpets cleaned at least yearly.

Clean Upholstery

You can do this while you clean your carpets. You sit on your couch and most people also eat on their couch.

A lot of things get on your couch and you should be cleaning them every year. If you have leather couches it’s easy to wipe them down whenever you get something on them.

Outdoor Furniture

Most people will wash their outside furniture every year when they need to use them. That’s because dirt accumulates over the fall, winter, and spring.

Extra Tips for a Clean House

I’ve asked other moms extra tips that help them actually get their cleaning done. I also asked them tips to get stains out of different items in your house.

Amy from Mom Fuel mentions 11 things that most moms forget to clean.

Amy mentions:

  • Remote Controls and Phones
  • Door Frames
  • Light Switches
  • Spot Cleaning Walls
  • Headphones
  • Handrails
  • Dining Chairs
  • Pillows
  • Wash Machine/DIshwasher
  • Fridge
  • Vacuum Canister

Tips To Remove Stains

Rigel from Gale and Plum shows how to remove taffy from carpet. That oh so lovely treat that kids seem to leave everywhere and its super sticky!

Saima from A Supertired Mom teaches you how to remove crayons from walls and urine stains that kiddos leave.

If you want a great list from Good Housekeeping they wrote about ways to remove very common stains that kiddos leave such as:

  • Grass
  • Chocolate
  • Juice
  • Acrylic Paint
  • Crayons
  • Glue
  • Mud
  • Markers
  • Ketchup
  • Mustard

I hope that y’all found these tips helpful! If you have any other tips on cleaning the house and removing stains I would love to hear them in the comments below!