Do you ever feel like you’re cleaning from morning ’til night? Prepping food, doing dishes, washing clothes, picking up toys, scrubbing, polishing, sweeping…it just never ends! Since cleaning is NOT my favorite activity, I try to streamline, the exception being cleaning for Passover. When I’m especially short on time and/or when I lack motivation, I focus on 3 rooms:

Kitchen: Regular meals, served on-time, prepared at home, and consisting of mostly healthy food is my goal. To make this happen, I write a weekly meal plan, grocery shop regularly, and bulk cook so there is always something ready when needed.

On a daily basis, I do a quick swipe of the counters, quick sweep of the floor, and concentrate mostly on dishes. (Dishes will take over my table, sink, and counter if I let them!) Unless an item is over-sized or delicate, it goes into the dishwasher immediately after use. I run the dishwasher every night before bed. In the morning, I empty it and the process starts again. I try to never go to sleep with a full sink or leave dishes out overnight.

Beyond the daily stuff, everything else is cleaned as needed or during my monthly deep-clean session (things like organizing cabinets, pantry inventory, mopping the floor, etc.)

Bathroom: Since you can’t get clean in a room that’s filthy, this is a spot that deserves extra attention. Daily chores include wiping down sinks, counters, and toilets and making sure hygiene products are not running low. Bigger jobs like scrubbing the shower with grapefruit, I don’t get to as frequently. In my family, we all shower or bathe and brush teeth before bed. Mornings are already crazy and this cuts down on the chaos significantly.

Laundry room: By doing one load of laundry 5X weekly, start to finish—meaning I wash it, dry it, and put it away—I can keep it under control. I usually don’t wash on weekends unless it’s dire. I separate into whites/colors and towels are done by themselves since they take so long to dry. Most things are cotton and don’t need special care. (I avoid ironing like the plague so this is very, very important!) I do delicate items by hand occasionally and send some stuff to the dry cleaners like coats and suits.

If you have a large family, lots of young children, or regularly do outside activities, you many need to do laundry a lot more frequently. Experiment with what works best for your own situation.

Need more tips or inspiration? Try a cleaning challenge.