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The Ultimate House Cleaning Checklist

House Cleaning Checklist: Free Printable

Part of being a happy homeowner is having a clean house. If you are like me, it’s so much easier when you work from a printable house cleaning checklist. After all, when all of the house cleaning is done, there is nothing quite like the feeling of having a clean house. With a house cleaning checklist at your disposal, it makes life so much easier. Here are all the cleaning tasks you should be doing and keeping up with. It’s all laid out for you, nice and easy!

If you want a copy of this entire cleaning checklist, you can get it by clicking here.

House Cleaning Checklist

 

 

House Cleaning Supplies Checklist: What you Need to Clean Your House

household cleaning list

When you are ready to clean your house, it’s easier to have the right cleaning supplies. You can get pretty in-depth with cleaning supplies, but here are the basics to get started.

Some of the things for regularly cleaning your house are:

 

Visit our post for a complete house cleaning supplies checklist; this covers deep cleaning items and your regular household cleaning items as well. 

Daily Cleaning Checklists

One of my favorite expressions is “by the inch it’s a cinch, by the yard it’s hard” to make sure that you don’t have to do a ton on the weekends, it’s a good idea to tackle certain things daily. A daily cleaning routine can prevent buildups and messes and keeps the house tidy during the week. None of them take long to do, and adding them to your daily cleaning checklist will take no time. But more importantly, it will keep your house looking clean. When your home looks clean from day to day, the cleaning process for the weekly cleaning items and monthly cleaning items are a lot easier. 

 

Regular House Cleaning Tasks

Empty and load the dishwasher

The best way to do this for us is to load up the dishwasher throughout the day and then put it on a cleaning cycle overnight. This benefits you waking up to a clean set of dishes. If your dishwasher has a rinse agent, it can be great for making sure the dishes are dry and streak-free. If you don’t have that, there are pods that have a partial rinse agent in them and can do wonders for your plates and glasses. Wake up, and while your toast (or whatever breakfast choice you have) is getting ready, put everything in the dishwasher away.

You will be happy to install this into your morning cleaning routine. 

Squeegee the shower

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This is a quick one for your bathroom cleaning schedule. Leave a squeegee in the shower, and after you are done with your morning shower, take 10 seconds to squeegee down the walls. This will prevent scum from building up on your shower walls and reduce cleaning time on the weekend. Depending on how hard your water is, it may just remove the need to clean them thoroughly on the weekend.

Wipe down bathroom countertop 

Once you are done getting ready in the morning, grab a cloth and wipe down the bathroom countertop. This prevents the build-up of dust, hairspray, and other air-born items on the counter, making weekend clean-up easy. These 10 seconds can save you a lot of time when you do a deeper clean.

Rinse out sink

Toothpaste and other things can get caked on your sink if you aren’t rinsing out the sink after you use it. Just grab the same cloth you used to wipe down the counter and do the same thing for the sink

Wipe down countertop in kitchen

Once breakfast is done, grab the cloth in the sink and wipe up any crumbs and debris on the countertop into the garbage. This keeps your countertops tidy and also prevents drawing ants or other unwanted pests onto your surfaces. 

Empty and wipe out the sink

Next, wipe out the sink and rinse out your cloth hang it to dry so you can use it again later on. 

Put away loose items (papers, toys, blankets, and other things)

A tidy house is a clean house. Make sure to put the dishes in the dishwasher, any toys or other items that are left out away in their place. The more organized your house is the more you will feel like it’s clean and tidy. 

Empty the coffee maker

Before leaving for work. Empty your coffee into the garbage or compost and get ready for your day. 

Clean kitchen floor 

If you have a central vacuum in your house, then you may have kicks to easily sweep the crumbs on the floor away. If you don’t, then you will need a good broom and dust pan to sweep up. This is another easy thing and takes less than a minute to do. 

Make your bed

A made up bed is 90% of a cleaning looking bedroom. Get into the habit of making your bad every day after you wake up. It’s a great success habit to have and it makes your room look a lot cleaner. 

Tidy up

Lastly, put things away if they have been left out. Clutter on countertops makes a room look and feel a lot dirtier than they really are. The trick to a clean house is to have less visible clutter. 

 

There are certain things all homeowners need to do to keep their houses clean. It’s essential to do these little daily cleaning tasks every day so that your house stays clean and in tip-top shape.

This daily cleaning checklist is everything you should be doing daily to keep your house clean. None of these house cleaning tasks will take too much time, but they are worth it in the end.

 

Weekly Cleaning Checklist

ultimate house cleaning checklist

Certain cleaning duties need to happen every week. I used to hate this idea, but we always found that it was way easier to clean a house and keep it clean than it was to let it fall completely apart and clean it all again.

Keeping up with this weekly schedule will make it easier to keep your house clean all year long. It’s also a nice list to have if you decide to hire a cleaning service to take over this part. Get our free weekly cleaning template schedule we use each week; it’s a pdf printable.

 

Side note: We once knew a hoarder, and knowing how to clean a hoarder’s house was helpful,  it definitely made me appreciate the art of doing it a little bit at a time before the messes started to pile up.

Every Room

  • Empty garbages
  • Vacuum and mop floors
  • Dust all surfaces (we’re big on dusting since I have a dust allergy)

 

Bedroom Cleaning Checklist

Bedrooms are our most personal area, so it’s important that they get a good cleaning. We spend the most time in our bedrooms (albeit most of it we’re asleep), so it’s important that it’s clean and tidy. Make sure you keep your bedrooms clean with this weekly bedroom cleaning checklist. Some of these will only take a minute.

Clean sheets and towels

It’s a good practice to through your sheets and towels into the wash once a week, we aim to do it on the weekends. The more systematic you make it the easier it will be. We love using Dropps detergent (see our Dropps Laundry Review), but we’ve also used Nellie’s laundry soda and a few others too. 

Do laundry

We have a secret Netflix laundry system that we use throughout the week. It’s pure genius for getting things done you can also use our free sheet of laundry symbols so you don’t mess it up. I remember complaining about having to do laundry and my grandmother reminded me that when she was my age laundry was a full day of work. Got it grandma, no more complaining! 

Wipe down mirrors

Humidity, dust, and other things build up on the mirrors over the day. Make a point of using a Norwex cloth and giving them all a wipe, it will take a few minutes to do all the mirrors in a house. Unless you live in a house of mirrors, in which case we just became best friends. 

Dust baseboards

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Ok, get a Swiffer, or the Baseboard Buddy, and walk along the walls of the house. This will take almost no time, and gives the whole room a nice 

Dust and clean window ledges

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Still, have that Swiffer in your hands? Yeah, you do. Grab it and take care of the window ledges to take care of any dust or dirt that may have blown in over the week. Then grab that Norwex cloth again and wipe down the windows. 

 

Living Areas

  • Tidy up remote controls, videos, and video games
  • Empty fireplace (here is a way to clean your fireplace glass naturally)
  • Dust lamps
  • Put away all unused items
  • Empty garbages and take out the trash
  • Vacuum and mop floors
  • Clean windows
  • Dust baseboards
  • Dust furniture
  • Clean and dust window ledges
  • Dust other surfaces

 

Kitchen Cleaning Checklist

The kitchen is the most used area in the house, and it is important to have a good kitchen cleaning checklist. These are the things you should be doing every day or at least weekly to keep your kitchen clean. We also have a kitchen cleaning checklist you can get if you want more detail.

  • Wipe down kitchen appliances
  • Disinfect countertops
  • Clean stainless steel sink
  • Wipe down refrigerator shelves
  • Clean out microwave
  • Empty garbages and take out the trash
  • Vacuum and mop floors
  • Dust all surfaces
  • Clean windows
  • Dust baseboards
  • Clean tap
  • Wipe cabinet fronts
  • Pantry clean and food off the floor
  • Trash overdue food
  • Wipe down inside your oven
  • Dust and clean window ledges

 

Bathroom Cleaning Checklist

Cleaning Checklists

A clean bathroom should always be at the top of your cleaning list. It’s the one place in the house that your guests will snoop when you aren’t around. Make sure all of these items are on your weekly house cleaning list. Make sure to get our bathroom cleaning checklist for a more in-depth look. 

  • Clean towels
  • Scrub and disinfect toilets (here’s a tip if you need to get rid of toilet ring )
  • Clean mirrors and window sills
  • Empty garbages and take out the trash
  • Mop floors
  • Dust all surfaces
  • Dust baseboards
  • Spray the shower curtain liner with disinfectant to prevent mold
  • Disinfect sink and countertop
  • Clean the bathtub (here’s how to clean a bathtub with bleach)

 

Other Items

  • Remove lint from the dryer filter
  • Add rock salt to water softener
  • Clean pet spaces
  • Clean pet bowls

 

Monthly Cleaning Checklist

Floor Cleaning Checklists

Some things don’t need to be done every week, but if you leave them too long, they can really pile up on you. A good idea is to take these items and do one or two of them every week so that you aren’t doing a massive household cleaning on one day of the month. If you do need to do a full house cleaning, check out our How to Clean Your House in 2 Hours post.

 Kitchen

 

All Rooms

  • Clean outside windows (spring and fall)
  • Wash curtains/drapes
  • Dust blinds
  • Wipe baseboards clean
  • Wipe light switches
  • Dust and wipe the window sills
  • Vacuum in cracks of furniture
  • Dust light fixtures
  • Replace light bulbs
  • Beat dust out of area rugs
  • Vacuum upholstered furniture
  • Wipe down leather furniture
  • Empty vacuum canister
  • Scrub all surfaces in the bathroom
  • Vacuum vents
  • Dust blinds (here’s how to clean faux wood blinds)
  • Dust and wipe ceiling fans
  • Replace furnace filter

 

Seasonal Spring Cleaning List

These are seasonal items that happen. Some of them you only need to do once a year while others you may want to do every season. Some would be on your spring cleaning checklist. Others may be on your deep cleaning checklist, but it’s good to have them all in one place. You can consider this spring cleaning more of your deep cleaning checklist. We use the terms interchangeably. Either way here are a bunch of cleaning chores you should take care of every spring so your house is ready for the summer months. 

  • Take out or put in screens on windows (houses can shift in winter and cause screens to bend)
  • Clean blinds
  • Dust all plants
  • Wash pillows
  • Drain hoses and store (Fall)
  • Rake leaves (Spring and Fall)
  • Clean baseboards with a damp cloth (removes baseboards dust)
  • Clean walls
  • Flip mattresses (and vacuum)
  • Scrub grout
  • Wash backsplash in all rooms
  • De-calcify taps
  • Clean range hood filters
  • Clean bedding (covers, comforters, slipcovers, and bed skirts)
  • Wash shower curtain
  • Run the cleaning cycle on the dishwasher
  • Run cleaning cycle on the washing machine
  • Change water filter (every six months or per instructions)
  • Put vinegar down drains ( prevent bathtub drain clogging)

Deep Cleaning Checklist

Deep cleaning is a part of owning a house. Having a great deep cleaning checklist is a key thing. Some of the deep cleaning items for a house are:

  • Wash all the drapes
  • Wipe down ceiling fans
  • Wash and disinfect garbage cans
  • Clean the oven
  • Scrub grout lines

For a full list of deep cleaning items, make sure to get our deep cleaning checklist. 

 

Annual House Cleaning Schedule: Yearly Checklist

Finally, there are things that need to get done on a yearly basis. They are so infrequent, but they are still needed to keep your house running. The easiest thing to do is to do a different one each month. Life is a lot easier when you clean your house a little bit at a time when it involves these annual items.

  • Purge pantry
  • Clean pantry shelves
  • Wash carpets  (rent a Wet-vac or buy one)
  • Have your ducts cleaned (every 2 or 3 years)
  • Clean behind large items such as fridge, stove, washer, dryer, furnace
  • Clean and defrost freezer
  • Clean walls
  • Dust ceiling and higher areas
  • Clean chimney 
  • Clean gutters
  • Call someone to clean out the septic tank (depending on how often you need to pump a septic tank)
  • Empty dryer vents (here’s how often to clean dryer vents)

 

House Cleaning Tips

There are a million ways you can clean a house, but these cleaning tips will cut your time down.

Work from a checklist: That’s why you’re here. Having a list you can print off and work from is so much easier than trying to think of things as you go along. These printable cleaning checklists are a godsend for making sure you get everything.

Divide and conquer: It’s easier to clean in a group. Each person has their tasks and gets to them. It’s even better if you have specific tasks you enjoy and others don’t. The more people you have cleaning, the faster this goes. If you can get a child to help out (make sure to lay out your expectations first) or a spouse, you will cut the time in half or a third.

Go one room at a time:  It can be nice to do all the windows in the house, but there is greater satisfaction in knowing that a room is done and you’re able to move on to the next one with a fresh start.

Listen to Music: Whether it’s a book on tape or a fun cleaning house jam session, music makes things move along faster, plus you can multitask.

Reward Yourself for a Job Well Done:  This one was big for our house. Having a reward at the end of the cleaning day is a nice way to feel rewarded and gives you something to look forward to. It’s an amazing boost to your mind as you go through cleaning. For more reasons why you may not be cleaning your house, check out: What Causes Someone to Not Clean Their House?

Work from a list: When you work from a cleaning checklist printable, you can get the satisfaction of checking things off room by room and know that you will have a clean room in the end.

Get others to pitch in:  Everything is faster when you have more people helping you. Make cleaning a house a challenge to see how fast you can get it done, so you can get on with the rest of the day. 

House Cleaning Checklist (free printable)

Other Home Cleaning Checklist Printable Items

There are likely some other tasks that have been forgotten; if you think of any, leave them in the comments below, and we will add them. Meanwhile, click here to get this full cleaning checklist. Having a good set of cleaning checklists for your daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal tasks can go a long way in keeping your house clean on an ongoing basis.

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