Routine Cleaning: My Weekly Routine 

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I’ll be the first to admit I don’t have a spotless house. I’ve always preferred the “lived-in” look…which means there’s always something slightly untidy and some dust on the shelves. 

However, I’ve also been through a period of a few months where I’ve just let things go…too much. And this is especially easy to do if you live alone. It was my first solo apartment and I had just moved back to NYC…and I was a bit depressed in general. I practically spent all my time at home on the living room sofa…ignoring my bedroom and avoiding eating in the kitchen (which had a great window view into my neighbor’s apartment and vice versa). One day it just dawned on me that the apartment had gone from untidy to straight up messy—and with the added benefit on a fly buzzing around the living room. Definitely not healthy. I got up from the sofa and started cleaning up. 

With things a bit tidier, I definitely felt better. I wasn’t having many visitors over, compliments of it being a fifth floor walk up (no elevator), but I felt a bit more peaceful, organized, and simply a little proud of my (very modest) home. 

Yet it took a ton of work! And when I finished one room, then the one previous needed to be cleaned again. Basically I felt that I was in an impossible catch-up situation…and vowed never to let a house get to this point again. 

Needless to say, I downsized to a small studio apartment a few years later and that felt more sustainable for me. I made an easy weekly cleaning routine to stay on top of things and keep it reasonable for guests. I’ve kept it up now for years…even while I’m currently living in a larger apartment again. Here’s my routine: 

Vacuum and Sweep

Cleaning the floors every week is an absolute must for me. I do take off my shoes in the entryway, but even then it’s amazing how much dirt get trekked through the house. Nowadays it’s compounded by my cat: bits of his kibble and litter get everywhere and are uncomfortable to step on (he’s messy). Not to mention the cat hair…

I vacuum the rugs and sweep the hardwood floors. A couple years ago it got even easier with the help of a Roomba. I do have to leave a bit more time for the Roomba to do it’s job (and sometimes it gets stuck somewhere), but it’s nice that the floors can be cleaned while I spend the time doing something else. I just have to watch my feet while in the vicinity. 

My secret weapon against cat hair is this Chom-Chom. It’s one of my best household purchases to date and it easily collects the cat hair off of cushions and the carpet—the vacuum unfortunately doesn’t get all of it! 

And every month I find it’s also great to apply the vacuum to the underside of the sofa cushions and corners to grab all the extra crumbs that escape the snack bowl. 

Bathroom

The bathroom and kitchen are the rooms that start bothering me the most when they get dirty. For the bathroom, I clean the toilet, sink, and mirror every week (if not more often). The Roomba mostly takes care of the floor. Unfortunately our bathroom is very white so it shows EVERYTHING. Every few weeks I dust and wipe down the walls a bit to ensure things aren’t looking gross. And of course the shower should also be cleaned weekly, but that is something my husband does every few weeks (maybe we’ll adjust that in future). 

Kitchen Sink 

In the kitchen, the dishes are washed and the counters wiped every night, which means that we start off the morning with a clean slate. I love starting fresh in the morning. Every week I also wash the kitchen sink to keep gunk from building up too long. I typically sprinkle dish detergent and a spoonful of baking soda in the sink and scrub with a towel or sponge. After rinsing, the sink is sparkling and shiny. Once in a while I will use a little bleach solution separately for a deeper clean and disinfection. 

General Tidying

And of course I’d be remiss if I neglected to mention general tidying. Paper piles appear, unopened mail piles up, recycling needs to be taken out, and suddenly the dining table surface gets smaller… we’ve all been there. 

I declutter that dining table and sort the mail every week. So at least these areas don’t build up unnecessarily and remain clean—particularly the table! This still means that papers on the desk unfortunately pile up, especially if the mail adds to that. Ideally I’d sort that too, but honestly lack of both time and patience keeps me from that on a weekly basis. Maybe I’ll change that? (Unlikely). 

Eventually I do get through all the piles though and everything is organized for a minute. I particularly love wiping the dining table with Mrs Meyer’s Lavender scented Multi-Surface Cleaner.

When everything is clean and tidy it feels like a breath of fresh air! My mind works better and I’m far more efficient. Unfortunately it doesn’t stay that way for long…and that’s why this weekly routine is so important. It’s about maintenance. Not deep cleaning. With maintenance your home stays at a reasonably decent level of cleanliness. You don’t end up in an unhealthy-perpetual-catch-up situation. 

This routine works for me and my family. We’ve (mostly) kept it up—even with a newborn baby! And I’m super glad we had it in place—I know the house would’ve been a complete disaster otherwise. And while I don’t enjoy cleaning all the time, taking that hour (or two at absolute worst) every week makes all the difference. 

Take a glance at your home. What things do you clean every week? Are there things that you’d ideally add to that list? Are there other things you’d do daily or monthly? Let me know in the comments!