Remember when you were younger and the “ten-minute tidy” was a huge thing with our parents? I kind of look at that as shoving the problems under the rug, or quite literally under the bed. You put stuff away, sure, but you’re not dedicated to deep cleaning.

Life is busy and your home sometimes gets the short end of the stick in the process.

I know spring is the time cleaning comes to light, but who has time for that? Spring is one of the busiest times of the year! Especially for families and students.

Midterms are approaching, you’re prepping for spring break, and you’re probably battling some pesky allergies. I for one cannot deep clean in the springtime. If there is any sort of pollen in the air, the last thing I want to do is dust the blinds and get more dirt specks in my system. No way!

For these reasons, I do the majority of my cleaning in the summertime. Summer is a bit more laid back, a lot of offices have summer hours (shorter days, YAY!), and with everyone traveling, you have time to get your house in order. Living in the desert keeps me inside most of the summer, giving me ample time to make my space look neat and tidy.

I’ve created my cleaning schedule around the fiscal year. 

I know that’s strange, but hear me out. The summertime is when I develop my cleaning habits for the year until the holidays come around because that is when life gets busy again. In order to keep my habits strong, I have organized a monthly cleaning calendar.

I’ve generalized this around a multi-bedroom home, but it can be used for apartments or other living situations as well. If something doesn’t apply to you, looks like you simply have a day off from cleaning. Lucky you!

There are no specific dates on this, so you can reuse it year after year!

At first glance, the calendar looks like a lot, but if you really look at it, each of these cleaning activities are super basic. These tasks don’t include the daily dishwashing and kitchen happenings because that is up to you to decide how frequently you want those done, but the bigger projects, yep, those are all on here.

Drop your email below and you’ll receive this 12-month schedule, July to June, right to your inbox. Print it out and hang the corresponding month on your fridge. You can try to color code or go day by day.

TIP: Don’t be afraid to hand out some extra Honey Do’s or give tasks to the kiddos. It’s not all on one person to make the house spic and span. Unless you live alone, then you know, you have to do what you have to do.

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If you’re a person who wants to tackle a lot of these projects in one day, then pick a day to do all the tasks for that week and try to plan ahead if you’re going on vacation. The biggest struggle is not quitting. Don’t become lazy, because then your house will get sloppy.

There have been plenty of studies done that show that your mood is better if you know you have a clean house to come home to. Lift your mood and your home image with this handy cleaning calendar.

Don’t be afraid to share this calendar with your friends and family! You’ll only be benefitting others as well as yourself.