Fun fact for y’all: Living in a house while you are slowly renovating it is hard. It is worth it, but it is hard … and messy. Did I mention it’s messy?
For the last 9 months, there has been at least one space in our home that has been “under construction” in one way or another. And as someone who can’t stand for things to be out of order in my home, I have struggled at times to keep the house tidy while also completing projects.
When you are DIY-ing your fixer upper, it is incredibly easy for housework to get out of control really fast because on top of regular chores, you are literally tearing up your home (while trying to live in it).
For us, our weekends (and some weeknights, too) are usually centered around the cycle of starting new projects, working on projects, and finishing projects, and when you throw in time for socializing with friends, that leaves very little room on Saturday and Sunday for things like mopping the floors and cleaning the bathrooms (one of which is “under construction” as I write this).
In an attempt to keep myself from exploding with rage during all these home projects, here’s my best kept secret: I do not save all of our regular housework for the weekend.
Instead, we break it up and take on one or two tasks each weeknight so that we can spend our weekends doing things we want to do (like hand painting our bathroom floor — haha!) and not stress over what needs to be cleaned.
Really, this helpful tip can be utilized by anyone; you don’t have to be (eye)balls deep in home DIY projects to find these useful.
I get it. Chores are the last thing anybody wants to do when they get home from work in the evenings.
I’m talking about the things that get done weekly: laundry, bathrooms, dishes, and floors (that’s the housework we do each week without fail, at least).
It is so easy to weave these into your daily routine. Other tasks like dusting, baseboards, windows, etc. only need to be done as needed.
I’ve learned that I would much rather do small chores each day during the week if it means I’m not spending my entire Saturday and Sunday stressing over mountains of laundry and a sink full of dirty dishes. And cumulative, these chores should only take 1 hour of your time or less each night.
Housework to do each day to make your overall life easier:
- Make your bed in the morning
- That way you accomplish something at the start of your day and you’ll have a fresh bed to crawl into at night.
- 1 load of laundry (wash, fold, put away)
- Put 1 load in to wash first thing in the morning before you leave for work. When you get home, it will be ready for the dryer.
- Wash dishes, load dishwasher as you (or your spouse) cooks dinner
- Dirty dishes in the sink is one of my biggest pet peeves and I can’t stand waking up in the morning and seeing them. If you wash dishes and load the dishwasher as you or your spouse cooks dinner, you won’t spend your entire night at the sink and your dishes also won’t pile up for the next day (and the next day).
- Clean kitchen counters after dinner
- It only takes a couple of minutes to wipe down your countertops and stovetop after dinner each night. Do this and you’ll wake up to a clean kitchen every morning.
For all other housework, here’s the schedule I follow:
Monday
- Vacuum bedrooms
Tuesday
- Sweep/dust mop hardwood and tile floors
Wednesday
- Dust tables (as needed)
- Clean spare bathroom(s)
Thursday
- Clean master bathroom
Friday
- Sweep/dust mop hardwood and tile floors
Saturday
- Mop floors (I like to do this early in the morning before Justin wakes up)
- Vacuum bedrooms
- Wipe baseboards (as needed)
Sunday
- Change bed linens
As I mentioned above, living in a home you are fixing up yourself is hectic at times, but having some order to the chaos helps keep life more manageable.
Of course, the list of daily chores I shared can be customized to the unique needs of your household; these are simply the things we do regularly.
