Small Spaces: Weekly Cleaning Routine!

Routines, routines. It is one of THE most requested things we get asked about.  And each space is so very, very different.  But small spaces are unique. There isn’t a lot of wiggle room and keeping them clean is paramount to keeping them sane, functional spaces.  You don’t have the luxury to throw a bunch of stuff into another room and close the door and deal with it later.  You can’t let your laundry pile up in a corner…what corner?  Your space has to be in good shape pretty much all of the time.  Some of these ideas are new habits to establish, so you are not actually cleaning, you are just changing the way you do things each day to incorporate cleaning into your routine and save yourself from having to invest more time to do it.  Other things you’ll actually have to spend time doing.  So, let’s talk about how to set up a quick cleaning routine to manage your small space.

With 10 minutes of effort a day, you can keep your small space in check.  Let’s do it!

Kitchen

Each day, do your dishes and wipe your counters.  I boil a kettle while I load or unload the dishwasher, which can translate into hand washing dishes. By the time I am done, I have tea.  It doesn’t take that long!

Empty your garbage as soon as it is full.

Once a week sweep and mop floors.  It’s something that only takes a couple of minutes to do.

Bathroom

Keep a cloth and spray bottle under your bathroom sink, or a roll of disposable wipes and wipe your counter and sink daily.

Straighten your towels, and wash them weekly.

If you can bare it, have only one garbage can in the whole space – that way you only have to empty one garbage.

Squeegee after each shower, that way you won’t have to scrub your shower walls… ever. IF you don’t do the squeegee thing, scrub your shower and tub once every 2 weeks.

One night a week, dump a cup of borax into the toilet bowl before you go to sleep, and then in the morning, give your bowl a quick scrub and flush.

Wipe toilet seats and side with a disposable wipe.

With a cloth or wipe, give your floors a quick wipe down.

Bedroom

Make your bed daily.

Put your clothing away as soon as it comes off your body, either in a hamper or in it’s proper storage space.  Clothes live on people and in drawers or closets, never on floors.

Alternate laundering your linens and towels each week on the same day.  As an example, Tuesdays, before you go to the gym, put through that load of laundry.  After you get home from the gym, throw your laundry in the dryer before you hit the shower.

General Living Spaces

Give yourself 10 minutes a week to dust and vacuum.  As an example, find 10 minutes once a week while your dinner is cooking to sweep or vacuum and do a quick dusting.  Dust first and then vacuum, since dust falls and can easily be vacuumed up.  If your space is a little larger, you can break down areas you dust so you do half the space one week and half the next week.

Focus on horizontal surfaces and carry a spray bottle with all-purpose cleaner to wipe any prints, spills or marks.

If you have mirrors you can give those a nice cleaning, too, with some glass cleaner.

For the floors, vacuum or dry dust and mop.  It sounds like more work than it is – I promise!

The important part of a cleaning routine is to be smart with your moves – so putting things back where they belong each time you use them and being considerate of your future self, means that a quick clean up each week will make for a much easier small space maintenance routine.