Cleaning is for sure one of the things that goes on the list of “adulting tasks” that is flat out HORRIBLE. To make it even worse, it feels like it never ends! Especially when you have kids.
Growing up my mother would disappear every Sunday like clockwork to attend to her cleaning list. Bathrooms, laundry, vacuuming, as a child it felt like she was gone all day to attend to these things. As an adult and the person who now does all of this herself, I am POSITIVE she was indeed gone all day, because when you have to do everything in one day, it takes a very very long time.
I am not always the neatest individual. I have a tendency to collect paper and knick knacks. It’s a constant cycle in my life to maintain order amongst the chaos. Cleaning was a massive headache on a regular basis until I developed a system for myself. And my secret weapon? Batching.
What is Batching?
Batching is when you take tasks that are alike and group them together. In this case, similar cleaning tasks.
The Nitty Gritty of Batching Your Cleaning
To batch your cleaning, you are essentially assigning a particular task grouping to a day of the week. For me, that looks like the following:
| Monday | Tuesday |
| ✅ Declutter Surfaces |
✅ Laundry (Clothes) ✅ Fold & Put Away Clothes |
| Wednesday | Thursday |
|
✅ Vacuum Whole First Floor ✅ Mop Kitchen & Living Room |
✅ Fridge Clean Out |
| Friday | Saturday |
|
✅ Laundry (Sheets & Towels) ✅ Vacuum & Mop Basement |
✅ Laundry (Clothes) ✅ Clean Bathrooms |
Sunday
|
✅ Vacuum Whole First Floor ✅ Mop Kitchen & Living Room |
✅ Fold & Put Away Clothes
✅ Reset For The Week Ahead |
As you will notice, I do laundry on three separate occasions each week. There are five people in my house so frequent loads is mandatory. There are many out there who will tell you to throw in a load every day. That wasn’t a system that worked for me because I wasn’t folding daily and things were just getting wrinkled. Obviously you do what works for you, if daily loads keeps you consistent, all the power to you. I frankly hate laundry. So there’s also that hurdle to contend with.
Things like washing the dishes, filling and emptying the dishwasher, vacuuming high traffic areas, cleaning the table after meals and wiping down the counters are considered “daily non-negotiables” and are therefore not included in my schedule above.
The batched tasks generally take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes. By spreading them out over multiple days, it allows you to get many things done without giving up a huge block of time, or in certain cases, an entire day.
Batching Less Frequent Tasks
There is so much that can fall into the realm of cleaning that creating not just weekly groupings but longer term ones like monthly, quarterly or yearly will set you up with a consistent roadmap.
End of the Month
✅ Declutter Closets By Going Through All Clothing For Sizing Issues
✅ Purge Toys That Aren’t Played With
✅ Clean Inside Cabinets & Closets
✅ Wipe The Baseboards
✅ Wipe Blinds
Quarterly or Yearly
✅ Seasonal Preparation (indoors/outdoors)
✅ Pantry Purge
✅ Clean Windows
✅ Wash Curtains
Fine tuning your batches takes some work, but once your system is set up, you will not regret taking the time to do it. The most important thing to remember is to try and not overextend the number of batches each day. Life happens and sometimes it throws your schedule off. Leaving some empty space, allows you to shift batches as your schedule allows.