Keeping the house clean is a huge task on it’s own when you’ve got 4 kids. Keeping the house clean enough to show to prospective buyers on any given day with only 2 hours advance notice? Well, I didn’t even want to try! But I pulled on my big girl pants, took a couple of weeks to find my groove and now I’m making it work.

The very first step for me was to stop procrastinating. I’ve always been bad about leaving things for later. Clean clothes out of the dryer? Put them in a basket for later. Toys on the floor at bedtime? Put them in a bin and push it to the side of the room for tomorrow. Stack of mail? I’ll get to it eventually. This had to stop. Now, even on my bad days, I’m picking up as I go. I save nothing for tomorrow.

I tend to think of my cleaning in layers. Layer 1 is my morning + night routine, Layer 2 is my To Do list, and Layer 3 is my calendar of cleaning.

I’m an old fashioned kinda girl, I like handwritten lists and calendars, so I keep a spiral notebook and a pen someplace handy, and I keep a printed calendar page on the fridge. I like these calendar pages, they’re cute and they’re free!

Layer 1: Morning + Night Routine. After the big kids are fed, dressed and off to school, I turn on some cartoons for the little girls and I start my morning routine. I’m a bed maker, I like to make the beds every day, so this is a routine I had before we put our house on the market, but I find it’s especially important now. I don’t let myself miss a day.

I start at one corner of the house and work my way to the other, one room at a time. I make beds, open blinds, turn off lamps and just generally straighten up. There are usually pajamas left in a pile on someone’s floor, towels left on the bathroom counter, toothpaste in the sink, milk spilled where the kids sat to eat, closet doors left open… I just do a quick walk-through and tidy it all up. It doesn’t usually take more than 15 minutes to make my way through our little 3 bedroom, 2 bath house.

My night routine is similar. I wait until everyone is in their PJs and settled in for a little tv viewing before bed, and I make my through the rooms again to pick up dirty socks left on the floor, put away any stray toys (the kids are responsible for picking up after themselves, but there’s always something that’s been forgotten), close all the blinds and just generally tidy up so that we won’t wake up to a mess tomorrow.

Layer 2: To Do List. After my morning routine and a quick snack break with the little girls, I move on to my To Do List. I’m a big believer in To Dos and I use one almost daily.

I keep my To Do list in my spiral notebook, which is where I also keep my menu plan and shopping lists, but I’ll get to that later. It’s not a cute spiral, sad to say, but it’s a work horse! I leave the spiral notebook out where I have quick access to it throughout the day, and I write down any specific chores that need to be done as I notice them. For instance, this is my To Do for today…

These are all my little as-needed chores that pop up overnight or at a time where I’m not able to tackle the task right away. This morning, I’m spending my Layer 2 time writing a blog post. But when I get done, I’ll start working on scratching off the items on my To Do List.

Layer 3: Calendar of Cleaning. There are some chores that need to be done regularly, and especially so when selling the house. Vacuuming, mopping, dusting, cleaning the bathrooms and staying on top of the laundry. This is where I use those cute printable calendar pages. I took a close look at our week, our schedule of activities and how/when certain chores are best done, and I wrote it all down. I keep my calendar on the fridge so I see it every morning when I making breakfast and packing lunches. This takes a lot of the thinking out of it for me, which is helpful when I have so much on my plate already. My calendar looks something like this:

• Monday – laundry and clean bathrooms (swish a brush in the toilets, clean the mirrors, spray/wipe down counters and bathtubs, wash/replace towels)
• Tuesday – dust, vacuum and mop
• Wednesday – laundry (when you have 4 kids, laundry piles up quick, usually by day 2 the hamper is overflowing)
• Thursday – dust, vacuum and mop again
• Friday – laundry and bathrooms again

This works for our family, I like to have the laundry caught up and the bathrooms clean before the weekend starts, and I find it all needs to be done again immediately following a weekend. The house doesn’t get especially dusty, but I walk around with a swiffer anyway on Tuesdays and Thursdays because we have a lot of dark wood and black painted furniture that shows every little spec.

When I follow this plan of 3 layers of cleaning, and I make sure to do what I need to do every day, I’m in good shape when the realtor calls to show the house. At that point, all I have to do is pick up whatever toys are out, finish up whatever task I may be in the middle of, and I’ll usually touch up the floors if needed. That’s it!

What are some of your Go To Ideas for keeping the house looking good when it’s for sale?