Know Your Cleaning Type

The best time to clean your home is the time that’s best for you.

Some people are weekend warriors. They like to dedicate a full day or weekend to getting all their cleaning tasks done, so it doesn’t interfere with their daily routines.

Others would rather do a little bit here and there, preferring to spend smaller amounts of time on cleaning tasks, but doing them more frequently. 

Part of living independently is developing your own household schedule. As a kid, you may have been told by your parents or caregivers what chores needed to be done and when you needed to do them, but when you grow up and live on your own, guess what? You’re in charge! You get to decide what schedule is best for you, based on all sorts of factors, including your energy level, your weekly schedule, your mobility needs, whether you have any roommates or caregivers sharing the load, and more.

Your disability may have an impact on how much cleaning you’re able to do at one time. To create your own routine for cleaning your home, it’s important to pay attention to your body and your state of mind. 

Consider the following:

Are you a morning person or a night owl? 

When do you have more energy? Do you wake up full of energy, ready to seize the day, or do you like to sleep in and get your burst of energy when the sun goes down? Take advantage of your natural sleep-wake cycle to do your cleaning when you have the most energy. 

How much cleaning needs to be done?

Get into the habit of making a list of your cleaning chores. These might include addressing the dirty dishes or the pile of papers on the counter, vacuuming or mopping the floor, scrubbing the toilet and bathroom sink, dealing with that pile of dirty laundry, or more deep cleaning tasks such as cleaning windows, organizing your closet, or defrosting the freezer. Once you know how much needs to be done, you may have a sense of how much time it will take.

How much energy do you have?

Think about whether you’d like to just devote one full day or more to cleaning your home top to bottom, or whether you get tired easily and would rather take advantage of short bursts of energy throughout the week. Some people might want to wash their dishes right after dinner, while others may have low energy at night and prefer to do it in the morning when they’re refreshed. Adjust your cleaning schedule to suit your body’s needs.

Do you have help?

If you have a caregiver who is willing to take on some of the more difficult tasks you struggle with, or if you live with someone who can share the burden equally, it might be a good idea to sit down with that person and discuss a schedule for cleaning certain areas of your home at days and times that work for each of you.

Try planning a weekly routine.

Once you have given some thought to your personal cleaning needs and habits, as well as the typical schedules you and anyone else in your home follow, you might try creating a weekly or monthly cleaning calendar. It might look like this:

You could also do a more general schedule for the month, listing the tasks that you plan to do each week.

Review your schedule and make necessary tweaks.

This is YOUR schedule, so make it work for you! Perhaps you started out feeling ambitious, believing you could do more on certain days than was possible. If that’s the case, that’s okay! Just think about how you can rearrange the schedule. Maybe you would rather only clean every other day to allow time for rest in between. Or maybe you’d rather just do it all one day each week, when you have a more open schedule. Maybe there are some tasks that you thought would be easier, but now you realize you need help. Could you invest in hiring a housecleaner, ask a caregiver to do the job, or even buy a robotic vacuum to make cleaning the floor easier?

In the end, whatever schedule you arrive at and however you assign tasks, your plan should be something you can stick with long term, that feels manageable and comfortable for you, and that gives you the happiness and peace of mind that come with a clean home!