40 Days & 40 Nights Cleaning Challenge

No matter what your religion, most people have hear of Lent and the practice that many Christian religions observe a period of fasting, repentance, moderation and/or spiritual discipline. In my family, each year for Lent we would either abstain from something we enjoyed or make it a personal goal to work on something we didn’t enjoy.


Most of the years I would give up coffee, chocolate, candy, pop, or something small like that. This year though, I have decided to try to achieve a goal of mine that has been plaguing me the last few months: keeping my house clean.

I know I have blogged about things around my house I don’t mind being messy (Keeping A Dirty Home). However, somehow in the last few weeks I have seemed to find excuses to do anything around my house but clean. I should correct myself, clean well. We have always been good at doing the dishes nightly, vacuuming weekly, picking up small things…but as of late most of the days our house looks like a tornado hit it.

With that in mind I have decided to start a daily cleaning chart to help me stay on task with my cleaning. (You can download my cleaning schedule here.) The chart is really tailored to my house, but would be very easy to modify and adjust it to your own home. Here is the list basically:

Monday
Dishes (Wash all dishes, wipe off counters, & sweep floor)
Make the Bed
Vacuum Living Room, Kitchen, Entryway, Laundry Room
Dust surfaces, including furniture, objects, and light fixtures in rooms listed above
Vacuum and mop kitchen floor
Tuesday
Dishes (Wash all dishes, wipe off counters, & sweep floor)
Make the Bed
Change and launder bath mats, towels, and washcloths in bathrooms
Clean toilets, bathtubs, showers, and sinks
Dust light fixtures in bathrooms
Vacuum and mop floors in bathrooms, Aiden’s room, master bedroom
Wipe mirrors in bathrooms
Wednesday
Dishes (Wash all dishes, wipe off counters, & sweep floor)
Make the Bed
Vacuum and mop kitchen floor
Dust staircase banisters, living room bookshelves, bedroom dressers.
Vacuum stairs and landings
Thursday
Dishes (Wash all dishes, wipe off counters, & sweep floor)
Make the Bed
Vacuum Living Room, Kitchen, Entryway, Laundry Room
Dust surfaces, including furniture, objects, and light fixtures in rooms listed above
Friday
Dishes (Wash all dishes, wipe off counters, & sweep floor)
Make the Bed
Wipe hand and pet prints from windows and glass doors
Dust surfaces and objects, including furniture, light fixtures, and electronics
Wash Aiden’s high chair cover & high chair
Vacuum and mop kitchen floor
Saturday or Sunday
Dishes (Wash all dishes, wipe off counters, & sweep floor)
Make the Bed
Discard foods and beverages past their prime in fridge
Wipe out fridge and outside of fridge
Empty trash bins
Water plants
Every Two Weeks
Laundry (if we haven’t done it already)
Wipe tops of washer & dryer
Scrub down tub and shower surrounds
Launder bed sheets
Dust shelves and storage bins
Wipe surfaces in kitchen back of oven, front of refrigerator & cupboard doors.
Wipe the inside of the oven and microwave.
Vacuum the basement.

So even if you aren’t a spiritual person, but you are wanting to try to keep your house clean. I invite you to take this 40 days and 40 nights Cleaning Challenge with me. I figure that if you mark off a few tasks each day, your house should stay somewhat clean throughout the week. Well, that’s my goal anyways. Wish me luck and I will post back 40 days and 40 nights from now!


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