Your Smart and Sustainable Cleaning Routine

Do you find a messy, cluttered space anxiety-inducing? You’re not alone. Research tells us that our environments can have a big impact on our mental health. Visual clutter can make us feel scattered and stressed, while clean and tidy spaces can help put our minds at ease.

Whether your home is seriously messy or just in need of a seasonal spruce-up, the good news is that cleaning and organizing is easier than we think. All we need are a few systems and routines—and a bit of good old-fashioned elbow grease.

But first, a disclaimer: everyone’s homes, families, and schedules are very different. The following routines are suggestions only, and probably won’t work perfectly for you. The trick is to use them as inspiration, and then come up with your own perfectly personalized routine.

Your super summer cleaning spectacular

The following tasks are all about deep cleaning and organizing—you know, the things you likely don’t have time for on a daily or weekly basis. They’re the things that might sit on your to-do list and bring you grief when you remember them. But no longer!

Depending on your needs and schedule, aim to tackle one task each day, weekend, or week. As you complete these tasks, consider when they should be done next and slot them into your annual, seasonal, or monthly home maintenance checklists.

Declutter and organize

One at a time choose a space or category to conquer (books, kitchen drawers, or coat closet for example).

• Take everything out, vacuuming and dusting the insides of drawers and closets.
• Think twice about each item before you put it back: do I still need, want, and use this item? Does this item need to be repaired or mended?
• Mend clothes and darn socks, take shoes to the cobbler, and fix anything else that needs to be fixed.
• When you put items back, try to create a home for everything, so nothing gets misplaced.

Declutter food storage areas such as your pantry, refrigerator, or deep freeze.

• Note expiry dates and toss anything that’s unsuitable for consumption.

Check the bathroom and inventory your family’s medicine and supplement cabinet.

• Bring expired products to pharmacies for proper disposal. Stock up on items that need replacing.

Don’t ignore virtual clutter: delete unneeded files, emails, and apps.

Deep clean

Appliances: give the oven, dishwasher, and washing machine a deep clean, including (carefully!) pulling each away from the wall, where possible, to clean behind it.

Walls: wash walls where needed, along with baseboards and light fixtures.

Rugs and upholstery: have these either professionally cleaned or DIY with rental equipment.

Car: give the car a deep clean both inside and out.

Trash and recycling bins: thoroughly wash inside and outside of each.

Do some basic home maintenance

• Organize and restock home maintenance products such as batteries, air purifier filters, vacuum bags, and light bulbs. Replace what’s needed around the house.
• Check smoke and carbon monoxide alarms.
• If needed, redo caulking or grout in kitchens and bathrooms.
• Have dryer vents professionally cleaned.
• Change furnace filters.
• Clean gutters, patio furniture, windows, window screens, and other exterior fixtures.

Your daily routine

Now that your home is spic and span, we can turn our sights toward maintenance. Daily cleaning tasks can become so routine that we barely have to think about them. Once we’ve found a rhythm that works for us, they really don’t take much time or energy at all.

Your weekly schedule

Many people enjoy assigning a task, or a room, to each day of the week, to take the guesswork out of cleaning. Here is one example of a weekly schedule.