I Tried Every Popular Cleaning Routine So You Don't Have To

For three years, I literally tried every popular cleaning routine the internet had to offer. Okay? Clean mama, fly lady, the organized mom, all of it. And for 3 years, nothing stuck. So, I stopped following their systems and decided to build my own by taking the best parts from everything I tried to create the one ultimate routine that finally does work. And in this video, I'm taking you through the entire journey from the very first routine that I tried to the one I built so that you can see for yourself exactly what worked, what didn't, and what finally got my home under control. So, if today you're feeling like like no matter how much you clean, your home is never actually clean, then you're exactly in the right place, okay? Today's video is going to change everything for you because you don't have to keep searching anymore. Okay, this video right here will answer every question you've ever had about keeping your home clean. Okay, so let's rewind 4 years ago and start at the beginning. The very first system I tried.

Hi, my name is Ariel and I tried the Clean Mama routine for one week. Yes, only one week. You'll find out why very soon. She says she only cleans 30 minutes a day and by following her simple cleaning schedule, a half hour a day is enough to maintain a clean home. I noticed a few of the routines make these time to cleans and I definitely had my doubts, but we'll talk about that later. For now, let's just jump right into her five daily tasks. Make your bed. Every cleaning expert and their mother's brothers are going to tell you to make your bed. We have heard this one a bajillion times cuz it's a good one. I agree. Making the bed is great. You know, it's quick. It's easy. Now, should it be a priority amongst all the other things in the house that maybe need more attention? I don't know. Let's keep going.

The next daily task is to start a load of laundry. Clean Mama suggests that you should do a load of laundry every single day. But this was a challenge, too, because Clean Mama says we can't just wash the laundry and leave it in the washer for the next 3 days, but we have to dry them and fold them and put them away, too. What am I, Wonder Woman? I still agree that this is the definition of Wonder Woman.

The third daily task is to pick up clutter. She suggests that you keep on top of your clutter throughout the day. Open your mail right away. Take 5 minutes at a time to go through the house picking up all the random toys and papers on the floor and tables. Yep, clutter. We all have it. This is a good one.

The fourth daily task is to wipe your counters. This was easy. It took me about 1 minute. She recommends wiping your kitchen counters and your bathroom counters. And the last task, but not the least out of the five, although it is my least favorite task. Check your floors. She doesn't mean you have to sweep every single day, but just check them and see if there's any crumbs.

Okay, so those are all the daily tasks in the Clean Mama routine, only five, which I actually love because anything more than like five or six things in a daily routine is just going to cause overwhelm, which is what we're trying to get away from. So the number of tasks, perfect. But the real question is, are they the right tasks? And four years ago, this is what I was trying to figure out. And right off the bat, I knew I was not a fan of daily laundry. And I'll have you know that I did not have enough laundry to do every day. So again, I did all my daily tasks except laundry because there's no way I'm doing that small of a load of laundry. Yeah, this that's just not happening. As a family of three, I just never had enough laundry to do. and I hated the idea of having to wash, dry, and fold my laundry every single day. So, I was not a fan of that.

Now, making the bed, I didn't mind that one. I mean, honestly, just just making your bed can take a messy room and make it look like 50% cleaner instantly. So, yeah, I wasn't complaining about that one. As far as picking up clutter, this one felt a little vague to me. Okay. So, she says just keep up with it throughout the day. But I remember thinking like what does that actually mean? Like is this 5 minutes, 20 minutes all day? Just pick up all day long. I kind of wish there was just like this one clear expectation instead of this vague just keep up with it. I do like her task of wiping the counters and checking the floors because my kitchen does get pretty sticky after dinner. So yeah, I liked three tasks out of the five. But here's the biggest issue I had with a daily task. Okay, why aren't dishes mentioned? I mean, dishes are a massive part of cleaning, are they not? And and you know, I know some of you might argue that it's just a part of dinner, but come on. Spending hours every day scrubbing plates, that sounds like cleaning to me. And therefore, in a cleaning routine, I would expect it to be addressed. But of course, we can't really judge yet. We haven't even looked at the weekly tasks.

There's a weekly task for every day of the week except for Sunday. So, let's start with Monday. All right. Every Monday, she has you clean your bathroom. And as you can see, mine was pretty disgusting. At the time, I would let my tub sit for months before cleaning it. And it showed. So, once a week clean is a pretty big step up from my previous once every six month clean.

Moving on to Tuesday, which is dusting day. So, yes, she has an entire day devoted to dusting where she has you go through your whole house once a week and dust it from top to bottom. Quite a step up from my previous once a year dusting.

So, now it is Wednesday and today is vacuuming day. All right. It sounds like your Tuesday dusting day is setting you up for your Wednesday vacuuming day where you vacuum and or sweep the entire house, which is interesting because I usually would just vacuum my downstairs like way more than my upstairs completely ignoring the upstairs for months.

And now it is Thursday and that means it's mopping day. This is the all-time best floor cleaner, Fabuloso. Yes, Fabuloso is still my favorite mop cleaner. Did you know that they recently came out with a new watermelon scent? Now, it's not as good as the original green bottle that I love, but I got to admit, smells pretty nice. But anyway, you better not miss Wednesday vacuum day because then you won't be able to properly do Thursday's mopping day. So, if you want to do this routine, you better be on your game.

All right, let's move on to Friday. Today is catch all day. Catch all day is a catchup day. Everything you didn't get to this week, do on Friday. I didn't get to my second bathroom on Monday, so that is what I'm going to do today. Four years later and nothing has changed.

Saturday is a breath of fresh air. It's sheets and towels day. So, when I got out of bed this morning, I opened my curtains. I put on my bathroom and I started getting my sheets together. I didn't have to make my bed this morning, so I just took all the sheets and brought them straight to the laundry basket. Okay.

And then on Sunday, there are no weekly tasks, which I am actually a big fan of because I believe that everyone should rest at least one day a week.

So, let's talk about the weekly tasks. Now, I liked her bathroom cleaning day because it stops the bathrooms from being ignored for 6 months or more. I also liked her catch all day because how often do our weeks actually go as planned? We live busy lives. We we have busy weeks and having a catchup day acknowledges just how normal it is to get behind. Now, as far as having a day for dusting, a day for vacuuming, and a day for mopping, I got to be honest, I'm not a fan. Something about dusting the entire house one day, vacuuming the entire house the next, and mopping the entire house after. That just doesn't feel practical to me. I mean, those are three big jobs. I said it myself four years ago. And mopping the entire house was a huge job and it was tiring. And what if you had an especially busy week and didn't get to dusting Tuesday or sweeping Wednesday? Well, now it's Thursday and you got to mop. But you really can't mop until you dust and vacuum. So, that really leaves no room for error. Your week has to go perfectly just to even get to this task. And you know what that means? That means it's very likely that you will never get to it. Because when you put such high expectations on your week, you're setting yourself up for an even higher chance of failure and disappointment. And after trying this routine, I learned very quickly that this was not going to work for me. Oh, and not to mention, on a side note, I'm finding that doing clean mama's cleaning routine is causing me to neglect my dishes. Slowly, the house is looking so clean that I feel like I'm living in my mother's house. But then, as the house gets cleaner, the dishes get more out of control. I'm so busy cleaning the whole house that I don't have time to clean dishes. I'm so busy cleaning the whole house that I don't have time for dishes. I don't like that this routine is making me that busy. I don't I don't want cleaning to run my life. I just want it to be a small part of it. And trying this routine made me feel like I was cleaning all the time. I definitely did not clean my house in 30 minutes a day. More like an hour and a half a day. But in clean mama's defense, but that could be just because I don't keep up on my cleaning as much as I should. Perhaps if I did this cleaning routine every single week, dusting wouldn't be an hour-ong ordeal. Now, she has a set of deeper cleaning tasks that she encourages you to complete on your catch all day. But at that point, I had already decided that I didn't like the routine and and I wasn't going to spend any more time on it. So, at that point, I figured maybe cleaning routines just weren't for me.

Until I found Mara Silly, aka the queen of cleaning routines. She enjoys long walks to the kitchen sink, timers set for 15 minutes, and spending her Saturdays fly fishing. She is the fly lady. Yes, the fly lady. And I heard about her from my best friend who told me that finding this so-called fly lady saved her home. So, what' I do? I tried her routine, of course. And I got to tell you, this one was promising. But here's the downside. Okay, remember when I said that five to six daily tasks were the ideal number of tasks to avoid overwhelm? Well, no worries because Fly Lady only has 19 of them. But don't fast forward. Don't click away. 11 of those 19 tasks are self-care tasks. Things like going to bed at a decent hour and drinking water. So, I'm thinking that I'm just going to skip those ones and focus mainly on the actual cleaning tasks because that's why you're here, right? You want to know how to keep your home clean. So, if you want self-care, then then go check out Mel Robbins on YouTube because she's wonderful. I listen to her all the time. But here, we're just going to stick to cleaning. And after we take out the self-care tasks, that leaves us with eight daily tasks. So, two more than I would prefer, but let's not judge until we hear what they are. Okay.

Now, Fly Lady actually breaks up her daily tasks into three categories. The morning routine, the afternoon routine, and the evening routine. So, starting with the morning routine, she has four cleaning tasks. Beginning with the first one, first thing in the morning, make your bed. It's been so refreshing to go to sleep at night without having to make the bed first. I will admit, it is a great gift to your future self.

Next on the list is to do a swish and swipe, which means to wipe down your sinks and toilets, including inside the toilet bowl. That's where the swish comes from. If you have more than one bathroom, then you can alternate between them. So, Monday, clean the sinks and toilets in the upstairs bathroom. Tuesday, do the downstairs. Wednesday, upstairs. You get the point.

Next on your morning routine is to empty the dishwasher or the dish drainer in my case. I like to start my coffee and then empty the dishwasher while it's brewing. And yes, I am wearing a triceratop hat. My boy and I are going to be dinosaurs for Halloween, so we get to wear our costumes every single day until Halloween. >> Lucky me. No, actually I I miss when life was that simple. Now my son makes me play Pokemon.

Next, you're going to start a load of laundry. Fly Lady says that a load a day keeps the chaos away. Yes, another person telling me to do my laundry every day, but at this point, I already concluded. Now, as a family of three, we don't really need to do laundry every day, but I made sure to check every morning to see if I had a load to do, and if I did, I would. I think that's a fair compromise.

So, those are the four morning tasks. And just like Clean Mama's routine, making the bed and doing daily laundry are a part of it. But what's different is that Fly Lady at least mentions dishes and has you empty the dishwasher, which honestly is a necessity because otherwise like like what are you going to eat off of unless you have endless amounts of dishes, which we don't. Now, as far as the swish and swipe, I really liked this because if someone's coming over, what's the first place you clean? the bathroom, right? I mean, at least for me, it is. So, as long as I do this daily, my bathroom will always be company ready.

Okay, moving on to the afternoon tasks. There's only two that are real cleaning tasks, which is to switch over your laundry, which, you know, honestly is more of a reminder than anything because doing laundry is already in the morning routine. So, I barely even count that as an additional task. And then the second afternoon task is to declutter for 15 minutes a day. It's nice that decluttering is even mentioned because I don't think it was mentioned in Clean Mama's routine and decluttering is a pretty big part of keeping your home under control.

Now, let's move on to the last four daily tasks which are a part of her evening routine. The first thing on the evening routine is to shine your sink. She doesn't even say to do the dishes. She literally recommends that you take all the dishes out of the sink and shine your sink, which I thought was a little strange, but I'm going to do the dishes first because I've got time on my hands tonight. So, I think the point of this task is to hopefully motivate you to actually do your dishes to better enjoy your clean, shiny sink. So, she's saying, "Hey, even if you can't do your dishes, still pull them all out and get your sink shiny because the process of doing that is is what's likely going to motivate you to just wash the dishes."

Moving on to my hot spot. Hot spots are the spots in your home where paper clutter slowly takes over. Fly Lady says to spend only 2 minutes a night clearing your hot spots. It is amazing how much you can get through in just 2 minutes of time. Try it. You'll be astounded and it may just keep you from being late on a forgotten bill, too. So, in the video, I I said paper clutter, but Flight Lady really means all clutter. So, basically any flat surface in your home that collects clutter. And that is the last real cleaning task of the evening routine.

Now, I really liked her task of spending 2 minutes clearing a hot spot because honestly, who can't spare 2 minutes? And I realized pretty quickly that you can clear a lot off a surface in that time. Believe it or not, most of the time those 2 minutes would turn into five, sometimes even 10. So, I'm a fan of this one. As far as shining the sink, well, a shiny sink is great and all, but I think I'd rather just be told to do my dishes. And as I followed this routine, that's kind of how I took it, but the problem was I'd end up leaving all the dishes for the end of the night, and then I was stuck at the sink for an hour every night, which I really didn't like. It made me dread being in my own kitchen.

As for decluttering for 15 minutes a day, I loved the idea of this, but I definitely struggled with consistency. The days I actually did it were great. So, I do like this task, but it it's just the way it's set up, you know, 15 minutes every day. It's just hard to stick with because it doesn't always feel like a priority, you know, like like I'm over here just trying to keep up with the dishes and the laundry and my sticky counters. You think I got time to be elbow deep into my kitchen cabinets, pulling everything out, making a huge mess in the middle of the day? Well, probably not every day. So, yeah, that was my biggest struggle with it. And out of these seven daily tasks, since I'm not counting switching your laundry over as an eighth task, I liked five out of seven of them because at that point, I was not a fan of daily laundry and I really just didn't like shining my sink. You know, it didn't do anything for me. The only thing it did was was give me an excuse to procrastinate on doing the dishes. But five out of seven is not bad. And at this point, I was really liking the routine. It flowed so much better with my schedule than clean mamas did. But we haven't even looked at our weekly tasks yet, which Fly Lady likes to call the daily focus.

So, let's start with Monday's daily focus, which is the weekly home blessing, which I got to tell you, I absolutely loved. Every Monday, we are going to bless our home, as she puts it. So, get out your timers for this because she has a list of seven cleaning tasks, but she only wants you to spend no more than 10 minutes per task. So, basically, once a week, you go into the main living areas of your home and work through a list of seven tasks, setting a 10-minute timer for each one. altogether. It takes a little over an hour. And after trying this out, I found it to be revolutionary in my own home. Okay. I had to realize that I no longer needed to spend hours dusting, sweeping, mopping, windexing. I could do it all in about an hour a week and just move on with my day. And yeah, it wasn't perfectly clean, but the difference in my home was like night and day every single time I did it. Even though I wasn't doing a perfect job and some spots were getting missed, but even Fly Lady said herself, "Housework done incorrectly will still bless your family. It may not be done the way your mama taught you, but it will be done. This will make your home shine and you will smile. I am so proud of you for blessing your home." So, the weekly home blessing was what sold me on her routine. But hey, that's just Monday. We still have the rest of the week to go.

Tuesday is plan and play day. So basically a day for paying the bills, planning activities, making appointments, maybe meal planning, and then after you're done planning, Fly Lady says that we get to play. Spend the rest of the day doing something you love to do. No, I don't eat ice cream every time I have a free minute. Okay, but listen, four years later and I finally gotten to the point that I don't eat ice cream every time I have a free minute.

Wednesday is anti-procrastination day. I think the name explains it all. Just pick something you're procrastinating on and do it.

On to Thursday. Thursdays are errand days. So, I broke out the stroller and walked to the bank. I had a check that I needed to deposit and then we walked to the store and picked up a few things. I don't think I need to explain much more.

Friday is clean out your car and purse day. We all know how many random things end up in our purses, like a toy, fishing pole, or oh, a level. You never know when you need to straighten something out. >> I'm just checking to see if my face is symmetrical. >> I had a lot of random things in my purse, so I'm glad I took care of that. And next, the one thing I've been dreading, cleaning out the car.

Okay, so that's all for the weekly tasks. Right away, I loved the weekly home blessing. And after trying this routine, I started blessing my home every week for a couple years. And it's a big reason why I loved the Fly Lady in her routine. I also liked her anti-procrastination day because procrastination is my middle name. And I liked the planning and errand day because it gave me a set day each week to both meal plan and grocery shop, keeping my weeks much more organized. So, I guess I liked most all of her weekly tasks at that point, except for the car and per day. Not that it isn't a good idea, but in practice with kids, I just never got to it. The car is a whole other beast to deal with, and I can only fight one beast at a time. Simon, there's one more part to her routine that I haven't mentioned yet.

Let's talk about zone cleaning. So, Fly Lady splits up your house into five different zones. Basically, one zone for every week of the month. And then she has you spend just 15 minutes a day cleaning in your zone. So, if this week's zone was the living room, for example, then every day this week, you would set your timer for 15 minutes and clean in that zone. Now, as much as I loved the Fly Lady routine, this is the one part that never stuck for me. No matter how hard I tried, I just could not get into the habit of zone cleaning. It honestly felt unrealistic. I mean, 15 minutes a day doesn't sound like much. But when you're expected to find those 50 minutes a day for a task that doesn't always feel as urgent as everything else in the home, it's hard. That takes some serious discipline. And this is where I felt like the routine fell short for me. It just didn't feel doable in my everyday life. And so I was on a hunt to find a better way to take care of those deep cleaning tasks because after trying her routine for a year, I knew zone cleaning would never work for me. And I liked her routine. Okay. I really felt like it helped keep my home clean. The only issue, keeping up with it long term was hard when I was following it. Exactly. I loved the results. It really did work for me. But with all the many tasks and and the way everything was split up, it was so easy to fall off track. And once I fell off, it felt almost impossible to get back into. I can't explain why. So yeah, the routine itself was great. But actually sticking with it, that's what I struggled with. And therefore, I still felt like something was missing. I wanted a routine that worked like Fly Ladies, but had the simplicity of clean mamas.

So, it was time to once again venture out, not just for me, but for my audience who was following my whole experience right on YouTube. You guys were waiting for me to find the perfect routine for both of us. So, what did we do? Well, we once again attempt to dive into another cleaning routine. So, I tried the organized mom method for one week, also known as the organized mom method. Yes, the organized mom method. Another very popular method. But who is this organized mom anyway? Well, her name is Gemma Bray. She resides in England and she has helped hundreds of thousands of women with her cleaning methods. Sounds pretty good. It did sound pretty good and it had the simplicity I was looking for, too. pretty checklist, a short list of daily tasks, and even a little more of a realistic timeline opposed to Clean Mama's 30 minute clean. She also claims that you can clean your home in just 45 minutes a day without cleaning on the weekends. I mean, when I tried Clean Mama's routine, I said that it took an hour and a half a day, but who knows, maybe this routine will be organized better where I could do it in less time. I mean, I hope so. She is the organized mom.

So, she splits her routine into three levels of cleaning. Level one, which is the daily tasks, level two, which is the weekly tasks, and level three, which you could call the monthly tasks, but she does it in a very unique way. More on that later, though. Let's first take a look at the level one jobs. These are to be completed daily, but should not take longer than 15 minutes, and there's only four tasks. This feels attainable. So, let's start with the first task, which is to make your bed. Yeah, yeah, we get it. Every routine in the history of the earth starts with this task. Moving on.

The next daily job is to do a load of laundry. Yeah, yeah, we get it. Every routine in the history of the earth has this task after. I was starting to catch on to these socalled cleaning experts. But now, a third home cleaning expert has told me to wash my clothes daily. I'm feeling ganged up on. I think clean mama, fly lady, and organized mom got together to devise an evil plan of making me wash laundry every day. >> I I will never surrender.

The third daily task is to do a quick floor clean in the main traffic areas of your home. So, you're not moving furniture, getting in every corner, or doing a headstand while vacuuming the ceiling with your feet. You're just spending a couple of minutes taking care of the visible dirt in the main living areas, vacuuming up crumbs under the dining table, and wherever else gets a daily load of animal cracker crumbs or dog hair. I I just know there's an animal cracker in here somewhere.

And the last daily task of the level one jobs is to do a quick daily clean of the bathrooms. Remember, she only all lots 15 minutes to complete all four of these tasks. So, she doesn't want you cleaning every corner of the bathroom every day. She advises you to change it up daily so that by the end of the week, your whole bathroom does get cleaned. So, yesterday I clean the sink and the mirror. And today, I'm mopping up the floors. Although, she does suggest that you wipe down your toilets every day because we all know what business is being held there on a daily basis. And those are your level one jobs. Can you complete them in only 15 minutes a day? Well, I think you could if you did all of the four tasks, but skip the part where you actually fold and put away the laundry because let's be honest, doing laundry is no 4-minute task. It takes time. Yes, laundry is a huge time sucker.

All right, so out of these four daily tasks at that point, I liked two out of four of them. I still didn't mind making the bed each day cuz it only takes a minute. And the daily bathroom clean kind of reminds me a little bit of Fly Lady Squish and Swipe, which I liked. So, I didn't mind this task either. But as far as laundry, you all know how I feel about laundry at this point. And I wasn't a huge fan of the daily sweeping either. I mean, it is a good task to have if you have dogs, but personally, I've never felt like my floors get dirty enough for a daily sweep. Although in the kitchen on the other hand, yeah, that room could probably use a daily sweep. I am a mess when I cook. But you know what? Thinking back to the first routine I tried, Clean Mama's, I liked how she worded it because she didn't tell you to sweep your floors, but to just check your floors to see if they needed sweeping. So, I guess she recognizes that this may or may not be a priority for everyone. But anyway, that's all of her daily tasks. And have you noticed what's not mentioned? Hm. Do you see it? Where are the dishes? Why aren't dishes mentioned? Why do people think that dishes don't count as cleaning? Ah, makes me crazy. But let's move on to the weekly task because who knows? Maybe dishes will be a weekly chore. Probably not. But let's venture out onto her level two jobs.

These are weekly jobs that are completed Monday through Thursday. Each day has its own focus room and they never change. And she says to only spend no more than 30 minutes on whatever room is scheduled to get cleaned that day. So let's start with Monday where we get to clean our living rooms. And I'm also setting my timer so that I don't spend more than 30 minutes because it's easy to lose track of time. Okay. So while clean mama had you clean by activity, sweeping the whole house one day, mopping the whole house another, organized mom has you clean by room. living room on Monday, bedrooms on Tuesday, entrance and stairs on Wednesday, and the kitchen on Thursday. Now, just to be clear, you're not expected to complete the whole list for each room. You just do what you can in a 30-inut period and then whatever you don't get to, that can just be taken care of next week since you'll clean the same room on the same day every week. And what I found is that time went by quicker than expected. And you'd be surprised at how quickly 30 minutes passes you by. Every time that timer goes off, I'm like, "Really? Already?" And sometimes it's tempting to just keep cleaning when you're on a roll, but the organized mom encourages you to stop. You will finish these tasks next Wednesday. You don't want to tire yourself out too quickly because that's when you'll be tempted to give up. So, that completes the level two jobs.

Now, after trying this for a few weeks, I really wasn't a fan. First of all, committing 30 minutes every day to cleaning these rooms, that's a lot. I can barely find 30 minutes to fold my laundry every day, and I just don't feel like it's realistic. I mean, my life is very busy. Sometimes I can barely find time to even shower before bed. And you want me to devote 30 minutes a day to cleaning the living room, the bedrooms? No way. It's a nice idea, but that's where it ends. Add an idea. I mean, it sounds good on paper, but in practice, it just doesn't match the reality of how daily life goes. So, level one, me, the second you don't mention dishes is the second you lose me. Level two, not really a fan either.

But level three, that's where she won me over. Here is the last level, and she calls this the secret and the key to the organized mom method. So, if you remember me mentioning before, your level two jobs are completed Monday through Thursday, but your level three jobs are only completed on Fridays. Okay, but what are those level three jobs? Well, as you know, we all have those deep cleaning tasks that most of us only do like once a year, such as cleaning the oven or tackling grout. Well, Fridays are the days that we're going to take care of those things. So each Friday, you'll concentrate on a different area of your home using her 8week cycle. And again, she doesn't want you spending any more than 30 minutes on this. Okay? So basically, she has you cycle through this list of a areas of the home. So every Friday, you would set your timer for 30 minutes and start at week one, which is the first area of the home. And then you would go through this list of tasks, hitting as many as you can in a 30-inut period, and then stopping when the time is up. And then by the time next Friday hits, you would move on to the week two area, which is the living room. Again, setting your timer for 30 minutes and doing as much as you can. And then by the end of the two-month period, you would have deep cleaned your entire home from hitting every area of the house on that list. Except not everything, because you will miss things, and that's okay. All that matters is that you're doing something. because I don't know about you, but I sure like to do my best to not clean my oven for 5 years because there's nothing I dislike more. But looking back, I was actually a big fan of this approach to deep cleaning. I loved her rotating list. I loved how she just had you do it once a week on Fridays. And I loved how she allows you to stop even if the list wasn't finished and actually encouraged you to stop when the time was up. That part to me is the best part of her routine.

So, at that point, I decided that I would keep using Fly Lady's routine because I genuinely loved it. But instead of doing her zone cleaning method, I would adopt organize Mom's Friday focus and work that into my routine instead. So, at this point, I was feeling really good about where I was. But something was still missing. First of all, I didn't have a good system for laundry. I didn't have a good system for dishes either. And I also wasn't great about keeping up with daily bathroom cleans. And even though I loved Fly Lady's routine, I still struggled to keep up with it. It worked, but sometimes it was just a lot.

And that's when I started seeing all of your comments on my videos. Have you tried Dana K. White? Have you tried Dana K. White? Will you try it next year? Will you try it last year? You tried it? Have you tried it? Dana White, I'll do it. Dana K. White. Who is this woman that everyone in the cleaning space is obsessed with? I had to find out. And Dana White has the answers to all of my problems according to you guys. But who is she? Well, I hired a private investigator to look into her. This woman was willing to be paid an ice cream. So, worked out great. So, what the investigator found was that Dana White started a blog in 2009 called A Slob Comes Clean, where she shares her cleaning, organizing, and decluttering strategies. She is now an author of three books, a podcaster, and a YouTuber. We have something in common. While my highly rated investigator was tracking her blog, we found that Dana mainly gives decluttering advice, but deep into the investigation. A cleaning routine was discovered. And after looking into her routine, I noticed that she only had a daily routine and a weekly routine. She doesn't really seem to cover deep cleaning jobs, but that's not what I was there for anyway. I already decided that I liked organized mom's way of taking care of that.

So, starting with her daily checklist, let's talk about the very first and most important task on that list. Do your dishes. Oh my goodness. Thank the Lord God Almighty, somebody finally mentions dishes. When she began her journey of trying to keep a clean home, she focused on one thing and one thing only, making sure the dishes were done. Nothing else in the house mattered until she cleaned her dishes. So, we are going to make it a priority above all else. Your floors are covered in toys. Do the dishes. Your bathtub is so dirty it's turning yellow. Do the dishes. Your legs are hairier than a gorilla's. Do the dishes. Just Just do the dishes. Okay, okay, we got the point.

Moving on to the second task. The next task on our daily checklist is making the bed. Well, at least it wasn't the first task. Now, the last thing she recommends you do is a fiveinut pickup. set a timer for five minutes and then pick things up off the floor and put them away. Now, other than these three tasks, she doesn't really have a set cleaning schedule as explained in this video. This may be the end of her list of daily tasks, but she adds all these empty spaces so that you can add on to the list yourself. She also gives you access to her own personal list where she has added cleaning tasks that apply to her, but recommends that you make your own list based on the requirements of your home. So, yes, she has recommendations of things you can add to your routine, but these are the three tasks that she says everyone should do. Now, I don't know if she still recommends this. I'm actually quoting an old blog post that she could have deleted by now, but I'm showing you this one because it's a part of my journey of what led me to where I am today. So, you're just going to have to keep riding the journey train with me. You're just small town girl. Oh. Oh, no.

But out of these three tasks, I have to say that I liked them all. I was especially a big fan of her approach to dishes. I loved how she made it the number one focus because I don't know about you, but keeping up with dishes has always been a problem for me. So, I like how she encourages you to do it throughout the day and and to not wait. Just just do the dishes. Just do the dishes. And on a side note, and having the dishes done was not only stress relieving, but it also motivated me to keep going. A clean sink caused me to crave a clean counter. Next minute, I find myself wiping the walls. Like, who even does that? Who cleans their walls? I don't think I I've cleaned my walls since I filmed this video 3 years ago.

Now, back to the five minute tidy. I don't feel like I got that much done. Yeah, I felt that way. But now that I'm watching this video, the after looks much better than the before. However, I didn't feel like this 5 minute pickup helped me too much in the long run since my son would come home from school and make a big mess again. So, I quickly figured out that if I was going to do a 5-minute tidy that it was best to do at night right before bed. Although, I did feel like 5 minutes weren't quite enough. So, I decided to make it a 10-minute tidy, and that worked out a lot better for us.

All right. What about the weekly tasks? Well, she has five weekly tasks and she gives you the freedom to put them on whatever day you want because we don't all have the same schedule. Right. Right. So, starting with Monday, which I chose to be my grocery shop and errand day. We all have things that we have to get done outside of the house. Scheduling a day to do so allows your other days to be more productive because you're not going out multiple times a week. And everyone knows I'm big on meal planning. So, it's also good to have a scheduled shopping day to keep things organized and consistent. Yes, I learned that I really liked having an official grocery after trying Fly Ladies routine. Man, watching this video sure makes me miss those baby days. Here's my little chunky monkey. Everybody loves a chunky baby. Nothing better than a chunky monkey. Nothing better than a chunka monkey cuz a chunky monkey so fun and funky. Nothing better than a chunky monkey cuz a chunk of monkey so fun and funky. She's almost four now and she's no longer chunky, but she's still pretty fun and funky.

Moving on to Tuesday, which just happens to be the day that we tackle laundry. If you've already tried other cleaning routines, then you know they all say the same thing about it. But let me tell you, I finally found a cleaning routine that isn't telling me to do laundry every day. In Dana's routine, she has you dedicate one and only one day to laundry a week. But how can you do this if you have a large family and seven loads to do? Well, she has you start your first load the night before, particularly something that may take longer than usual to dry. And let it dry while you're sleeping. There you go. You've already got one load done, only six to go the next day. And as long as you get up nice and early to start, then there's no reason that you can't finish before bed. I know it sounds crazy, but no one ever told me that I could just do all my laundry on the same day every week. Before, I was just kind of doing it on this random schedule. I do a load on Monday, then another on Friday, then another the following Thursday. It was completely unorganized and it only led to more stress and things piling up. But switching to doing it on the same day every week, I loved it. I would make a whole day out of it. I'd wear my comfiest clothes. I'd binge the Gilmore Girls, of course. And by doing that, laundry became something I actually enjoyed. It turned into a day for me, a day where I could just relax and have downtime. And it was easy back then because I had a seven-month-old, so I could watch whatever I wanted on TV. I suppose it's not as easy anymore with a four-year-old at home. Now I get to watch Superkitties. Yeah.

Moving on to Wednesday, which is bathroom cleaning day. Bathroom cleaning day is a good thing because what is the room that we are most embarrassed of when company comes? Is it not the bathroom? And you all know if you go a month without cleaning a bathroom, it's going to be a 40inut scrub down. But I'm sure if I kept up with cleaning this room every Wednesday, then what are we looking at? a 10-minute clean, five minute, whether it be a weekly task or a daily task like the fly lady does it. Bathrooms need to be in a cleaning routine because they get dirty very fast. This is very true.

Anyway, let's go to Thursday. Today we dust and vacuum. Okay, so while clean mama has you dedicating one day for dusting and one day for vacuuming, Dana combines the two into the same day.

Let's move on to Friday, which is very simple. She just has you mop the kitchen. That's really interesting. She has you dust and vacuum all the main living areas, but only mop the kitchen. Maybe she does it that way so it doesn't feel overwhelming. I mean, I think Dana understands that you have to keep things simple or it just won't get done. But it looks like we covered all the weekly tasks.

So, let's talk about them. Starting with her laundry system. I loved it. It changed my life. Yeah, it may sound silly, but I needed someone to tell me that I could do all my laundry in one day. I spent so much time being dragged down trying to keep up with one load a day and it made me feel like a failure. Like, why can't I get a hold of laundry? What is wrong with me? These are the kind of thoughts I would have. So, I needed someone like Dana to tell me a different way of doing it. And now, I finally feel like I have control of my laundry. It's true. From that day on, laundry was no longer an issue. And the other thing I loved was how she had you prioritize dishes above all else. This is why you guys kept bringing her up to me. Finally, a cleaning expert that makes dishes the main focus. I knew from there on out that dishes were not to sit in the sink until 5:00 anymore. They were to be done throughout the day. And that way, I wouldn't feel like I was drowning in them.

As far as the other weekly tasks, well, I didn't really care for the idea of sweeping and and dusting one day and then mopping another. I had already decided that I didn't really like that from Clean Mama's routine. And at that point, I already had a pretty good system for those jobs using Fly Lady's weekly home blessing. So, what did I actually gain from this routine? Having a set laundry day, doing my dishes throughout the day and the five minute tidy. Except I decided to bump it up to 10 minutes because that personally just worked better for me. But I knew that whatever cleaning routine I ended up with, these three things needed to be a part of it. So at this

point, I had a solid routine. But I still felt like maybe there was more to learn, you know, like like maybe if I just tried one more cleaning routine, I might find something that's not in the others. So again, I searched the internet and what did I find? I tried the motivated mom's cleaning system for one month. Motivated mom. But the real question is, is she the motivating mom?

So, what is the motivated mom's cleaning system? Well, let me start off by saying that it's been around for 10 years and is currently owned by Amanda Richards. The main idea behind this system is to give you a daily checklist of chores that tell you exactly what to do each day for a clean and organized home. This is perfect for someone who doesn't really know where to start and needs clear step-by-step instructions.

So, there is an app, which is cool. I think Fly Lady is the only other routine that has an app. The difference is Motivated Mom's app isn't free. Currently, it costs $2 a month, but personally, I don't need an app. I'm a paper girl, so that didn't bother me.

All right, why don't we jump into the daily tasks? So, this routine consists of two different categories. One being the daily tasks and one being the weekly tasks. The daily tasks are always the same. They never change. You're going to be doing these chores every single day. And then there are the weekly tasks that do change. What you'll be doing this Wednesday may not be what you'll be doing next Wednesday. But before we get into the weekly, I'd first like to focus on the daily tasks. She has a list of 10 of them. Did she just say 10 daily tasks? And while that may seem intimidating, when you look a little closer, it's really not so bad. Okay. Okay.

The first daily task is not a surprise. Make the bed. I have yet to find a cleaning routine that does not start off their routine with making the bed. Mhm. We know the next daily task is to empty and fill the dishwasher. Okay. Okay. Dishes are mentioned. I like this routine so far. Well, except what about those of us who don't have a dishwasher? Because this routine along with many other cleaning routines don't empathize with people who don't have this luxury. Very true. I didn't have a dishwasher for 7 years.

The next daily task is to clean the kitchen sink. Okay, so this kind of reminds me of Fly Lady's task of shining the sink. Similar, but different. And it's hard to clean a sink if it's covered in dishes. So maybe she's just implying that you need to do your dishes and empty the sink so you can clean it. Next, she has you wiping the kitchen counters, also known as the Rocky Mountains. Some people say that as long as you're cleaning your sink, you should be cleaning your counters, too. Perhaps these two tasks should be counted as one. Yeah, I guess wiping the counters is probably a pretty important job to do daily because we're cooking in there at least once a day.

The next daily task is to sweep the kitchen and entryway. To be honest, I kind of just ignored the entryway part because my entryway is so tiny. But wow, have you noticed that this routine is very kitchen focused? Yes, I did. That's why I said it. And let me tell you, this room has never felt cleaner than it has felt this month. I think this kitchen deserves a dance.

The sixth daily task is to empty the trash. I think this is the first routine to mention emptying the trash as a daily task. Although the next daily task kind of reminds me a little of Fly Lady. And that brings us to our next daily task, which is to wipe down the bathroom sinks. And by doing this, it will encourage you to not have a whole bunch of products on it, which is good. And this next daily task is very simple. Change out your bathroom and kitchen towels. I think this is just a kind thing to do for the guests of your home.

All right, we've made it through nine tasks without being told to do laundry once a day. Isn't that wonderful? Just one more task to go. All right, guys. I have bad news. Uh-oh. I know you were hoping and praying that I wouldn't say it. That for once, somebody wouldn't tell us to do this, but the last daily task is to do a load of laundry every day. But Ariel, Ariel, remember you found a solution to the laundry. Oh, that's right.

Okay, so we covered the 10 daily tasks. Let's talk about what I liked and didn't like. Right away, I loved how much focus she puts on the kitchen. I mean, six out of the 10 daily tasks are kitchen related. And after seeing how good it felt to have a clean kitchen all week, I knew I had to figure out how to make this work in my own routine because waking up to a clean kitchen every day, that was actually so nice. I also liked how she mentioned the trash because half the time, here's what my trash looks like piled at the door. A horrible habit of mine, but I'm getting better.

Now, as far as switching out the towels, that really only works if you're doing laundry every day. And since I was not a fan of daily laundry, that just wasn't going to be a task I was going to pick up. So, I don't mind daily tasks. I think these are solid, but I just feel like 10 is too many. A lot of people would look at a long list like this and want nothing to do with it. So, if there could just be a way to simplify it, then this could work.

But why don't we move on to the weekly tasks? Now, the weekly tasks aren't always going to be the same. Some Tuesdays, I found that I had three tasks, while other Tuesdays I had up to seven. Yep. Don't like that. So, I decided to dive in a little deeper to figure out what tasks are actually being repeated. Because while the weekly tasks are different each day, there's got to be some tasks that reoccur more frequently than others. And in my deep dive, I found that there are tasks that she alternates on a weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly basis. So, to make this less confusing, because so far I am definitely confused, I'm just going to show you the tasks that are repeated weekly and bi-weekly.

So, let's begin with the chores that you'll be doing every Monday. Starting with cleaning your toilets. And wait a minute, they say pick your battles. And this battle shall go on for all of eternity. But anyway, yes, clean the toilets every Monday. Easy as that. All right, the next task that you'll do every Monday is to re-replenish the stock of toilet paper. I will make that Jordan's job.

The next weekly task is to vacuum the main living areas. Okay, let me see. Let me see. Yeah, I guess you might want to pick up the stuff first. This is why we need that five-minute tidy Dana K. White was talking about. And then the last weekly task for Monday is to vacuum the stairs. So that's Monday. Four extra weekly tasks just on Monday on top of your 10 daily ones. I feel like there are so many tasks in this routine that I'm feeling overwhelmed just explaining it to you. And honestly, I kind of don't want to even move on to Tuesday or or the rest of the week.

I mean, yes, I liked her daily tasks, but after trying this routine, I realized pretty quickly that the weekly tasks just weren't going to work. So, there's really no point in breaking down the other days because I just didn't find them helpful at all. And I don't think it's worth it to go over with you because it would take so long to do so because there's so many tasks. I mean, one day you're doing two tasks, the next day you're doing seven. It just seems all over the place. To me, it feels chaotic. I mean, I said it myself 2 years ago. The weekly tasks seem to be very inconsistent. Some weeks you won't have a ton of extra tasks, but then other weeks it's like task overload and you can't keep up. Therefore, it can feel overwhelming during some of the weeks. If the weekly tasks were just a little more structured like the daily are, then I wouldn't have stopped like this. But I just don't think it's worth my time or yours going in detail through this anymore.

But I will say that I did gain something from this routine. Like I said before, it helped me realize that I need to make my kitchen more of a priority. And that was the final piece of the cleaning routine puzzle that I needed. Five routines, three years, a lot of trial and error. But here's what all of that actually gave me. I knew exactly what worked and exactly what didn't. I knew that I needed the quick speed cleaning energy from Fly Lady. I knew I needed the flexibility of Dana K. White. I knew I needed the simplicity of Clean Mama that could make it something I could actually stick to. So, I took all of it, the best parts, the parts that actually fit into my crazy life with kids and chaos and zero free time, and I built my own. The awkward mom cleaning routine.

Now, listen. This isn't a perfect system. Nothing is, okay? But I believe that this will be the most realistic routine you can find and it has completely changed how my home runs. So let's just jump into it. So in this routine you have your daily, weekly, and monthly tasks. I'm going to break them all down for you one by one. So let's start with the daily tasks.

Wipe the shower. Now do you shower in the morning? Do you shower at night? Well, whenever you do shower, that will be when you wipe it down. My goal for this routine is that you would tie these new habits to something that you already do. This is called habit stacking. So, when you rinse the conditioner out of your hair and you're ready to get out, just take a quick minute before you get out to wipe down the shower first. Okay. So, the reason I decided to add this as a daily task was because I don't know if you remember from when I tried Clean Mama's routine, but I really struggled with this. And I know Clean Mama has you clean your tub once a week, but I could never stay consistent with that. So when I started just wiping it down for 30 seconds a day, I realized something. If you do just a little bit every day, it never actually needs a deep clean. It just stays clean. No more hour-long scrub sessions on a Saturday. So to me, this is 100% worth it.

Okay, next task. Empty the dishwasher. And you'll do that every morning because if you can get your dishwasher done first thing in the morning, it's going to set you up for success. Why? Because it allows you to complete the next task on the list, which may just be the most important one. Wash your dishes after every meal. And listen, I don't mean just meals. I mean everything, okay? Snacks, coffee, dessert. Wash it and wash that bowl. Wash the plate. Wash the cook. Yes. So Dana K. White gave me the inspiration when she just kept saying, "Do the dishes." I couldn't agree more. This should be the most prioritized task of the home.

Next task, the 10-minute kitchen shutdown. This is done at the end of each night after dinner is cleaned up and the dishes are done. Have you ever worked at a restaurant before or or maybe a fast food joint? Well, if you have, then you know that at the end of every night, everything gets cleaned and reset for the morning. This is essentially what I want you to do. I want you to shut down your kitchen as if you were closing up a restaurant for the night, getting everything nicely, you know, cleaned and prepared for the people who work the morning shift, aka you. So, you would set your timer for up to 10 minutes. Doesn't have to be 10, though. It could be five or two, whatever gets you to do it. And then moving as quickly as you can. You would clean the counters, the sink, the stove top, the dining table, sweep the floors, change the garbage, whatever you could get done during that time frame.

So, after trying motivated mom's routine and experiencing the joy of waking up to a beautifully clean kitchen every day, I was inspired to create the kitchen shutdown. Now, in motivated mom's routine, if you remember, she had like six separate daily tasks just for the kitchen, which felt a little overwhelming, like like who doesn't get overwhelmed by a long list? So, I shifted things instead of a bunch of little tasks, now it's just one thing, the kitchen shutdown. So, you set a timer for 10 minutes and just wipe down whatever you can in that time. The sink, the counters, the stove top, the garbage, maybe even a quick sweep. But when the time is up, you're done. Even if it's not perfect, even if it's not done, you're just done. And that way, you can wake up to a clean kitchen every day without the overwhelm of a never-ending list of tasks.

And that leads us to the fifth task, which is the 10-minute tidy. Now, again, it doesn't have to be 10 minutes. If you're short on time and you feel like you can't get to this task, well, it would be better for you to shorten it and only do a two-minute tidy than to not do it at all. So, anyway, the 10-minute tidy is basically where you go through the main living areas of your home. And you guessed it, tidy up. Pick things up, put them away, clear the surfaces. That's it. Doesn't get easier than that. So, this idea was inspired by Dana's routine where she does a five-minute tidy. Personally, I felt like 10 minutes worked better for me, but I also recognized that some nights you just don't have 10 minutes. So, on those nights, I might only do a five-minute tidy or even a two-minute tidy. And same with the kitchen shutdown. You just do what you can and you move on.

And the last daily task is optional, laundry. If you want to stay on top of the piles of laundry, then you need to choose to either do a load of laundry every day or do all of your laundry once a week on one day. Okay, so after being told to do a load of laundry every day so many times and hearing from you guys in the comments, I realized that this really does work for a lot of people. So instead of forcing one way, I decided to give you a choice because I believe that these are the only options that actually stop the piles. And which one you pick just depends on your family size and what works for you. Me, I'll never do daily laundry. It's just not going to happen. But maybe that's better for you. And so you have the option to choose that.

Now, some of you may be wondering why I didn't add making the bed to the list of daily tasks. I mean, every other routine did. Why not mine? Well, I just think there's more important things to focus on. And remember what I told you about how I don't think a cleaning routine should have more than like five to six daily tasks. Well, I'm at six if you're including daily laundry. And I just find these six tasks to be more important than making the bed. If you get behind on making the bed, what happens? You just have to make it later tonight before bed. And it still only takes a minute, right? But if you get behind on any of these six tasks, what happens? It doubles, if not triples the time you would have originally spent on it. So therefore, I don't think making the bed is all that important. It's just a preference thing at this point.

So that is all for the daily tasks. Let's move on to the weekly. Now, for the weekly tasks, I left them blank because you're going to fill them in yourself. So, when you download your printables, you'll find this handy little printout that shows all of the weekly tasks for you to add in. Yes. So, there are seven weekly tasks. We'll go over each of them, but I do make it clear in this video that you don't have to use all of them. Just take what works for you and leave the rest. Okay?

So, the first weekly task is called map it out. This is a day where you can plan out your meals, your grocery list, go through your fridge, throw out expired food, take inventory of what you have. I mean, it's all about getting ready for your grocery shopping day. So, this was inspired by Fly Lady's plan and play, except while hers focuses more on making appointments and paying bills, mine is mainly just for meal planning and preparing for your next grocery run. Although, if you want to use it as a day to pay your bills, then do that. You know, do whatever works for you.

All right, next on the list is grocery day. It's really important that you have a set day for grocery shopping. This is going to make your weeks go a lot smoother and stop you from having to stop at the store multiple times throughout the week for random items. If you could just have one set grocery where you plan out your groceries ahead of time and pick them up on the same day every week, it's going to save you time, reduce stress, and avoid impulse buying. Also, inspired by Fly Lady's errand day, having a set grocery has helped my weeks feel like way less all over the place and makes everything just so much easier to plan out. It's so worth it.

Our next weekly task is the tidy tango. Now, I know I told you that you could add whatever you want to your weekly list. Well, when it comes to the tidy tango, you don't have a choice. This is the glue to the awkward mom cleaning routine, okay? And this routine will not succeed without it. So, if you do nothing else, at the very least, do the tidy tango. It'll make the biggest difference in your home. I guarantee it. So, what is the tidy tango? The tidy tango is where you complete five tasks in 50 minutes using a timer. These tasks include tidying up, dusting, cleaning the bathrooms, vacuuming, and mopping. So, during your tango, you would set a timer and devote only 10 minutes to each of these tasks, speed cleaning in your main living areas. You know, the living room, dining room, kitchen, that area.

So, the tidy tango might sound a lot like the weekly home blessing from Fly Lady, and that's because it is inspired by it, but this is my version. I changed it to focus on on what makes the biggest difference in my home and how it feels by the end of the week. So, in her weekly home blessing, she includes things like wiping the mirrors and doors, changing bed sheets, changing the garbages, and even purging magazines, which I never understood because like this is 2026. People still really have magazines. But for my tidy tango, I wanted it to be a little shorter. And I wanted to focus on the things that I personally worry about the most, which for me is clutter, the floors and the bathrooms. And I loved the idea of adding bathrooms to the tidy tango because that's something that needs to get done, but I didn't want it to turn into this long, overwhelming task. So, by setting a couple of 10-minute timers, I could get all my floors and bathrooms cleaned once a week, and that would be enough. So, the Tidy Tango was born. And my favorite part about it, you start with a dance. Because listen, if you're in a slump, you won't believe the energy you can get from a short two-minute dance. You just got to try it. But anyway, I think we've talked enough about the tidy tango. Let's move on.

All right, the next task on the list is a revive 25. And Revive 25 is all about the deep cleaning tasks of the home. All those terrible, horrible, no good, very bad jobs. You know the ones, the oven, the baseboards, tile grout, your 17-year-old nephew, sweater. So, the Revive 25 is a 25-minute cleaning that gives us a chance to take care of those deep cleaning tasks which otherwise would be ignored probably for a year. So, if you grabbed your free printables below, then you'll see this sheet, which covers six different areas of the home. On whatever day you choose for your Revive 25, you'll focus on only one area for each week. So, if you're just starting and you've chosen Friday, then on Friday, you'd begin with area one, the kitchen, and you just get as much done as you can. And then the next week, the following Friday, you'd move on to area two, even if you didn't get through everything in the kitchen. I don't want you cleaning the kitchen for six weeks. I want you to continually go down this list cleaning a different area every week and then you can clean the kitchen again in another 6 weeks when you've cycled through all these areas. I don't expect you to get through this whole list in a week either. Okay? Don't think of this sheet as a 7-day cleaning challenge. Think of it as a guide for six months to a year of progress, something to chip away at over time so that these tasks aren't left to pile up.

This approach to deep cleaning was inspired by Organized Mom's routine. If you look at her level three jobs, she rotates through eight areas with about 30 minutes of cleaning. But I knew I needed something just a little simpler and easier to stick to. So I narrowed it down to six areas and made it a 25-minute cleaning instead. And that's where the Revive 25 came in.

But let's go ahead and move on to the next weekly task, which is whipping cherry. But if you've ever been to an ice cream shop, then you know how every Sunday is finished. They scoop the ice cream. They add the toppings, and then at the very end, they whip and cherry it before they hand it off to you. What things in your life need to be whipped and cherried? Maybe you started decluttering a room a few months ago but didn't finish it and now it's just a big colossal mess that you can't even walk through. Whip and chariot. Maybe you have an empty photo frame that that you bought forever ago and and you want to hang it but it's just been sitting in the hallway for months on end. Whip and chariot. Get it done. This day is for any task that you have scooped but haven't quite finished. Yes. So this idea was influenced by Clean Mama in her catch-all day. I really liked the idea of having a day to finish the things that you didn't get to during the week because that's just how life is. Nobody is ever on top of everything. We fall behind. Life gets busy and that's completely normal.

All right, the next day is laundry day. For those of you who don't want to do your laundry every day, then you got to do it weekly. Yes, we already covered this and it was Dana K. White that gave me the beautiful idea of choosing one official laundry day. I've done it ever since.

All right, so the last weekly task on the list is a day to rest. Rest is important. I know we like to ignore it. We We just try to go go all the time trying to get everything done. But you know what I've come to realize about rest? Neglecting to take time to rest can actually make you less productive. I've learned from experience that taking a day of rest helps you accomplish more during the other days of the week. And don't just take my word on it. There are countless articles out there that say the same thing. Yes. So, take your rest days. They matter.

All right. We have one more section to cover. We're almost done. We're moving on to the monthly tasks. There's only three of them, and these are all to be completed during the first week of each month. So, when you switch calendar months, just know that these three tasks are due to be done.

The first task is the tidy tango bedroom boogie edition. So, this is just like the tidy tango that we discussed earlier, except instead of doing it in the main living areas like you usually do once a month, you're going to tango in the bedrooms or the upstairs of your home if you have a two-story home. You're still going to complete these five tasks, including the bathrooms, but as far as the tidy, dust, sweep, and vacuum, those will all be done in the bedrooms. So, I noticed in my own home that bedrooms were often neglected, but they also didn't need cleaning as often as the downstairs did. So, for me, once a month felt like enough to keep them maintained, and I figured giving them their own tidy tango could help with that.

Okay, next monthly task, the 99 knockout. During the first week of every month, you are going to knock out 99 items from your home. This includes garbage, old receipts, boxes you haven't broken down, literally anything as long as it leaves your house. This is going to help us to keep on top of the clutter. So, I didn't get this idea from anyone specific. I just noticed that clutter was a problem in my home, and not a lot of routines touched on it much. So, I knew I wanted to include something that would help take care of it.

All right. And the last monthly task is to rotate your toys. So, if you still have young kids, then there's probably a lot of toys around. And toys make our homes messy because there's just too many. That's why I want you to rotate them. Put half of them in the basement or closet, just a place where your kids can't find them. And then every month you can rotate them out. I like to use this six-cube unit where I have one in the basement and one upstairs. And then every month I can just rotate the totes. I added this task because I know a lot of parents feel like they're drowning in toys. And I know how hard it is to keep a home clean when when you've got like 50 plastic dinosaurs and stuffed animals and dolls. So, I wanted to give parents an easy solution so that not everything is out at once cluttering up your floors so that cleanup feels way more doable.

And that's the awkward mom routine. A little bit of everything that actually worked and none of the stuff that didn't. If you want all of the free printables I have to offer, then click the link in the description. It won't cost you a penny and your home will thank you for years to come. You know, when I started this whole cleaning journey, I genuinely thought that I was just bad at cleaning. Like maybe some people are just wired for it and I wasn't one of them. But four years later, after trying five routines, I finally feel like my home is actually under control. And if you want to learn more about my cleaning routine, subscribe for future videos about it. But in the meantime, you can watch this video where I show you what it's like to go through a full day of doing the awkward mom routine. And don't worry, this video is so much shorter than the one you're watching now, okay? And I really think you're going to like it. So, I'll see you there.