Spic and Span

If you're anything like me, you like a clean house/apartment/condo

whatever, but life gets in the way, things get hectic, and before

you know it, you're nudging a pair of dirty underwear under

your bed while the cableman tries to figure out how you've

broken the internet...again.

{Not that that actually happened.}

I hosted book club last weekend, so my house was crazy clean.  Like,

eat off the floor clean.  Then, this weekend I had guests from out of

town who had never seen my house, so I just kept it clean for the whole

week.  It was kind of awesome not having to walk over piles of clothes

and climbing into a freshly made bed every night.  So I'm going to try

to keep things going, but I needed to break all the cleaning tasks down

into manageable chunks.  

I tend to get overwhelmed pretty easily, particularly if I try to have one,

single day to "clean the house".  Plus, it sucks if I clean my house on 

Sunday and someone drops by on Saturday, when the place is at its worst.  

And if something comes up on Sunday, my house will go a full two weeks

without any attention.

 

Enter the above graphic.

I pinned a similar graphic from Natural Housewifery on Pinterest, but I've

modified the daily tasks and weekly chores to suit my lifestyle, personal

needs, and what I judge to be a suitable level of cleanliness.  I also gave myself

Saturday off to run errands, since a lot of shops aren't open on Sundays around

here.  My (am) tasks are jobs I want to get done before I leave for work, with

the tasks marked (pm) logically being completed during the time between when

I get home from work and when I go to bed (usually a solid six hours).

I've been doing this for about a week and I have to say, it's way less stressful

living in a clean house than a messy one.  Fingers crossed I can keep this up!

How do you managed to keep your house tidy without getting overwhelmed?

Or are you the sort of person I used to be and just gave up on cleaning until

you had the health department knocking on your door?