How to Keep Your House Clean: Weekly Cleaning Schedule + Kids’ Chore Charts ages 3, 6, and 8

If you are like me, I despise a dirty home. With three kids, a husband, a dog, and a cat however, it sometimes has felt impossible to keep up with everything. I am not a patient person by nature, but clutter and dirt really set me off. I knew I needed a system and method to keep my home tidy and clean. This system couldn’t require hours of cleaning and frustration on my part though. Our weekly cleaning schedule and our kids’ chores have changed over the years. (you can read ours from last year with kids 2,5, and 7 HERE.) The basic structure has stayed the same however. It has been life changing to have a system that everyone helps with. This is how I keep my house clean as a stay at home mom that homeschools in under 30 min a day. Check it out below!

Our Kids’ Morning Chores
Our Daily Cleaning Schedule
The Household Chores My Kids Do Each Day
The Kids’ Bedtime “Chores”

Morning Chores for Our Kids Ages 3, 6, and 8

Being a homeschool family, I learned early that we need good structure to our mornings so our day doesn’t get crazy before we even start. If you’ve read Our Daily Schedule from last year you have read that I am not a morning person. (which is still true.) I have never woken up before my kids. Not waking up before them was never an issue because I set up systems to get everything done throughout the day.

I wrote in Our Summer Schedule this year that, now that my kids are older and sleep great, I wanted to try and start my days before them and get my workout done early. That didn’t happen every day, but I’m happy to report back I did do 5:30 wake ups several days a week. AND I started running. Another thing I swore I would never do! It was the encouragement I needed to start my mornings earlier this school year. (not 5:30 every morning, but earlier!)

I digress. Even with me getting up before my kids, so far, we still need independent structure. My kids’ morning chores have changed with their ages, but having a visual checklist has been huge. They are expected to get all of these things done, on their own, before school every morning.

Our Weekly Cleaning Schedule

For many years I didn’t have a cleaning schedule and I would just sort of haphazardly try to get everything done throughout the week. So many things slipped through the cracks and I felt like I was doing it alone. When I finally buckled down and made a system for this it cleared so much mental load and gave my kids practical ways to help.

Sunday: Sunday is our chill day most weeks. We go to church, hang out as a family, take naps if we can, and do a light whole house tidy. I order groceries Sunday nights.

Monday: Monday is our kitchen and “wipe down” day. I pick up groceries in the morning and make sure the fridge is clean. I clean the kitchen, wipe counters, put groceries away etc. Our oldest (8) wipes the counters and the appliances. Our middle (6) wipes the baseboards and windowsills. The youngest (3.5) wipes light switches and door handles with a Clorox wipe. I vacuum and mop our hard floors after they are done.

Tuesday: Tuesday is our easy day since it is super busy! I do the bathrooms, the kids empty all the trashes for trash day and bring down their laundry.

Wednesday: Wednesday is living room day. I vacuum and dust and the boys fold their laundry and put it away.

Thursday: Thursday is probably my longest day cleaning. I change all the bedding, tidy and clean our bedroom and vacuum the upstairs. The boys clean their rooms and vacuum the stairs!

Friday: Friday is our funner (is that a word?) day. We typically have light school work and I have coined Friday’s theme to be Fun Friday. (read all our themed days for homeschooling HERE.) We all tidy the school/play room and get the car cleaned out and vacuumed.

Saturday: Saturdays are usually pretty busy with activities and sports, it’s also our “outside day.” We get the yard picked up. (toys, balls, dog poop 😂) My hubby usually mows.

Why Having a Weekly Cleaning Schedule Works

Having a weekly cleaning schedule and chore charts takes the guesswork out of keeping your house tidy. I remember panic cleaning the whole house for an entire day to just have it “destroyed” by evening. I wouldn’t have any bandwidth to clean again for a few days so it would get out of hand and the cycle would continue.

It felt like the whole house, and the responsibility of it fell on me. I would get frustrated with my kids for not helping, but couldn’t manage teaching them or thinking of things they could actually help with. Our kids are so capable and teaching them how to keep a home is a necessary skill. Once I divided things into days and set up expectations for my kids, I don’t feel near as much like I’m drowning.

Is my home perfect? Do I never have dog hair on my floor or sticky finger prints on my windows? Absolutely not! Our home is lived in, as all homes should be, but it is manageable!

Our Kids’ Nighttime “Chores” and My Closing Shift

Nighttime/bedtime has always been a sacred thing inn our home. I was super diligent about sleep training my kids and having them be good sleepers. (Read all my sleep tips HERE!) As they’ve gotten older, they are still good sleepers, but they push bedtime as much as they can. They always want more water or have to go to the bathroom again. I think all kids go through these phases, but now we are back to school we had to nip it in the bud. My kids need good sleep to function well and our bedtime chart was just the ticket.

Having a checklist with visuals for both morning and night helps them see wars expected of them without me constantly nagging at them.

After the boys are in bed I do a quick Closing Shift. You can read the whole thing and all I do for that HERE

Final Thoughts

I hope this was the encouragement and inspo you needed to make a weekly cleaning schedule for your fam and some ideas of chores you can implement for your kids! This has been so helpful for me mine!