Let’s be honest here. Ain’t nobody harmonizing home hygeine up in here. CLEANING IS A DRAG…most of the time. Other times it can be a little theraputic.

Most of the time, I get home from work and look at the mess and keep on walking. I know I am not the only one who does this! I save most of my cleaning and laundry for the weekend. But, if the family has any weekend plans, cleaning goes out the door.

I finally broke down a couple years ago and made a chore chart for my kids. The kids needed to help with the cleaning, because it was mostly their messes. I put them on a rotating schedule of all the tasks that needed to be done daily. It truly was a huge stress reliever for me. I no longer had to come home from work and feel frustrated over the messes and lack of help. I have asked the kids if they wanted me to change how it rotates but they all seem happy the way it is.

The Adult Chore Chart

That was when I realized I also needed a routine. Just like you guys, I scoured Pinterest for ideas. Some people’s idea of cleaning is a little to over kill for me.. Don’t get me wrong. I like a clean home, but I am not dusting everything. If it needs to be dusted, it needs to go in the garbage. The best solution was my own cleaning chart. To feel more adult, we call them ” Cleaning Checklists” instead of chore charts. Whatever we have to do to make ourselves feel better about ourselves.

I am the person that needed to try a few different ones before I found exactly what I liked. That got me thinking that I might as well make my own.

Embarking on a quest for home order, I created a personalized cleaning schedule tailored to my lifestyle. Now, I’m excited to share it with you for free. This downloadable resource transforms cleaning into a therapeutic ritual, offering a streamlined and efficient routine.

Don’t worry my Home Girl Homies, I realized that if I needed one very specific to my needs, you would too. You can use mine as a guide. I have created a blank “Cleaning Schedule” for those of you that need to tone it down or make it a little more extreme. Here at the Home Girl Homestead, we like to keep you covered. You too will have a home full of harmonized home hygeine.

At some point my basic cleaning isn’t enough. Curtains need to be cleaned and closets cleaned out. This is where the therapeutic part of cleaning comes. Sometimes it feels so good to declutter your space. Our home is supposed to make us feel good every moment we are there. I love a good clean out.

When my kids were younger, I was home more often during the day and left to my own devices. I would sneak into their rooms with a garbage bag and clean all the junk out. The trash, the McDonald’s toys, the pieces of paper that was life altering two months ago but has been crumpled under their bed since.

My favorite find was a unicorn cupcake cake in my daughter’s drawer. Her Grandma had bought her a unicorn cake made out of two cupcakes. Hence, small enough to fit her her drawer. In October of that year, I went in and cleaned her room while at school. I found the cake. From May. In her drawer. Fortunately, not moldy. Don’t worry, there was a LONG conversation. Her excuse was she didn’t want to eat it so she put it in the drawer. She then forgot about it.

So…this leads me into needing a more rigerous cleaning plan a couple times a year when I get a wild hair. A “Spring Cleaning Schedule” if you will. I have also provided my modified annual/bi-annual cleaning schedule for you!

Therapeutic Cleaning

Again, I like to modify things to my needs and new you would also. So, I made you a completely customizeable version. You can use my suggestions from the Spring Cleaning list. Then add and subtract to meet your needs. The neat thing about this one is you can add chores annually, bi-annually, and quarterly.

We Can All Use A Little Help (or a House Elf)

Besides giving myself my own “Chore Chart” to help ease some of the stress. I have also aquired some devices that make my life a million times easier! I love robots. I love them all so much! If you noticed on my chore chart, “find/clean robots” is one of the kids chores.

We live in a three story home with four kids and three dogs. Vacuuming is an essential part of keeping the house clean. I have to vacuum the floors, the walls, the ceilings, the couches, the back of the fridge, the fans, the dogs, and the children. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

I bought my first robot vacuum on sale. It was just a cheap one but has been fantastic. It is a Eufy 25C. LIFE ALTERING. My mom had a Roomba that I regulary cared for. I liked my Eufy because it had a lower profile and fit under our couches better. It was also more quiet. Another benefit was that I could set it in a spin cycle so it would clean a specific area. We named him Wall-E.

Unfortunatley, we killed Wall-E.

Wall-E ran through some unexpected dog vomit. I then attempted to clean it out but managed to get water inside and shorted it out. Despite my best attempts at resussitation, Wall-E was laid to rest. And was promptly replaced with Wall-E 2.0.

This also lead me to understand that I could never live my life without a robot vacuum again. And not only did I not want to be without, I needed one on every level of my house!

But, I am cheap. When I say cheap, I mean CHEAP. There was no way I was going to pay hundreds of dollars for more vacuums for each level of the house. Luckily, our local Wal-Mart did a reset of the robot vacuums and started clearning them out! I watched the clearance aisle for WEEKS! They had stacks of Roombas and every other brand they carried. But none were at a great discount. I exercised the greatest amount of patience.

My husband knew my great desire for another vacuum robot. He would watch me lovingly eye each and everyone as I slowly strolled down the clearnace aisle with him. He knew the way to my heart was with a robot. Because he is a good man, he remembered that as my birthday quickly approached.

He made his usual trip to Wal-Mart to pick me out a present (because we literally don’t have any other chain stores within 120 miles of us). He headed straight for the clearance aisle to aquire me the vacuum of my dreams. To his surprise…they had been DEEPLY discounted.

He came home with his prize and carefully wrapped it. He tucked the receipt carefully in his wallet.

The evening of my birthday, he pulls out the large package. I rip into it to see the vacuum I had been swooning for. There with it’s bright yellow clearance tag of $199. The smart man he is, knew that despite my desire for such an item, $200 would nearly give me a heart attack. He quickly whipped the receipt of his wallet to show me he had only paid $99 for this treasure. I’m not sure what I was more excited about, the vacuum or the AMAZING deal.

He also can be connected to a self emptying container. He is definately louder than my Eufy but I love that he maps where he has been. I can locate him if gets stuck under a couch with the app. I can also connect him to Alexa. Through Alexa I can start the vacuum as needed. She also let’s me know if he gets stuck.

And I love him. But, a Roomba is like a baby. I got Roomba fever and needed another one… and soon.

So, I continued to watch for more deals and found ANOTHER ONE dirt cheap at Wal-Mart!

Jeeves has completed our family of vacuums for now. He has been great for our basement, as it is the only area that has carpet. He has actual brushes like the Eufy and is great about picking up dog hair on carpet. He also connects to Alexa! Now if he would only pick up after the kids.

Before finding my love for robot vacuums my mom bought me the first mop robot that came out. The Braava Jet 240. Revolutionary! It is old school so it has a battery that must be switched out and it doesn’t have a docking port like new ones. But boy oh boy. To send my vacuum in one direction and my mop in another while I sit on my phone and scroll Facebook is like something from the Jetson’s.

I recently ran across a second one of these in a local pawn shop. I have yet to go buy it but it is on my radar.

I quickly learned that Igor could be a hair expensive to use because all of it’s soap/pads were disposable and not reuseable. Rember…I’m CHEAP. This was a problem. I eventually found resuseable pads on Amazon. They did not have soap so I had to contend with how to deal with that. Normally, you just fill it with water and the soap is on the pad that cleans the floor. It sprays the floor with water that scrubs over it. How would that work without a soap filled pad? I decided putting vinegar water in the robot was a good alternative because…

1. It was good for the robot with our terrible hard water. It would keep the insides descaled.
2. Vinegar water is a great way to clean wood floors.
3. It is cheap…It is VERY cheap.

This has not failed me in all my years wih my mop and still works like it is new. For tougher spots, I would just take a spray bottle of cleaner and spray that spot before that mop when over it. Almost no work on my part, and I get squeaky clean floors.

One of these days I will find myself in posession of one of the new Braava mops that self charges and can be used with actual cleaning solution. They also come with reuseable pads instead of disposable pads.

Now that I have told you my deepest and darkest secrets about my relationships with robots…it is time to call it a day a let you go back to the important tasks you were doing before discovering my weird obsessions.

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