November 19, 2020

Cleaning Class – Day 5 Thursday is Floor Washing Day

Welcome to Cleaning Class! My hope is that this session is going to come at a time when you need a little encouragement and a simple, do-able plan for your home. Sit back and see what the Clean Mama Routine is all about, jump all in and try the routine out for the week, or do a little bit of both. The Routine is intended to be implemented in the midst of a busy and full life, if you want to clean all day, it’s not the routine for you. If you want a clean house but aren’t sure how to keep it that way all week long, it’s THE routine for you!

What makes the Clean Mama Routine work? It takes the guesswork out of what to clean and when to clean it.

CLEANING CLASS is *free* and it happens here on the blog and on Instagram. I am so excited to bring this to you and to share that I also have a FREE nine-page printable Cleaning Class Guide to help take you through CLEANING CLASS. Complete with a quick start guide and darling checklists this kit is going to help you learn the 4 parts to the Clean Mama Routine AND successfully integrate it in your own home.

At the bottom of this page you’ll find link-ups to all the posts from this week as we go along!

FREE CLEANING CLASS GUIDE

READY? HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:

1. GRAB YOUR FREE PRINTABLE CLEANING CLASS GUIDE and print it out or have it ready to access – there’s a great coupon code in the packet too! This guide is ONLY available through this week, it will not come back again until I do another Cleaning Class and I will not email you the download if you miss it (sorry). When you click that link you are heading to my FREE PRINTABLES PAGE – you only need to put your email address in ONE time and the password will be sent to your email address. Check your promotions and spam folders if you don’t see it right away.
2. FOLLOW @CLEANMAMA ON INSTAGRAM – that’s where the majority of CLEANING CLASS will take place. Follow along and turn on your notifications so you don’t miss a thing. You’ll also see blog posts all week long detailing Cleaning Class.
3. Share, share, share!  I’d love it if you shared CLEANING CLASS with your friends this week and asked them to join you. I’ll have images in Instagram this week for you to use – tag me!

I’ll be on Instagram quite a bit this week in Stories – make sure you’re following along over there too.

Washing floors is one of the most gratifying homekeeping tasks there is—don’t you just love clean, shiny floors? Your hard work this week will be worth it and I promise, every week you do the routine will take less time and be easier.

Why do I wash floors on Thursdays?

I wash floors on Thursdays because all the hard floors were thoroughly vacuumed the day before on Wednesday. I realize that it would be even more thorough to vacuum and wash floors all on the same day, but that takes so much time, don’t you agree? So, years ago when I was developing my cleaning routine, I split it up and vacuum on Wednesdays and wash floors on Thursdays. Do I have to re-vacuum on Thursdays? No. I do CHECK FLOORS before I wash the floors but rarely do I need to re-vacuum. Any re-vacuuming is minimal and it is usually under the kitchen table or around the island.

Concentrate on what you can do today – even if you have 10-15 minutes, do something!

Favorites:

One of the most frequently asked questions I receive is about what tools I use for washing floors. Here are my favorites on my favorites page and you can also see my favorites on Amazon as well. Truth be told, my favorite method is with a microfiber cleaning cloth – especially in the bathrooms because I think you can get a better clean but most weeks I only have time for a quick wash and mops are great for that!

Daily Maintenance:
Every day of the week I have ‘check floors’ as part of my routine. This means that after meals we check the kitchen floor and sweep or vacuum as needed. If I see something on an another floor in the home, I do a quick sweep or vacuum. This checking of the floors is something that I do, my husband does, and the kids will also grab a broom and help out. It’s not intended to be a full-on floor sweeping or vacuuming, it’s a daily dirt clean up. With 3 kids and 2 dogs, this is necessary.

Here’s what I want you to do today for floor washing:

I have found that a couple methods work really well when it comes to floor washing. Every once in a while, the floors need an old-fashioned, hands-and-knees washing. Depending on the time you want to invest and if you prefer washing your floors this way, you might want to go all out today. If not, simply wash them with your favorite method and tools.

1. Quickly move any chairs and rugs that might get in the way.
2. Start at the back of each room, in the corner farthest away from the door, and wash from left to right, washing your way out of the room.
3. Wash every single hard-surface floor, including the laundry room, bathrooms, entryway, and living areas.

This post talks about my favorite methods for washing floors – check it out.  Here’s a post on how to clean tile floors and a post specifically about how to wash laminate floors.

If you have a hard time vacuuming and not washing the floors right afterwards, this post shares some tips for splitting up vacuuming and floor washing.

Try this DIY Recipe for ANY floor – this recipe is for a 16 oz spray bottle and is super easy to mix up – you can find the full recipe here or just grab it below.  Use it in a spray bottle or in a refillable mop.

Quick DIY Floor Cleaner

• 1 3/4 cups warm water
• 16 oz. spray bottle (HERE’S MY FAVORITE GLASS SPRAY BOTTLE + LABELS)
• 1-2 drops of Sal Suds or castile soap (both can be found in my Amazon shop HERE)
• 3-5 drops ESSENTIAL OILS if you’d like a little scent – some of my favorites are lemon + clove for the castile and pine + lemon for the Sal Suds (it has a pine-y scent already)

My favorite application for deep cleaning is with a spray bottle and microfiber cloth but you can also spray and use a microfiber mop or spray mop (you can see my favorites here) or pour the solution into a small bucket and wipe up with a microfiber or cleaning cloth or with a mop.

Tip for Microfiber Mop Pad: Dampen the mopping pad before starting and add a drop or two of lemon essential oil to give your home an uplifting scent as you mop.

Something to think about:

I talk about this extensively in my 3rd book, Clean Mama’s Guide to a Healthy Home, if you’ve ever not worn socks on your hard surface floors (of course you have), or allowed a child to play or crawl on your hard surface floors (how can you not?), you can definitely appreciate a clean floor. But a clean floor and a safe and clean floor are very different. Did you know that residue can come into your bloodstream through your bare feet on the floor. If you have kids that put their hands on the floor and in their mouths (hello, toddlers), this is really upsetting. I’m not saying this to scare you but to give you some information so you can make your own choices. When it comes to floor washing day, there are plenty of easy options for cleaning your floors without chemicals, so why even bother cleaning with them? I love a steam mop for tile and linoleum floors, I don’t use steam on my hardwood floors (or recommend it) but I know that there are mops that are ‘suitable’ for sealed hardwood floors.

This post is part of Cleaning Class – I’ll be on Instagram quite a bit this week in Stories – make sure you’re following along over there too.

I’m linking up the days as we go this week – click below on any day to catch up!

NEW here? Start with this post —-> Start with the DAILY TASKS
Monday – BATHROOMS + daily tasks
Tuesday – DUSTING + daily tasks
Wednesday – VACUUMING + daily tasks
Thursday – FLOOR WASHING + daily tasks
Friday – CATCH-ALL DAY + daily tasks
Saturday – SHEETS + TOWELS + daily tasks

Once you have the DAILY TASKS and WEEKLY TASKS down, you might want to add in the ROTATING TASKS. These tasks change MONTHLY and ensure that your home is clean all year long on a rotating schedule – some tasks repeat monthly, others are bi-monthly, quarterly, or bi-annually. I have figured out how to keep everything clean all year long and this is how I do that. Here are SOME of the ROTATING TASKS. I add the ROTATING TASKS to weekly tasks that make sense for our schedule. If Vacuum Baseboards is on the list, I attach those to Wednesday, Vacuuming Day.

Here’s where you can find the ROTATING TASKS:

Monthly Free Homekeeping Calendar 
Clean Mama’s Guide to a Clean Home printable kit
Cozi + Clean Mama app – Rotating Tasks are in Cozi Gold, all other tasks are free
Homekeeping Society Subscription – the annual sale is coming December 7th!
Homekeeping Planner
My books

The 4th component to the Clean Mama Routine is the MONTHLY FOCUS – this is organizational and a way to work on deep cleaning and organizing your home slowly and consistently all year long. December is OFFICE/PAPERWORK, January is DECLUTTER, February is the KITCHEN, March is SPRING CLEANING, April is BATHROOMS, etc.

Here’s where you can find the MONTHLY FOCUS:

Clean Mama’s Guide to a Clean Home printable kit
Homekeeping Society Subscription – the annual sale is coming December 7th!
Homekeeping Planner
My books – make sure you pre-order my latest book, Clean Mama’s Guide to a Peaceful Home – it comes out December 29th, 2020!

Now that you know what the four components are to the CLEAN MAMA ROUTINE, let’s get started! Make sure you have downloaded your FREE Cleaning Class Guide and that you’re following along on Instagram.