Your Guide to Zone Cleaning (A Homemakers Best Friend)
Are you struggling with consistently cleaning your house? Come see how a zone cleaning method can help you stay on top of your cleaning chores without spending hours a day.
Throughout my years of being a homeowner, I have utilized so many different cleaning methods. When I was working outside the home, most of the cleaning chores fell to the weekend, since I didn’t have time during the week.
But once I came home, I no longer wanted to dedicate my weekends to household chores. I wanted to protect that time for our family.
Ultimately, I’ve landed on zone cleaning. This system let’s me clean my house in about an hour a week and I never have to think about what room needs my attention now. Let’s jump in!
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What is Zone Cleaning?
Zone cleaning is an approach to housekeeping where you divide your home into manageable sections, or zones. The zones can be by room type, house layout, or any other way you choose to divide them.
By focusing on one area at a time, you can maintain a clean and organized home without the overwhelm of tackling the whole house at once. So if you’ve ever felt overwhelmed after a long day of cleaning – keep reading!
What Zone Cleaning Is NOT
It’s important to clarify that zone cleaning is not really meant to replace tidying up. Zone cleaning is meant for actual cleaning (mopping, dusting, etc.). Things like putting away toys and dishes will need to be done on a daily basis in order to keep your home tidy.
If you don’t keep things tidy, there’s no way you’ll be able to clean an entire zone in an hour. You’ll be spending that much time sorting through things before you can even get to the cleaning part (ask me how I know this).
It’s also not meant for decluttering or organizing. Those tasks can be planned for on different days. We’re just talking about the recurring cleaning chores that need to be done on a regular basis.
How to Get Started with Zone Cleaning
You know those cute graphics that show each day of the week, and what you’re supposed to clean on those days? Have you ever tried one and had it fail miserably? Yea – me, too.
That’s because zone cleaning is not a one size fits all (I talk about this a lot in my meal planning guides, too). You are going to have to take a general framework, and make it work for your family and lifestyle.
So, that’s what we’re about to do. I’m going to walk you through creating a custom zone cleaning schedule.
Create Your Zones
First, you need to break your home down into zones. These zones are going to depend on the size and layout of your home.
Essentially, you want to keep like areas with like areas or keep rooms that are nearby together. Both of these methods work well and keep you from feeling all over the place when it comes to cleaning. Here’s a couple of examples for you so you can choose what works best for you.
Zones by Room Type
Organizing your zones by room type means that you will work on bedrooms one day, bathrooms another day, etc. This is helpful because you can focus on the specific cleaning needs of one space. However, if you have several bathrooms or bedrooms, it may not be practical to tackle them all on one day.
Zones by House Layout
Cleaning by house layout is a great way to not feel like you’re running from one end of the house to the other. You simply need to group a couple of rooms that are nearby together. If one room is particularly time consuming, you may want to leave it as it’s own zone. Here’s an example, but it really depends on how your home lays out.
Combine the Two
Here’s what I’ve found works best for me – combining the room-by-room method with the house layout method. So, my zones are as follows:
- Zone 1: Bathrooms – I like to knock bathrooms out all in one day. Plus, bathrooms tend to need deep cleaning more often than other areas in my home. Making them their own zone works best for me.
- Zone 2: Master Bedroom/Living Room – These areas are side by side, and neither one take a lot of time to clean. It just makes sense to lump these two together in our home.
- Zone 3: Kids Rooms – This gives me a chance to help organize all the toys, change bedding, dust and vacuum all at one time.
- Zone 4: Kitchen/Dining Room – Again, these areas are connected, so it makes sense to do both areas at one time.
- Zone 5: School Room/Laundry Room – These are two areas that don’t take a lot of time to clean because of size and traffic. They stay pretty tidy, so I can put things away, dust, and clean floors in both rooms fairly quickly.
Create a Zone Cleaning Schedule
Now that you have your zones laid out, you need to decide on how often you’ll be cleaning each zone. Do you want to clean one zone a day? Or maybe you just want to choose 1-2 zones per week. Some people even choose to do 1 zone a week.
Personally, I like choosing 2 zones per week. I usually do them on different days of the week. This means that I’m usually only spending 30 minutes – 1 hour, a couple times a week, getting our deep cleaning done.
I find this to be just the right balance between what we need for a clean home and what I’m able to manage with my current schedules and obligations. Anything less and I feel like the house is dirty. Anything more and I feel like I’m behind.
Tips for Successful Zone Cleaning
Before you start implementing this super simple cleaning system, be sure to check out these tips for success!
- Limit your zones – You may be tempted to list out a ton of different zones, but I really recommend keeping it to 5 or less zones. This keeps it simple to remember and ensures that you can hit each area of your home on pretty much a monthly basis even if you’re just cleaning one zone a week!
- Tidy up regularly – I mentioned earlier in this post that zone cleaning is for deep cleaning. Which means you are going to need to have a good system in place for keeping a tidy home outside of your zone cleaning schedule. A tidy home is simply a home where things aren’t scattered about. So, get in the habit of having at least a couple times a day where you put things back in their home, sweep the crumbs up from meals, put laundry away, etc.
- Cleaning caddy – Having a cleaning caddy that has all your necessary supplies in it is so helpful for quick zone cleaning days. You grab one caddy, with sprays, rags, and brushes and you can take it from room to room with you easily.
- Involve your family – This is so important. If you have kids, get them involved! Take time to show them how to dust or properly clean a bathroom. Let them know ahead of time that on Wednesday (or whenever) it’s cleaning day and this week we’re tackling (insert zone). Sure, there may be some complaining, but after a while of being consistent, they’ll know what to expect and it won’t be such a struggle!
Write Out Your Plans
Most planners have a monthly view with a note’s column. This is great place to write down your zones. You can easily look to see what area is in each zone & make note of when you last cleaned that area. If you need to change your zones up, just wait until the next month and switch things around!
Or you can try out this free printable that I offer:
Zone Cleaning Printable – This one is in the works. Check back later or sign up for my email list and you’ll get notified when I publish new content.
That’s it friends! Let me know in the comments if you’ve been using a zone cleaning system in your home and how it has worked out.
