Freshen Up Your Living Space: Spring Cleaning Printables
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Time to read 8 min
Spring is such a fantastic time of year! As the weather starts to warm up, we can’t help but get excited about the fresh air and all the beautiful flowers blooming. Join us for some fun tips and tricks to make your spring cleaning feel like a breeze!
Our All-Purpose Cleaning Solution
At Farm House Collection, we’re big fans of natural cleaning. Our all-purpose cleaning solution is super simple to prepare, easy on your wallet, and way better for your health.
We totally get it—if you’ve already got a stash of favorite cleaning products, making the switch to all-natural might feel daunting. To help make things a little smoother, why not start with a lovely all-purpose cleaner?
Here’s a quick and easy recipe: In a 16-ounce glass bottle, mix together 1/4 cup of vinegar, 15 drops of your favorite Farm House Diffuser Oil, and 6 pumps of your favorite Farm House liquid hand soap. Top it off with boiled (let it cool before filling your bottle - safety first) or distilled water, and you have a safe and effective all-purpose cleaner.
Natural cleaners are a great choice for those looking for a safer and eco-friendly option compared to traditional cleaning products. By making the switch to natural cleaners, you can enjoy a fresh and healthy living space while doing your part for the environment.
If you don’t have a glass bottle, no worries—plastic works just fine! While we love using glass because it’s durable and easy to clean, the most important thing is to use what you have and feel great about making the switch to a natural cleaner.
Vinegar is a natural cleaner that tackles dirt, grease, mineral buildup, and tough grime, all thanks to its natural acidity. Plus, it can help kill bacteria! To make vinegar smell a little nicer, we add some of our Diffuser Oil (straight fragrance). You can also use this oil in an ultrasonic diffuser (pictured below), on your wool dryer balls, or drip it onto your air filter for added fragrance throughout your home.
Also, don’t forget about lemon juice! It’s packed with citric acid, which gives it antibacterial and antiseptic powers. If you want to remove impurities, boiling water is a great method, especially if you’re using well water or tap water. But if boiling isn’t your thing, you can opt for distilled water instead, as it’s already free of impurities. Now that we have our all-purpose cleaning solution let's tackle the schedule.
Free Printable Cleaning Checklist
Life is hectic, and our weekly schedules change frequently, so we really have to stay flexible, which makes keeping up with cleaning challenging. So, we created a handy printable to keep us organized. The best part? It's super useful for everyone, whether you have a set schedule or need to switch things up frequently like we do!
Remember, the most important thing is to find what works for you. The goal of having a schedule is to make life easier and less stressful. Our cleaning schedule breaks down tasks into daily, monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual activities. We find this approach makes it easier to stay organized and feels more manageable! Let's take a closer look at how this works for us so we can make this schedule work for you.
The top row of our schedule outlines what we aim to accomplish on specific days of the week. Even though we’d love to make Sundays our day of rest, working in retail often demands our attention from Monday to Saturday. So, we’ve designated Sundays as our time to wind down a bit with some lighter tasks that require less manual strain. We make our weekly meal plan and pick up groceries for Monday's meal prep. (Be on the lookout for a blog about meal planning and prepping that is coming soon!) We also added laundry to Sundays. After all, we can watch TV between loads and be semi-lazy while folding clothes!
Next, our trash is collected on Tuesdays so it's pretty easy to decide we are going to empty all the bins on Mondays. This also rids our bins of the food scraps we created while meal prepping. Then, we looked at our work week and decided Tuesday is usually our lightest professional day. So, we chose to tackle the kitchen – the most used room in the house – on that day. We want to get the bulk of our housework done on a day that requires less of us professionally.
On Wednesdays, we focus on the main living area. It's nice to clean a slightly easier space after all the hard work on Tuesday – it feels like a little reward! We love to mix it up by placing lighter chores between the more challenging ones. Then, it's on to the bathroom on Thursday. By Friday, we're all about conquering the bedrooms before the busy weekend arrives. After a long week, there's nothing better than having a clean bedroom to relax in.
We love spending Saturday evenings with our families, so we always keep that time free. It’s also a great opportunity to wrap up any tasks we didn’t get to during the week. And if everything’s finished, we get a relaxing night to do absolutely nothing! We think that’s a lovely way to reward ourselves for all the hard work we put in. But we totally get that everyone has their own schedules and priorities, so please don’t hesitate to fill your days with whatever makes you happy!
In the middle section of our schedule, we have daily tasks (left) that we tackle every day, along with monthly tasks (right) we try to complete once a month. Finally, the last row of tasks is spaced out into quarterly (every three months), semi-annual (every six months), and annual (once a year) actions.
We print one copy of our schedule and slide it into a sheet protector so we can use the same copy all year. The bottom row of tasks goes unchanged most of the time, so we use a wet-erase pen to write on the middle and top sections. At the end of each week, we just erase our marks and start fresh. If a new copy weekly or monthly makes your life easier, you can do that! Do what works for you.
There's something so satisfying about checking off items or crossing tasks off our to-do lists, especially in the spring when we're finally tackling everything we put off during the winter. Let’s be honest—sometimes, we even jot down things we've already done just for that little thrill of marking them as completed. Please tell us we’re not the only ones who do this!
Download our free printable cleaning checklist
Free Weekly Cleaning Printable
Go ahead and print your free blank cleaning schedule! We're here to help you fill it with tasks that will not only brighten your day but also help reduce stress. Let’s make cleaning a fun and enjoyable part of your routine!
Let's start filling in your blank cleaning schedule and create a routine that brings you joy. The first thing we recommend adding to your cleaning schedule is emptying the garbage cans the day before trash day. It's a simple task but a great way to kick off filling in our schedule!
Examining your typical week, which day is the least hectic? This is when we would suggest conquering the most challenging area of your home. For us, this was Tuesday, and we chose to conquer the kitchen, but for you, it may be your living area or bathrooms. Jot that area down on the day of the schedule that best suits you.
You can fill in that day with as much or as little detail as you would like. On our pre-filled example schedule, it says "clean kitchen." But since we have the space, we can add more details (which means more tasks to check off.) For instance, you can break down "clean kitchen" into wipe cabinets, wipe counters, refill coffee canister, and so on. It really gives you that satisfying sense of accomplishment to see so many tasks completed!
Once you have the most challenging area scheduled, we recommend scheduling an easier area the day before and the day after. Go ahead and allocate those areas to a day of the week. Are there any other areas of your home that need your attention? Choose a day and fill those in on your weekly schedule.
In the middle section, we’ve included a spot for your daily tasks (on the left). These can be anything that helps you feel great each day, like drinking enough water, diving into a good book, or fitting in a workout. Think of it as a little reminder of those simple joys! If there are toys scattered on the floor, maybe picking them up every day would make you feel more at ease. Remember, we’re all in different stages of life, so tailor this part of your schedule to what works best for you!
In the middle section, on the right, you'll find monthly tasks. Each letter above the monthly columns represents the first letter of its respective month. We recommend adding "Visit Farm House Collection" to this section. We can help keep your home smelling and feeling fresh all year! Just kidding. You don't have to add that, but it would be cool if you did. We know it’s not always possible to get everything done each month, and that’s perfectly okay! We see these tasks as goals rather than strict requirements. Still, we’ve found that completing them monthly really helps make the next month that much easier. For instance, cleaning the baseboards will be a breeze if we stay on top of it each month. If we miss it, we might have to scrub a little harder next time!
Finally, the bottom row is quarterly, semi-annual, and annual tasks. Just like the monthly tasks, these are goals to support us rather than a strict checklist. Hitting them can really help make the following quarter or year smoother, and it gives us that nice sense of accomplishment!
Remember, this schedule is just a guideline and can look totally different for you. We encourage you to tweak it so that it fits your needs and brings you the most joy! The free printable we've provided is blank, so feel free to make it your own. We'd love to hear in the comments if you find it helpful!