Holiday Cleaning Help - With Printable Schedule and Checklist

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This time of year can be so stressful. Besides the gifts, wrapping and making of food come the dreaded chore of cleaning. But I’m here to offer holiday cleaning help with my 7 Day Cleaning Schedule so you can get it all done without feeling totally overwhelmed.

Holiday Cleaning Help – Schedule and Checklist

My cleaning schedule and printable will help you spread out your cleaning tasks over seven days so that by the time your guests start arriving; your house is under control and you’re ready for company.

If you are hosting parties or having guests over before Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, just start your 7-day cleaning schedule as soon as you can, so you are ready for the festivities.

Then rinse and repeat until you get to the main event – Christmas!

That’s the beauty of this plan. You can do all the tasks over the course of seven days and then keep repeating the cycle as you need to. Everything is covered so you know you won’t miss a thing and wind up feeling embarrassed.

With the 7 Day Schedule, I have you working on your home starting with the guest rooms.

Why? Because you want to make sure the rooms guests will be staying in are in tip-top shape, and once they’re done, you can close the doors and tell your family to stay out. This way you don’t have to go back and do anything else to them once they are clean. Once and done – that’s my motto!

From there you’ll move to areas of the home you want clean, but guests won’t be congregating, this includes the family bedrooms and the bathrooms only your family uses.

Maybe with a little luck and the help of Elf on A Shelf, you can get the kids to keep their rooms clean until Santa arrives.

Next, we tackle the main parts of the home starting with the Dining Room.

More than likely this room can be cleaned and stay hands off until the company shows up as most of us don’t use our formal dining rooms regularly. I’d even consider putting up tape across the entryway to the dining room to remind family members to stay out.

In desperate situations I’ve even suggested to readers who have written they consider putting up barrier tape across the entryway to the dining room to remind family members to stay out.

Of course, your pets might not get the message but at least the kids and hubs will!

You don’t want to have to do much after you do your thorough cleaning – just a quick 15 minute clean up just before guests arrive. This system allows you to do most tasks once and not have to worry about re-cleaning a whole room.

From here we move to more used parts of the home like the kitchen. If you haven’t cleaned your kitchen in a long while, this room will likely take you the most time. If you keep up regularly, it should take no more than an hour to complete. Either way, guests will judge you based on how clean your kitchen (and bathrooms) are. I hate to be a downer here, but it’s true.

I hate to be a downer here, but it’s true.

Take your time to give it a really thorough cleaning. The checklist will guide you step by step.

Day 6 has you cleaning the living room. We are not talking doing a dust and fluff. Nope, this cleaning has us vacuuming under cushions, dusting that ceiling fan, cleaning drapes.

The holidays are the time to make your home sparkle. Don’t skimp, ok?

Our finally cleaning day is all about those high traffic areas. The entryway, mud room, the place where you’re guests will arrive and enter your home.

Make sure you give this room the attention it deserves. It can get filthy. Wash those wall and baseboards. If there are a lot of dings on the walls and woodwork, consider touching them up with a bit of matching paint. I like to do this twice a year. It makes the paint job last more than a couple of years.

One Last Minute Tip

Our schedule and checklist are written in a way you can get the whole family involved. It’s broken down into tasks. Don’t do it all alone. Start dishing out jobs to the family and get them on board and cleaning too.

You’re finally done! Whew, that was a bit of work. But totally worth it because believe me, your guests will notice.

Now sit back and enjoy the rest of your holiday – you deserve it!

Grab the schedule and FREE Printable here!