Cleaning the kitchen is a constant chore in every home. Finding the right cleaning plan for your family will make it run so much more smoothly.
What’s our strategy for success? Get input from everyone. Have a method for keeping dishes clean throughout the day. Make a general plan for breakfast and lunch, a specific plan for the main meal, and a system for deep cleaning. Make expectations very clear. Adjust as needed.
This sums it up nicely, but it has actually taken a lot of research and trial and error to come up with a great kitchen cleaning strategy that works for us.
Before we jump in, let me just say that obviously one way to clean your kitchen is to just do it. The systems that I’m talking about in this post are designed for families interested in teaching their children the skills necessary for household management and for simply doing chores as a team. I hope you enjoy!
Get Input From Everyone
My husband and I are a team. So, we’ve talked a lot about different strategies for keeping the kitchen clean. We’ve tried lots of different strategies.
After many years of marriage, though, it’s sometimes easier to kind of have “areas” that each other is in charge of.
{Essentially, if it’s outside, it’s Derek’s thing to deal with…vehicles, lawn, heat pump, electrical, plumbing, roof…all things I have no knowledge about and no desire to learn.}
And cleaning the kitchen is my thing.
So I enlisted my kids, who have grown up helping with kitchen clean up, to give me their insight into the process.
I asked them to help me think through what was working and not working in our kitchen cleaning routines.
By the way, as of this writing, my kids are 20, 18, and 16…and all home due to the COVID-19 pandemic…so essentially, 3 adults.
If your kids are younger, don’t discount what they can do.
Our strategies have worked well for us for years. The 4×4 rotation (see below) is the main thing that’s new.
And that’s just because I never thought of it ’til now! 😀
Their ideas sparked other ideas for me. That’s one of the great things about collaboration.
In addition to talking to my kids about what’s working and not working, I asked them these questions to help all of us think of more ideas:
- What drives you crazy about how we keep the kitchen clean?
- What’s the task you dislike doing the most?
- Is there a task you enjoy doing?
Once you have an idea of where you stand, you’re ready to attack the first and foremost issue in the kitchen: dishwashing.
Have An Excellent Plan For Keeping Dishes Clean Throughout The Day
When our kids were younger, we tried to rotate, having one unload the dishwasher, another reload the dishwasher, but then the third child…it was just confusing…trying to keep up with whose turn it was.
Then we tried having one child in charge of the dishes for a day at a time or even a week at a time.
That may work for you.
What works best for us, though, is this:
When I talked to the kids, I found out that the girls actually wanted to do certain jobs with the dishes.
I had no idea that they would choose to handle this task.
Those girls are awesome, but they’re just like anybody when it comes to doing chores…not crazy about it!
So I jumped on the fact that they wanted to handle it!
This is what we do:
- Rees unloads the dishwasher and tells Haley it’s ready for her.
- Haley loads the dishwasher and tells Rees when she starts it.
- Rees sets a timer for 2 hours so that when it finishes, she gets a reminder to unload it.
- Repeat, ad nauseum.
A couple of notes about this:
- If the rest of us have dirty dishes when the washer is empty, we put our dishes in…no need in being lazy just because it’s “not our job.”
- If one of the girls is not home or unavailable for some reason, someone else has to jump in for the greater good, haha…one of the reasons our previous methods didn’t work was that there was no ownership…we all make dirty dishes; we can all take part in cleaning them.
- Don’t feel pressure to wait for a completely full load to run the dishwasher. Sometimes a pre-emptive run is better if you know there will be lots to wash after the next meal. You officially have my permission. 🙂
- Does your dishwasher take two hours to run?? Drives me crazy.
Okay, but what about all those hand wash items? It’s coming in the next two sections.
Make A General Plan For Breakfast And Lunch
At our house, you’re on your own for breakfast and lunch.
Weekdays, Saturdays, Sundays, school days, summer days…it’s just what works for us.
Rarely, I’ve made a special breakfast that we all sat down together for…I think it was one Easter morning.
In other words, my kids have been mini chefs pretty much since they were in Kindergarten.
Now that they’re essentially grown, I wouldn’t change that if I could. I love how independent they are in this regard.
The reason I’m going into all of this is just to say that what works for us is to each be responsible for our own food/meals throughout most of the day.
If someone makes cinnamon toast for breakfast, then they’re responsible for hand washing the pan.
It’s a really simple, logical rule but it is so effective for maintaining a clean kitchen: If you make a mess, clean it up.
I usually have a salad for lunch, and I’m the messiest of all five of us…so I have to wipe the counters when I finish chopping veggies.
The other rule we have for breakfast and lunch is that if you use a utensil that will probably be needed to make supper (sometimes I call it dinner, haha), go ahead and hand wash it.
We have one set of silicone tipped tongs that we need when we use the instant pot, so that’s something that needs to be cleaned in time for dinner.
Make A Specific Plan for Supper Cleanup
Okay, we’re about to get to the nitty gritty: The nightly major cleaning that happens!
I discussed earlier that we have the dishwasher task covered.
My son is responsible for taking out the kitchen trash on an ongoing basis.
Anyway, that leaves relatively few major tasks:
- do the recycling
- put away the leftovers
- wipe down the counters and table
- sweep the floors
- hand wash any items that don’t go in the dishwasher
To keep things as equitable as possible, simply divide up the chores among the number of people doing them.
It’s all right if one person has an extra job to do…you’ll see.
| recycling | H |
| put food away | G |
| wipe counters & sweep kitchen | R |
| wipe table & sweep DR | M |
| handwash | H |
I like to make this in excel or google sheets so that I can cut and paste easily.
Now, make another column and just move each person up one spot.
{As a former math teacher, the way this works out makes me so happy! 😀 }
Continue with the process until you have the same number of rotations as people in the rotation.
For four people, I made four rotations. Here’s the actual one we have hanging up in our kitchen.
I could write a whole post on this calendar. It’s been the one thing we’ve most consistently used over the years to keep ourselves organized about everyone’s schedules.
Here are some pictures of ours in action.
On the calendar, we add 1, 2, 3, 4…so that at a glance, we know which rotation day we’re on.
So, on rotation day 2, Rees has to put up the leftovers and she’s done!
With this process, it takes us less than 15 minutes to clean up the kitchen.
No one is arguing about who has been hand washing dishes more than anyone else (our collective most hated chore).
You’re not left wondering if you did your share. If you did your task for the day, then you did your share.
I love the added benefit of them seeing that the phrase “many hands make light work” really is true!
And when the older two head back to college, Rees and I will just have a two day rotation….
| 1 | 2 | |
| recycling | R | M |
| put food away | M | R |
| wipe counters & sweep kitchen | R | M |
| wipe table & sweep DR | M | R |
| handwash | R | M |
Hands down, this rotation system has been the simplest, most effective method for us to clean the kitchen–with the least amount of frustration. {happy dance}
Have A System For Deep Cleaning
Our nightly suppertime cleanup is great, but obviously there are some things that have to be done in addition to those daily chores in order to have a clean kitchen….
Such as
- mopping the floors
- baseboards
- the outside of the appliances
- the cabinet fronts
- throwing out old or expired food from the fridge
- cleaning the fridge and freezer shelves
- windows
- inside the microwave
- stove hood
- light switches
- kitchen sink
- top of the fridge
- coffee area
Your standards are (very likely) higher than mine and you clean some of those every single day.
A couple of them I do as I’m using them, such as cleaning the kitchen sink, throwing out leftovers, or wiping up spills on the cabinets as they happen.
So these are my list of things that I want cleaned a little deeper every so often.
If you’ve read anything on this subject before, you’ll see a couple of common systems for this type of cleaning that rise to the top.
Some people really like to choose a couple of those items in the list and add them to their daily schedule.
I’ve tried that, but I’m so lazy about housework that I didn’t like it hanging over me that I had to super clean something every single day. #justbeinghonest
Another method is to do all the floors in the house on one day, all the wood surfaces another day, etc.
This, too, overwhelms me. Tried it. Hated it.
Here’s what works for us!
We have a daily “zone” that we work on once a week.
Monday through Friday, I picked 5 areas that we will spend 15 minutes in, all together.
Fifteen minutes works for us because there are four of us doing it. Fewer people would likely need more time, but not necessarily.
It’s amazing to see how much can be accomplished in 15 minutes.
So, I have my zone checklist printed out for the kitchen, and currently, Wednesday is the kitchen zone.
We all get together, set a timer for 15 minutes, and just pick something on the list and go for it.
When someone finishes something on the list, they pick another thing that’s not being done and do it…etc.
When the timer goes off, then you’re done cleaning the kitchen for this week.
Don’t worry about what you didn’t get to this week, because you can do those things first next week.
This works for us, now, because
a. I’m okay with clean enough.
and
b. They’re pretty much “grown.”
When they were younger, I would let them choose between two things or just say…you’re doing [this job]. Honestly, I did most of it, and it’s just been a gradual transition to the point where all three can do the entire thing by themselves if they need to.
I firmly believe that we should each recognize that our contribution to the mess equals our responsibility for the cleaning, lol.
I’m putting my zone checklists for the kitchen (and other rooms) in the free resources section of kennedyfamfive. Click here to download them.
~~Pro Tip~~
Put the zone checklists in a clear page protector and check them off with a dry erase marker so that next week…
- you can easily see what didn’t get done last week
- you don’t have to keep re-printing the checklists
Make Your Expectations Very Clear
Once you have your breakfast and lunch plan, your supper cleanup plan, and your deep clean plan…it’s time to deploy the troops! Almost!
Two factors, their ages and how involved they’ll be, will help you to know how specific you need to get.
I gave my kids their own print out of the kitchen rotation and the bigger weekly family schedule, explained it, and then allowed for some Q & A time.
Try to keep this short and to the point.
I love systems and organization, but even I don’t want to sit around and nitpick every aspect (except when writing this post, haha).
And, when you’re dealing with younger children, you want to follow up early on as needed…meaning that when one child feels like she has finished wiping the counters and swept the floor, check behind them and let them know if they need to go back over a section.
Gently.
Ephesians 4:2 has been a verse I keep going back to during this quarantine: Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, allowing for each other’s faults because of your love.
Remember the main reason you’re even setting up a system like this is to teach your kids important skills, teamwork, cooperation, perseverance, and more. (And also to get a little help around here!)
And keep in mind that when you’re setting expectations, this is likely the first time they’ve heard any of these ideas, while you might have been mulling them over for days.
Patience is a virtue because it’s not easy.
Adjust Your Strategy As Needed
Accept the fact that your kitchen cleaning strategy is likely going to need updating as quickly as your kids outgrow their new jeans.
But that doesn’t mean you have to start over from scratch…(and don’t think to yourself, why even try?)
You’ll just tweak things here and there. You may hate the zone strategy and love doing a different method.
Fantastic!
That’s progress!
Now, jump in and get started.
You’ve got this!