House Cleaning Checklist

One sheet for every clean :

Most of a regular clean is the same each time: wipe the worktops, clean the toilet, change the beds, empty the bins. Writing that list out every week is wasted effort, and a list ticked once is no use the following week. This checklist prints the jobs once and gives each clean its own column of boxes, with the date over the column. Tick down the column as you go, and next week start the column beside it. By the end of the month the sheet also shows which jobs keep being skipped.

What is on the sheet :

Part What it is for

Cleaned by, Month: Details under title, typed in or left as lines; Address and Visit day can be switched on

Note Up to three lines on how the sheet works or what to leave alone

Room headings Each room's jobs grouped together, so you work through one room at a time

Task The job itself, kept short so it fits beside the boxes

Date of clean A box per clean on every line, with a date or label over each column

Notes, No. Off to start with: a column for comments and a number for each job

Rooms and jobs

Start from the rooms of a flat (kitchen, bathroom, living room, bedrooms and a whole-house section), a house (adding the hallway and stairs) or a family home (adding a dining room and children's rooms). Add a ready-made room offers twelve rooms, including a downstairs loo, a home office, a utility room and the outside, each with its usual jobs. Rename anything to match your home: “Bedrooms” can become “Sam's room”, and jobs your home does not need can go. Blank lines after each room leave space for jobs you add by pen.

The whole-house section holds the jobs that move around: taking out rubbish and recycling, wiping handles and light switches, watering plants, and dusting the skirting in one room. Doing that last one in a different room each week gets every room done over a month without a long session.

The dates over the boxes

Cleans on the sheet sets from one to eight columns of boxes. Over the boxes, Write by hand prints a short line in each column for the date, Week 1, 2, 3 prints Wk 1, Wk 2 and so on, Mon to Sun sets seven columns for a daily list, and 1, 2, 3 numbers them. You can also type up to eight characters over each column yourself. Up to five cleans fit two columns of lines on portrait A4 or Letter. For six to eight, turn the page to landscape and choose Compact spacing, or use one column of lines over two pages.

For a cleaner and a client

Set For to A cleaner and the sheet changes to suit a paid visit: the details become Client, Address, Cleaner and Visit day, the note asks for anything that needs attention before the next visit, and a Notes column appears beside each job for comments such as a cracked tile or a missing product. Each visit gets its own column, so one sheet shows what every visit covered.

UK or US wording

The same rooms read naturally either way: worktops or countertops, hob or stovetop, taps or faucet, skirting or baseboards, loo roll or toilet paper, a downstairs loo or a half bath, a utility room or a laundry room, and a flat or an apartment. Only lines still as written change, so a list you have already edited keeps your words when you switch.

Printing it

The house rooms fit one A4 or Letter page with four cleans in two columns of lines. Print at Actual size so the boxes stay large enough to tick with a pen. If the sheet lives on the fridge or a cupboard door, Ink saver or Black and white under Style keeps the headings readable without using much colour, and a plastic sleeve with a dry-wipe pen lets you reuse one printout.