In today’s post I’ll share my mudroom, porch, and entryway cleaning routine that I try to get to about once per month. It really keeps things under control in that area of our home!
I love a good list, don’t you? I use the notepad app on my phone to keep all of my lists organized and I have one for just about every single area of my life. I find them so fun and satisfying to create and I love to tap the little bubbles to add a checkmark once I’ve completed a task. I recently started creating a few phone lists for some of my basic cleaning routines for around the house and I thought I’d share what they look like. I included a whole bunch of different cleaning routine lists in my book The Cleaning Ninja from a few years ago, but I thought I’d share what my current lists look like these days for my regular all-the-time cleaning. I love reading about other people’s to-do lists because I’m often reminded of things that I can add to my own that I may have forgotten about. Feel free to type this list into your phone and follow along with me on my once-a-month-ish cleaning routines!
My Once-a-Month Entryway Cleaning Routine
For me, the “entryway” consists of a few different things. Yours will probably be a little different because every home is unique. I count our entryway as our front porch and side porch, our mudroom, as well as our main front hallway. A lot of homes use more than one entryway on a regular basis and it’s totally reasonable to be able to maintain all of your entryway points if you have a solid plan in place.
Completing this routine takes me about an hour, tops, and it’s usually broken down into a couple of days. So maybe I’ll work on the entryway routine on Monday and Tuesday of one week, and then tackle another room’s routine the next week. That leaves plenty of time for other things that come up, like LEGO that needs to be tidied up or items from my “What to Clean This Month” lists. You can find my “What to Clean in November” list here.
What’s on my Entryway Cleaning List
Mudroom:
- Clean off console table and counter
- De-clutter hooks
- Clean out drawers and cubbies
- Polish windows and doors
- Vacuum
- Wipe baseboards
- Clean boot trays
- Clean mirror
Porches:
- Clean doormats
- Sweep and mop porches and stairs
- Wipe railings
- Wipe siding
Front Hall:
- Wipe baseboards
- Clean hall light fixture
- Wipe front door threshold
- Clean mirror
That’s it! Pretty simple, but it gets the job done and it can be completed pretty quickly with a little bit of focus. There are some things that kind of happen naturally more than once a month, such a vacuuming, and a bit of de-cluttering here and there, but if it ever gets a bit out of control (not if, when. ha.) then I can make it feel sparkly clean again pretty quickly with this straightforward plan.
Do you have a cleaning routine like this that you follow for different areas of your home?
MORE IDEAS LIKE THIS
- What to Clean in January
- How to Deep Clean Your Home in 6 Minutes a Day
- Simple Things I do Every Day so That my Home Always Stays Clean
- The Creek Line House Cleaning Archives
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.