It may not be one of our favourite jobs around the house, but cleaning is an inevitable part of life – especially when you live in a home where you’re regularly doing some kind of building work. And whilst I may not enjoy the actual task, I do love having a clean and tidy home.
With so much planned for this year (you can read about our slightly overambitious plans here) we’re going to have to be organised and stay on top of the more mundane day to day tasks, so to help us at least keep on track with our cleaning schedule we decided to create our own cleaning checklist.
We wanted to create a cleaning checklist that we could just grab at any time. A checklist where we could work our way around the house and tick boxes as we go, a list that would make it easy not to forget things.
So that’s exactly what we did!
Our cleaning checklist is a printable, portable and reusable pocket guide with a page for each room of the house. We’ve laminated and bound ours together so that we can tick off boxes and when we’ve done wipe it clean and reuse it again and again. And of course, we’re sharing our free cleaning checklist with you, too.
In addition to room checklists, we’ve also included a few blank template pages for you to fill in yourself as you may have other rooms you’d like to add to your own personal cleaning schedule.
Even if you don’t clean your home or use this cleaning checklist on a daily basis (I won’t tell anyone if you don’t), you can still use it as a cleaning checklist for the week or month.
We may not be able to help you clean your home, but hopefully, our cleaning checklist will make it easier to keep on top of your cleaning jobs!
This is what you will need:
- Paper or card & printer (the card we used is 210g/m²)
- Laminator & pouches (this is the laminator
that we have)
- Craft knife or scissors
- Ribbon or cord
- Hole punch
- Whiteboard marker (this is the whiteboard marker
we have. It’s the same one we use for our DIY whiteboard calendar)
This is how to make your own cleaning checklist:
1. Download the free house cleaning checklist and print it onto some thick paper or card. There are two sides to each sheet – the front side with the checklist and a colour coordinated plain side for the back of each sheet.
(The backing side has a slightly larger pattern in case the paper doesn’t completely align when printing double-sided.)
2. Next, it’s time to get laminating. Place each page between the sheets of the laminating pouch and push it through the laminator.
We bought our laminator specifically for this project and it worked amazingly well. This is the laminator
3. When you’ve laminated all of your checklists, it’s time to cut them out. Using a craft knife (or some scissors) carefully cut out each page.
As mentioned before, the reverse side is slightly larger to allow for some tolerance when printing double-sided, so you will be cutting some of the reverse away.
4. When you’ve cut out all of your cleaning checklist pages it’s time to assemble the whole cleaning guide.
Punch a hole into the top left corner of one of the cleaning checklist room sheets – this will be your guide hole for all others. Then working page by page, place your guide page onto the next room page and align your punch so that you punch through the existing hole and create a new one in exactly the same position on the next page.
If you find that the pages slide around too much, you can secure them with a bulldog clip or two to make sure they don’t move.
When you’ve punched a hole into each page, it’s just a matter of stacking them and tying them all together with some ribbon or cord.
5. And there you have it – your own personal cleaning checklist. Now all you have to do is fan open the pages and work your way down the list, ticking boxes as you go.
When you’ve finished all tasks you can wipe the guide clean with some tissue and start all over again. Clean, tick, wipe, repeat!
How do you keep on top of day to day tasks? Do you find it easy to stay organised or does chaos have a way of taking over? Do you have a cleaning schedule?
A great idea but you’ve misspelt “vacuum” on most of the cards – some are correct, most say “vacumme” and I think there’s one “vacuume” in their too :)
Ohh, typical. There was a lot of copy and pasting involved, so I guess I misspelt it once and it crept through. Thanks for letting me know and I’ve updated the printable!
Cx
No worries and as usual it appears I was felled by Muphry’s law – “If you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written.” Haha!
What I really like about the back-and-forth here is that Trish used “Muphry’s” law (as opposed to Murphy’s law) and the proper way of spelling it is VACUUM. That’s all…I’m a teacher, so I HAD to rsvp…(sorry!)
Haha, I know. Not sure what happened there. ;)
Cx
Haha, I’m reading this months late Leigh Basilone, but you can’t RSVP as that stands for the French “répondez, s’il vous plaît” meaning “please reply”, so you have basically said “I’m a teacher so I HAD to please reply” haha lol, sorry just had to point that out there.
SHE ALSO SAID ONE IN THEIR TOO….I’m SURE SHE MEANT IN THERE….LOL BUT WE SHOULD BE CLEANING THE HOUSE NOT SOMEONE’S SPELLING……
This is an incredible idea to have a cleaning checklist! It is so easy to use it and is reusable, which makes it even better. I would love to have such. Thanks a lot for sharing!!
Thanks Janet – glad you like it!
Cx
Dear Christine, Sounds like a brilliant idea! How much was the laminator out of interest? I would like to do a bit of private teaching so it may come in use for double or even triple purposes if I’m lucky! Like Christmas carol songs for everyone to have a copy of for instance, at a party xxx
Thanks Julianna! There’s a link to the exact laminator we used in the list of supplies in the post. We got ours on amazon and it was about £13. We’re really happy with it – I should probably think up a few more projects I can use it for!
Cx
I can’t get the download link isn’t working?
I’ve checked the links and it’s working fine at my end. Give it another try and let us know if you’re still having problems!
Cx
If you followed the link from Pinterest, click the bottom left that days open and it should download immediately.
LOVE it!!! Gonna make it!! (and hopefully clean . . . it!) I’ve tried all kinds of cleaning schedules etc. They are too exhaustive and intimidating. Your idea is thorough yet concise and compact. The check boxes will be such an encouragement! Can not wait to make mine!!
Thank you so very much for sharing freely with us!!
Margie
Thank you so much for your kind comment, Margie! It’s great to get feedback and I’m so happy to hear that you like our cleaning printable!
Cx
I love this!!! I have waited years for a system like this (but I have cleaned while I kept looking…) Thank you!!!
Thank you, Diane! Glad we could help and thanks for the feedback!
Cx
I couldn’t get the list to download either. Maybe because I have a Mac?
I don’t think that that should make a difference, SuAnn. Please give it another try and let me know if you’re still having problems. :)
Cx
Love this idea but I cant get it download either.
Sorry about that, Christy! If you could let me know what the problem is, I’ll try to fix it. It’s been downloaded thousands of times, so it only seems to occasionally be an issue – would still like to fix it, though!
Cx
I found in my download files. When I click the link on your website and it show up on new window with blank window. I guess it automatically went to download which not saying anything about. Just let you know this situation. Thank you.
Thanks for letting me know, Christy! Glad it worked in the end.
Cx
I cannot get this to download. I have searched my computer.
Please could you check in your download folder? I’m really not sure where the problem is and I’d obviously love to fix the problem.
Cx
Is there a way to edit these lists
There’s one blank list that you can write your own items on. Other than that I’m afraid they can’t be edited.
Cx
This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much. Cant wait to print, laminate and start using it,
You’re welcome! Glad you like it.
Cx
What font did you use? I would love to fill in the blank ones and I want them to all look the same. You did a great job.
Thanks, Jill! The font we used is Twentieth Century (I think).
Cx
I like these cards but I have tried all blue associated buttons to download and I get nothing. What is wrong?
Please check your download folder, Rita. I think the files may have automatically downloaded. Let me know if you still have a problem and I’ll email them over to you.
Cx
Thank you for getting back to me. I haven’t got them in download. I would apprecieate getting them by e-mail.
Sincerely, Rita
I keep getting error messages when I send you an email, Rita. Drop me an email at [email protected] and I’ll reply to it with the printables.
Cx
Great tool only it won’t open doc when downloaded
It’s a zip file with PDFs of cleaning lists in it so try unzipping it first. Hope that works for you!
Cx
Hi! I love this idea, but it keeps telling me the website cannot be reached whenever I try to click on the link. Can you please email me the file so I can use them! I have been struggling to find a cleaning routine to use in my house with my new baby and grad school! This seems doable! Thanks!
Thanks, Kim! I’m not sure why you’re getting the error message. I assume it was just a glitch so could you please try to download them again (it’s a zip file that should open in a new window and be saved to your download folder).
Let me know if you’re still having problems and I’ll email them over to you.
Cx
I was wondering if ther was a way to download them & then edit them? I love your idea, I would like to list things high (ceiling fans, cabinets, etc) to low (floors). It’s just the idiosyncratic way I like to clean & maybe add 1 or 2 things that might be spacific to the layout of my home. 😊 I love the wipe able checklists to make sure I Don’t forget anything if I am rushing for some reason. Thank you for taking the time & effort to share these cleaning cards with us!
There are a couple of blank pages for you to personalise but other than that I’m afraid that you can’t edit the individual cleaning sheets.
Glad you like them & hope that helps, Susie!
Cx
Sorry, missed the “e” at the end of the word “there”.
Very cool checklist. I don’t have a laminator so I used clear packing tape and cut the cards to size, and it works and wipes great. Thank you for these!
That’s a great idea, Tiana! We bought the laminator just for this project (although we are in the process of creating a few more fun projects so we can use it again) and it was under £10 so we figured we could splurge. Love your idea, though – thanks for sharing!
Cx
Hi
This looks perfect for what I need but sadly I can’t open the link properly :(
Karen
Please check again, Karen. It’s a zip file that opens automatically and has possibly already saved to your download folder. Do let me know if you’re still having problems and I’ll email it over to you.
Cx
Hello Christine, I can’t find it anywhere :( please could you email it to me? Thanks soo much this is just PERFECT xx
I LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS!!! I have been looking for the perfect breakdown for daily, weekly, monthly to help keep things organized. Do you have a version that can be edited ??
Glad you like it, Shannon! There are a couple of blank pages for you to personalise but other than that I’m afraid that you can’t edit the individual cleaning sheets.
Hope that helps!
Cx
Hi. I cannot seem to get the link to work to download your checklist. Any suggestions?
It should download automatically so please check that it’s not already in your download folder. It works fine at our end and almost everyone who has problems getting it to download seems to be using an iPhone so maybe try a different browser (or system).
Let me know if you’re still having problems!
Cx
Is there another way to down load the printables? My phone can’t process zip files and I don’t have a computer. I didn’t see a contact us button.
There’s a contact button in the menu bar at the top. No problem though – I’ll email the printables over to you!
Cx
I finally got my cleaning list cut out and laminated. Love it.
Yay! So glad you like it.
Cx
Awesome idea! Maybe I can finally get my whole team on board with what needs to be done in the house (I’m disabled, wheelie, have household help, but they’re never on the same page as I am!). Just out of curiosity and OCD, what fonts are used? Wanting to make the blanks look the same as the rest. Ta!
I love the idea of using the list to get everyone organised! I think that the font is Twentieth Century.
Cx
Awesome, thank you! Going to annoy you with one more query, sorry: Did you draw the images yourself, or get them from somewhere? I want to add my atelier, balcony, and basement storage unit, and have no idea how to get cool pictures for those….
No problem, Nora! I wish I knew a fab source for icons but I drew them myself.
Cx
Hi Christine, loved the pdf specially the colors, and already downloaded them, no problem. They will work wonderfully for my daughter who is always asking what should she clean. A little request, is there any way you can make the blank one editable so it can look as good as the other ones? Ah, found you through Pinterest.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, Gilda! Glad you like them. I’d be happy to make the blank one editable – I just don’t know how! I’ll have a look into it, though!
Cx
I am seeing this on my phone, so I must wait till I get to my laptop to download and print. This is a wonderful idea. My son and daughter in-law are buying a house and my husband and I are moving in with them. I’m really wanting to start out fresh when cleaning. I think I will use the blank one for the garage. To keep things put away and organized. I liked someone’s suggestion about adding things up high (ceiling fans, etc) and down low. Thank you for doing all this work and sharing. Very nice.
You’re welcome, Gloria! Good luck with your move & happy cleaning in your new home!
Cx
I have just come across your cleaning checklist – looks like a wonderful tool to help explicitly teach my teenagers how to clean, and they can check they have completed the task without my reminders (aka nagging). However, for some reason I cant find the link to actually download the cards. Has the link been removed?
It’s still there, Natalie. Not sure why you’re not seeing it but just in case here it is again – Clean It Checklist.
Cx
hey. i like your checklists. i was wondering if you do a complete empty one. im thinking of using it for work. as im a cleaner. i would find it most helpful.
Thank you, Charlotte! There are two blank ones included!
Cx
I am trying to edit a few things and Adobe is asking me for the document permission password to remove the restorations. Can you help
We don’t allow our printables to be changed which is why they can’t be edited. Sorry, Rhonda!
Cx
Is there any way to purchase this completed? Printed, laminated, hole punched, and together.
Sorry, it’s only available as a download. It’s really easy and quick to make yourself, though!
cx
please tell me where the link is to download?
the green ‘download here’ takes me to some random scrapbook site which isnt very helpful
I’m sorry i cant find it!
Sorry, Lucy – I’m a bit confused. Which green “download here” do you mean?
Cx
Hi. Love this. But I cant seem to find the download link on my side. Is there something im missing. I have went to other printables and same story. Please advise
Thanks, Muhsina! In all posts, there’s usually a “This is what you’ll need” section where everything you’ll need to make the printable is listed.
It’s the same in this post where it says “Cleaning checklist printable (you can download it for free here)”
Hope that helps!
Cx
I Absolutely love the cleaning printable but I am having a problem with downloading them and being able to print them out. Please help because I need them in my life …my house is a mess!
Thanks, Brittny! I’m sorry to hear that you’re having problems downloading the file. I’m not sure what the problem is as it seems to be working fine at my end.
If it’s any help, the file is a PDF that opens in a new tab.
Hope that helps!
Cx
There is no link at all for this dowload. I have been trying to find one for 40 minutes. Have checked my download files in case of automatic downlad and nothing. Would like to have it but no download link
I’m sorry you’re having problems, Samantha. In the article, there’s a section with a list of the tools and supplies you’ll need to make the cleaning checklist. There’s a huge red button there where it says “click here to download the cleaning checklist”. Just click on that button and it’ll download.
Hope that helps!
Cx
Christine, the problem with the download link is that it takes you to your home page. It does not download anything when done from my Mac Possibly could you post a separate link to the download in the comments ? Or edit the page with an alfa-numeric link as you have done with the laminator and such. I believe it has something to do with the fact it is a JPEg link and not a Alfa-numeric. I am also going to email you because i would love this sent to me if possible :) Brilliant Job!
I’ve temporarily taken down the printable which is why it’s not working at the moment. I’m happy to share free printables and my only rules are that they’re not sold or used commercially and that they’re not linked to directly. Sadly, I’ve seen so many cases of this happening which is why I have taken down the printable. :(
I will upload it again with some adjustments that will hopefully help.
Cx