Zone Cleaning How To Guide (With Free Zone Cleaning Schedule Printable)

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If you struggle to keep your home clean and organized, then you’ve got to try zone cleaning! (+ free zone cleaning schedule printable)

As busy moms, it can be hard to find the time to keep our home clean, organized, and clutter-free, which is why I am over the moon that I discovered zone cleaning.

If you struggle to keep your home in tip-top shape then you’ve got to try this cleaning method which has been popularized by the Fly Lady.

Once you put a simple zone cleaning schedule in place you’ll never be embarrassed by some unexpected company again…

Grab a copy of Sink Reflections, a Fly Lady book, to learn more about zone cleaning and getting your home organized.

Zone Cleaning vs Task Cleaning

Two of the most popular home management cleaning systems are zone cleaning and task cleaning. There are benefits to each one of these ways to clean your home.

Zone cleaning focuses on deep cleaning and organization without overwhelm. Whereas task cleaning allows you to save time by focusing on just one cleaning task at a time while doing your weekly cleaning.

There are pros to each of these home cleaning methods so let me explain in more detail and you can decide which is best for your situation.

What is Zone Cleaning 

Zone cleaning is a simple yet effective way to clean, declutter, and organize your home without overwhelm.

Basically, you divide your home into zones and spend just 15 – 20 minutes tackling one cleaning task a day in each zone for 1 week in addition to your regular cleaning schedule.

Then the next week you move on to the next cleaning zone in your home and do the same, and so on in rotation.

On week 1, you might tackle your kitchen and focus on 7 areas that need the most attention to either clean or organize.

So you might spend one day organizing your pantry, the next cleaning the oven, then another day wiping down your cabinets, and so on.

Then the next week you move on to a different zone or room in your home such as cleaning and organizing your bedroom.

You might clean out one closet for 15 – 20 minutes one day, dust bedroom furniture the next day, then wipe down baseboards with a good simple solution cleaner such as Grove Collective all-natural cleaners the next day.

Try Grove Collective today and get a FREE Mrs. Mryers gift set!

Task Cleaning

Task cleaning, on the other hand, is when you do one chore at a time and focus on a specific cleaning task in your entire home. 

For example, one cleaning task we all must do is to vacuum, so you would work on just that one thing and vacuum all carpets and area rugs at the same time. 

Task cleaning can save time since you only need to pull your cleaning equipment out once and get your entire home vacuumed so you don’t need to pull out all your cleaning supplies at one time.

Then once you’re done vacuuming, you would then work on another housekeeping task on your cleaning lists, say dusting your wood furniture.

Again, you only focus on this one task and do detailed cleaning and dust all wood furniture in your home at once.  

So now that you know the difference between zone cleaning vs task cleaning you may decide to do a combination of both as I do in my home-keeping routines to streamline your workflow.

How To Get Started With Zone Cleaning

The first thing you’ll want to do when starting out with zone cleaning is to determine your zones.

Typically these zones would be rooms in your home. So the kitchen would be one zone, bedroom another, and so on.

You can also combine smaller rooms that don’t need as much time to clean such as powder rooms, entrances or mudrooms, and laundry rooms to create your home zones.

Of course, you can follow the fly lady cleaning schedule but since everyone’s family life and home situation is different I encourage you to create a weekly cleaning schedule for your personal situation.

Below is an example of the Fly Lady zones that you can use as inspiration to create your own cleaning lists.

Once you’ve created your home zones, you’ll want to consider which seven areas to focus on for the week and create a cleaning checklist.

You can add these tasks to your morning routine. Then the next week you move on to another zone in your home on your cleaning checklist.

You can use the zone cleaning list below to give you an idea of the different tasks you can add to your own DIY house cleaning schedule.  

Rotating your cleaning tasks

Now some rooms, such as your kitchen may have more than 7 cleaning tasks that need your attention. 

That’s ok, you’ll want to stick with just 7 problem areas the first week, then you can tackle the next set of chores the next time you work on that zone.

The easiest way to make sure you hit every problem area in your home is by creating a list of tasks for every room, or zone in your home.

Or better yet use a 12-month cleaning calendar to create a detailed cleaning list or even use a zone cleaning app. 

Then simply rotate through each task during the weeks that you are focusing on that particular zone. 

You might also find that you really don’t need to do certain chores every time.

For example, if you organized your chest freezer last month and you keep it organized, you really don’t need to do this every month.

Instead, add these tasks to your schedule every 3 or 6 months (depending on your situation) or focus on different zones instead.

Create a Zone Cleaning Schedule

Once you have all your chores listed out by zone, I suggest you schedule your tasks so you always know what needs to be done. 

You can buy a simple wall calendar and just write down what needs to be done during the week in each zone. 

Or you can just use a simple checklist to hang on your refrigerator or keep in your family command center (like I do), and mark each chore off as you complete them.

Grab a zone cleaning checklist in the free cleaning printables bundle here

You should also start with your biggest problem areas first so you see improvements quickly to encourage you to keep at it. 

You can even get your kids to help out by adding simple tasks to their chore chart that they can easily do on their own.

Zone Cleaning Tasks By Room

Below are some common zone cleaning tasks by room to give you ideas to come up with your own cleaning schedule.

These are just examples and you should create a list of things to clean and declutter based on your needs since everyone’s homes and family lives are unique to them. 

Benefits of Zone Cleaning

• Once you’ve gone through every area of your home, it’ll be quicker and easier the next time around.
• It allows you to deep clean your home with less effort since you work at it in short spurts instead of all at once.
• It helps to avoid the overwhelm when you do your yearly spring cleaning.
• Your home will always be neat and company-ready, avoiding embarrassment when someone decides to pop in for a visit.
• The easy 15 – 20 minute cleaning sessions are doable even on your busiest days.
• You’ll have a calmer, more peaceful home environment without all the mess and clutter.

Bonus: You can even earn some extra cash decluttering your home by selling things you don’t need or want anymore.

Fly Lady Zone Cleaning FAQ

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Zone Cleaning How-To Guide (+ Free Cleaning Schedule Printable)