Homekeeping Schedules for the Modern Housewife

 Being a housewife, you don't have a boss telling you what to do and when to do it so its important to be a self-starter and stay motivated. Having a to-do list always helps me to stay on task and get the job done. When I follow a cleaning schedule, my house stays neat and I have freedom to sew,  knit and do projects with the kids in the afternoon. Here's how I made my home keeping schedule work for me.

Getting Organized
Yesterday, I found this great family organizing app called Cozi.  It's free to use and very easy to set up. You can keep track of appointments, chores, projects and events for the entire family. It also has a grocery shopping list that syncs to mobile so when my husband needs to stop at the store for a few things on his way home from work, he can pull my shopping list up on his phone. I'll be using that -all- the time! Cozi Gold is the paid version ($30 per year) and includes a bunch of mobile reminders, meal planning, notifications and lots of wonderful organizational tools. Get the free version here

If you're a pen and paper kind of girl, there's lots of gorgeous day planners and calendars out there too!

I also pulled up these great printable to-do lists from Martha Stewart.  There are lists for seasonal home keeping projects, monthly cleaning tasks and all kinds of things to keep the house tidy, organized and running smoothly. I adjusted some of those things to my own needs and added them to my Cozi calendar so I'm reminded when its time to change air filters, service the furnace, seed the lawn and all of those good things. I'm sure that we don't all wipe down our switch plates monthly like Ms. Stewart supposedly does but you can use her lists as a starting point for your to-do list brainstorming session. On the Cozi app, you can add tasks that repeat weekly or monthly so if you want to remember to vacuum the baseboards of the closets regularly or flush the drains with boiling water, you can have that task repeat as often as you want to do it.

Making your own schedule is easy and kind of fun to do. My best advice is to start with a completely clean house. Spend some time cleaning and organizing cabinets, drawers and closets. With everything in its place, you will have a better idea of what tasks need to be done daily, weekly and monthly and you can add those long-awaited projects (like my re-painting the kitchen) to your list. Also, with a freshly cleaned and organized home, it'll be easier to stay on top of it and you'll have more free time to have fun!

Cleaning Tips
We're not all born being domestic goddesses so it never hurts to get some tips from the experts on how to work smarter, not harder. I've found some priceless wisdom on cleaning house, fixing things and maintaining things from Heloise. She has some wonderful tips on living frugally and using a lot of home keeping methods that our vintage housewives would have used.


If you're going to spend a lot of time doing chores, it's much more enjoyable if you have cute tools to help you clean and organize. I spend many hours per week doing dishes and laundry so here are some cute things to make me smile while I'm working, all from Modcloth

For more housekeeping inspiration check out my Pinterest board, "Tidy Up" for over 100 brilliant cleaning and organizing ideas. Happy cleaning!





Va-Voom Vintage is an affiliate of ModCloth and Cozi. Please see my full disclosure policy