Housework Systems That Actually Work — How I Stay on Top of It All

Owning the Work, Claiming the Space

Several years ago, I found myself responsible for a large shared apartment. The cleaner who had been coming to the apartment each week for years had moved on, and rather than replace them immediately, I decided to try taking it on myself.

It'd been several years since I'd been outsourcing the responsibility of the housework to someone else and while I appreciated the help, I never forgot how good doing the housework used to make me feel (a topic I wrote about in last week's post).

And, I found that I still quite liked it. Those feelings of satisfaction I used to get from the housework were still there, as well the enjoyment of taking a mental break from life (this time though, it was podcasts that I listened to, rather than music).

Being a large apartment though, that first week of cleaning took me an entire day. While the place looked better than it ever had — I knew that kind of time investment was unsustainable. 

I needed a way to make the cleaning manageable and routine.

Systems Save Energy

I started breaking down the housework tasks by the frequency that they needed to be done:

• Weekly: bathrooms, vacuuming, wiping surfaces

• Fortnightly: windows, dusting less-used areas

• Monthly: kitchen deep-clean, launder the sofa cushion covers

• Every 6 months: behind appliances, reorganise closets

Having a schedule made the workload lighter and more predictable. It also removed the feeling of a job being left incomplete when I didn't "do it all."

The other thing I did? I learned how to do the housework properly.

Learning from the Pros

Most people I know do the housework the way they do because that's how they saw it being done when they were growing up.

"It worked for my parents, so it should work for me," is the thinking.

But the nice thing about the 21st century is that you can learn from the best in the world from the comfort of your home. 

YouTube housework channels became a crash course in best practices. There are professional cleaners who have channels on YouTube which are all about how to get the best cleaning with the least effort and cost. 

There were so many quick tips I learned that help me make better use of the equipment I had on hand. The way that you use microfibre cloths, for example, can make a huge difference to how much dust they pick up. Certain chemical products are best left for a few minutes before scrubbing, which makes sense, but do you know which ones? I didn't.

If all this sounds exhausting, the experience of learning it was strangely exhilarating — not just because of the clean home I had (the cleanest I had ever been in), but the feeling of mastery that I had each time I put on my rubber gloves. It made me feel like some kind of comic book hero of housework.

Which makes sense. According to Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan), "competence" is one of our three basic psychological needs. Mastery — even in small tasks — improves well-being and motivation. Housework isn't trivial. It can feed your sense of agency.

Tech Tools That Help

One of the best discoveries I've made is an app called Sweepy. Sweepy is one of many housework scheduling apps but I mention Sweepy specifically because the free version is highly powered and the app is available on both iPhone and Android.

As with any housework scheduling app, you can program your own cleaning tasks, set how often they need doing, and check them off each time they're done. By opening the app, you can see which tasks are outstanding at any given time. As someone who does not have a fixed weekly routine, I appreciate the flexibility that an app like this gives me. Sometimes I have 30 minutes to do a quick burst of cleaning, other times a whole morning. If I'm doing housework in the evening, I can choose to do the tasks that make less noise so as not to disturb the neighbours.

And speaking of other people, if you're sharing a living space then all of you can use the same account, removing the need for endless "reminders" or arguments about who last cleaned the bathroom.

This can be a lifesaver for some couples.

Steam Is Your Friend

My other big hack? Steam cleaning.

Instead of wiping down glass, countertops, or even fabrics with chemicals, I now use a steam cleaner. It's faster, deeper, and removes the need for many chemical cleaning products (though if you combine them right, you'll get a magnificent clean).

Handheld steam cleaners can be found rather cheaply, but you can get great bang-for-your-buck with a second-hand from LeBonCoin. I found a professional-grade machine for the same price as a small new one. The additional power makes a big difference in cleaning capacity and I can clean the whole apartment without exhausting the water reservoir. 

It's become the best purchase I've made for my home maintenance.

Reflection Prompts

1. What household tasks do you procrastinate — and what would make them easier to begin?
2. How do you currently organise domestic responsibilities? Do you have a system or is it reactive?
3. Could a small tool or routine (like an app or playlist) shift the experience for you?

Try This

Set up a recurring cleaning rhythm.  List tasks you'd like to stay on top of. Decide what's weekly, monthly, or seasonal. Use a notes app or try Sweepy to keep track.

Extra Resources

• Clean My Space (YouTube) — Melissa Maker's channel has detailed, no-nonsense tutorials.

• Clutterbug - Deep Cleaning Hacks for a SPOTLESS Home in Minutes (YouTube)

• "How to Keep House While Drowning" by KC Davis — compassionate, non-judgemental systems for overwhelmed people.

• Sweepy — an app to organise, delegate, and track cleaning without the mental clutter.