Minimalist Cleaning Schedule

Who this is for

People who want a working home, not a showroom. Strips back to what genuinely affects daily life.

Most cleaning schedules are aspirational fiction. They include tasks no one does (dust ceiling fans weekly), and they make people feel bad for not doing them.

A minimalist schedule strips back to what genuinely matters: what affects health (kitchen, bathroom, bins), what affects function (tidy enough to find things), and nothing else. Surfaces don't need to sparkle. Floors don't need to be eaten off.

If you can do this list weekly, your home is fine. Anything beyond is a hobby, not housework.

Less stuff, less cleaning — but only if you really commit

A genuinely minimalist home cleans in a fraction of the time of a standard one because there is less surface to dust, less stuff to move, less laundry to do. The schedule reflects that — fewer tasks, shorter sessions. But this only holds if you keep decluttering. A minimalist schedule on a maximalist house is just a stressful schedule.

The 30-minute weekly cap

For genuinely minimal homes (under 60 m² with limited possessions), 30 minutes a week is enough. If your schedule is consistently overshooting, the answer is rarely "clean more efficiently" — it is "own less".

How fairness is calculated

Behind the scenes, every chore gets a numeric weight from its effort (small / medium / large), frequency, and a difficulty modifier for the genuinely unpleasant tasks. The algorithm distributes weight across people, not chore counts — three counter wipes do not equal one toilet scrub, and the schedule respects that. Annoying tasks rotate separately so the same person never gets the bin two weeks running. Full details on the methodology page.

How to use it

1. Strip rooms back to the essentials. Kitchen, bathroom, one common area. Skip the rest weekly.
2. Generate with frequency 'weekly' only. No daily, no monthly clutter. Just a weekly pass.
3. Print, do once a week, ignore the rest. Permission granted. The house will be fine.

FAQ