Creating a routine doesn’t have to be difficult! You CAN maintain a tidy home. My new cleaning mind game I’m playing with myself is a game changer!

Choose 5 tasks to do a day and do them each for 5 minutes. That’s it!

Breaking tasks down by five minute intervals makes things more manageable. It takes at least 21 days to create a habit. After you fill up this printable, you will have some great habits in place!

This works for chores, but it’s also great making time for the fun things too, like reading, learning a language, playing with your kids. I’m going to talk about and afternoon/evening five for five too!

I am not a routine person. I want to dive headfirst into whatever project is at the top of my list! Forget that there’s dishes and laundry and my workspace is a mess. I must STENCIL now at this very moment! But that’s not practical and then I feel overwhelmed. So, I started Five for Five.

Here’s what happened

Maybe you’re thinking, what can you get done in five minutes? A lot! When I do this during the weekdays (I keep weekends optional), I find the laundry isn’t piling up and I can actually keep it to five minutes a day!!! The kitchen isn’t piled with dishes by evening time. And I’ve been in God’s word to start the day right!

Ideas to choose from

I’ll share the five things I’m doing currently, but there are so many ideas! Pick what’s best for you. I’m finding it helpful to stick to the same five for a period of time, but change it up if you need to!

• Read your Bible
• Make your bed
• Laundry
• Floors
• Dishes
• Meal plan
• Bathrooms
• Pick up living space
• Kids’ rooms
• Your room
• Closet
• Organize one space
• Skincare
• Exercise

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My current routine

It’s a little intense for me to use the word “routine.” It kind of makes me grimace because I’ve never stuck to one and it sounds like I’m setting myself up for failure. So here are some things I’m doing to keep in on track.

My rules:

• So I’m not holding myself to this seven days a week. Just Monday through Friday, and if I miss a day, that’s OK!

• If I decide to go over 5 minutes — especially in my Bible — that’s great! The idea is to develop good habits here.

• I don’t have to do it first thing in the morning. It might be mid-morning or early afternoon.

• I try to do these things BEFORE I start one of my projects or rabbit-hole-researches.

• Not only am I not a routine person, I can’t even commit to doing these in the same order every day! Haha! Tell me it’s not just me.

1.Read my Bible

This is the key to starting the day off with the right attitude! I use these five minutes to read straight out of the Bible, not commentary. If I go longer and get to a study or commentary, that’s wonderful! But I want to pray and hear from God directly. I often go over this five minutes. And I often read again in the afternoon, but this is developing the habit of opening his Word first!

If you’re not sure where to start, try John. Read for the five minutes or a chapter a day.

P.S. I save the flowers my kids give me with the date in my Bibles and it makes me so happy to look at them years later!!

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2. Make my bed and straighten my room/closet

Do you even know me right now? Who am I without an unmade bed and disaster of a closet?

This is something that has made me so happy! My office is in my room, so when I walk in and the desk is cleared and my bed is made I can concentrate so much better.

And my closet. My closet! My closet becomes the drop zone for all things — hiding things from kids, moving stuff out of the way when guests are over, my laundry that I’ve been avoiding (until now!) …

In just five minutes a day, these things are actually staying neat!

P.S. I painted this wall Kendal Charcoal and I love it! It’s the same color as the kitchen in my last house.

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3. Get dressed + skincare

Yes, I have to add “get dressed” to my list! Maybe you feel me on this, stay-at-home-moms. I need to spend five minutes getting dressed and at least wash my face and put on moisturizer. At 40 years old, I can see a difference on my skin when I don’t take care of it!

MORE:

• Favorite non-toxic makeup
• Coconut oil + ACV skincare routine

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4. Laundry

This is the game changer for me. Laundry five minutes a day! I can put off doing laundry fooooorrrrrreeeeeevvvvverrr, trust me. BUT in five minutes I can:

• Throw a load in the washer.
• Fold the load in the dryer from the day before.
• Put it away.

I just have to remember to stick the load in the washer in the dryer when it finishes. This one has actually made laundry manageable for me! When I know I won’t be piled in mounds of it and only spending five minutes, I’m more likely to do it. And now my laundry is all caught up! Can you believe it? I can’t believe it.

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5. Dishes + kitchen

I cannot wash all the dishes and clean my kitchen in five minutes, but it’s amazing what I CAN get done.

• Unload the dishwasher.
• Load it back up.
• Start it!
• Wipe down counters.

Even if there are a few dishes left, I’m ok with that. My husband has even joined in and together we’re taming this kitchen beast!

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Try a PM list too!

As I’ve been trying this out and sharing on Instagram stories, a couple people suggested an afternoon or evening list too! I thought that was such a great idea.

I haven’t made this a habit yet, but I have in mind of something more like a 3 for 5 and include:

• exercise
• Italian language study (because I need HELP!)
• reading a book

These are things that are more fun and not chores, but you could also use this to prep for the next day, pack kid lunches, clean up dinner, lay out clothes …

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Printables

Some of us are motivated by checking things off a list! If that’s you, I made you a printable:

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How about you? Would you give this a try? Do you have a cleaning routine or tip to share with us?

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Deep cleaning

Now deep cleaning is something else. But no worries! I have lots of different cleaning printables for you!

My 12-page cleaning planner

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1 week to a clean house printable

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How to clean a shower and keep it clean

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Secret for natural cleaner

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Power of a Brillo Pad

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1-page weekly planner