And, yes, those animals include husbands, children, and dust bunnies…

When was the last time you said to yourself, “Wow, I have SO much time on my hands!! What should I do with myself?”

I’d wager a fortune in kibble that the answer is: never. Never has any one of us ever said that. I don’t think anyone–except maybe an elementary school kid on summer break–feels like there’s endless time stretching out ahead.

There are trails to hike and tricks to train and books to read, not to mention… you know, work to do.

Chores around the house take up time, too, but I’ve always felt like they take away time from all that other stuff.

But, the truth is that pets are kinda gross. They drool. They hack stuff up. They track in stuff on their feet and kick litter out of the box. Cleaning is a necessity, and pet-loving people have a few more cleaning chores to do than those who live a lonely pet-less existence. And I’m not just talking about sweeping up fur, but also water drips from around the bowl and sanitizing disgusting toys and washing their food and water dishes and bedding, and the list goes on!

So, what’s a busy person to do? You can hire a house cleaner! (So jealous if you do!!) Or, you can do what I’ve done: Break household tasks down into itty bitty bites that take only minutes a day rather than whole chunks of time.

One caveat: This method requires you be OK with a dose of imperfection.

I rely entirely on routines. Daily routines that take care of the basics, weekly routines that clean up the gross accumulations, and then longer-term routines for monthly and quarterly tasks. For instance, we try to deep clean our carpets with a rented carpet cleaner quarterly. Between yard feet and litter box feet, it has to happen, but it’s too big of a job–time consuming, anyway–to do more often than that. Picking up poop from the yard and scooping the litter box, though, those are daily cores.

Wanna get in on my routines? I’m SO LUCKY that Jodi from Kol’s Notes is such a sweet soul with an amazing eye. She took a typed-up list of cleaning chores and turned them into these beautiful, free downloads: (the links open a PDF)

Daily and Weekly Cleaning Checklists for Pet Lovers

Monthly and Quarterly Cleaning Checklists for Pet Lovers

They’re designed to be super convenient printouts for your day planner. Jodi had the idea of laminating them and using them like a bookmark in her Happy Planner that can be moved week to week. I think that’s brilliant, especially since it uses way less paper. I have a Notes section in my day planner where I clip them in, but I was thinking the lists would be perfect to tape to your fridge and use the lines for assignments–put the person’s initials who’s supposed to do the chore each day. (Thoughts, John??)

The other big piece of all this, especially when you have a house full of animals, is the clutter/picking up issue.

I contend that the less stuff you have, the less stuff you have to clean!

So, regular de-cluttering is hugely important. A nightly pickup–even like five or 10 minutes–can keep the majority of the mess totally under control. Sure, there’s going to be dust and fur floating around… but there’s where the embracing imperfection part comes into play! That, and a weekly vacuum.

{{Speaking of de-cluttering, do you guys remember a few years ago when I did a huge clean out of all the pet product samples and stuff that PR reps send my way? I mailed out TONS to you all. Well, it’s been a few years, and the samples have accumulated again! And de-cluttering is hugely important to me! So, you can guess where this is going… Keep an eye out in the next few weeks for a super flash giveaway of LOTS and lots and lots of pet stuff!}}

Trust me on this method!! If you spend 10 minutes a day tidying up, that’s like getting back a full 70 minutes of your beautiful Saturday. Then you can use that time however you like… driving to a new hiking spot or cracking the cover on a good book are high on my list.

There’s my spring cleaning routine, which is pretty much the same as my regular routine with the exception of adding in those quarterly tasks. But I’m always looking to improve! How do you stay on top of your household chores? Or do you wait until one big clean, like in the spring or fall, to truly tackle it all? What do you think of the checklists?

If you’d like to see how Jodi uses hers and manages her cleaning routine–a million percent better than I do–she’ll be sharing her routine on Kol’s Notes.