Best Busy Woman’s Cleaning Routine: FlyLady, Clean Mama, And That Awkward Mom
FlyLady, Clean Mama, and That Awkward Mom are three of the best and well known busy woman’s cleaning routines that busy women could use to implement to help get your home under control. Work smarter, not harder!
How New Are These Programs?
Designed by Marly Cilley, FlyLady is the oldest one and a likely influence to the other two. She started in 1999 with an email group and the website FlyLady.net followed two years later.
Clean Mama Becky Rapinchuk began her system in 2000 and started the official channels around 2009.
That Awkward Mom Ariel is the newest of the three. She tried multiple systems and documented them on her YouTube channel. There are videos for her take on FlyLady and Clean Mama along with a few others. She’s great for those looking for the Best Busy Woman’s Cleaning Routine because she’s a working mom!
Is The Structure The Same?
All three programs are based on the same premise that if you clean more often, everything stays cleaner, which is especially beneficial for working moms to follow, and you don’t have to work as hard.
They all have variations on the daily, weekly and monthly chores.
What Are the Daily Chores?
These are the non-negotiable tasks that you need to do every day. Remember, if you can do these when you are busy, you’ll have no problem sticking to it when it’s less busy.
FlyLady Cleaning Routine
The FlyLady has the heftiest daily list of the three. She has morning, afternoon and evening routines. If you aren’t sure what to do and need more guidance, her plan is much more detailed.
Her morning routine includes:
- Get fully dressed, including shoes.
- Make your bed before you leave your bedroom.
- Do a quick swish and swipe to clean the bathroom.
- Do a 2-minute cleaning of a hotspot in your home.
- Do a 5-minute room rescue to pick up one room.
- Start one load of laundry.
- Turn on the dishwasher.
Her afternoon routine includes:
- Zone cleaning in an assigned weekly area in a five-week rotation.
- Update your planning journal.
- Declutter up to 15 minutes. It can be less time if you did this in the morning.
Her evening routine includes:
- Plan clothing for the next day.
- Do a last pickup and home reset.
- Shine the kitchen sink.
- Set up a launch pad for the morning with everything you need to get out the door on time. If you have small kids, you might need to set up their stuff as well.
Clean Mama Cleaning Routine
Becky has 5 basic daily tasks that should take about 10-15 minutes total.
- Make your bed. (Do not do your children’s beds. Show them the basics.)
- Wipe the counters. (You’ll likely only wipe your bathroom counters once, but the kitchen will need multiple passes through the day.)
- Check the floors. Spot clean as needed.
- Tackle clutter.
- Do one load of laundry.
That Awkward Mom Cleaning Routine
Ariel has a similar daily 5.
- Wipe down the shower while you are in it.
- Empty your dishwasher before breakfast.
- Wash your dishes after every meal or snack.
- Do a 10-minute kitchen shutdown at night. (Yes, this is harder with teenagers, but they can learn to clean up after themselves. It might just take time!)
- Do a 10-minute tidy of your traffic zones at the end of the day.
What About Weekly Cleaning?
When you are comfortable with following the daily tasks (and that might happen quickly depending on what you were already doing), you can build on your cleaning routine by adding the weekly chores. Each plan has a similar approach that every day of the week has a specific focus.
FlyLady
- Monday: Weekly Home Blessing in the highest traffic areas of the home. This is a quick dust, mop, vacuum, pick up garbage and cull papers. 10 minutes per task! Speed over perfection!
- Tuesday: Break Day or Desk Time & Planning. FlyLady suggests a break but YouTuber Diane In Denmark is a devotee of this system and calls it a good time for a desk day.
- Wednesday: Anti-procrastination Day. Do the things you’ve been putting off, like phone calls!
- Thursday: Errands.
- Friday: Date Night, Car & Handbag. If you don’t have a date, then it’s self care time. Cleaning out your car and your purse or wallet shouldn’t take long.
- Weekends: Family Time.
Clean Mama
- Monday: Quick clean of your bathrooms. This means sinks, toilets and tubs/showers, but not the floor.
- Tuesday: Quick Surface dusting.
- Wednesday: Vacuum your whole house.
- Thursday: Clean hard floors, including bathrooms.
- Friday: Catch-All Day for any missed tasks. Similar to FlyLady’s Wednesday.
- Saturday: Washing sheets and towels.
- Sunday: Rest Day. Only do the daily 5.
That Awkward Mama
Ariel does not assign days of the week for her tasks. You can arrange them in the way that works best for your family.
- Map It Out. This is a planning day 1-3 days before groceries.
- Grocery Day.
- Tidy Tango. This is ten minutes each of tidying, dusting, bathrooms, vacuuming and mopping in highest traffic areas, plus two minutes of dancing. (Yes, dancing!)
- Revive25. This is 25 minutes of deep cleaning in one area.
- Whip & Cherry. Like finishing the top of your sundae with whipped cream and a cherry, this is your day to finish any jobs hanging over your head. (Ariel is big on ice cream!)
- Laundry. Start early in the day if possible.
- Rest Day.
I love that all routines include that anti-procrastination or finish up day. We all have weeks where life throws some extras in our path and it gets busier than we expected. That doesn’t mean you have to lose your routine. This is a valuable tool to get back on track.
What About the Monthly Tasks & Rotating Tasks?
FlyLady
The FlyLady is very structured. She works in her cleaning zones, using a rotation of four weeks plus one partial week to complete each month. Use a timer to work in 15-minute increments. Each week has an assigned room.
For example, on days 3 to 9 of the month, you are in zone 2 which is the kitchen and pantry. For the 17th to 23rd of the month, you are cleaning in the master bedroom, bath and closet. This approach means you will clean your whole house each month.
She assigns dates so everyone is on the same page in her groups. This also gives you predictability when you are planning ahead for those busier times in your life, like breaks from school or holidays and vacations.
Clean Mama
For Clean Mama, her monthly focus is more on assessing and organizing a set area of the home. When you are doing regular cleaning, it is easier to keep your whole house clean. That leaves you with time to do her 12 seasonal home organizing challenges.
If you are following her group, she has a set monthly focus. This year, March is spring cleaning and April will be bathrooms.
She also has rotating tasks that are monthly, quarterly and even twice a year. The monthly rotating tasks are things like cleaning light fixtures, washing windows and changing filters.
These tasks are open-ended. It is up to you when you want to do this cleaning. This approach will have you clean your entire home over 12 months.
That Awkward Mom
She has three monthly tasks to do over the first week of the month. By scheduling them, it’s less likely you will forget about these tasks.
- Tidy Tango: Bedroom edition. This is similar to the daily one but limited to this room.
- 99 Knockout. This is decluttering. (More on this below.)
- Rotate toys or seasonal items.
What About Decluttering?
This is Minimalist Home so, of course, there’s going to be some decluttering. The more stuff you have, the more you have to clean around. These three cleaning gurus understand that so all three include some decluttering.
FlyLady
Her decluttering has three approaches.
- 27-Fling Boogie. This is a speedy walk through your home to find 27 things to get rid of (garbage/recycle/donate/sell).
- Hot Spot Fire Drill. This is a quick attack on a known problem spot. (If you aren’t sure where your problem spot is, look for paper! It’s a frequent culprit!)
- 5-Minute Room Rescue and the afternoon declutter. This is in her dailies.
Clean Mama
She might have the least to say about decluttering. She does point out that if you are having trouble sticking to a cleaning routine, you might need to declutter and organize first. She’s flexible on how you do that.
- One task per day.
- 15 minutes per day.
- 2-3 tasks per day until finished.
Clean Mama dedicates the month of January to doing a whole home declutter as her monthly focus. That might be why she doesn’t say much about it otherwise. The assumption is maybe that you’ve already done that or are doing it as part of the month focus.
There is an ordered list on her website for decluttering if you need it. My only reservation with her list is that it prioritizes going room by room and may have you trying to declutter sentimental things before you are ready. (I prefer to declutter sentimental possessions last when decision making skills are strongest.)
That Awkward Mom
This routine relies on the 99 Knockout for decluttering. This is one of those start of the month tasks. You can look for 99 things to leave your house on the first of the month or you can gather 9 things per day for the first 11 days of the month.
Maintenance is a big part of staying on top of a decluttered home. When you have a regular cleaning routine, it will become more automatic.
How Hard Is It To Start These Cleaning Routines?
This is where I find the FlyLady system separates itself from the other two routines. She recommends taking 31 days to work up to the full routine, adding “Baby Steps” with an email reminder each day. With her Zone cleaning tied to specific days of the month, you can’t necessarily start where you might want to focus your energy first.
With Clean Mama and That Awkward Mom, there are fewer daily tasks which makes it a little more accessible at the start.
What If I Need More Help With The Routine?
Obviously, this is just a basic overview of the programs to give you an idea of how they work. There are definite differences in access points.
FlyLady
Likely because she’s been running her program longer, FlyLady has more avenues to approach her program. She has a busy website, an active YouTube channel, a “No-Whining Allowed” Facebook group, emails, apps for cell phones and multiple published books.
That said, her website has a lot of content and can be quite overwhelming. There is a simplified version of the basics here.
Clean Mama
Similarly, Clean Mama has a website which has her cleaning system, advice on how to clean most things in your home (including how to fold a fitted sheet and how to clean white baseboards) as well as a shop where you may purchase planners and cleaning supplies. There is also a paid subscribers-only area.
Her website is a bit cleaner and less overwhelming.
She is also on YouTube , Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. She is the only one of the three on Pinterest which is sort of a different one to look through.
That Awkward Mom
Her primary contact point is on YouTube. She is also on Instagram and Facebook.
Some of her videos include links to free, downloadable lists, like her Revive 25 Checklist. Check the captions under the videos.
She did take a break from YouTube in the fall of 2024 but has been back posting new videos the last couple of months.
For A Deeper Look At Each Cleaning Routine, Check Out These Posts:
Cleaning Routines for Working Moms: FlyLady
Realistic Cleaning Schedule: The Awkward Mom’s Routine
The key to whichever cleaning routine you choose to try is following the plan consistently and giving yourself some grace if you miss something. Just keep going. Like Awkward Mom, you might need to try more than one system to find the one that works best for you.
