When I first moved into my condo, I saved all of my chores for the weekend. I don’t think I did it on purpose; I think it happened because I only worked from home for a week and a half before going back into the office full time, and the whole living on my own for the first time thing. I found myself getting overwhelmed by doing all of my chores on the weekend, so I moved a few to weeknights, and it’s been going a lot better. Here’s a breakdown of my typical week when it comes to chores:

Sunday

In the morning, I clean the bathrooms as a way to start the week. I put all of my bathroom cleaning supplies in a bucket so I can carry them from one bathroom to the other. I’ll put music on and I’ve gotten down a pretty efficient routine. (Also: my mom reads my blog, and I know she appreciates a clean bathroom, so I make sure my bathrooms are clean to her standards.) I’ll also give a big wipe down to my kitchen counters; I usually wipe them after I make dinner but sometimes I just do an overall cleaning to catch anything I might have missed.

If I have to meal prep for the upcoming week, I do it on Sundays.

Every other Sunday, I change and wash my bed sheets and pajamas. I have an extra set of sheets, so I put those on; as for pajamas, I have an entire drawer that I can choose from.

Monday

At night I change and wash all of my towels: hand towels in the kitchen, hand towels in the bathrooms, and my bath towel, plus face cloths I’ve used throughout the week. (If I’m on the week when I change my bed sheets, I’ll change the towels on that Sunday so I wash the towels and sheets together.)

Thursday

This is my designated laundry night. I start it after I eat dinner, washing everything I’ve worn in the last week. This is a mix of work clothes, hanging around the house clothes, and running clothes. I hang up certain articles of clothing to dry in my office on drying racks—typically work pants, nice tops, my masks—and the rest—t-shirts, shorts, leggings, socks, etc.—go in the dryer. I’ll let anything hanging up to dry stay up until Friday or Saturday before I put everything away.

On these nights, while my laundry is going, I plan out my meals. I sit on the couch with my weekly planner and my laptop to figure out lunches and dinners for the next week so my grocery list is ready for the weekend.

Saturday

This is typically my grocery shopping day. Depending on my plans, sometimes I go in the morning or other times it’s in the afternoon. I rely on the list I made Thursday night, and I make the trip as quick as I can. The store I go to is about ten minutes from my condo in the middle of town, so my overall trip is less than an hour.

Chores Without a Day

• Ironing: Depends on when I have time/when I actually feel like doing it and how much clothes I actually have to iron. Some weeks it’s a handful of things, other weeks it’s just one pair of pants.
• Vacuuming: For some reason I still haven’t found a set day for this; lately it’s been on the weekend or a Monday night.
• Taking out the trash/recycling: I don’t have a set trash day in my condo; we have a large dumpster and six recycling trash-style bins in our little cul-de-sac area. I can bring out my trash and recycling whenever, so it depends on when my recycling bin gets full, but trash seems to be every other day or so, or if I’ve tossed a lot of food-related things in there and I don’t want it to start smelling.

Thanks to living in a condo, I only have inside chores; I don’t have to worry about taking care of anything outside. I mean, I do sweep off my balcony, but I don’t have to mow or take care of anything outside. And since it’s only me, I just have to worry about cleaning up after myself.

How do you tackle your chores at home?