Weekly cleaning checklist: one room a day

The checklist

1. Kitchen — wipe counters and hob, clean the sink, wipe appliance fronts and handles, sweep or mop the floor.
2. Bathroom — toilet, sink and taps, shower or bath, mirror, floor, fresh towels.
3. Bedroom — put clothes away, dust surfaces, vacuum, air the room.
4. Living room — clear surfaces, dust, vacuum under and around the sofa, fold throws.
5. Floors and entrance — vacuum or mop the hallway, sort shoes and coats, shake out the doormat.
6. Fridge and bins — throw out anything past its date, wipe shelves, wash the bins.
7. Laundry and linens — wash towels and tea towels, fold, put away.

Extras that come round less often:

• Change the bed sheets — every second bedroom day, so about every two weeks.
• Deep-clean the oven — every fourth kitchen day, so about once a month.
• Bins out — on your collection day, whatever zone you are on.

Why a loop instead of a checklist

A checklist is a fixed list on fixed days: skip Tuesday and Tuesday's job is now late. A loop is an ordered queue: it hands you the next zone, and only moves on when that zone is done or skipped. If you clean five days a week instead of seven, the loop simply takes nine or ten days to go round. The order holds; the guilt doesn't.

Set it up in DoLoop

1. Create a loop called Home reset, type Loop (simple rotation).
2. Add the seven zones above as tasks, in that order. Put the sub-steps in each task's description.
3. Add Change the bed sheets as a Subtask, parent task Bedroom, Every N occurrences = 2. Add Deep-clean the oven the same way under Kitchen, with 4.
4. Add Bins out as a Schedule task. Under Active Days tick your collection day; under If Missed choose Drop (auto-abort), since the truck won't wait.
5. Each morning, press Fill the todo!. Today's Tasks shows the next zone, plus the bins on bin day.
6. Done? Check. Not today? Abort: the skip is recorded and the loop moves on to the next zone. If you leave it open, it stays there tomorrow instead of a second zone landing on top.

DoLoop keeps a count of how many times each zone was checked and how many times it was skipped, so after a month you can see which room keeps getting skipped.

What DoLoop doesn't do (yet)

There are no reminders or notifications. Nothing gets armed until you press Fill the todo!, so it suits people who open a list each morning anyway. There is no one-click import of this template either: setup is the six steps above. No streaks and no points: a skipped day is a fact, not a failure.