My realistic weekly routine for a clean, clear + nourishing home 🌞

2025 has started off as 'the year of home' for me... new systems, strategies, and streamlining, to bring better balance to my office-based & work-from-home days.

I’ve never been one to make a list… but I started 2025, utterly determined to strip the household budget right back and ensure there were no unnecessary outgoings, while we put all of our spare pennies aside to get the girls through secondary school and find our way onto the property ladder here, in South Devon (we also got a shocker of a quarterly water bill this month – 4x what we would’ve paid in Kent, and I got landed with an unexpected tax bill (double ouch)).

I’ll do a separate post about the pared-back ‘budget’ we’re working on, as I have found this to be the SINGLE most nourishing thing I have accomplished in my own life in years. To see all of the ‘missed’ and accumulated payments… little things that go out each month, which we rarely use, from bike subscriptions to streaming services. I also did a lot of comp-shopping, and moved mobile networks, energy providers, insurance companies… a lot of life admin, admittedly, but nice to feel that things are ‘in order’ at the start of a new year.

Our home – the lovely, light-filled space we’re renting, while we get acquainted with local life + where we want to settle, longer-term – has been a source of such joy since we moved in, last August. It’s a very different home to Garden Cottage (our former home of 12 years, in Kent)… a newly refurbished and more modern home, with plenty of storage, a fitted kitchen, and wooden floors throughout. Garden Cottage was 250 years old, had no built in storage, a topsy-turvy kitchen (and no drawers), and though we loved it dearly, was a pain to keep clean + tidy, because older homes with older carpets (which we could’ve afford to replace) + draughty, gappy floorboards, seem to generate piles of dust within minutes of being cleaned…

It’s been immensely satisfying, therefore, to feel as though I have a much better routine in the new home… the battle feels less Sisyphean… a good clear + vacuum, and the house seems to stay sparkly for much of the week.

I also learned the harder way in my old home, that if I left the ‘clean’ too long, it would take me 10 times longer to get things back to a good place. I’m now trying to do the things I used to leave for far too long – dusting tops of cupboards + wardrobes; wiping stains from fridge drawers + shelves; mildewing edges of damp windows… and by creating a light cleaning routine that fits into my week – a mix of vacuuming, bathroom cleaning + damp-cloth ‘dusting’ – I can stay on top of the house in just a few hours a week, split into light sessions, over the seven days.

I’ve also gotten much better at storing + labelling + zoning our possessions… when I moved I wanted ‘everything to have a place’. Our old home was a bit of a jumble + muddle and every cupboard + drawer involved a scrabble before you could find what you needed. In the new home, we have more shelves, drawers + drawer organisers + dividers. We also have craft + stationery caddies, and lots of little crates, curated by what we’ll be doing e.g. painting, stickering/scrapbooking, colouring etc. The kids can then find what they need + on the whole, I try to keep the caddy (it’s on wheels, and three-tiered, see below) pretty tidy + well-stocked with the things the girls use all the time, from glue + sellotape, to stickers, Post-its, revision cards, scissors + correction pens (I love the Muji one). I even keep a little cube in the letter tray for lipbalms + hairbands, as these are the things the girls are always asking me for! ☺️

It’s not fancy or uber tidy, but it’s functional + ordered i.e. it works!

Below I also share the planner I’ve created which you can fill in to suit your own routines + choices. Creating a plan (for most areas of my life!) is something I’ve generally avoided because I find the idea of ‘tasks’ and ‘chores’ really stressful. But the point of this planner, is to STOP me trying to do too much on any given day (something I’m inclined to do). 20-30 mins a day is more than enough to keep the home feeling bright, clear + nourishing… and that feels like a small (but welcome) win in the midst + muddle of a busy week.

A quick glance keeps me on track + prevents me overdoing things on any given day (always a good thing!)

I hope you enjoy the breakdowns below, which include how to start zoning your home, divvying up daily + weekly jobs (plus monthly, seasonal + annual), and I’ve even thrown in some of my favourite DIY cleaning recipes, which I always go back to + then kick myself for not doing so sooner.

Heads up – this is a LONG and info-packed letter. So you may want to save it for a time when you can pop the kettle on, curl up + really enjoy it 🫖

I’ve also concluded today’s letter with ideas for bringing nourishing touches into a clean home… one of my favourite things to do once I’ve cleaned + cleared all of the surfaces in the living room, is to choose a beautiful book that I’ve been longing to dive into, and place it in the centre of the uncluttered coffee table, to enjoy reading with a cuppa that evening.

There are lots of other ways I like to up the nourishment at home, and I hope you enjoy the list I share at the end of the letter, below.