Weekly vs Biweekly Cleaning: Which Is Best for You?

The post Weekly vs Biweekly Cleaning: Which Is Best for You? appeared first on Penny Pinchin' Mom.

There comes a point when you’ve been struggling to keep your house clean and finally decide to hire a professional cleaner to do it for you. Your next decision’s going to be how often you want cleaning to be done. Mostly, this will be based on how much cleaning there is to do and what it’s going to cost you.

The truth is, there’s no universally best cleaning schedule. After all, what’s best for you might not be great for your friends or neighbors. The best choice you can make will depend on the size of your house, how many people live there, and how much time is spent at home. Pets and your propensity for entertaining will likely also affect your choice, as will the amount of cleaning you and your family are willing to do with no help. 

In a nutshell, what this means is that whatever’s best for one person and their budget will differ from what’s best for the next, especially with jobs, kids, pets, and responsibilities.  

While it’s true to say that large homes and busy people will benefit from weekly vs biweekly cleaning, it’s a very personal choice based on many more factors, including lifestyle. 

What to Consider When Choosing Between Weekly vs Biweekly Cleaning

The size of a home is a very definite consideration. Small spaces will be quicker, though not always easier, to clean. The larger your home, the more time cleaners will take to complete the job. This means it’s also likely to cost more. However, it’s not that simple because some cleaning services base costs on house size (in terms of the number of bedrooms and bathrooms) rather than per hour. So check these details out when getting quotes to see which offers the best value for you.

Another thing is that size isn’t everything. Square footage alone shouldn’t determine cleaning frequency. A large home with several occupants may need weekly cleaning. But a large home occupied by one or two people may not. Likewise, a small apartment with two children and a dog could need more frequent cleaning than a large, low-traffic house.

Our daily routines can also affect our choice. For instance, if you’ve got young children and/or cats and dogs, you’ll probably have more mess to clean up regularly. People who live alone, travel a lot, or spend a lot of their time away from home will often be quite content with biweekly (even monthly) cleaning.  

Deciding can be challenging, especially when there are benefits to both options. Here are a few basic guidelines:

Choose weekly cleaning if:

Dirt and messes accumulate quickly all the time Several people live in and use your home every day You have more than one pet, especially one who sheds You entertain frequently You don’t want cleaning to become a weekend task that you’re going to resent

Choose biweekly cleaning if:

Your household is small You keep up with basic cleaning yourself You travel frequently It takes a couple of weeks for noticeable dirt to accumulate

How Will Lifestyle Differences Affect Your Choice?

Lifestyle plays a big part in cleaning needs. While you may not fit into any of these categories totally, this breakdown is intended to show you how different ways of living can affect cleaning choices. 

Busy Professionals Benefit from Weekly Cleaning

Unless you are a busy professional whose partner or family members take on cleaning tasks, hiring weekly cleaning is your best bet to keep things under control. You’ll find there’s a lot less stress involved in ensuring that you have a clean environment to return to after long, challenging days.

Family Homes Often Find Weekly Cleaning an Advantage

Children commonly change the equation. Weekly cleaning can prevent the typical catch-up cycle families face, especially when there are several children, or even one young child. That’s because more people usually mean more bedrooms and bathrooms coupled with grubby high-traffic areas.

Even a relatively modest family home can need more frequent cleaning than a larger home occupied by a couple or one person.

Households with Pets Might Need Weekly Cleaning

Pets are another variable that can push a household towards weekly cleaning. Realistically, the question is, how quickly does your home get messy? Dogs and cats both shed, though some breeds are more prolific and their fur makes a lot more mess. In any case, you’ll find pet hair on furniture, with outdoor dirt and mud often trampled inside. With long-haired pets, especially dogs, you may also contend with wet dog smells, among other pet-related odors.  

While one low-shedding pet might enable you to deal with a biweekly cleaning schedule, multiple furry pets are going to change your needs. 

Smaller Households Suit Biweekly Cleaning

Biweekly cleaning is often enough for smaller households. That’s because single people or couples living in smaller homes simply don’t generate that much dirt. 

The cleaning choice is not just about saving money on a cheaper option. It’s got more to do with cleaning demand. However, it might mean that those in the house will have to do a bit of work themselves, like a bit of basic tidying and wipe-downs. 

Empty Nesters Often Prefer Biweekly Cleaning

When children leave home, cleaning needs can change dramatically. There are fewer people using the bathrooms, bedrooms, and living spaces, and less day-to-day activity creating mess.

For an older couple who keep their home reasonably tidy and handle basic cleaning themselves, a professional clean every two weeks may provide the right balance. Generally, they get help with the more demanding cleaning jobs without paying for a weekly service they may not really need.

Sometimes Flexible Cleanings Make Sense

But what if you want a cleaning arrangement that combines weekly and biweekly options?

A company like Homeaglow will provide you with this flexibility. While you must select one frequency (weekly, biweekly, or monthly) when you set up a recurring cleaning plan, all you do is manually add onetime cleanings via your dashboard when you need them. You can do this as often or seldom as you wish. Both options unlock the platform’s ForeverClean membership discounts. 

With your house size and needs looked at, now let’s look at how lifestyle comes into play.  

Entertainers and Foodies May Want Flexibility

If you enjoy cooking for friends, weekly or flexible cleaning is advisable, depending on just how much you entertain. 

Someone who regularly has friends or family over may want their home professionally cleaned weekly, particularly kitchens, bathrooms, and floors. If entertaining is not a regular occurrence, then a flexible arrangement may be more beneficial. 

Frequent Travelers Can Benefit from Flexible Cleaning

When people spend half their time traveling, paying for a weekly clean, especially if nobody is using the home, is unlikely to make sense. Instead, a biweekly arrangement might work if you could employ cleaners weekly when you need them. 

The key questions are how often the home actually needs cleaning and how often you travel. In this scenario, it might be a good idea to schedule a cleaning after returning from trips or right before leaving, so you come home to a clean home. Manually adding an extra weekly clean here and there will solve the problem. 

What’s the Best Cleaning Schedule for You?  

Whichever option you choose, when you have a routine cleaning schedule, you’re going to feel the benefits. Your home will be consistently clean without you having to spend your weekends catching up on chores. The trick is finding a plan that fits your lifestyle rather than simply choosing weekly or biweekly cleaning because it seems like the obvious option.

If you have a busy family home, pets, or simply don’t have the time or inclination to clean regularly yourself, weekly cleaning may be the better choice. Whether you live alone or with a partner, if you keep up with basic cleaning or spend a lot of time away from home, biweekly cleaning may be all you need.

And if your routine doesn’t fit neatly into either option, there’s no reason it has to. A flexible cleaning arrangement allows you to increase or reduce professional cleaning when your circumstances change.

Ultimately, the best cleaning schedule is the one that keeps your home clean without creating something else for you to manage. It’s your choice.

The post Weekly vs Biweekly Cleaning: Which Is Best for You? appeared first on Penny Pinchin' Mom.