Continuing our series about getting the house in order, today we turn to basic house cleaning.

I suggest one of two basic strategies for handling the household chores. One way to deal with these chores is to make a list of everything you have do. Divide that list into one of four columns: More than once a week, weekly, biweekly, or occasional. Cooking dinner is obviously more than weekly. Grocery shopping may be weekly. Bill-paying can be biweekly. Washing windows, cleaning the gutters, doing minor repairs, etc. may be occasional. Depending on the nature of your household, doing laundry could be anything from more than once a week to biweekly. I live alone, so I rarely do laundry more than every other week since I have more than enough sheets and towels and underwear. If you have three kids, one still potty training, laundry may be a daily event.

Using that list, assign each chore a specific day in a two week calendar. Ideally, all the chores — apart from meal preparation — for any given day should take no more than one hour, though thirty minutes is preferable. Keep in mind, that's 30-60 minutes per person. If several people live in your house, each person should do his or her share. Even young children can learn to do simple chores such as putting their toys away, making their beds, putting dirty clothes in the laundry hamper, putting clean clothes on hangers, and dusting. As a child ages, he or she can do more. A kid old enough to drive a car or have an Instagram account can certainly master the complexity of a washing machine, a dishwasher, a vacuum, and a toilet brush. 

Using this strategy means that you do some housecleaning every day, but it's rarely overwhelming — sort of like eating an elephant one bite at a time.

The second strategy is more like a cleaning surge with quickie maintenance. In this strategy, you need to start with a clean house, so you will need to do a deep clean some weekend or by taking a weekday off work.  Then, you spend 5-15 minutes each day (depending on the size of your house) dealing with clutter. During the daily sweep, things out of place return to their appropriate location: trash goes outside, dishes go in the sink, clothes go in closets and drawers, etc. Then, once a week, you do a cleaning surge:  mopping, dusting, vacuuming, etc. (You will need to use the occasional larger bloc of time for bigger projects, like laundry.) Depending on the size of your home and the number of people helping, this can go pretty quickly.

Neither strategy is "best." The one you choose will depend on your preferences, our living situation, and the time you have available.