Use The Hierarchy of Cleaning to Prioritize Chores [Charts]

By Jason Fitzpatrick, LifehackerAugust 20, 2010 at 08:30AM

Use The Hierarchy of Cleaning to Prioritize ChoresKeeping a house, or even a modest apartment, in tip-top shape can feel overwhelming. The Hierarchy of Cleaning aims to help you prioritize your cleaning needs.

Small Notebook, a lifestyle simplification and organization blog, has shared a clever hierarchy chart to help you focus on what cleaning tasks are important. Organized in a similar fashion to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, the most basic cleaning requirements are on the bottom. Already took a shower? Good, do some laundry. Laundry in the washer? Worry about the dishes and take out the trash. You can work your way all the way up the hierarchy until your floors are clean and you’ve started on the extras like deep and detail cleaning.

While you’re at it, check out our guide to using procedure checklists for flawless task execution. You’d be amazed how much cleaner your place is when you’ve got a solid procedure list to guide you through routine cleaning chores.

Visit the link below to download a printable version. Disagree with the ranking on the Hierarchy of Cleaning? Sound off in the comments to tell us how you’d rank things.