One of my part-time jobs is cleaning in a hotel and I've worked as a housekeeper for three summers so I have a cleaning routine for my apartment down to a tee. I have clean freak tendencies though so ignore some of the more pedantic elements of my cleaning habits.
Perhaps you should hire a cleaner to clean the place to a spotless level now and then try to maintain it.
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This routine is for absolutely messy living spaces:
The first thing you should do when cleaning is get the rubbish out- so get a rubbish bag, recycling bag and laundry bag, and start gathering everything up. Ignore the clutter for now and just concentrate on what shouldn't be there. This is much easier when you're cleaning a hotel room.
Start moving clutter- clean clothes should be put beside wardrobes, newspapers by coffee table, glasses and plates by the sink and so on. I know this sound counter-productive but you are preventing yourself from getting distracted with tiny little tasks. So now you have four or five manageable tasks rather than one giant mess.
List what the priorities are for you: tidying up the kids' toys, cleaning the bathroom, doing the dishes, cleaning the oven, sorting out your wardrobe, or so on. Start at the top of the priorities and work your way down. In hotels, we have a work routine which starts with the priority of dressing the bed and cleaning the bathroom and and it works its way down the priority list to dusting lampshades, polishing light switches, vacuuming under the furniture, etc. Once the top four or five tasks are finished, everything looks so much cleaner.
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Daily cleaning
You need to decide what your level of daily cleaning is- do you vacuum everyday or are you happy with giving everything a quick once-over?
Set routines such as loading the dishwasher after dinner or collecting all the dishes by the sink after each meal.
Cleaning as you go has always worked well for me- while waiting for dinner to cook, I will clean my chopping board and wipe the counter down as well as tackling one other cleaning job such as washing out the plastic bottles for recycling.
I try to clean my bathroom once a week before I take my shower. My logic is that I'm already in there and it only takes five minutes to clean the bathroom.
I also try to identify the areas in which I need additional help. I tend to not sort my clothes when I take them off the clothes horse and line so I try to put them in a basket rather than in a pile on my floor. The only rule is that this basket needs to be empty by the next laundry load.
Once a week, I try to do one major cleaning task such as the oven or fridge. I change my bedsheets every Friday night and only use my laundry basket to put red and white clothes into- I just put normal laundry into the washing machine straight away and just start the machine when it's full.
I also have no problem using my dishwasher to wash pots and pans in- it has saved me so much time everyday.
Have a small cleaning area in each room where you leave whatever specific cleaning product you need for that area, cleaning cloths and bin liners.
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My two favourite cleaning rules are: 'only touch something once' and put on one album of energetic music and clean for as long as it plays.
Hope I helped in some way!
