This is an interesting topic. Try as I may...I NEVER seem to make it through an entire Cleaning Plan...AND my house is relatively small!!!
Having four plans: New Years Cleaning, Spring Cleaning, Summer, and Fall....would mean you were working the plan all year...which is good as things do not accumulate...and also because if you miss a room in one of the plans...you get a second chance the next go round. So I like the idea of the year round but I can't say I've ever accomplished it!! LOL The Spring and Fall are also VERY busy times for me because of school so basically those are the most difficult to do.
This year I am going to try extra special hard to do either the Holiday Grand Plan or the Houseworks Holiday Plan...will see how that goes.
Basically if you follow a weekly cleaning routine...then you are cleaning year round anyway and then I just think of these plans as being for deeper cleaning or the bigger jobs. However if that's the focus...then the Room a Month approach would work too....Do all your regular cleaning weekly and then when that Room comes into the roatation...deep clean it.
Honestly I think the plans and the success of the approach are more based on:
1. How well you do your daily and weekly chores...if you do these consistently then jumping into one of the "PLANS" is so much easier and probably not near as much work...maybe that's where I have fallen short.....need more focus on daily and weekly before getting into the BIG plans!
2. The approach you choose has to fit your house and your life style. Working full time makes it difficult to work a plan because sometimes one can barely keep above water with regualr chores and family.
3. How well you follow the plan to begin with....making the list is not enough...you have to actually DO IT. Also have a back up plan for one of the rooms do not fit your home...for example if you do not have a guest room...what will you do that week instead!
Most of the time I have found it easier to work on my weekly lists and add some deeper cleaning tasks each week....I hope eventually that means the whole house gets cleaned. I feel a sense of accomplishment with completing them instead of a sense of failure from not finishing a plan. And little by little it is making a difference....the little 15-30...Move it out Mondays etc....they add up.
If you are interested in a weekly basic schedule...
HERE is Mine I will be making some revisions along the way because my goal is to eventually move the Sunday tasks to another day and have Sunday as a day of relaxation and family time. If I am working on deep cleaning a Room of the Month...I add one or two items for that Room into the blank spots and try to do some each day!