You may have heard "A man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder - Thomas Carlyle" .
That is why it is important to make a plan before you start cleaning your house. First of all, decide how clean you want your house to be and how much time you have. It is going to help you decide how to set up your cleaning schedule. Be honest with yourself about what you can do, how much time you have, and how motivated you're feeling.
Work from the top down, if at all possible. You do not want to vacuum and then get crumbs all over the floor, or dust the bottom of something and knock more dust down when you work your way up onto the previously uncleaned areas. If you do not have much time, start with the clutter first and work your way to more serious things from there.
If you are an average busy person, then you may do a little bit every day so that the work doesn't pile up, and plan for some major-cleaning days over the month too. Whichever works best for you.
Keep a check on areas of the kitchen subject to grease and grime buildup that need regular but less frequent cleaning, such as the tops of cabinets and the kitchen exhaust fan. It can be easy to overlook higher features in the kitchen but grease and grime gather in these areas and attract dust and insects.
Another thing you can do is to make a checklist and a plan of attack. Know which rooms you plan to start and finish your cleaning in (generally back to front door works best). This will help expedite the process and ensure you are not duplicating your efforts, especially if more than one person is involved in the cleaning.
You can follow the steps in the cleaning part in order. This way, you'll have a checklist already written out for you. You should also make a plan so that you can vacuum, sweep, and mop all rooms at the same time (and so that your hot water doesn't get cold) so you won't have to go from one task and then repeat the same thing again.
If there are other people in the house, cleaning the house should not be exclusively your responsibility. Because you can attempt to delegate tasks. You may have to take on leadership by setting up a rotational cleaning schedule, but it is way better than having to do this backbreaking work alone.
But remember to make sure the tasks assigned are age-appropriate – i.e. grade school children can pick up their bedroom floors, teenagers can clean the garage or bathroom, etc. The assigned tasks should also be equal – cleaning the toilet is hardly on par with organizing the coffee table; include these areas in your plan, perhaps monthly or every few months.