How Much to Charge for House Cleaning

If you search for how much to charge for house cleaning, you’ll find plenty of numbers. The problem is that none of them are yours. Someone else’s rate was built on their costs, their market, and what they want to earn. Copy it, and you could be working for less than your time is worth without knowing it.

A better approach is to build your price from two directions: what you want to make, and what your market will bear.

Start With What You Want to Make

Before you quote anyone, work out two numbers for yourself. The first is what it costs you to work an hour: supplies, gas, and anything else you pay to show up and clean. The second is what you want to earn for that hour on top of your costs.

Add those together and multiply by how long the job will take. That’s your base price, the lowest price you can accept and still be paid what your time is worth:

(your hourly cost + what you want to earn per hour) × hours = your base price

If you’ve never timed yourself, start there. Our post on pricing your first cleaning job walks through how to clean your own home with a stopwatch and turn it into a time estimate you can trust.

Then Check What Your Market Will Bear

Look up two or three cleaning businesses near you and see what they charge for a similar home. You’re not trying to match them. Some are underpriced, and some are charging for things you don’t offer. You’re finding out whether your base price fits your area.

If your base price is well above what everyone else charges, look hard at your costs and your time estimate. If it’s well below, you’ve just learned you have room to charge more.

Price by the Job, Not by the Hour

Once you know your base price, quote a price for the whole job rather than an hourly rate. Hourly pricing punishes you for getting better. The faster you clean, the less you make. A job price rewards you for getting efficient, and customers like knowing the total before you start.

If you’re not yet comfortable bidding a whole job, it’s fine to charge by the hour while you learn. Make the move to job pricing as your confidence grows.

Some cleaners price by square footage. It’s a reasonable starting point, but square footage alone misses what actually changes how long a home takes.

What Raises or Lowers a Price

Two homes the same size can take very different amounts of time. Things to look at during the walk-through:

Bedrooms and bathrooms. Typically, bathrooms take the most time per square foot of any room in the house.
Clutter. A cluttered home always takes longer than a tidy one, no matter its size.
Pets. Pet hair adds time to almost every surface and floor.
The first clean. A home that hasn’t been cleaned in a while takes longer the first time. Price that first visit for the work it really needs.
How often you’ll clean. A home you clean regularly stays in better shape, so each visit usually takes less time than a one-time clean.
Extras. Inside the oven, inside the fridge, and inside windows are extras. Each one takes extra time, so quote it on top of your regular clean.

How to Give the Quote

Walk the home before you quote it whenever you can. Tell the customer exactly what’s included, give the price plainly, and stop talking. A confident quote is part of what you’re selling.

If they say no, that’s all right. It’s better to lose a bid than win it at a price that doesn’t make you money.

When to Raise Your Prices

Your costs will go up, and your skills will too. Review your numbers at least once a year. When it’s time to raise prices, give your customers plenty of notice and tell them why. A few may question it, but the ones who value your work will stay.