Pricing a house cleaning job is the single most important business decision a residential cleaner makes. Get it right and you build a profitable business. Get it wrong — usually by undercharging — and you'll work 50 hours a week wondering why you can't make rent.
This guide gives you the exact formula for pricing any house cleaning job, with real numbers by home size, frequency, and job type. By the end, you'll be able to quote any residential client in under 5 minutes — and quote them correctly.
If you want the broader context on cleaning business pricing (commercial rates, profit margins, annual price increases), see our complete cleaning business pricing guide. This post goes deep on residential house cleaning specifically.
1Know Your Hourly Rate (The Foundation)
Before you can price a job, you need to know your hourly rate. If you don't have one, stop here and calculate it.
Billable hours is the number of hours you can realistically bill per month. A solo cleaner working 40 hours a week can typically bill about 20-25 hours (the rest goes to admin, marketing, travel, callbacks). If you have a 2-person team, you can bill more total but the calculation per person stays similar.
Example:
- Monthly overhead (supplies, vehicle, insurance, software, etc.): $900
- Desired monthly take-home: $5,000
- Billable hours per month: 100
- Hourly rate: ($900 + $5,000) ÷ 100 = $59/hour
That $59 is your floor. You can charge more, you should never charge less. From here we build the actual job price on top of that number.
2Pick a Pricing Model (Hourly vs Flat Rate)
For house cleaning, you have two options:
Hourly pricing
You charge a fixed rate per hour of work. Simple, but you get punished for getting faster over time.
Use it for: First-time cleans, deep cleans, move-out cleans, and any home where the time investment is genuinely unpredictable.
Flat-rate (per-job) pricing
You quote a fixed price for the job (e.g., "$150 for a 2-bed/1-bath standard clean"). The client knows the cost upfront, and you keep the upside when you get faster.
Use it for: Repeat clients, standard cleans, and homes you've cleaned before.
Best practice: Most successful house cleaning businesses use a hybrid — hourly for the first 2-3 visits of a new client (to learn the home), then switch to flat-rate once you know exactly how long it takes. You'll either make more money for the same work, or you can pass a small discount to the client and lock them in for a year.
3Calculate by Home Size (The Tables)
Here are real numbers. These are US averages for 2026, adjusted for solo residential cleaners charging $30-$50/hour:
Standard clean (recurring) — flat-rate pricing
| Home size | Beds / Baths | Avg time | Flat-rate range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio / 1-bed | 1 / 1 | 1.5 - 2 hrs | $90 - $140 |
| Small | 2 / 1 | 2 - 2.5 hrs | $120 - $170 |
| Medium | 3 / 2 | 2.5 - 3.5 hrs | $150 - $220 |
| Large | 4 / 2.5 | 3.5 - 4.5 hrs | $200 - $300 |
| X-Large | 5+ / 3+ | 4.5 - 6+ hrs | $280 - $400 |
Deep clean (one-time) — flat-rate pricing
| Home size | Beds / Baths | Avg time | Flat-rate range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio / 1-bed | 1 / 1 | 3 - 4 hrs | $180 - $260 |
| Small | 2 / 1 | 4 - 5 hrs | $240 - $340 |
| Medium | 3 / 2 | 5 - 7 hrs | $300 - $450 |
| Large | 4 / 2.5 | 7 - 9 hrs | $420 - $600 |
| X-Large | 5+ / 3+ | 9 - 12+ hrs | $540 - $900 |
Move-out / move-in clean — flat-rate pricing
| Home size | Beds / Baths | Avg time | Flat-rate range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small | 1-2 / 1-2 | 5 - 7 hrs | $300 - $450 |
| Medium | 3 / 2 | 7 - 10 hrs | $420 - $650 |
| Large | 4 / 2.5+ | 10 - 14 hrs | $600 - $900 |
| X-Large | 5+ / 3+ | 14 - 20+ hrs | $850 - $1,400 |
These ranges assume standard condition. Dirty, cluttered, or post-construction homes go higher.
4Apply the Frequency Multiplier
Recurring clients are worth more than one-time clients — but they often pay less per visit because they need less work each time.
| Frequency | Discount vs one-time | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly | 15 - 25% off | Home stays clean, less time per visit, predictable income |
| Bi-weekly (every 2 weeks) | 10 - 15% off | Still pretty clean, steady income |
| Monthly | 0 - 5% off | Minimal discount, but locks the client |
| One-time | Full price | Highest cost per visit, no commitment |
Weekly is the gold standard — predictable recurring revenue is the foundation of every profitable cleaning business. Build your pricing to make weekly the most attractive option for the client.
5Add the Right Upcharges
Most house cleaning jobs have add-ons. Build these into your standard pricing menu so clients see them upfront, not as surprise fees:
Common upcharges (per visit)
- Pets in the home: $10 - $25 per visit (single pet) / $25 - $50 (multiple shedding pets)
- Inside oven cleaning: $25 - $50 (flat add-on)
- Inside fridge cleaning: $25 - $50 (flat add-on)
- Inside cabinets: $30 - $75 (depends on count)
- Laundry (wash + fold): $20 - $40 per load
- Window sills + tracks: $15 - $40
- Baseboards detail: $40 - $100 per visit (rare for recurring; common for deep cleans)
- Garage / basement sweep: $30 - $75
- Eco-friendly / non-toxic products: $10 - $25 per visit (premium product surcharge)
Don't hide these. Put them on your quote form and your website. Clients hate surprise fees; transparent pricing is a competitive advantage.
6Calculate the Quote (The Formula)
For a flat-rate quote, the formula is:
Example walkthrough:
- 3-bed / 2-bath home, standard clean, weekly
- Hourly rate: $50
- Estimated hours: 3
- Base: $50 × 3 = $150
- Pets (one dog): +$15
- Inside oven: +$30
- Frequency discount (15% off base): −$22.50
- Quote: $172.50 per visit
That's a real number. The client sees a professional quote, you have a defensible price based on actual costs, and you keep 30-50% margin on the labor.
7Quote in Under 5 Minutes
The math above is simple — but doing it in your head while standing in a client's living room is slow and error-prone. The right tool makes it 10x faster.
A good quote calculator lets you:
- Pick the home size (bed / bath / sq ft)
- Set the job type (standard / deep / move-out)
- Set the frequency (one-time / weekly / biweekly / monthly)
- Toggle add-ons (pets, oven, fridge, etc.)
- Auto-generate a PDF quote ready to email or print
Total time: under 60 seconds. The client gets a professional quote on the spot, you look legit, and you have a defensible price locked in.
8Common Pricing Mistakes
After helping dozens of cleaning businesses fix their pricing, these are the mistakes I see most often:
- Not counting drive time. A 2-hour job 30 minutes away is really a 3-hour job. Build the drive into your hourly rate or charge a trip fee for one-time cleans.
- Quoting from the competitor's number, not your own. "The lady down the street charges $20/hour" is a race to the bottom. Use your formula, quote accordingly, and walk away from clients who don't value your work.
- Not charging for the first clean. First cleans are always 30-50% more time than maintenance cleans. Quote accordingly. Don't discount the first visit just to "win" the client.
- Forgetting supplies. Supplies run $5-$15 per visit (paper towels, sprays, microfiber, vacuum bags). If you're using yours, build it into the hourly rate. If you're using theirs, your cost is lower — but your value is too.
- Discounting for "good" clients. Friends, family, and referrals get the same quality — they should pay the same price. Discounts eat your margin and create awkwardness. Instead, give them a small add-on (free window sills, free oven) on the first visit.
- Not raising prices annually. Inflation, supplies, vehicle costs — they all go up. If you don't raise prices 5-10% every January, your real income shrinks every year.
If you've been undercharging for more than 6 months, you don't need to raise prices on existing clients today. Just raise them on every new client. Within a year, your whole book is at the new (correct) rate.
Your 7-Day Action Plan
Here's what to do this week to fix your house cleaning pricing:
- Today: Calculate your real hourly rate using the formula in step 1. Write it down.
- Day 2: Build a flat-rate pricing menu for the 5 home sizes you clean most often. Use the tables in step 3 as a starting point.
- Day 3: Set your add-on prices from step 5. Put them on your quote form.
- Day 4: Try your new pricing on 3 prospects. See how it lands. (Most cleaners are surprised — clients accept professional pricing way more often than you think.)
- Day 5: Build a quote template (or use CleanQuote Pro) so you can quote in under 5 minutes.
- Day 6: Switch any repeat client you've cleaned 3+ times to flat-rate pricing. Same cost or less for them, better margins for you.
- Day 7: Email your new pricing menu to your last 10 prospects who didn't book. Some will convert now that you're priced like a professional.
For the broader picture — commercial rates, profit margin targets, annual price increases — read the complete cleaning business pricing guide.