House cleaning pricing guide - what to charge in 2026.

Most cleaners charge $25 to $50 per hour per cleaner for a standard clean, and closer to $40 to $60 per hour for deep and move-out work. By area that is about $0.08 – $0.15 / sq ft for a standard clean. Priced as a flat job, an average 3-bedroom home usually lands around $135 to $225, with larger or heavily-soiled homes running higher.

Those ranges are where the market sits - they are not your price. Your price comes from your costs, your market, and the job in front of you. The rest of this guide is how to get from a range to a number you can quote with confidence.

Reach for hourly when the job is unpredictable - a first visit, a neglected home, or anything you cannot scope from a photo. It guarantees you get paid for the hours the work actually takes.

Reach for a flat rate when you want to sell. Clients prefer a known price, and a flat number closes more jobs - just quote flat only once you can estimate the hours confidently. Per square foot shines on large homes and light commercial work, where room counts stop being a useful proxy for size.

A solid starting rate card is a $35 base, $18 per bedroom, $22 per bathroom, and $26 per 1,000 sq ft, with a $100 minimum. Run a standard 3-bed, 2-bath, 1,500 sq ft home through it: 35 + (18 x 3) + (22 x 2) + (26 x 1.5) = 35 + 54 + 44 + 39 = $172. That is your standard price.

For a deep clean, multiply by about 1.4 - 172 x 1.4 = $241. For a move-out, use roughly 1.5 - 172 x 1.5 = $258. For a recurring biweekly client, multiply by 0.85 - 172 x 0.85 = $146 per visit. Then add flat add-ons like inside the oven (+$35) or interior windows (+$50). The calculator above runs this exact formula so you can tune the rate card to your own numbers and watch the price move.

A good hourly rate is the one that clears your costs with a margin on top. If an hour of cleaning costs you $22 all-in - wages, supplies, drive time, the share of insurance and taxes it carries - and you want a 35 percent margin, you bill about $34 an hour as your floor (22 / 0.65). Quote below that and you are working at a loss, however busy you look.

On a 2,000 sq ft home, a standard clean at $0.12 / sq ft works out to roughly $240; a deep clean at $0.22 / sq ft lands near $440. Notice the rate eases on bigger homes - travel and setup are fixed, so cost per square foot drops as the home grows. Use square footage as the lead measure once a home passes about 3,000 sq ft.

First, find what a job actually costs you to deliver: labor hours x your loaded labor cost, plus supplies, drive time, and the share of insurance, taxes, software, and overhead the job carries. That total is your cost - not your price.

To price for a target margin, divide the cost by one minus the margin. A job that costs $60 at a 35 percent margin is a $92 quote (60 / 0.65), not $81. Adding 35 percent on top of cost only yields a 26 percent margin - a common, expensive mistake. Most healthy independent cleaning businesses target a 25 to 40 percent net margin once payroll and overhead are paid.

Recurring clients should pay a 10 to 20 percent lower per-visit rate than a one-time clean. A maintained home takes less work each visit, and steady, scheduled income is worth a small discount. Scale the discount to frequency: weekly clients earn the deepest cut, every-other-week a little less, and monthly the smallest - a home cleaned monthly has had more time to get dirty.

Raising rates on existing clients is part of the job, not a betrayal of it. Review your prices once a year, give at least a few weeks of notice, raise modestly - often a few dollars per visit - and tie it to your own rising costs. Most good clients expect it; the ones who leave over a small, fair increase were rarely your most profitable work.