House Cleaning Price List: 7 Steps to Price for Profit
A clear house cleaning price list is the difference between quoting with confidence and quietly losing money on every job. Whether you clean solo or run a small crew, customers want to see real numbers before they book — and a vague “it depends” usually costs you the sale.
This guide gives you real 2026 price ranges, a copy-ready structure, and a 7-step process to build a list that protects your margin. Let’s price for profit.
Quick answer: A house cleaning price list sets fixed prices for standard, deep, and move-out cleans, usually charged per hour ($25–$60), per square foot ($0.08–$0.20), or as a flat rate by home size. Most 3-bedroom homes run $120–$200 for a standard clean, with add-ons like ovens, fridges, and windows billed separately.
What should be on a house cleaning price list?
A good house cleaning price list shows the customer exactly what they get and what it costs, with no guesswork. At minimum it should separate your core cleans from your add-ons so a client can build their own quote.
Here is what every list needs:
- Service tiers — standard (recurring) clean, deep clean, and move-in/move-out clean.
- Pricing basis — per hour, per square foot, or a flat rate by home size.
- What’s included — a short checklist per tier (kitchen, bathrooms, dusting, floors).
- Add-ons — inside oven, inside fridge, interior windows, laundry, baseboards.
- Frequency discounts — weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly rates.
- Minimum charge and travel fee — protect small jobs and long drives.
Spelling out inclusions is what stops scope creep. If your house cleaning price list says the standard clean covers “visible surfaces and floors,” nobody expects you to scrub grout for the same price.
How much should you charge for house cleaning in 2026?
Most house cleaners charge between $25 and $60 per hour, or a flat $120–$200 for a standard 3-bedroom clean. Deep cleans and move-out cleans run roughly 1.5x to 2.5x the standard rate because they take far longer and use more product.
Your exact number depends on your local wages, drive time, and supply costs. For context, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the median hourly wage for maids and housekeeping cleaners — a useful floor when you price labor into every job.
Here is a realistic 2026 starting grid for a residential price list:
| Home size | Standard clean | Deep clean | Move-out clean |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio / 1-bed | $80–$120 | $150–$220 | $180–$260 |
| 2-bed / 1-bath | $100–$150 | $180–$280 | $220–$320 |
| 3-bed / 2-bath | $120–$200 | $230–$350 | $280–$420 |
| 4-bed / 3-bath | $160–$260 | $300–$450 | $380–$550 |
| 5-bed+ / large | $220–$380 | $400–$650 | $500–$800 |
Treat these as anchors, not gospel. High cost-of-living metros push the top of each range; rural areas sit near the bottom. Before you publish, confirm your numbers against a free cleaning business price list for your region.
Should you price per hour, per square foot, or a flat rate?
Use a flat rate by home size for standard recurring cleans, per hour for unpredictable or first-time jobs, and per square foot for large or commercial-style spaces. Each method fits a different situation.
Per hour
Best for one-off, first-time, or hoarding-level jobs where you can’t predict the mess. You quote a range ($25–$60/hr) and a minimum, then track time. The risk: clients hate open-ended bills, so cap it with a “not to exceed” number.
Per square foot
Best for empty homes, move-outs, and larger properties. Typical residential rates run $0.08–$0.20 per square foot for a standard clean and $0.15–$0.35 for a deep clean. It scales cleanly and is easy to justify.
Flat rate by home size
Best for recurring residential work — it’s the format most customers expect on a house cleaning price list. You bundle the whole job into one number, which makes booking frictionless and your income predictable.
Most established cleaners lead with flat rates and keep hourly in their back pocket for the messy outliers. If you’re still deciding how to structure quotes, our guide on the best way to quote a job walks through the trade-offs.
How to build your house cleaning price list in 7 steps
Building a price list is really a costing exercise — you work out what a job costs you, then add margin. Follow these seven steps and you’ll never quote blind again.
- Set your target hourly pay. Decide what your time is worth, e.g. $30/hr in your pocket.
- Add real costs. Layer in supplies, insurance, fuel, and equipment wear — usually 15–25% on top of labor.
- Add profit margin. Aim for at least 20–30% profit above your fully-loaded cost, not just wages.
- Time your standard cleans. Clean three homes of each size and log the minutes. Guessing time is how cleaners go broke.
- Convert time to flat rates. Multiply your hourly (with costs and margin) by real hours per home size.
- Price your add-ons separately. Ovens, fridges, and windows each get their own line so nothing is “free.”
- Set minimums and frequency discounts. A $100 minimum protects small jobs; a 10% weekly discount rewards loyalty.
If the costing math feels fuzzy, our step-by-step on how to cost a job shows exactly how to layer labor, materials, and margin into one defensible number.
How much to charge for a deep clean vs a standard clean?
Charge 1.5x to 2.5x your standard rate for a deep clean, because it covers everything a routine clean skips. A standard clean maintains an already-clean home; a deep clean resets a neglected one.
The extra time comes from detail work: baseboards, inside cabinets, grout, appliance interiors, light fixtures, and door frames. If a standard 3-bed clean is $150, your deep clean should land around $230–$350 depending on condition.
Always inspect (or ask for photos) before quoting a deep clean. A move-out on a rental that hasn’t been touched in a year is a different animal from a tidy home wanting a seasonal refresh. When a customer confuses the two, point them to the difference between a quote and an estimate so expectations stay honest.
5 pricing mistakes that quietly kill your margin
Even a solid house cleaning price list leaks profit if you make these common mistakes. Watch for all five.
- Charging by the room without checking square footage. A “3-bedroom” can be 900 or 2,400 sq ft.
- Forgetting drive time. A 40-minute round trip on a $90 job can erase your profit.
- Not pricing supplies. Product, bags, and equipment wear are real costs, not rounding errors.
- Skipping a minimum charge. Small jobs eat your day if they aren’t floored at a sensible minimum.
- Never raising rates. Costs climb yearly; review your price list every 6–12 months.
Fix these and your effective hourly rate often jumps 20% without adding a single client. Growing sustainably from there is its own skill — our playbook on how to grow a cleaning business covers hiring, systems, and rebooking.
The done-for-you shortcut: skip the spreadsheet
You can build all of this by hand, or you can start from a tool that already does the math. If you want polished, client-ready quotes in minutes, our cleaning service quote builder lets you add services and rates, apply tax and a travel fee, and export a clean PDF quote on the spot.
To run the whole operation — pricing every job for real profit, tracking supplies and drive-time, and sending invoices — the cleaning business manager app handles it offline with no subscription. Prefer to buy through a marketplace? You can also grab our editable pricing templates on our Etsy shop.
Either way, the goal is the same: a repeatable house cleaning price list you can quote from in under two minutes.
Frequently asked questions
How much do house cleaners charge per hour in 2026?
Most independent house cleaners charge $25–$60 per hour in 2026, with the higher end in major metros and for deep cleans. Solo cleaners often sit around $30–$45, while insured companies with crews charge more to cover overhead and payroll.
How do you make a house cleaning price list?
Start from your target hourly pay, add supply and travel costs plus a 20–30% margin, then time your standard cleans by home size and convert those hours into flat rates. Add separate line items for deep cleans, move-outs, and add-ons like ovens and windows.
Should I charge per room or per square foot?
Per square foot is more accurate than per room, because room counts hide huge size differences. Use square footage or a flat rate by home size for standard cleans, and keep hourly pricing for unpredictable first-time or move-out jobs.
How much should I charge for a move-out clean?
Move-out cleans typically run 1.5x to 2.5x your standard rate — often $220–$550 for a 3–4 bedroom home — because they cover empty-home detail work like inside cabinets, appliances, baseboards, and grout. Always inspect the property before committing to a fixed price.
How often should I update my price list?
Review your house cleaning price list every 6–12 months, or any time supply, fuel, or wage costs jump. Small, regular increases are far easier for clients to accept than one large jump every few years.
Bottom line: a tiered, costed price list is the single fastest way to quote confidently, protect your margin, and win more repeat work. Build it once, review it twice a year, and let it do the selling for you.
Tools for your cleaning business
- Cleaning Business Manager App — job pricing, profit and invoices, offline, no subscription.
- Cleaning Service Quote Builder — a professional PDF quote in minutes.
- 2026 Cleaning Business Price List — real rates and a free template.
