How to Price House Cleaning (+ Free Price List)

How to price house cleaning in 5 steps

Here’s the whole plan at a glance. We’ll go through each step below.

1. Figure out the hourly rate you need to earn.
2. Time your cleans so you know how fast you work.
3. Pick a pricing method (hourly, flat rate, per room or per square foot).
4. Set a base price for a “typical” home and adjust up or down from it.
5. Check each job against the clock and fix your prices when they drift.

Step 1: Know the hourly rate you need

Before you think about what other cleaners charge, figure out what you need. Start with what you want to keep for each hour you clean. Then add your costs.

Here’s an example. Use your own numbers.

• You want to keep $35 for every hour you clean.
• Your costs for supplies, gas, insurance and your phone work out to about $10 per cleaning hour.
• $35 + $10 = $45 per cleaning hour.

But you don’t get paid for every hour you work. Driving between homes, answering texts and buying supplies all take time. Say 1 out of every 5 hours you work is unpaid. That means only 4 out of 5 hours earn money, or 80%.

• $45 ÷ 0.80 = $56.25, so round to about $56 per cleaning hour.

That $56 is your target. Every price you set should land near it or above it.

Don’t forget taxes

When you work for yourself, nobody takes taxes out of your pay. The IRS self-employment tax rate is 15.3% (12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare), and you generally owe it once your net earnings from self-employment are $400 or more in a year. That’s on top of regular income tax. So the money you “keep” per hour is before taxes. Set some aside from every job, and talk to a tax pro if you’re not sure how much.

Step 2: Time your cleans

Your hourly target only helps if you know how long a home takes you. For your next few jobs, write down:

• Bedrooms and bathrooms
• Square feet (if you know it)
• The type of clean (standard, deep or move-out)
• How long it took, start to finish

After a few weeks you’ll see a pattern, like “a 3 bed, 2 bath home takes me about 2 hours and 45 minutes for a standard clean.” That pattern is what your prices are built on.

Step 3: Pick a pricing method

There are four common ways to charge for house cleaning services. Here’s how they compare for a solo cleaner.

For most solo cleaners, a flat rate built from rooms and square feet works well. The client gets one clear price. You get paid well when you work fast. That’s the method we’ll use for the rest of this guide.

Step 4: Set a base price, then adjust

Instead of guessing a new price for every home, pick one “typical” home and price it first. Then add or take off money for each difference.

A good typical home is 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and 1,500 square feet. Say it takes you about 2 hours and 45 minutes (2.75 hours) for a standard clean. At your $56 target:

• 2.75 hours × $56 = $154

Round that to a clean number, like $150 or $155. We’ll use $150 in the examples below.

Next, set your adjustments. These are example numbers. Change them to fit your time and your area.

• Each bedroom over or under 3: $15
• Each bathroom over or under 2: $20 (a half bath counts as half)
• Every 100 sq ft over or under 1,500: $5
• A minimum price for small homes: $100

Example: a bigger home

A client has 4 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms and 2,000 square feet.

• Extra bedrooms: 4 − 3 = 1, and 1 × $15 = $15
• Extra bathrooms: 2.5 − 2 = 0.5, and 0.5 × $20 = $10
• Extra square feet: 2,000 − 1,500 = 500, and 500 ÷ 100 = 5, then 5 × $5 = $25
• Standard price: $150 + $15 + $10 + $25 = $200

Example: a small apartment

A client has 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom and 1,000 square feet.

• Bedrooms: 2 − 3 = −1, and −1 × $15 = −$15
• Bathrooms: 1 − 2 = −1, and −1 × $20 = −$20
• Square feet: 1,000 − 1,500 = −500, and −500 ÷ 100 = −5, then −5 × $5 = −$25
• $150 − $15 − $20 − $25 = $90

$90 is below your $100 minimum, so you charge $100. The minimum protects you on small jobs, where driving and setup still take the same time.

If you’d rather not do this math by hand, try our free house cleaning price calculator. CleanPal’s quote screen also works this way: your base price is for a 3 bed, 2 bath, 1,500 sq ft home, and your per-room and per-100-sq-ft rates are added or taken off from there. It also sets a minimum for small homes: 60% of your base price, or a small fixed amount if that’s higher. You can read exactly how CleanPal works out a price.

Price deep cleans and move-out cleans

Deep cleans and move-out cleans take longer. Baseboards, inside cabinets, inside the oven and heavy buildup all add time. The simplest way to price them is to multiply your standard price.

These multipliers are examples. Set yours from how long these jobs really take you.

• Deep clean: standard price × 1.5
• Move-out clean: standard price × 1.75

For the 4 bed, 2.5 bath home above:

• Deep clean: $200 × 1.5 = $300
• Move-out clean: $200 × 1.75 = $350

A good habit: price a new client’s first visit as a deep clean. Most homes need extra work the first time. After that, their regular visits can go back to your standard price.

Free cleaning business price list (example)

Here’s a sample cleaning business price list built from the example numbers above: $150 base, $15 per bedroom, $20 per bathroom, $5 per 100 sq ft, a $100 minimum, 1.5 for deep and 1.75 for move-out. Prices are rounded to the nearest dollar, with 50 cents rounding up. These are example prices, not market rates. Swap in your own numbers before you use it.

When the minimum applies, multiply the minimum: $100 × 1.5 = $150 and $100 × 1.75 = $175. A few of the other rows show the math behind the rounding:

• 3 bed move-out: $150 × 1.75 = $262.50, which rounds to $263
• 4 bed, 3 bath deep: $235 × 1.5 = $352.50, which rounds to $353
• 5 bed move-out: $295 × 1.75 = $516.25, which rounds to $516

Add-ons to price separately

Some tasks aren’t part of a normal clean. List them as extras so clients know they cost more:

• Inside the oven
• Inside the fridge
• Inside cabinets
• Interior windows
• Laundry or changing sheets
• Heavy pet hair

Time each add-on once or twice, then price it from your hourly target, just like your main clean.

Step 5: Check your prices against the clock

A price only works if it pays your hourly target. After each job, divide the price by the hours it took.

• You charged $200 and the clean took 3.5 hours.
• $200 ÷ 3.5 = $57.14 per hour.

That’s above your $56 target, so this price is working. If a home keeps paying you less than your target, it’s time to raise that client’s price or change your rates.

Keep notes on each home so the next visit goes faster. Write down the gate code, the pets, and “don’t use bleach on the counters.” In CleanPal you can save each client’s usual price, gate or door code and notes, so it’s all in one place when you quote or show up.

How to share your price with a client

Once you have a price, send it in writing. A short text works well:

Hi Dana! Your standard clean for a 4 bed, 2.5 bath home is $200. Would you like to book?

Clear, short quotes get faster answers. In CleanPal, Text this quote saves the quote and opens your Messages app with the text already written, addressed to the client, as long as you’ve saved their phone number.

When to raise your prices

Look at your prices at least once a year, and any time your costs go up. Good signs it’s time to raise them:

• Your schedule is full and you’re turning people away.
• Your average pay per hour has dropped below your target.
• Gas, supplies or insurance costs went up.

Give current clients notice before a price change, and tell them the new price and the date it starts.

Pricing gets easier the more you track. Start with a base price, adjust by rooms and square feet, check every job against your hourly target, and your price list will pay you what your time is worth.

Try CleanPal free for 7 days, or start with our free house cleaning price calculator.