If you’ve put off paying a professional to clean your home, perhaps you think that you’re saving money or time by only hiring a cleaning company for occasional or monthly cleanings; that you can handle regular cleaning yourself.
However, you actually may be spending more on these cleanings than you could be spending on more frequent cleanings. And more importantly, you may not be adequately sanitizing your home at a time when cleaning for health is more important than ever before.
Also, are you wasting precious time cleaning when you could be spending time with your family?
Here’s what you need to know about the cost of house cleaning services, and what can impact your final bill.
How Much Does a House Cleaning Service Cost? Your House Cleaning Pricing Guide
Before you hire a professional house cleaning company, it’s a good idea to get a full picture of what your cleaning will entail—and how much it will cost. A detailed house cleaning estimate will let you know exactly what kinds of tasks your cleaning service will provide, and what it will cost.
What should you expect for your cleaning bill? That depends on several factors. While Home Advisor gives the national average for home cleaning costs is around $168, that cost is based on a few main things, including:
- Your location, as costs can vary from region to region
- The size of your home and the number of bedrooms you have
- The frequency of your cleanings, whether they are weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly
- The amount of time it takes to clean your home
- The tasks you request from your cleaning service
To have a home that’s less than 1,000 square feet professionally cleaned averages $90, and $250 and up for a home that’s 3,000 square feet or larger. While Home Advisor states that you should plan to pay around $0.05 to $0.10 per square foot, in-depth and one-time cleanings can cost a lot more—as much as $0.20 per square foot or more. For this reason, recurring cleaning services can end up being a lot more affordable than one-time cleanings.
All this being said, each home is different, just like each homeowner is different, and there’s a lot that goes into determining the price of your house cleaning services. Let’s take an in-depth look and the factors that can affect the cost of your cleaning services so you’re keyed in; so you know what is a fair price for house cleaning services for your home.
The Condition of Your Home
Has it been a while since you’ve swept away the dust bunnies or scrubbed the ring around the tub? If so, your first cleaning (or first few cleanings) might need to be a bit more intensive to handle the extra tasks.
To achieve a spotless cleaning, you’ll likely need to schedule a deep cleaning for your first visit. Not only will this ensure your home ends up sparkling, but your cleaners will establish a base level of clean from which to work on their following visits.
House cleaners have seen it all and have all kinds of industry tips and tricks to ensure your home looks its very best after every visit, but it could take them longer to clean on their initial visits to your home, which may end up costing you more. After that, if you schedule recurring cleanings, it will be a much easier job, and you’ll pay less for your weekly or biweekly cleanings.
The Cleaning Services You Want
How much does a cleaning service cost? Most house cleaning companies have a set list of tasks that they perform at a typical recurring house cleaning, and a house cleaning estimate will reflect the work they plan to regularly perform at each visit. Typically, this includes work like:
- Dusting throughout the house
- Vacuuming rugs and carpets
- Sweeping and mopping all hard floors
- Cleaning mirrors and glass surfaces
- Straightening rooms
- Disinfecting bathrooms
- Cleaning bathtubs and toilets
- Relining wastebaskets
- Dusting baseboards
- Wiping down countertops and the exteriors of appliances
There are all kinds of tasks that happen at a regular cleaning service, but what if you need something extra? Additional services like wiping down cabinet fronts or scrubbing tile and grout may cost more. Ask your house cleaning service if they offer a house cleaning pricing guide, or a cleaning services price list for the extra cleaning tasks you have in mind. If you’re planning for a deep cleaning, you can expect to pay more for these services.
The Caliber of Your Cleaning Company
How much does house cleaning cost? The answer can vary greatly between cleaning services. This is because not all cleaning companies are equal. A cleaning service may charge slightly more to help cover the cost of bonding and insurance for their company. While you may be tempted to hire a company that charges less because they aren’t paying for insurance, this may not be such a wise plan.
What happens if you hire someone who is uninsured and they damage your wood floors or your marble countertops?
What if a priceless family heirloom is broken during cleaning?
What happens if someone is injured while cleaning your home?
Without the proper protections in place, you could be stuck with expensive bills to mend or replace damaged items, or you could end up paying for medical bills if someone gets hurt. However, if you hire an established, reputable house cleaning company that’s bonded and insured, you don’t have to worry.
The Gift of Time
One of the things you’re paying for when you hire a house cleaning service is the extra time you get to focus on what matters most. Americans spend an average of 6 hours per week cleaning with 28 percent spending more than 7 hours cleaning and straightening, which is a lot of time that could be spent doing something else.
If you hire a house cleaning service to clean your home bi-weekly, you could be saving between 12 and 14 hours cleaning each month, or around 156 to 182 hours every year—or almost an entire week! When you hire a cleaning company to come each week, you can end up saving between 312 and 364 hours per, or around 15 days per year.
Your time costs money. With the time you save, you could be earning more money at work, pursuing your hobbies, or spending quality time with your family. There’s no real price you can put on the extra time you spend reading with your kids, unwinding after a long day at work, or building the life you’ve imagined for your family. That’s what makes hiring a house cleaning service worth the cost.
At Mops & Buckets, we work hard to ensure that your investment in your home is worth the cost. Our goal is to go above and beyond the work of other cleaning services to provide first-rate results and friendly customer service—and you can spot that difference in our stellar customer reviews.
