Cleaning kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms throughout the home takes up valuable time in the day. Once it would be considered a luxury to hire residential cleaning services. However, research shows that increasing numbers of people are now paying to have their homes cleaned. Growth in the number of working women, higher disposable income, busier lifestyles and a desire to reclaim precious free time are the main reasons why people are allocating fewer hours to domestic chores.
This has resulted in a rise in residential cleaning services businesses in the US. Statistics show this sector is now worth $899.9 million and the market size will probably grow 1.3% in 2021. Individual contractors are also seizing the opportunity to enter the market. According to industry insights, self-employment will rise 8.3% by 2028, especially in the residential cleaning business.
Costs of Residential Cleaning Services
Price plans vary according to the size of your house. As you’d expect, it takes more time to clean a 5-bedroom house than a 2-bedroom apartment. Typically, you have the option to request a one-time house clean or weekly/biweekly packages to suit your budget and requirements. Additional services or extra rooms come at a premium.
As a rough guide, biweekly cleaning a 2-bedroom home with five rooms costs around $70-$125. A seven-room home will range from $80-$150. Cleaning nine rooms typically costs $110-$180. Cleaning work can also go into bundled packages. For example, there is a set cost for 2, 5, or 7 hours’ work, ranging from $70 to $300. Or you could prefer a flat rate per room (from $30) or per square foot.
What Do Residential Cleaning Services Include?
As with office cleaning services, professional residential cleaning services provide all home cleaning supplies, tools and equipment. If you pay for a basic biweekly 2 or 3-hour cleaning package from $70, vacuuming and light dusting throughout the home are standard. Surfaces are wiped down. Trash is emptied. What else do you get for your money? Take a look at the following:
Cleaning the Kitchen
Kitchens need to be spotlessly clean. Specialist restaurant cleaning services are regularly used for cafes and restaurants. You should expect the same high standards of hygiene at home when you use residential cleaning services. Your kitchen floor will be vacuumed and/or washed. The sink, countertops and other surfaces and appliance exteriors will also be cleaned. What about loading and/or unloading the dishwasher? It all depends on your cleaning service provider, so it is worth querying in advance.
Not included in the price:
- Hand-washing dishes and cutlery
- Cleaning the inside of your fridge
- Defrosting and cleaning the freezer
- Cleaning inside the oven. This is usually charged as a specialist service, see below.
Additional items such as cleaning out a fridge/freezer will incur an extra cost of around $40. This is not considered a regular service and is usually carried out every 3-4 months.
Oven Cleaning Services
The basic house cleaning package does not include oven cleaning. Even though most modern ovens have a self-cleaning option, many residential cleaning services offer a specialized oven cleaning package from $30-$45. Deep cleaning the oven typically occurs once or twice a year. In between this service, clean up spills as they happen with hot, soapy water to help eliminate any food buildup.
Living Areas
Your living room, hallways and stairs will be vacuumed. All the surfaces including windowsills will be cleaned. General dusting includes items such as lampshades, picture frames, knickknacks, etc. Vacuuming furniture and upholstery may go in the basic cleaning package, although some companies provide this service on a rotating basis every other week. If you want it done once or biweekly, this may incur an additional charge.
Not included in the price:
- Deep-cleaning carpets
- Deep-cleaning blinds
- Cleaning baseboards
- Tidying up toys and clutter
If you want your carpets cleaned and any stains removed, this is usually charged at a premium. Expect to pay around $150 to have 3 bedroom carpets professionally cleaned using commercial cleaning supplies to remove stains and soiling. Deep-cleaning blinds usually incur an additional charge of around $50. However, this depends on home size. Check with your cleaning service provider. Adding baseboards to your cleaning package will cost about $40.
Cleaning Bathrooms
Routine residential cleaning services include cleaning your bathroom from top to bottom. Toilet, sink, tub and shower will get good scrubbing and disinfection. The floor will be vacuumed and washed, countertops will be cleaned. Mirrors and chrome fittings will also be polished. Additional bathrooms will bump up the price of your cleaning package by about $25 per bathroom.
Residential Cleaning Services for Bedrooms
As with all the other rooms in the house, you should remove general clutter before the cleaner arrives. The bedrooms will be vacuumed and dusted. Most cleaning companies will make beds as routine. However, if you want the bed linen changed, expect to pay a little extra.
Not included in the price:
- Picking up clothes and putting them away
- Washing laundry
- Ironing clothes
- Changing bed linen
- Dry-cleaning
Expect to pay around $9 to fold a laundry-load size of clothes. Ironing and dry-cleaning services are not usually included in residential cleaning services packages. If you want to add-on laundry to your standard cleaning package, it is from $5-$15 per load. Changing bed linen, average $10 extra per bed.
Cleaning Windows
Cleaning windowsills are generally included in a basic cleaning package. However, cleaning interior windows will bump up your price by around $45.
Not included in the price:
- Washing window panes (exterior)
Residential cleaning services tend not to include washing windows in a routine clean. Most professional window cleaning services price a job by the number of window panes. It can range from $2-$7 per pane.
Mowing the Lawn
Cleaning outdoor furniture, tidying the garage and mowing the lawn are not part of the residential cleaning offerings. Some packages included sweeping porches for an additional $10. However, mowing the lawn comes under gardening services. Expect to pay around $20-$40 for someone to mow an average-size residential lawn.
Priority Clean
What if you just want just your kitchen and bathroom cleaned? Some residential cleaning services offer a “priority” clean. So it is worth asking about this service. It makes sense if you have spare rooms in the house that are not in daily use. If you want to make the kitchen and bathroom a priority, ask about hourly cleaning rates for special requests. Expect to pay around $45 an hour.
Enhanced Cleaning and Sanitization
Office spaces benefit from a sanitization program. Your home can benefit too. Residential cleaning services charge more for a deeper clean. This usually involves disinfecting high-touch areas around your home, using specialized solutions. This will include doorknobs, light switches, hand railings and so on. Hiring a team of two employees for an enhanced clean is around $90 per hour. This sanitized clean helps to kill bacteria and viruses. It is commonly used for temple cleaning and other public spaces where people gather.
Occasional Cleaning
If you don’t want to employ the help of residential cleaning services once or twice a week, you may still want to use them for occasional cleaning. For example, spring cleaning the home is a popular request. This involves thoroughly cleaning every room in the house from the kitchen to the bedrooms. Prices for a spring clean are from $200-300.
Extra Charge for Indoor Pets
Your basic cleaning package may incur extras charges if you own pets. As a rough guide, expect to pay around $10 extra for one pet. Multiple pets, $20 extra. If the professionals use commercial cleaning equipment such as a powerful vacuum cleaner it should make short work of pet hair.
Conclusion
Before you enlist the help of professional residential cleaning services, it does help to have a better understanding of what you need and what you will be paying for. Pricing is based on the size of your house and your family life situation including whether or not you have pets. Bear in mind, the prices we have mentioned in this article are a rough guide only. Rates vary considerably across the country. To stay within your budget, always request a free estimate to work out the total cost of cleaning your home before officially hiring a professional cleaning team. Keep the frequency of cleaning in mind, too.
DetailXPerts uses the impressive power of steam and innovative technology to achieve outstanding results when cleaning and sanitizing offices, restaurants, hotels and so on. While we don’t offer residential cleaning services, we do offer professional commercial sanitization services. We help business owners with their site’s cleaning and disinfection needs, providing a great-value service every time.
To get a better idea of how we work and what’s involved, take a moment to watch DetailXPerts’ video for more info on our steam sanitization services. If you would like to talk to one of our team and schedule an appointment, call DetailXPerts at 877-317-9737.
