House cleaning costs vary depending on three primary factors:
- Size of your home
- Frequency of cleaning
- Type of cleaning required
If you have a smaller living space and hire a service for weekly cleaning, your average cost will prove much lower than a one-off cleaning of a large home with add-ons like fridge and oven cleaning.
Here are some averages to give you a starting point for how much housekeeping services cost in 2024.
Average hourly rate for house cleaning
$30 to $60 per hour
Average cleaning cost for a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home
| Standard cleaning | $125 to $250 (or more with add-ons) |
| Deep or move-out cleaning | $175 to $350 (or more with add-ons) |
Looking for a housekeeping quote near you?
It’s easy to see that house cleaning costs vary a lot depending on your specific situation. If you’re looking for an estimate that accounts for your needs, fill out the form below, and we’ll get back to you with a cleaning quote just for you.
What causes house cleaning rates to fluctuate so much?
House cleaners won’t typically charge a flat rate. As you might expect, the time, effort, energy, and expenses multiply with the size of the home, along with the number and type of rooms. House cleaning services typically charge based on your specific requirements. If you’re looking for a precise cleaning estimate, contact a trusted local cleaning service.
At CottageCare, we were the first to offer over-the-phone pricing. We provide estimates based on the size of your home and the frequency of your cleanings.
Square footage of your home
The size of your home directly impacts the price you pay for house cleaning services. Square footage is the most common metric cleaning services use to estimate costs. Housekeeping services often have a rate that they charge per square foot, perhaps anywhere from $0.12 to $0.30 per square foot.
It’s easy to see why square footage matters so much: while more rooms may equal more corners and wall space (at CottageCare we always clean walls and ceilings!), sheer size makes the most significant difference in the effort and time required to clean.
More than likely, your home cleaning cost won’t double if you go from 1,000 square feet to 2,000, but you can expect your price to rise accordingly as the square footage to be cleaned increases.
Number of rooms and bathrooms
The number of rooms and bathrooms in your home also directly impacts the cost of your home cleaning. While not as crucial a metric as square footage, more walls, surfaces, floor types, and so on will likely influence the total price you pay for your house cleaning.
Type of cleaning
The type of cleaning you require also affects the total price. Some house cleaning companies distinguish between a “standard” cleaning and a “deep cleaning,” which will impact pricing.
At CottageCare, all our cleaning is “deep cleaning.” While we do offer tailored cleaning services based on your unique needs, we always clean deeply on every service.
Standard cleaning
For those companies that distinguish between deep and standard cleanings, standard cleaning typically involves:
- Vacuuming
- Dusting
- Sweeping
- Mopping
- General tidying
In most cases, these cleanings are good enough to make a difference, but they may not be quite enough if your home is thoroughly used (perhaps by small children or pets) day in and day out.
Deep cleaning
With some house cleaning companies, deep cleaning will come at a higher cost but includes a more stringent checklist. Deep cleaning often involves:
- Scrubbing floors and surfaces
- Disinfecting
- Sanitizing
- Polishing
View our checklist to learn what every CottageCare cleaning includes.
Move-in, move-out cleaning
Cleanings before moving in or after moving out often cost extra because they are an “extra” deep cleaning. With all surfaces, cabinets, closets, and appliances clear or empty, house cleaners will typically take more time to clean places that aren’t as feasible to clean while the house is occupied.
Other add-ons
Cleaning companies often offer add-ons that, depending on what you need, can increase the average cost of your cleaning. For those companies that offer standard and deep cleaning services, you can often pick and choose elements of the deep cleaning service if you don’t quite need the complete upgrade to deep cleaning.
At CottageCare, we offer five standard add-ons to our house cleaning services:
- Cleaning inside the fridge
- Cleaning inside the oven
- Deck sweeping
- Garage sweeping
- Cleaning inside cabinets
While our cleanings are more involved than a typical cleaning company’s “standard” cleaning, we realize these aren’t necessary with every cleaning, so we offer these add-ons as necessary to keep our cleaning costs lower overall.
House cleaning frequency
Some house cleaning companies, including CottageCare, account for cleaning frequency as part of the fee schedule. The more often you schedule our services, the more you save!
As an example, here are the savings you can expect when you schedule cleaning with CottageCare:
| Cleaning frequency | Savings |
| Individual cleanings | Standard pricing |
| Monthly cleanings | Up to 20% |
| Every other week cleanings | Up to 33% |
| Weekly cleanings | Up to 40% |
Is there anything I can do to lower cleaning costs?
Simplifying your life by delegating house cleaning can save you precious time, attention, and energy that you’d be better off spending elsewhere. We understand your hesitation, however, if you’ve never had to pay someone to clean for you.
Here’s something to keep in mind when you’re exploring the costs and weighing the pros and cons of a cleaning service:
Hiring a house cleaning company doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing arrangement. You can still take responsibility for cleaning some of your home some of the time and delegate as much or as little as you want to a cleaning service.
Maybe you just want some help after get-togethers or around the holidays. Perhaps monthly is good enough for now. Whatever your needs are—and even if you’re not quite yet sure what you need!—we invite you to request a quote and explore your options with us.
Looking for house cleaning services in your area?
CottageCare cleans homes in dozens of locations across the United States and three in Canada. Find the location nearest you and request a quote, or give us a call for the most up-to-date cost of house cleaning services near you.
- Akron, OH
- Aurora/Parker, CO
- Barboursville, WV
- Baton Rouge, LA
- Bloomington & Normal, IL
- Calgary North, ALB
- Calgary South, ALB
- Calgary West, ALB
- Carrollton/Lewisville, TX
- Charlotte, NC
- Columbia, SC
- Columbus Northeast, OH
- Denver Cherry Creek, CO
- Des Moines, IA
- Eden Prairie/Bloomington, MN
- Ft. Wayne, IN
- Greater Fort Worth, TX
- Kansas City, MO
- Lake Norman, NC
- Lake Oswego & Milwaukie, OR
- Leawood, KS
- Little Rock, AR
- Littleton/Highlands Ranch, CO
- Menomonee Falls, WI
- Munster, IN
- Oklahoma City, OK
- Olathe, KS
- Orange County, NY
- Peoria, IL
- Plano, TX
- Prairie Village, KS
- Richmond, VA
- Seattle/Olympia, WA
- Shawnee, KS
- South Bend, IN
- St. Charles, MO
- St. Louis Town & Country, MO
- Tulsa, OK
- Virginia Beach, VA
- Winter Garden, FL
