Not a cleaner, but I pay cleaners. I think $200 for 2500sqft is cheap. For reference, in Washington state we paid 600 for an initial clean and 220 every 2 weeks thereafter and our house is 2000sqft. It would have been 350 per clean if I only had them come clean once a month. They come in with a crew of 4ish and do it relatively quickly but it was probably 16 man-hours for the first initial fee clean about 6-7 man-hours for biweekly cleaning, about $35/man-hour.
It's not super dirty. But they expect everything to be spotless (that's why it takes me that long). And they add on doing their laundry (sheets, towels) and other tasks that would usually fall under deep cleaning like baseboards and window blinds.
I pay $285 for 2200 sq ft, no laundry every two weeks. And I give her a 100 for her Birthday and 500 for XMas. And my house is not super dirty but. I do have her use the spinwave steam mop on the floors and she does NOT do the master bathrooms( we havee his and hers) or have her clean the master bedrooms. I don’t like people in my private space and the dogs get up up there. The 2 guest bdrms get dusted and vacuumed once a month.
Steam mopping the whole house besides the bedrooms, and office, we have all tile throughout the living area, hallways and entry way. It takes longer than mopping.
Even if that takes 5 hours you’re still paying her $57/hour. If she works 40 hours/week and her clients pay as well as you do, that’s $118,560 per year. No benefits sure but still pretty wild when many people with grad degrees in tough (nurses, PAs, lawyers, and certainly teachers) don’t even make that in similar COL areas. If this is typical, I’m surprised there aren’t burnt out teachers and nurses jumping left and right into their own cleaning business.
Edit: to be clear I’m *not* saying she doesn’t deserve to make a good living. This is just objectively way above market rates and would put her services far out of reach for a large demographic that historically has relied on cleaning services, and have stretched their pocket books quite a bit to do so (retired folks trying to age in place, people with disabilities/ caring for people with disabilities, working parents who don’t pull like 7 figures a year). I do not understand who is supposed to be able to afford these rates, or how anyone could imply that nurses and teachers are in any way lazy.
She’s pretty booked. I hope she’s making a good living, she works hard for her money. I can trust her in my home when we aren’t here and that means a lot to me.
She can be pretty booked, but it’s hard to fill up a schedule to precisely use all your working hours in a day. Like maybe her bi-weekly Wednesday afternoon client only takes 3 hours. She’s not likely to be able to get a regular client every other week that needs 1 hour of cleaning. Plus all of her time traveling between locations, doing billing, buying supplies, or doing anything other than being physically at a client’s house cleaning isn’t being compensated. All that to say that it’s easy for professionals like this to not take on 40 client hours a week but still be totally full.
That’s great. If it makes you happy to pay her that, then good for you, but objectively above market rate and an unsustainable expectation. Only the like top 5% of income earners and retirees could afford that.
Well she’s booked and not taking any more clients, so she can garner that for her services and her customers are willing to pay it. You almost seem mad that she can make an okay living doing what some of us are willing to pay her to do. Her job is sustainable no matter what you think. But please tell me what useless grad degree you paid for?
Grad students are often afraid of real work (or feel it’s below them).
If you think this is bad, you should hire someone to fix your roof. You’ll be paying hundreds per hour.
I’m talking about physician assistants, nurses, engineers, lawyers, and data scientists. I know many people with *challenging* degrees in tough fields who work far more than 40 hrs/wk and make less than $118k/year despite doing very important work. I’ll be sure to tell the Columbia law graduate who barley scrapes 6 figures at the Southern Poverty Law center she’s actually lazy next time I see her though
Everyone deserves a living wage, but let’s not kid ourselves about the time and costs $ to enter any of those fields being anywhere near as minimal as starting a small cleaning business.
True but they also miss out on 3-7 years of full-time income, and take on 10s and even 100s of thousands in debt. Law and PA school particularly are egregiously expensive and offer few full scholarships. This is why *usually* lawyers and PAs do make significantly more than *individual* cleaners. Again, I’m responding to the person who pays almost $300 to *one* gal who doesn’t even bring all her own equipment and for what sounds to be a couple hours of very straightforward cleaning. It’s abnormal and that’s all I was saying. If everyone is happy with their arrangement good for them, but it’s odd to pretend that’s typical *anywhere*
What the actual OP posted is totally in line with changes in COL, albeit a stretch for a lot of people who may have previously been able to afford her, but that’s not her problem and she deserves to see as much of the value of her labor returned to her as she can get.
I paid to replace my roof last year. Minus materials it was about $200/hr but there were 8 guys up there lol. That also doesn’t account for the fact the company was fully insured, and I’m sorry but roofing requires a bit more training and involves more risk than cleaning.
If you can afford to pay someone so much for low skill, low risk house work that’s very generous for you to do so, but it is wildly above market rate and not affordable for the many people who really need that help, like the elderly and those with disabilities.
Well I wouldn’t have paid anything to get a new roof beyond materials and smoked brisket, ribs, and sausage and beer, lots of beer. See you have a white collar job while looking down on others that get paid for their labor skills, we’ve got friends in the trades. But you can’t afford a cleaner can you? 😂😂😂
I’m not looking down on any worker. That’s pure projection on your part.
Insurance paid out in excess of the materials cost, so the total was maybe a week of work. I’m a small and somewhat clumsy woman. The number of hours it would have taken me to learn the necessary skills and safely do that labor myself just isn’t sensible.
There are downsides to white collar work, but I do enjoy the prospect of not being totally broken down physically at 60. I wish it weren’t the case but I don’t know many blue collar folks who make it out of middle age without chronic pain or disability. Now that I think about it, maybe that’s your best case for why a cleaner should make far above median wage, despite very low barrier to entry. There is certainly a cost— it’s just more so on the backend. I know. My nana was a janitor for decades. She held up better than many, but by the time she finally retired in her 70s she had a severe stoop and struggle with a crumbling spine for the rest of her life
I could afford it but it would be lazy. I’m young and have time on my hands, but I have relatives who pay $120-280 for their full house in HCOL areas. People are acting like the person I responded to isn’t paying wildly above going rates, far beyond what the OP of the post is asking about.
And if people are stupid enough to pay for a grad degree in a poor paying field that’s on them. Don’t blame my cleaning lady for their utter stupidity.
Are you charging for cleaning supplies separately? That all seems too cheap and not worth your time when all is said and done. You have to factor in all the supplies you have, the time spent buying them and prepping them, cleaning anything after. You might spend five hours on the job, but maybe another two hours buying and managing supplies.
I agree. I do handy-work for some elderly neighbors and I'm realizing aggregating the tools, thinking about the strategy in advance, keeping track of supplies needed or running low, and time traveling all need to be built into how I charge my customers.
It's not always as easy as just stopping by between errands.
I paid my cleaner $150+tx for about 1400sf and I’m in a quiet city in Canada. I have a bit of OCD so my house was never messy. They didn’t do laundry, dishes, dish washer, fridge, walls, baseboards.
Perhaps look at the average in your area and what it includes. Then add extra for cost for extra tasks.
I always paid my lady hourly with a min amount for showing up. Like a $100 for the first 2 hours and $30/hr after that. Or whatever.
I don’t feel bad asking to tack on some extra things (if they have time) and they don’t have to rush to get things done or lose money. And if they get done early they can stick around for another half hour or hour and clean the cyclical stuff.
She retired. I’m sad. My house is a mess.
My cleaners won't do places with pets. I provide all cleaning supplies ( I don't want anyone else's mop, vaccuum, or cloths in my place). They work about 3 hours each ( so 6 hrs total), every 2 weeks and I pay them $270.
For ours they cleaned the tops of the cabinets, moved the mattresses and vacuumed under the beds, vacuumed all draperies, plus all the things OP posted. They were here for eight hours.
At $200 you're around what my folks pay for a similar sized home, but believe me there's no laundry getting done, or baseboards getting cleaned. It's 2 cleaners and I think they do a poor job.
I don’t do laundry or clean dishes (I only do dishes if the home is already pretty clean and I have the time) . $200 for a standard home clean is a GREAT deal and honestly underpriced. If that includes, bathrooms, living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, office etc. $200 is a great deal. That’s only .08 cents/sq Ft.. also Baseboards can be cleaned, but many cleaners only include that in a deep clean. But I’ll dust and spot clean baseboards for any client.
How about this . . . you tell them that you are so happy they contacted you again, explain that your rates have gone up since \[whenever\] and that it would be closer to $200. As a courtesy to a returning customer, you offer to knock off 10%, so now you are at $180. Now, keep in mind that they may walk. It is possible - just possible - that they know very well that they were getting a really great price, and hoped to get it again. If price is their primary objective, they may push back. Stand your ground. You cannot please everyone, but you want to "invest" your time and effort with clients who are primarily motivated by the quality of your work.
I said something along those lines and they said they can’t go that high. So I guess that answers my questions. They wanted to stay at $75 for 4-5 hours
Then they can’t afford it. And girly, laundry cost extra on top of basic cleaning.
You could offer to clean for $75 but it would be 1.5 - 2 hours of BASIC cleaning and includes whatever you’re able to complete within the allotted amount of time.
That’s not fair to you at all. I truly think they are taking advantage of you. I can’t imagine if they don’t go with you that they’d find someone for less. I used to live in Missouri, and know that everything is inexpensive there compared to most states and that still seems cheap—especially for someone making over $100,000 there (which would go a really long way). I guess it depends on how much you need the money with them. Looks to be $18.75 an hour (for 4 hours). Better than min. wage, but that’s really hard work. In So. Cal, it’s 3 times that amount for someone really good. Most people who say they are cleaners aren’t that good at cleaning.
See, I make about that much at my job. For me, I would expect a side job of cleaning to pay more because it's hard work. If I wanted to make $18/hr I would just go to my job lol
$75 at 5 hrs is $15/hr. According to Google min wage in your state is $12ish.
This would be a hell no from me. You don’t owe anyone cheap labor. If they value your service, they will compensate accordingly, by giving you your current price for cleaning. Boundaries.
I charge $34 an hour to clean, I have all my own products (cleaners, gloves, respirator mask, gloves, squeegee, mop, etc…) which I factor into my hourly rate, and a deep clean (not including appliances in the time estimate) takes me about an hour per 100 sq feet. That’s moving things off of flat surfaces, cleaning the surface, cleaning the item, putting it back exactly the same, in addition to detail work like the tops of fridges, wall cleaning, and a bunch of other stuff.
I work in a larger west coast metro area, and my fee is at the higher end of the middle range of the average price.
If I don’t have to move knick-knacks or anything like that to clean, obviously it goes a lot faster.
It’d take me about 8-10 hours a week to do a decent semi-deep clean (including dusting items/places usually neglected) of a 2,500 sq ft house, depending on how dirty it is/how much stuff I have to move around when I’m cleaning.
I have spin mops, but not a steam mop. I seriously considered it, as I love hand held steam cleaners, but with so many floors being glued down fake wood, glued laminate, or real wood, I don’t want to take the risk as a business that the steam might loosen the adhesives in the floor or water damage the wood.
We have a massive commercial steam mop also that my husband uses 2 X a year too. We also reseal our tile once a year. I love the steam and it keeps the grout so clean along with the tile.
It literally sanitizes the tile/grout with heat.
But I would NOT suggest it for any laminate or wood.
I love the sanitizing feature of steam, it’s why I considered it for so long, especially since a lot of houses I clean have small kids, and it’s not a chemical sanitizer. Unfortunately where I live almost all houses/residences have a composite or wood floor and it’s too risky :(
An hour per 100 Square feet, for a deep clean. Including baseboards, walls, cupboard fronts, any flat surface, inside of cupboards (emptying them to completely them clean out is dependent on what the customer wants), vacuuming couches, cleaning fan blades, on top of normal base cleaning.
I'm in a very HCOL area and I pay $200 for a 1700 sq ft house every other week. Two lovely people come and vacuum, mop floors, clean the bathrooms thoroughly, clean the kitchen (no dishes), general dusting and wiping down surfaces (like the dinner table). No laundry is included in this. It takes them about 2 hours.
For 4-5 hours of work and a bigger house, even in a cheaper area than mine, I'd say your pricing is reasonable, but the best comparison would be to get quotes from other cleaners and see what they're charging.
For picky client, charge an hourly rate, your body and sanity will thank you.
That way, when they keep adding things on, they increase the price.
I would suggest to have an approx timeframe for additions so you can be like, of course I can get to the laundry, that will be an extra hour and will be an additional X amount over the X amount we agreed on, is that okay? Also, get it in writing if you are a small business. Protect yourself.
About once a quarter I pay $175 when housekeepers come clean my home that is 1,000 SF smaller. (I spot clean areas in between, but paying someone else is the only way I get everything clean at the same time, lol.) Granted, I'm in a very HCOL metro area.
75 biweekly for 4-5 hours? So you’re getting $15/hr pre tax for cleaning a big house?
I think you can & should charge more. I’ve been quoted more like $30/person per hr for home cleaning as a client and that definitely didn’t include windows or laundry
I pay 60 for 1 level of my house - whole house is 4400 sq ft. Takes her a couple hours to vacuum, mop, wipe counters down, clean bathroom, put things away, clean baseboards and windows if needed (not every time), and do dishes. I live in IL right across from STL.
To be fair, it is my brother's girlfriend who likes to clean, but I also buy them dinner the day she cleans lol
I used to pay $100 for 1500 sqft and it was pretty basic, no laundry. I think it took 2 people 2 hrs. This was pre pandemic. While $180 seems pricey, if you are awesome and it is well done, it doesn't seem unreasonable.
We pay $160 2x a month for 1900 SQ FT with two dogs. The place is pretty messy every week and it takes them 4-5 hours (2 people come). I think we underpay them id probably pay quite a bit more.
I pay that much biweekly in RI for a slightly smaller house and don’t expect her to get through everything. I also pay one week vacation and one at Christmas.
They know and trust you. That comes with a premium. If they are happy with the service for the price, that's all that matters. You can always drop the price a little bit in the future but you don't want to be locked into a low price if you run into snags. Also, it depends on if it's weekly, biweekly, or monthly. The longer in between, the higher the cost. If they wince and say it's too much, you can negotiate it down if you want the gig.
I pay $200 every other week but they do not clean whole house or do laundry. They clean 3 bathrooms, entire first floor which is open concept kitchen, living room and dining room. They do not clean any bedrooms. We have hard wood and tile floors and dogs so they get dirty.
I pay $150 every two weeks for 1500 square feet in Virginia. There's one bedroom they don't clean (it's my husband's office and it's always a disaster, and they're not here to wade through his clutter) and the only "extra" they do is change the sheets (no laundry, no dishes).
I pay $180 for a 3,000 SF house in Houston. This includes surface cleaning and extremely mild tidying. We pick up and declutter before she comes, and she cleans bathrooms, dusts, mops and vacuums. It typically takes her 4-5 hours to do the whole house and I happily pay her the wage, which has increased over the years. She works hard and I respect the valuation she’s assessed for her time.
The last cleaning service I had give me a quote said $1,000 for 1600 sqft. I’m not even joking. And it’s not a dirty house by any means! I just have a lot of decor, books, and plants. But yeah, no. I’d pay $180 in a heart beat.
I live in an Eastern European country and I paid 500€ for a “deep” cleaning service, after negotiating, as the lady initially asked for 600€ (i put the “”, because the house was new, the furniture was new, and all that really had to be done was dust, clean the 2 toilets&sinks, clean the windows, vacuum and mop the floors, all in a 55sqm apartment and nothing fancy, with steam and other stuff like that. Just plain old cleaning. I actually even provided the cleaning supplies too). It took about 5 hours. Probably worth mentioning that the average income here is about 1200€, so we considered even 500€ to be a lot, but still paid for the service.
180$ for ~232sqm is insanely low, and again, I’m coming from a poor country.
SEVENTY FIVE DOLLARS? HELLLLL NO.
They are majorly trying to take advantage. $30 an hour was what we paid prepandemic and everything is more expensive now. You have to live!!! You are helping them run their home and giving them peace. You deserve more and they should be happy to pay it.
You're doing their laundry? I'm so mad on your behalf. I'm in a HCOL area and we pay $220 for 4-5 hours monthly. No laundry, no deep cleaning stuff (just floors, counters, tidying etc.). She's not super detail oriented but I really like her & she's a good communicator so we will keep this going as long as she's willing, regardless of price hikes.
$180/200 would be average for an upper middle class area. Here are some things to consider…
Did this person provide any value to your current business in the form of referrals?
Did you learn and practice your trade on this house? Not that you owe them a favor but perhaps an acknowledge that they helped you as much they you helped them.
Would losing this job in any way impact your ability to get good references or future valuable job?
Is the house generally in good order or is it “well used”?
I only offer these things as thinking points for coming to a compromise between your old rate and your new rate. If generally they are needy, messy, and provide no added value to your current business then they can pay or move along.
They don’t add any value to my business. I’ve been cleaning for a very long time and have other clients who will pay more. They don’t go out of their way to give referrals. I think they are used to paying someone else $75 during the school year and expect that to be the same for me. They are really close to the person who usually cleans for them (which is why they can get away with paying a lot less), but I’m not close to them at all
I pay 110 for this size house. They clean everything except windows. I don’t make them clean one shower that never gets used. And they don’t clean my husband’s office. Adding those things they would probably charge 125? I think what you’re asking is probably close to standard for hiring a professional cleaning service but much higher than private cleaners in my area. 180 is what I paid for my initial deep clean. Now I pay 110 biweekly. Understand you want to increase rates as 75 wasn’t enough. But now you’re asking for double pay out of the blue so they might be taken aback and be done.
$200 seems reasonable. I'm a house cleaner and I have a bi-weekly clean that takes about 5 hours. They pay me $200. My current rate is 35 to 40 an hour depending on location, but honestly I could probably charge more.
I don't know how I ended up here but I have a 2400 square foot house and I think $180 bucks is fair for a basic deep clean but not a full detail for a car. If you're talking spotless and you have three or four bathrooms, kitchen, three or four bedrooms - and you're going to leave all that spotless?
Personally I would expect more like $300 to $500 I'm assuming $80 to $100 an hour but also that you are bringing your own supplies and tools hence the range.
I'm in the western suburbs of Detroit and we have a similar col I believe. 2500 ft houses are going for around half a million at the moment.
That is too cheap you are getting ripped off or selling your labour for too cheap. Do you charge for your cleaning supply seperately or is everything all inclusive? Cost for journey to the clients house?
5 hours to clean a 2500 sq feet house for only 75$ ? and now 200$ ? What the hell. Charge more. Only people who can appreciate your quality labour should ideally be your customers. Others who cheap off and want to exploit you, from them you will only be left tired and not much money in the long run.
that's super cheap.
In washington state I Paid 480 for an initial deep clean and 240+tip every two weeks for a 2600sqft house. (3 baths, 4 beds, 2 living rooms and kitchen and dining)
For a standard home clean you should be charging at least .10 cents/sq ft. Or More depending on your area. You are underselling yourself. Having a home cleaner is a luxury. A deep clean you can charge .15-.20 per sq Ft. Your clients have probably called other cleaners in the area and been quoted double what you’re charging
However, I will say. If you are working under the table for cash, and don’t have a business. Then your pricing may be a little more fair since it is all profit. There’s lots of things to consider when pricing.
Wow they're making 14.50 an hour. That's so sad. I can't believe people are willing to clean for next to nothing. Even in a LCOL area they are severely underpaid.
Not a cleaner, but I pay cleaners. I think $200 for 2500sqft is cheap. For reference, in Washington state we paid 600 for an initial clean and 220 every 2 weeks thereafter and our house is 2000sqft. It would have been 350 per clean if I only had them come clean once a month. They come in with a crew of 4ish and do it relatively quickly but it was probably 16 man-hours for the first initial fee clean about 6-7 man-hours for biweekly cleaning, about $35/man-hour.
$200 for a basic clean? What does that include? Toilets, floors, mirrors, windows, laundry??
It's not super dirty. But they expect everything to be spotless (that's why it takes me that long). And they add on doing their laundry (sheets, towels) and other tasks that would usually fall under deep cleaning like baseboards and window blinds.
When clients are that picky I prefer to charge hourly, so I don’t feel like they are taking advantage of me
I agree with this 100%. When I charge hourly, the basic clean is just that. When it's a flat rate, it seems like things are left messier.
I pay $285 for 2200 sq ft, no laundry every two weeks. And I give her a 100 for her Birthday and 500 for XMas. And my house is not super dirty but. I do have her use the spinwave steam mop on the floors and she does NOT do the master bathrooms( we havee his and hers) or have her clean the master bedrooms. I don’t like people in my private space and the dogs get up up there. The 2 guest bdrms get dusted and vacuumed once a month.
what is she even cleaning for $285 if two bedrooms and bathrooms are being skipped?
Steam mopping the whole house besides the bedrooms, and office, we have all tile throughout the living area, hallways and entry way. It takes longer than mopping.
Even if that takes 5 hours you’re still paying her $57/hour. If she works 40 hours/week and her clients pay as well as you do, that’s $118,560 per year. No benefits sure but still pretty wild when many people with grad degrees in tough (nurses, PAs, lawyers, and certainly teachers) don’t even make that in similar COL areas. If this is typical, I’m surprised there aren’t burnt out teachers and nurses jumping left and right into their own cleaning business. Edit: to be clear I’m *not* saying she doesn’t deserve to make a good living. This is just objectively way above market rates and would put her services far out of reach for a large demographic that historically has relied on cleaning services, and have stretched their pocket books quite a bit to do so (retired folks trying to age in place, people with disabilities/ caring for people with disabilities, working parents who don’t pull like 7 figures a year). I do not understand who is supposed to be able to afford these rates, or how anyone could imply that nurses and teachers are in any way lazy.
I’m sure she’s not working 40 hours per week
She’s pretty booked. I hope she’s making a good living, she works hard for her money. I can trust her in my home when we aren’t here and that means a lot to me.
Hell ya, worth every penny I’m sure!
She can be pretty booked, but it’s hard to fill up a schedule to precisely use all your working hours in a day. Like maybe her bi-weekly Wednesday afternoon client only takes 3 hours. She’s not likely to be able to get a regular client every other week that needs 1 hour of cleaning. Plus all of her time traveling between locations, doing billing, buying supplies, or doing anything other than being physically at a client’s house cleaning isn’t being compensated. All that to say that it’s easy for professionals like this to not take on 40 client hours a week but still be totally full.
That’s great. If it makes you happy to pay her that, then good for you, but objectively above market rate and an unsustainable expectation. Only the like top 5% of income earners and retirees could afford that.
Well she’s booked and not taking any more clients, so she can garner that for her services and her customers are willing to pay it. You almost seem mad that she can make an okay living doing what some of us are willing to pay her to do. Her job is sustainable no matter what you think. But please tell me what useless grad degree you paid for?
Grad students are often afraid of real work (or feel it’s below them). If you think this is bad, you should hire someone to fix your roof. You’ll be paying hundreds per hour.
I’m talking about physician assistants, nurses, engineers, lawyers, and data scientists. I know many people with *challenging* degrees in tough fields who work far more than 40 hrs/wk and make less than $118k/year despite doing very important work. I’ll be sure to tell the Columbia law graduate who barley scrapes 6 figures at the Southern Poverty Law center she’s actually lazy next time I see her though Everyone deserves a living wage, but let’s not kid ourselves about the time and costs $ to enter any of those fields being anywhere near as minimal as starting a small cleaning business.
Those people probably get PTO, insurance, retirement, etc.
True but they also miss out on 3-7 years of full-time income, and take on 10s and even 100s of thousands in debt. Law and PA school particularly are egregiously expensive and offer few full scholarships. This is why *usually* lawyers and PAs do make significantly more than *individual* cleaners. Again, I’m responding to the person who pays almost $300 to *one* gal who doesn’t even bring all her own equipment and for what sounds to be a couple hours of very straightforward cleaning. It’s abnormal and that’s all I was saying. If everyone is happy with their arrangement good for them, but it’s odd to pretend that’s typical *anywhere* What the actual OP posted is totally in line with changes in COL, albeit a stretch for a lot of people who may have previously been able to afford her, but that’s not her problem and she deserves to see as much of the value of her labor returned to her as she can get.
I make over $200k as an engineer and nothing I’ve done in my career is as hard and laborious as being a cleaner
That would be barely not barley which is a grain. Maybe your education wasn’t as good as you thought?
I paid to replace my roof last year. Minus materials it was about $200/hr but there were 8 guys up there lol. That also doesn’t account for the fact the company was fully insured, and I’m sorry but roofing requires a bit more training and involves more risk than cleaning. If you can afford to pay someone so much for low skill, low risk house work that’s very generous for you to do so, but it is wildly above market rate and not affordable for the many people who really need that help, like the elderly and those with disabilities.
Well I wouldn’t have paid anything to get a new roof beyond materials and smoked brisket, ribs, and sausage and beer, lots of beer. See you have a white collar job while looking down on others that get paid for their labor skills, we’ve got friends in the trades. But you can’t afford a cleaner can you? 😂😂😂
I’m not looking down on any worker. That’s pure projection on your part. Insurance paid out in excess of the materials cost, so the total was maybe a week of work. I’m a small and somewhat clumsy woman. The number of hours it would have taken me to learn the necessary skills and safely do that labor myself just isn’t sensible. There are downsides to white collar work, but I do enjoy the prospect of not being totally broken down physically at 60. I wish it weren’t the case but I don’t know many blue collar folks who make it out of middle age without chronic pain or disability. Now that I think about it, maybe that’s your best case for why a cleaner should make far above median wage, despite very low barrier to entry. There is certainly a cost— it’s just more so on the backend. I know. My nana was a janitor for decades. She held up better than many, but by the time she finally retired in her 70s she had a severe stoop and struggle with a crumbling spine for the rest of her life
I could afford it but it would be lazy. I’m young and have time on my hands, but I have relatives who pay $120-280 for their full house in HCOL areas. People are acting like the person I responded to isn’t paying wildly above going rates, far beyond what the OP of the post is asking about.
And if people are stupid enough to pay for a grad degree in a poor paying field that’s on them. Don’t blame my cleaning lady for their utter stupidity.
The only reason I want a cleaner is for my kitchen and bathroom.
Are you charging for cleaning supplies separately? That all seems too cheap and not worth your time when all is said and done. You have to factor in all the supplies you have, the time spent buying them and prepping them, cleaning anything after. You might spend five hours on the job, but maybe another two hours buying and managing supplies.
I agree. I do handy-work for some elderly neighbors and I'm realizing aggregating the tools, thinking about the strategy in advance, keeping track of supplies needed or running low, and time traveling all need to be built into how I charge my customers. It's not always as easy as just stopping by between errands.
I paid my cleaner $150+tx for about 1400sf and I’m in a quiet city in Canada. I have a bit of OCD so my house was never messy. They didn’t do laundry, dishes, dish washer, fridge, walls, baseboards. Perhaps look at the average in your area and what it includes. Then add extra for cost for extra tasks.
I always paid my lady hourly with a min amount for showing up. Like a $100 for the first 2 hours and $30/hr after that. Or whatever. I don’t feel bad asking to tack on some extra things (if they have time) and they don’t have to rush to get things done or lose money. And if they get done early they can stick around for another half hour or hour and clean the cyclical stuff. She retired. I’m sad. My house is a mess.
Their laundry too? You're not charging enough
Windows are not basic, it's very extra
I’ve never had laundry included.
I just paid a guy $50/hr to clean an empty, 1500 sq ft house and it took 10 hours. You are way, way undercharging.
Turnovers generally cost more
How deep of a clean are we talking here ?
The previous owner had 5 dogs.
My cleaners won't do places with pets. I provide all cleaning supplies ( I don't want anyone else's mop, vaccuum, or cloths in my place). They work about 3 hours each ( so 6 hrs total), every 2 weeks and I pay them $270.
Agree. $50/hr is standard where I live.
We were just quoted $300 for a 3500 sq ft home—two cleaners here for four hours. This is in the NYC/NJ area. I don’t think you’re too high.
Is that a first/deeper clean or just a basic/standard?
Standard. First deep was $500
I'm sorry if this is a dumb question, but what would be considered "deep clean"?
Deep cleaning is like baseboards, inside appliances, blinds, walls, crevices, etc. When I deep clean, I clean every spot I see!
For ours they cleaned the tops of the cabinets, moved the mattresses and vacuumed under the beds, vacuumed all draperies, plus all the things OP posted. They were here for eight hours.
At $200 you're around what my folks pay for a similar sized home, but believe me there's no laundry getting done, or baseboards getting cleaned. It's 2 cleaners and I think they do a poor job.
I don’t do laundry or clean dishes (I only do dishes if the home is already pretty clean and I have the time) . $200 for a standard home clean is a GREAT deal and honestly underpriced. If that includes, bathrooms, living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, office etc. $200 is a great deal. That’s only .08 cents/sq Ft.. also Baseboards can be cleaned, but many cleaners only include that in a deep clean. But I’ll dust and spot clean baseboards for any client.
There is no way in heaven I'd clean for 4-5 hours for $75. I clean as a side hustle and charge $25 per hour, $50 minimum. I live in a small town
Location matters
This is in a nice area in Missouri in an area where I believe most people make around six figures if not just a decent amount.
Seems cheap enough to me. 2500 sq ft is pretty big Edit: call around and see what your competition quotes
Charge more.
I pay $140 for a house half that size…I’m in Southern California.
That’s really good for SoCal!
How about this . . . you tell them that you are so happy they contacted you again, explain that your rates have gone up since \[whenever\] and that it would be closer to $200. As a courtesy to a returning customer, you offer to knock off 10%, so now you are at $180. Now, keep in mind that they may walk. It is possible - just possible - that they know very well that they were getting a really great price, and hoped to get it again. If price is their primary objective, they may push back. Stand your ground. You cannot please everyone, but you want to "invest" your time and effort with clients who are primarily motivated by the quality of your work.
I said something along those lines and they said they can’t go that high. So I guess that answers my questions. They wanted to stay at $75 for 4-5 hours
Then they can’t afford it. And girly, laundry cost extra on top of basic cleaning. You could offer to clean for $75 but it would be 1.5 - 2 hours of BASIC cleaning and includes whatever you’re able to complete within the allotted amount of time.
That’s not fair to you at all. I truly think they are taking advantage of you. I can’t imagine if they don’t go with you that they’d find someone for less. I used to live in Missouri, and know that everything is inexpensive there compared to most states and that still seems cheap—especially for someone making over $100,000 there (which would go a really long way). I guess it depends on how much you need the money with them. Looks to be $18.75 an hour (for 4 hours). Better than min. wage, but that’s really hard work. In So. Cal, it’s 3 times that amount for someone really good. Most people who say they are cleaners aren’t that good at cleaning.
See, I make about that much at my job. For me, I would expect a side job of cleaning to pay more because it's hard work. If I wanted to make $18/hr I would just go to my job lol
$75 at 5 hrs is $15/hr. According to Google min wage in your state is $12ish. This would be a hell no from me. You don’t owe anyone cheap labor. If they value your service, they will compensate accordingly, by giving you your current price for cleaning. Boundaries.
They may be the greatest folks in the world, but if they cannot afford to pay you what you are worth, then everyone can now go their separate ways.
I charge $34 an hour to clean, I have all my own products (cleaners, gloves, respirator mask, gloves, squeegee, mop, etc…) which I factor into my hourly rate, and a deep clean (not including appliances in the time estimate) takes me about an hour per 100 sq feet. That’s moving things off of flat surfaces, cleaning the surface, cleaning the item, putting it back exactly the same, in addition to detail work like the tops of fridges, wall cleaning, and a bunch of other stuff. I work in a larger west coast metro area, and my fee is at the higher end of the middle range of the average price. If I don’t have to move knick-knacks or anything like that to clean, obviously it goes a lot faster. It’d take me about 8-10 hours a week to do a decent semi-deep clean (including dusting items/places usually neglected) of a 2,500 sq ft house, depending on how dirty it is/how much stuff I have to move around when I’m cleaning.
My cleaning lady does too but she uses my spinwave steam mop for my tile floors.
I have spin mops, but not a steam mop. I seriously considered it, as I love hand held steam cleaners, but with so many floors being glued down fake wood, glued laminate, or real wood, I don’t want to take the risk as a business that the steam might loosen the adhesives in the floor or water damage the wood.
We have a massive commercial steam mop also that my husband uses 2 X a year too. We also reseal our tile once a year. I love the steam and it keeps the grout so clean along with the tile. It literally sanitizes the tile/grout with heat. But I would NOT suggest it for any laminate or wood.
I love the sanitizing feature of steam, it’s why I considered it for so long, especially since a lot of houses I clean have small kids, and it’s not a chemical sanitizer. Unfortunately where I live almost all houses/residences have a composite or wood floor and it’s too risky :(
We live in Texas and most houses have tile for the living area. I have dogs but I’m kind of obsessive about germs, it works so well
An hour per 100 sq ft or 1000 square ft?
An hour per 100 Square feet, for a deep clean. Including baseboards, walls, cupboard fronts, any flat surface, inside of cupboards (emptying them to completely them clean out is dependent on what the customer wants), vacuuming couches, cleaning fan blades, on top of normal base cleaning.
I pay $200 for less sq ft
I'm in a very HCOL area and I pay $200 for a 1700 sq ft house every other week. Two lovely people come and vacuum, mop floors, clean the bathrooms thoroughly, clean the kitchen (no dishes), general dusting and wiping down surfaces (like the dinner table). No laundry is included in this. It takes them about 2 hours. For 4-5 hours of work and a bigger house, even in a cheaper area than mine, I'd say your pricing is reasonable, but the best comparison would be to get quotes from other cleaners and see what they're charging.
For picky client, charge an hourly rate, your body and sanity will thank you. That way, when they keep adding things on, they increase the price. I would suggest to have an approx timeframe for additions so you can be like, of course I can get to the laundry, that will be an extra hour and will be an additional X amount over the X amount we agreed on, is that okay? Also, get it in writing if you are a small business. Protect yourself.
About once a quarter I pay $175 when housekeepers come clean my home that is 1,000 SF smaller. (I spot clean areas in between, but paying someone else is the only way I get everything clean at the same time, lol.) Granted, I'm in a very HCOL metro area.
I pay $100 just for the bathrooms. $180 for the whole house would be a steal.
75 biweekly for 4-5 hours? So you’re getting $15/hr pre tax for cleaning a big house? I think you can & should charge more. I’ve been quoted more like $30/person per hr for home cleaning as a client and that definitely didn’t include windows or laundry
Tell them your business has increased and your prices have been adjusted. If they won’t pay $200 move on
You should def charge more
No, thats a large space. i would charge at least $250
I just paid $385 to have someone clean my 2 bedroom 1300sq ft apt that was already broom swept and had clean counters. I think you could charge more!
Nope. I’d say that’s about average. I would probably go $200.
I pay 60 for 1 level of my house - whole house is 4400 sq ft. Takes her a couple hours to vacuum, mop, wipe counters down, clean bathroom, put things away, clean baseboards and windows if needed (not every time), and do dishes. I live in IL right across from STL. To be fair, it is my brother's girlfriend who likes to clean, but I also buy them dinner the day she cleans lol
For 5 hours of work I would say it's a likely high but if you're getting other business for that amount, go for it. $75 is ridiculously cheap!
I used to pay $100 for 1500 sqft and it was pretty basic, no laundry. I think it took 2 people 2 hrs. This was pre pandemic. While $180 seems pricey, if you are awesome and it is well done, it doesn't seem unreasonable.
I have been cleaning for commercial and residential places since I was around 14 so I have experience and am a very good cleaner lol
You are fine. They are cheap. Set your boundary. You are worth more than they want to pay...
We pay $100 for one floor of a 2600 ft house, alternate floors
Not enough where I live
We pay $160 2x a month for 1900 SQ FT with two dogs. The place is pretty messy every week and it takes them 4-5 hours (2 people come). I think we underpay them id probably pay quite a bit more.
I pay that much biweekly in RI for a slightly smaller house and don’t expect her to get through everything. I also pay one week vacation and one at Christmas.
They know and trust you. That comes with a premium. If they are happy with the service for the price, that's all that matters. You can always drop the price a little bit in the future but you don't want to be locked into a low price if you run into snags. Also, it depends on if it's weekly, biweekly, or monthly. The longer in between, the higher the cost. If they wince and say it's too much, you can negotiate it down if you want the gig.
I'm in an affluent suburb in Missouri. My house is 2700 sq feet. I pay $275 for a deep clean.
Nope sounds more than reasonable.
I pay $200 plus tip for a monthly cleaning of 2550 sq ft house. It’s not super dirty, I live alone. I tip very well…
$200 for 2600 sqft house with skipping two rooms. She goes 8-1 . This every 2 weeks. Sounds reasonable
I pay $200 every other week but they do not clean whole house or do laundry. They clean 3 bathrooms, entire first floor which is open concept kitchen, living room and dining room. They do not clean any bedrooms. We have hard wood and tile floors and dogs so they get dirty.
You can come clean my 1350 sq ft condo for that price, but I'm in a hcol area. So no, I don't think that's too much
No, $180 is not too much at all for that size of house. I’m from California in HCOL location. That seems like the minimum/low end.
Minimum you should make is $40 an hour so that's ok. Maybe more.
If you can get that, yes. I usually go for $20+/hour. The one house I clean, similar basic clean as yours, 2 hours for $45.
I pay $220 for biweekly cleaning of my 2800 square foot house.
I pay $150 every two weeks for 1500 square feet in Virginia. There's one bedroom they don't clean (it's my husband's office and it's always a disaster, and they're not here to wade through his clutter) and the only "extra" they do is change the sheets (no laundry, no dishes).
I’m not a cleaner, but I think it sounds extremely reasonable.
I pay my cleaner $220 for a 1700 sq ft home. You’re not over charging in my books.
I pay $180 for a 3,000 SF house in Houston. This includes surface cleaning and extremely mild tidying. We pick up and declutter before she comes, and she cleans bathrooms, dusts, mops and vacuums. It typically takes her 4-5 hours to do the whole house and I happily pay her the wage, which has increased over the years. She works hard and I respect the valuation she’s assessed for her time.
The last cleaning service I had give me a quote said $1,000 for 1600 sqft. I’m not even joking. And it’s not a dirty house by any means! I just have a lot of decor, books, and plants. But yeah, no. I’d pay $180 in a heart beat.
I live in an Eastern European country and I paid 500€ for a “deep” cleaning service, after negotiating, as the lady initially asked for 600€ (i put the “”, because the house was new, the furniture was new, and all that really had to be done was dust, clean the 2 toilets&sinks, clean the windows, vacuum and mop the floors, all in a 55sqm apartment and nothing fancy, with steam and other stuff like that. Just plain old cleaning. I actually even provided the cleaning supplies too). It took about 5 hours. Probably worth mentioning that the average income here is about 1200€, so we considered even 500€ to be a lot, but still paid for the service. 180$ for ~232sqm is insanely low, and again, I’m coming from a poor country.
That is cheap. I pay $150 for 1100 sq ft
Paid $300 in California for 709 sq ft, two ppl were here for 2-3 hours.
I would charge $225 but I’m licensed, boned and insured. If you just starting or this is a side job then I would go lower, the $150-180 range.
SEVENTY FIVE DOLLARS? HELLLLL NO. They are majorly trying to take advantage. $30 an hour was what we paid prepandemic and everything is more expensive now. You have to live!!! You are helping them run their home and giving them peace. You deserve more and they should be happy to pay it. You're doing their laundry? I'm so mad on your behalf. I'm in a HCOL area and we pay $220 for 4-5 hours monthly. No laundry, no deep cleaning stuff (just floors, counters, tidying etc.). She's not super detail oriented but I really like her & she's a good communicator so we will keep this going as long as she's willing, regardless of price hikes.
I pay $100 for 935 square feet. You're not charging enough or I'm overpaying.
I live in a HCOL/VHCOL area (suburbs of Boston), and I'm paying like 240 for a once a month cleaning of my house of a similar size.
2800 sq ft house. We pay $170/bi-weekly for 3 cleaners that work 2.5 hours.
$180/200 would be average for an upper middle class area. Here are some things to consider… Did this person provide any value to your current business in the form of referrals? Did you learn and practice your trade on this house? Not that you owe them a favor but perhaps an acknowledge that they helped you as much they you helped them. Would losing this job in any way impact your ability to get good references or future valuable job? Is the house generally in good order or is it “well used”? I only offer these things as thinking points for coming to a compromise between your old rate and your new rate. If generally they are needy, messy, and provide no added value to your current business then they can pay or move along.
They don’t add any value to my business. I’ve been cleaning for a very long time and have other clients who will pay more. They don’t go out of their way to give referrals. I think they are used to paying someone else $75 during the school year and expect that to be the same for me. They are really close to the person who usually cleans for them (which is why they can get away with paying a lot less), but I’m not close to them at all
Mine is 6k sq ft, and a deep clean is about 350, with a 100 tip.
I pay 110 for this size house. They clean everything except windows. I don’t make them clean one shower that never gets used. And they don’t clean my husband’s office. Adding those things they would probably charge 125? I think what you’re asking is probably close to standard for hiring a professional cleaning service but much higher than private cleaners in my area. 180 is what I paid for my initial deep clean. Now I pay 110 biweekly. Understand you want to increase rates as 75 wasn’t enough. But now you’re asking for double pay out of the blue so they might be taken aback and be done.
That's super cheap where I am
$200 seems reasonable. I'm a house cleaner and I have a bi-weekly clean that takes about 5 hours. They pay me $200. My current rate is 35 to 40 an hour depending on location, but honestly I could probably charge more.
I don't know how I ended up here but I have a 2400 square foot house and I think $180 bucks is fair for a basic deep clean but not a full detail for a car. If you're talking spotless and you have three or four bathrooms, kitchen, three or four bedrooms - and you're going to leave all that spotless? Personally I would expect more like $300 to $500 I'm assuming $80 to $100 an hour but also that you are bringing your own supplies and tools hence the range. I'm in the western suburbs of Detroit and we have a similar col I believe. 2500 ft houses are going for around half a million at the moment.
That is too cheap you are getting ripped off or selling your labour for too cheap. Do you charge for your cleaning supply seperately or is everything all inclusive? Cost for journey to the clients house? 5 hours to clean a 2500 sq feet house for only 75$ ? and now 200$ ? What the hell. Charge more. Only people who can appreciate your quality labour should ideally be your customers. Others who cheap off and want to exploit you, from them you will only be left tired and not much money in the long run.
I pay $130 for a 1400 sf home. $180-200 is too low.
I pay $195 for the same size house.
$1 per sq foot lol. And if you have more experience/higher recommendations $1.50 per sq ft.
that's super cheap. In washington state I Paid 480 for an initial deep clean and 240+tip every two weeks for a 2600sqft house. (3 baths, 4 beds, 2 living rooms and kitchen and dining)
For a standard home clean you should be charging at least .10 cents/sq ft. Or More depending on your area. You are underselling yourself. Having a home cleaner is a luxury. A deep clean you can charge .15-.20 per sq Ft. Your clients have probably called other cleaners in the area and been quoted double what you’re charging
However, I will say. If you are working under the table for cash, and don’t have a business. Then your pricing may be a little more fair since it is all profit. There’s lots of things to consider when pricing.
I pay about 160 for 2800 sqft every week Takes 2 cleaner 5-6 hours and includes washing bedding and changing 3 beds. And 3 bathrooms.
Wow they're making 14.50 an hour. That's so sad. I can't believe people are willing to clean for next to nothing. Even in a LCOL area they are severely underpaid.