What a standard house clean actually includes
Cleaning companies describe their work in language that sounds comprehensive and commits to very little. "Full home clean" could mean six things. Here is what the work is, room by room, and where the edges sit.
Kitchen
The visible surfaces and the appliance outsides, not the insides.
- Counters, the sink and the faucets.
- Cooking surfaces and the backsplash within reach.
- Appliance exteriors, including the fridge door and the oven front.
- Cabinet fronts, handles and the marks around them.
- Floors, including the edges and under anything light enough to move.
Bathrooms
The room most people judge the whole visit on.
- Toilets inside and out, including the base and behind the seat.
- Showers, tubs, screens and faucets.
- Sinks, vanities and mirrors.
- Reachable vent covers.
- Floors, including behind the door.
Living spaces and bedrooms
Floors vacuumed and washed, reachable surfaces and ledges dusted, mirrors and interior glass, and the handles and switches that collect marks. Beds made, or the sheets changed if you leave clean ones out.
Bins emptied with fresh liners. Not glamorous, consistently appreciated.
What is almost always extra
None of these are unreasonable to charge for. They are just slow, and a visit priced without them cannot absorb them.
- Oven interiors and fridge interiors, $15 each on our card and typically an add-on everywhere.
- Interior windows, from $39 for five and $7 for each one after.
- Pet hair removal, $15, because it changes how long floors and soft surfaces take.
- Laundry, $15 for a wash and fold.
What nobody includes
Walls, ceilings, light fittings above standing reach and anything needing a ladder sit outside a residential visit almost universally, for insurance reasons as much as time. Carpet steam cleaning, mould remediation and post-construction work are separate trades.
Clearing clutter is also not cleaning. A blocked surface gets cleaned around rather than unpacked, and that is true of every company you will book.
Three questions worth asking
Ask what is excluded, not what is included. Ask how long the visit is booked for. Ask what happens if the home needs longer than that, and whether you are told before or after it happens.
The answers take thirty seconds and they tell you more than any amount of website copy.
See your price before you talk to anyone.
The whole rate card is published, and the estimate form shows your flat rate before it asks for a name, a number or an address. Nothing is booked when you submit it.
See my price ↗