Before you book your first client, you need to decide what kind of cleaning work you’ll do. This decision determines whether you build a stable business or end up exhausted and broke.
Many new cleaners say yes to everything. Move-out cleans, emergency jobs, vacation rentals with impossible deadlines. Within months they’re working unpredictable hours for unstable income. There’s a better way. Focus on regular home cleaning for repeat clients. Build predictable routines instead of chasing one-off jobs.
This chapter shows you how to build a professional business around recurring clients who stay with you for years.
What You Will Learn
- Why regular maintenance cleaning creates stable income and predictable schedules
- How to handle first cleans without charging deep clean premiums
- What cleaning schedules actually work for part-time and full-time income
- Which types of cleaning work to avoid and why
- How to specialize in nicer homes with regular clients
Why Regular Home Cleaning Works
When you accept every job, your schedule is chaos. Your earnings fluctuate wildly. You’re constantly marketing to find next week’s work.
Focus on regular maintenance cleaning instead. These clients want the same person in their home each visit. Someone who knows their preferences, their pets, their routines. They stay with you for years.
This approach gives you:
- Predictable recurring income – You know exactly what you’ll earn next month
- Consistent weekly routine – Same clients, same days, same times
- Reduced marketing – Once your schedule is full, you’re done advertising
- Long-term referrals – Happy clients become your best marketing
Regular House Cleaning: Your Core Service
Maintenance cleaning is your primary service. These are ongoing visits that keep homes consistently clean. Dusting, vacuuming, mopping, wiping surfaces, bathrooms, kitchens. Most clients book weekly or every two weeks.
Your First Clean With a New Client
Your first visit takes longer than later ones. Many cleaners charge $200-$300 extra for a deep clean. That’s a mistake.
Charge the same rate for every visit. Manage expectations for the first few cleans instead.
When you meet a new client, explain your rate is $130 per visit. For the first two or three visits, use staged cleaning. Agree together on one or two areas that can wait. Maybe the spare bedroom or basement. Focus your time on daily-use spaces: kitchen, main bathrooms, primary bedroom, living areas.
Second visit, tackle the missed rooms. By visit three or four, everything is up to standard and you’re maintaining the entire home efficiently.
Why this works:
- Simple pricing – Clients know exactly what they’ll pay every time
- Balances over time – Early visits take longer, but you get faster as you learn the home
- Easy sign-ups – Clients don’t face double fees for their first month
- Marketing advantage – Everyone else charges premiums for deep cleans. You don’t.
Vacation Cleans
When clients go on vacation, they usually cancel their cleaner. This cuts your income.
Offer vacation cleans instead. The house won’t be as dirty, so pitch it like this: “While you’re away we’ll open windows, let in fresh air, do our regular maintenance clean plus deep clean the kitchen and bathroom. We’ll even bring in any mail or parcels.”
This keeps your income stable with a service nobody else offers.
Spring or Annual Deep Cleans
Some regular clients want intensive cleaning once or twice per year. Offer these to existing clients for 50% more than your standard rate. This provides seasonal income without disrupting your regular schedule.
What About Other Types of Cleaning Work?
You’ll encounter other opportunities. Here’s why you should decline them:
- Vacation rental cleaning – Brutal turnarounds (guests check out at 11 AM, new ones arrive at 2 PM), unpredictable scheduling, weekend work. No repeat business.
- Move-in/move-out cleans – No repeat business, heavy cleaning under time pressure, landlords expect premium results at bargain prices. You might show up to a house full of junk.
- Builder and renovation cleans – Physically demanding, hard on equipment, builders delay payments. Not ideal for beginners.
- Commercial cleaning – After-hours work conflicts with lifestyle flexibility. You’re competing against large established companies.
- One-off emergency cleans – Disrupt your schedule, no repeat business, usually bargain hunters.
Focus on regular residential clients in nice homes. Build your reputation there.
Home Cleaning Schedules That Work
A professional schedule balances earnings, energy, and personal time. You decide when you work. Schedule a regular day off for meeting prospective clients, handling special requests, and providing flexibility. Here are two examples.
Schedule 1: School-Hours Routine (Ideal for Parents)
Monday through Thursday:
9:00 AM – 11:00 AM: Morning clean (Client 1)
11:00 AM – 11:30 AM: Travel and short break
11:30 AM – 1:30 PM: Second clean (Client 2)
1:30 PM – 2:00 PM: Lunch and travel home
2:00 PM – 3:00 PM: Light admin or errands
Friday: Day off for errands, admin, or meeting prospective clients
Total: 8 cleans per week (2 per day × 4 days)
Income: 8 cleans × $130 = $1,040 per week ($4,000 per month or approximately $50,000 per year)
This is part-time work. You’re done by 2 PM four days per week. But it provides genuine stable income while maintaining complete schedule control.
Note: depending on when you need to pick up the kids you might even be able to fit in a third daily clean giving you a $1,560 weekly income.
Schedule 2: Full-Time Routine
Monday through Thursday:
8:00 AM – 10:00 AM: First clean
10:15 AM – 12:15 PM: Second clean
12:15 PM – 12:45 PM: Lunch break
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM: Third clean
3:15 PM – 5:15 PM: Fourth clean
Friday: Morning for optional work, afternoon for admin or rest
Total: 16 cleans per week (4 per day × 4 days)
Income: 16 cleans × $130 = $2,080 per week ($8,000 per month or $95,000–$100,000 per year)
You’re working four full days per week, maintaining weekends completely free, and earning six figures as a solo operator with complete control over your schedule.
Understanding Your Rates
The $130 figure represents an average two-hour professional home cleaning rate in many developed markets. This typically equates to $60-70 per hour.
Your ideal rate depends on where you operate. Here’s a framework:
$50/hour → $100 per home → ~$800/week – Smaller towns, starting out
$60–$70/hour → $120–$140 per home → ~$960–$1,120/week – Mid-range professional pricing
$75–$80/hour → $150+ per home → $1,200+/week – High-end or premium market
Tips for Rate Setting:
- Research local competitors, but don’t underprice yourself. Even as a beginner, position yourself as a professional service. Charge near the top of the local range.
- Adjust annually. Increase rates by 3-5% per year to reflect experience, quality, and inflation. Loyal clients accept reasonable increases.
- Don’t apologize for professional rates. When you deliver excellent service consistently, clients are happy to pay fairly. Many clients won’t book you if your prices are too low.
The Value of Specializing
The most successful solo cleaners are specialists. They focus on regular, well-kept homes in nice neighborhoods. They develop reputations for quality, consistency, and discretion. They often won’t do one-off cleans, preferring to work exclusively with clients who want regular schedules.
This selective approach creates a professional lifestyle business. One that supports financial independence and personal freedom.
Key Takeaways
- Specializing builds reputation, loyalty, and control over your workload. Most cleaners try to be everything to everyone and end up stressed, underpaid, and burned out. You’re building something specific for someone specific. That’s how you build something sustainable and profitable.
- Regular home cleaning provides stable, repeatable income you can budget around and plan your life with.
- Two-hour cleans with proper travel and lunch breaks create a sustainable workweek.
- Consistent pricing builds better client relationships and balances out over time as you gain efficiency.
- Even part-time schedules deliver strong annual income. $50,000 working school hours is entirely achievable.
- Say yes to regular recurring residential cleaning in well-maintained homes where homeowners value quality and reliability.
- Say no to one-off deep cleans, move-in/move-out work, vacation rental turnovers, last-minute emergency cleans, and bargain hunters.
- Every one-off job you take is time you could spend serving or finding a regular client.
- Build a boutique residential cleaning business focused on regular, high-quality clients who value consistency and professionalism. Don’t compete on price. Compete on quality, reliability, and trust.