Most solo cleaners quote from memory on the drive over, a number that feels roughly right for a house that size. Here are the six things that separate a cleaning quote that holds from one that quietly eats your margin.
1, Pick one pricing method and stick to it
Most solo cleaners price jobs three different ways depending on who is asking, which makes every quote feel improvised. Pick one base method and use it consistently. You can always adjust for the job in front of you, but the starting formula should never change.
Example
A 3 bed, 2 bath home priced at a $35 base fee plus $15 per bedroom and $20 per bathroom comes to $120 for a standard clean.
Bed and bath pricing is the easiest for clients to understand and compare against other quotes. Hourly protects you on the jobs where size alone does not predict how long it will actually take: a cluttered home, a first-time deep clean, anything you have not seen yet.
2, Adjust for the type of clean, not just the size
Square footage and bed and bath count tell you the size of the home. They do not tell you how long it will take. A move-out clean on a 1,600 sq ft house takes meaningfully longer than a standard maintenance visit on the same house. Price the difference, not just the address.
Example
That same $120 standard clean becomes a $180 deep clean at 1.5x, a number you can point to and explain rather than one you made up on the spot.
3, Price add-ons as their own line items, never thrown in
Inside oven. Inside fridge. Interior windows. Cabinets. Laundry. Carpet shampoo. These requests come up constantly, and the instinct is to say yes and absorb them into the base price to keep the client happy. That instinct is what erodes your margin, job after job.
Pro tip
Naming add-ons individually also does the selling for you. A client who sees "Inside oven: $25" understands exactly what they are paying for, instead of wondering why one cleaner's flat rate is higher than another's.
4, Do not fold your trip fee into the cleaning rate
Drive time and fuel are real costs, and they change with every address. Bury them inside your base cleaning rate and that rate either overcharges your close-by clients or underprices your far ones, and you can never tell which without redoing the math from scratch.
A flat trip fee, scaled up for jobs outside your normal radius, keeps your cleaning rate the same everywhere and makes the travel cost visible and fair on every quote.
Example
A $12 trip fee for anything inside your usual 15-minute radius, $25 beyond that. The client reads it as a separate, reasonable line rather than a mystery markup buried in the total.
5, Charge for supplies, with a markup, if you are bringing them
If the client supplies their own products, that is straightforward: no cost to you, nothing to add. But if you are bringing your own solutions, vacuum and microfiber, that is a real recurring business cost. It belongs on the quote, not absorbed into your labor rate.
Example
$12 in supplies at a 20% markup is $14.40 charged. That small margin covers restocking trips and the time spent tracking what is running low, real costs that show up nowhere else on the quote.
6, Turn the math into a quote the client actually trusts
The estimate is your internal math. The quote is what the client sees, and it should read as clearly as a receipt: base clean, add-ons, trip fee, supplies, total. When a client can see where the number comes from, they push back far less than when they are handed a single flat figure.
Pro tip
Put a 14-day validity window on every quote. Supply costs and your own schedule shift, and a quote that expires and gets reissued is a two-minute check rather than a renegotiation.
Run the framework without the spreadsheet
The free cleaning job estimator puts this entire framework into one tool. Pick bed and bath, square footage or hourly pricing, apply the clean-type multiplier, add the extras the job needs, and factor in your trip fee and supplies. You get an itemised, client-ready quote in under two minutes, with no signup.
Frequently asked questions
How do I price a cleaning job for a new client?
Start with one base method: a flat rate by bedroom and bathroom count, a per-square-foot rate, or an hourly rate. Then apply a multiplier for the type of clean, and price any add-ons like inside-oven or interior windows as separate line items.
Should I charge hourly or a flat rate for cleaning jobs?
Flat, bed and bath based rates are easier for clients to compare, and they reward you for working efficiently. Hourly protects you on unpredictable jobs like post-construction or heavily neglected homes. Many solo cleaners quote flat for standard and recurring homes, hourly for one-off or unusual jobs.
What should I charge for a trip fee?
A flat $10 to $25 trip fee is typical for solo cleaners, scaled up for jobs outside your normal service area. Keeping it separate from your cleaning rate means your base pricing stays consistent no matter where the client is located.
Should I charge extra for deep cleans or move-out cleans?
Yes. Deep cleans typically run 1.3 to 1.5x a standard clean's price, move-in and move-out cleans 1.5 to 1.75x, and post-construction cleans 2x or more. They take meaningfully longer and use more product than a routine maintenance visit.
If cleaning is the whole business and you are running it alone, CashWrench for solo cleaners handles what comes after the quote: e-signature by text, recurring clients scheduled automatically, supply costs tracked against each job, and payment on the day.
Stop quoting on the porch. Two months free.
Itemised cleaning quotes with add-ons, trip fees and supplies broken out, sent by text with e-signature. Know your number before you knock.