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Residential cleaning

A residential cleaning business sells cleaning visits to households — often on a weekly, every-other-week or monthly schedule, plus one-time deep cleans and move-in or move-out jobs. Recurring clients make the work steadier, but each visit still takes your time and travel.

Updated

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A cleaning professional wipes a sunlit kitchen counter beside a caddy of supplies.
Illustrative scene. The people and business are fictional.

What the public data shows

U.S. businesses with no employees in the Census Bureau’s Janitorial Services category (NAICS 56172), 2023.

Close match — Includes commercial janitorial work as well as house cleaning.

Businesses with no employees
1,095,927
The middle business took in
$10,000–$24,999
in sales for the year, before expenses
Average sales per business
$20,785
pulled up by a few large ones

How much these businesses took in, 2023

  • Under $5,00022%
  • $5,000–$9,99920%
  • $10,000–$24,99938%
  • $25,000–$49,99913%
  • $50,000–$99,9995%
  • $100,000–$249,9992%
  • $250,000–$499,999<1%
  • $500,000–$999,999<1%
  • $1,000,000–$2,499,999<1%
  • $2,500,000–$4,999,9990%
  • $5,000,000 or more0%

80% took in less than $25,000 for the whole year — many are side or part-time businesses. If you plan to do this full time, your plan needs sales well above the middle. The local plan works out exactly how much.

What these numbers are — and aren’t. Sales (receipts) before any expenses: not profit, and not what the owner takes home. Counts every business with no paid employees that filed a tax return, including side businesses. The Census Bureau adds a small amount of noise to protect privacy. Businesses with employees aren’t included.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2023 (released 2025) (data files), retrieved 2026-10-31.

Main caution: Your own labor is the business. If your price only covers supplies and travel, you’re working for free — the plan prices your time in.

What running this business involvesWhat the owner does, who buys, how customers are won, and the demands on your time

What the owner actually does

  • Cleaning homes to an agreed checklist, and doing it consistently visit after visit
  • Quoting jobs: walking through or asking about size, condition, pets and frequency
  • Scheduling routes so travel time between homes stays low
  • Buying and restocking supplies and maintaining equipment
  • Billing, collecting payment and following up on missed payments
  • If you hire: recruiting, training, checking quality and covering absences

Who buys

  • Busy working households and families
  • Older adults who want help keeping up a home
  • Landlords, property managers and short-term rental hosts between guests
  • People moving in or out, and real-estate agents preparing listings

How customers are won

  • Referrals and reviews — trust matters because you’re inside people’s homes
  • Local search listings, neighborhood groups and community boards
  • Converting one-time deep cleans into recurring visits
  • Relationships with property managers, rental hosts and real-estate agents

Demands on your time and skills

  • Physically demanding work: lifting, bending, stairs and repetitive motion
  • Reliability is the product — clients notice missed or late visits quickly
  • Travel time between homes is unpaid unless your price covers it
  • Growing beyond your own hours means hiring, training and supervising

What it costs to run

These are the categories to price with local quotes. The plan lists every one of them for you.

Every job

  • Cleaning supplies used per visit
  • Travel (fuel, mileage, parking)
  • Helper or subcontractor pay per visit
  • Wear on vacuums, mops and cloths
  • Other per-visit costs

Every month

  • General liability insurance (and bond, if you carry one)
  • Vehicle (business share)
  • Phone and internet
  • Scheduling, invoicing and payment software
  • Ongoing marketing
  • Bookkeeping and tax preparation
  • Staff pay (fixed), if any
  • Other monthly costs

To start

  • Vacuum, mops, caddies and other equipment
  • First stock of supplies
  • Business registration and local licenses
  • Website, logo and booking page
  • Training or certification
  • Uniforms and other one-time costs

Cash to keep in reserve

  • Living costs while recurring clients build up
  • Replacing equipment that breaks mid-week
  • Covering pay for any helpers before clients pay you

Your own pay is part of the cost, too. The plan works out the price that covers it — or start with how much to charge for residential cleaning.

Licenses, insurance and rules to check locally

Requirements differ by state, county and city. Check two layers:

1. Your own license, if the work needs one

Some work needs a personal license or certificate (a food-handler card, for example). Search the CareerOneStop License Finder (US Department of Labor) for your kind of work and state.

2. Business licenses, permits and insurance

Start with the SBA: Apply for licenses and permits guide, then your city or county. Questions to answer:

  • Does your city or county require a general business license or registration?
  • What general liability insurance do clients, landlords or property managers expect you to carry?
  • Will you carry a janitorial or surety bond? Some clients ask for one.
  • If you hire employees, what are your state’s rules for workers’ compensation, payroll taxes and new-hire reporting?
  • If you use helpers as independent contractors, do they actually qualify? Misclassifying employees has tax and legal consequences.
  • Does your state charge sales tax on cleaning services?

Check local prices before you set yours

Get three real prices from residential cleaning businesses near you, the way a customer would: their websites, a quote request, local listings and review sites, or neighborhood groups. Note what each price includes. Enter them in your local plan — it shows where your price sits and whether your costs leave room to compete.

Common pitfalls, and alternatives worth considering

Common pitfalls

  • Pricing per visit without counting travel time and the time spent selling and quoting
  • Underestimating first visits and deep cleans, which take far longer than recurring ones
  • Losing a day’s income to a last-minute cancellation with no cancellation policy
  • Damage or breakage in a client’s home without the right insurance
  • Growing faster than you can hire and train people you trust

Alternatives worth considering

  • Specialize: move-out cleans, short-term rentals or post-construction cleanup
  • Offer commercial or office cleaning, with different hours and contracts
  • Work for an established cleaning company first to learn pricing and pace
  • Compare a cleaning franchise with going independent

Test demand before you spend

Offer recurring cleaning at your real price to people who match your customer — not discounted favors for friends. Track how many quotes turn into booked, paid visits.

Decide your pass mark before you start — for example, 5 paying recurring clients within 30 days.

Questions your local plan has to answer

  • How long does a typical home in your area take you, including travel?
  • What do local cleaners actually charge per visit? Ask for quotes as a customer would.
  • How many visits can you do in a week without your quality dropping?
  • What share of your clients will be recurring rather than one-time?

This profile is educational. It describes how this kind of business generally works; it doesn’t show that it will be profitable where you are, and it isn’t legal, tax or financial advice.