35+ Types of Cleaning Services You Can Offer

1. Residential cleaning

Starting a cleaning business means completing general cleaning jobs for clients. Your list of basic cleaning services can include areas like the kitchen, living room, bathrooms, and bedrooms.

Items on your house cleaning checklist can include mopping, vacuuming, dusting, polishing, and sweeping. You can also specify the surfaces you clean, like walls, countertops, and appliances.

On average, you can make over $127,000 USD per year as a residential cleaning business owner. That amount can be even higher when you hire cleaners and add more services.

2. Deep cleaning

Deep cleaning is more comprehensive than a basic clean. It includes hand-washing cabinets, vacuuming upholstery, polishing wood, and cleaning the oven, ceiling fan blades, baseboards, and more.

Recommend a deep clean to a client who hasn’t had their home professionally cleaned in a while. It’s also a good idea to do a deep clean for every new client so you’re starting regular service with a fresh, clean home.

Deep cleaning can be very profitable, roughly $200–400+ per visit. If you charge $300 and do three deep cleans each week, you can make $45,000 USD a year—and still have time to add more work.

3. Spring cleaning

Spring cleaning is a lot like deep cleaning, but it’s often seen as a one-off seasonal service that takes place when the weather starts to warm up.

In addition to the usual detailed cleaning, you and your team of residential cleaners can help clients air out their homes and clean out any junk that might be sitting around.

Spring cleaning is priced similarly to deep cleaning. If you charge $300 per visit and do five visits every week. Even if you only offer spring cleaning for three months of the year, that’s still $18,000.

4. Laundry services

If you notice a client has a pile of dirty laundry whenever you clean their home, they might be interested in laundry service as part of their regular cleaning.

This service involves washing, drying, folding, and even putting away clothes while cleaning the homeowner’s house. This is a superb addition to your list of house cleaning services—and some clients may hire you just for this service.

If you charge $2 per pound of laundry, only accept orders weighing at least 15 pounds, and accept five orders a day, you can make more than $30,000 a year.

5. Dry cleaning services

Depending on the type of cleaning business you have—like a carpet cleaning or upholstery restoration service—you might be able to offer dry cleaning for certain clothing and home items.

Or, if you want to offer this service to your residential clients but don’t have the equipment, you can simply include dry cleaning drop-off and pick-up as part of their regular laundry service.

Cost can vary depending on the item. But if you charge $10 per item cleaned on-site, and you clean three items per visit, three times a week, you can make an extra $4,500 a year with very little effort.

6. Green cleaning

Green cleaning uses eco-friendly cleaning practices that are safe for the environment. This is a service on its own, but also a way to differentiate yourself from the competition.

This type of cleaning usually requires you to use non-toxic cleaning solutions, organic cotton cleaning cloths, and as little water as possible during your cleaning visits.

You can add an extra $5–10 to your services for using green cleaning products. If you complete one visit each day, five days a week, that’s an extra $1,250–2,500 a year. It’s not a lot, but it adds up—and your clients will love it.

7. Sanitization and disinfection

Sanitization is similar to deep cleaning, but the focus is preventing diseases from spreading. You’ll use certain cleaning products and techniques to make sure the space is free of germs and bacteria.

To offer this service, you may want to get certified in biohazard cleanup, pathogen decontamination, and environmental health and safety.

You can charge $75–100 per hour for sanitization and disinfection services. If you complete a six-hour job five days a week, you can earn $112,500–150,000 a year.

8. Ceiling and wall cleaning

With this type of cleaning service, you’ll remove dirt, oil, cigarette smoke, fingerprints, and other grime from walls and ceilings.

Ceiling and wall cleaning can be part of a general house cleaning or office cleaning service. It can also be a specialty service for spaces that need serious work.

If you charge $0.50 per square foot and clean three 1,000-square-foot homes each week, you can make upwards of $65,000 a year.

9. Blind cleaning

You can clean your clients’ aluminum blinds, wooden blinds, PVC Venetian blinds, and shades to keep them free of dirt and dust. If you work outside, you can also clean their shutters.

Cleaning blinds can often involve getting up on a ladder to thoroughly wipe down each surface. You should be comfortable with heights if you plan to offer this type of cleaning service.

You can charge $2–6 per window for blind cleaning. If you charge $4/window and clean five homes each week with 6–8 windows apiece, you can make an extra $6,000–8,000 a year with this service.

10. Curtain cleaning

Curtain cleaning makes your clients’ curtains look fresh and new again. This is important because window coverings can get dusty and dirty over time.

The most convenient way to clean clients’ curtains is through on-site dry cleaning. Depending on the curtains, you may be able to clean them without taking them down and rehanging after.

Typically, you can charge $100 an hour for cleaning. Even if you only take a few cleaning jobs per day—say, three hours, five days a week—that’s still $75,000 a year.

11. Carpet cleaning

Rugs and carpets can get incredibly dirty, especially if clients and their guests wear shoes indoors. Regular cleaning every 6–12 months can keep carpets in good condition.

Typical carpet cleaning services include steam cleaning, carpet repairs, and stain and odor removal. You can offer it as an add-on, or start a carpet cleaning business to focus on this type of service.

Cleaning a 5×8 rug costs about $180, with some rug types and sizes being far more expensive. If you clean one rug a day, five days a week, you could earn $45,000 a year. The more rugs you clean, the more you’ll make.

12. Floor cleaning

Hardwood, tile, stone, and other surfaces need thorough cleaning every 6–12 months to ensure they look their best. This can be included in standard deep cleaning services, or offered as a separate service.

You can offer floor sweeping and mopping, hardwood polishing, tile grout cleaning, floor waxing, and even cement sealing to maintain your clients’ floors.

Pricing depends on the type of flooring and how you’re treating it, but is usually $0.04–0.50 per square foot. If you clean five 1,000-square-foot homes weekly, you can make anywhere from $10,000 to $125,000 a year.

13. Upholstery cleaning

This is another specialty service that involves cleaning furniture like sofas and armchairs, typically those made with materials like cotton, polyester, leather, silk, and wool.

It’s especially convenient if you can offer this service in your clients’ homes. That way, they don’t have to worry about transporting their furniture to another location—or not being able to use it for a while.

On average, you can make $173 per upholstery cleaning job, with higher rates for specialty materials. If you can schedule two jobs per day, you can earn more than $86,000 a year.

14. Furniture cleaning

Like upholstery cleaning, furniture cleaning involves maintaining your clients’ furniture. The difference is, you need to know how to clean and maintain additional materials like wood.

You’ll need to vacuum, spot-clean, polish, wax, and remove stains from furniture. Before you start offering this service, make sure you can clean all types of furniture, including antiques, without damaging them.

You can charge around $100 an hour for furniture cleaning. If you work just three hours a day, five days a week—you can make $75,000 a year.

15. Home organization

Your clients have busy lives, making it hard to keep their homes organized. One-off home reorganization can help. You can even offer room-by-room organization as a more affordable option.

Offer to organize clients’ kitchen cupboards, closets, bedrooms, living rooms, offices, and other spaces that collect lots of items. It takes time and effort, but it can be very profitable in return.

You can charge anywhere from $30 to $200 an hour as an organizer, depending on your experience level. If you work eight hours a day, five days a week, you could make $60,000 to $400,000 a year.

READ MORE:The Home Edit’s top tips for organizing your business

16. Window cleaning

If you start a window cleaning company, your core business is cleaning interior and exterior windows for clients. This will involve getting up on ladders, so you should be comfortable with heights.

You can also offer window cleaning as an add-on service for extra revenue during slower periods. Just make sure you have the cleaning supplies needed to do a quality job.

Window cleaners can earn $28,000–62,000 per year. As you complete more jobs and gain more experience, you can start to charge more for your window cleaning services.

17. Pressure washing

If you decide to start a pressure washing business, you’ll use a jet washer to deliver a powerful water stream that cleans surfaces like sidewalks, driveways, decks, patios, and house siding.

Depending on your equipment, you can offer add-ons like window cleaning, gutter cleaning, and roof cleaning. Some pressure washing businesses can even do paint removal, restoration, and maintenance. 

Some pressure washers make more than $38,000 per year. You can, too, depending on how much each client wants you to clean, and how many visits you can fit into a single day.

18. Gutter cleaning

If you don’t mind heights, you can offer gutter cleaning services to your clients. This involves getting up on their roof, removing any leaves or debris from their gutters, and rinsing them out.

This is an especially good service to offer in the spring, or after the first heavy rainfall of the season. That’s when clients are most likely to notice issues with their gutters.

On average, you can make $160 for every gutter cleaning job. If you do five visits every week, that’s over $40,000 per year—even more if you can fit more than one job into a single day.

19. HVAC duct and dryer vent cleaning

Dryer vents should be cleaned every 6–12 months, and ducts every couple of years. This maintains good air quality by helping prevent mold, allergens, and pollutants.

This service also keeps your clients’ furnaces and dryers from working too hard. And when you remove built-up dust or dryer lint, you can also help reduce the risk of fire.

HVAC duct and dryer vent cleaners can make more than $39,000/year. It becomes even easier to make money when you have repeat clients who use your services again and again.

20. Pool cleaning

Not every homeowner has time to take care of their swimming pool. You can help by starting a pool cleaning business or offering pool cleaning as part of your standard services.

This can involve skimming the water to remove debris, applying chemicals to prevent algae growth, and tidying the deck to ensure your clients can comfortably use their pool area.

Pool cleaners typically make $35,000 a year on average, with some earning as much as $49,000. As the business owner, you may be able to make even more.

21. Chimney sweeping

Over time, soot can build up in fireplaces and chimneys. Fireplaces should be cleaned once a month, and chimneys once a year to avoid fire hazards.

If you start a chimney cleaning business, you can offer chimney sweep services like remodels, inspections, fireplace cleaning, chimney relining, and repairs.

Expect to make at least $38,000 a year as a chimney sweep. As the business owner, you’ll likely make even more.

22. Construction cleaning

Brand-new homes and offices, or spaces that have just been renovated, can be full of harmful dirt and dust. Construction cleanup makes these spaces safe for your clients to use.

You can offer post-construction cleaning services like vacuuming, dusting, wiping surfaces, cleaning windows, and removing any last bits of debris.

If you charge $400 per job and can clean five new builds every week, you can make at least $100,000 a year just by providing construction cleaning services.

23. Move-in/move-out cleaning

Whether your client is moving into a home or out of an office, they may want the space deep-cleaned. This creates a clean slate for whoever is about to use it.

Move-in and move-out cleaning typically involves the same tasks, like dusting baseboards, wiping cabinets, dusting light fixtures, spot-cleaning walls, and removing carpet stains.

If you can schedule five move-in or move-out cleans each week and charge $300 for each visit, you’ll make more than $75,000 a year.

24. Airbnb cleaning

Every Airbnb needs to be cleaned after guests have stayed there, whether it’s for a night or several weeks. You can provide this type of cleaning service to Airbnb owners whenever they need it.

Airbnb cleaning will include tasks like cleaning bathrooms, washing towels and bed sheets, vacuuming carpets, sweeping/mopping floors, wiping down surfaces, and taking out the trash.

Let’s say you charge $200 per visit and clean five Airbnbs per week. You can easily make more than $50,000 a year, especially if you offer add-ons like green cleaning or carpet cleaning.

25. Foreclosure cleaning

After the bank forecloses on a home, the space may not be clean enough to resell right away. Foreclosure cleaning is a great service to offer if you also do move-in/move-out cleaning.

A foreclosed home can often be in bad shape, with lots of damage or items to remove. You’ll need to provide deep cleaning services to get the home ready to sell.

If you can complete five foreclosure cleanings each week at $250 each, you can make more than $62,000 a year. You can make even more for homes that need carpet cleaning or junk removal services, too.

26. Hoarder cleaning

A home that’s full of stuff isn’t safe for anyone to live in. And if the homeowner plans to sell, they’ll need to remove almost everything from the house first.

Like foreclosure cleaning, you can provide junk removal services to haul away anything that isn’t needed. From there, you can deep clean and sanitize the space so it’s ready to live in.

Cleaning a hoarder’s home can be a massive job, so you can typically charge $1,000–3,000 for this service. If you clean out just two homes a month, you can make $24,000–72,000 a year.

27. Office cleaning

Many businesses are interested in getting a commercial cleaning service to clean their common areas, cubicles, restrooms, kitchens, and reception areas. Tasks include mopping, dusting, polishing, and waste removal.

You can start a commercial cleaning company or offer this as one of many services. Just be aware that your clients might prefer you to work overnight, when they’re closed for business.

If you charge $90 per room and are cleaning a 10-room building, you can make $900 per job. Clean that same building once a week, and you’ll earn upwards of $45,000 a year—just for that one job.

28. Commercial kitchen cleaning

Regular cleaning helps keep commercial kitchens up to code and free of grease, vermin, and other hazards. You can work with hotels, restaurants, convention centers, and other facilities to provide this type of cleaning.

Commercial kitchen cleaning involves tasks like sanitizing surfaces, washing floors, and removing buildup from fryers, grills, vent hoods, and exhaust fans.

You can charge $50–150 an hour for commercial kitchen cleaning. If it takes you four hours to clean a kitchen, and you can clean five kitchens in a week, you’ll make $50,000–150,000 a year.

29. Restroom cleaning

Cleaning restrooms may be part of office and home cleaning, but it’s also a standalone commercial cleaning service that’s in high demand.

Stadiums, schools, one-off events, and open public spaces can all benefit from bathroom cleaning. It involves cleaning toilets, urinals, sinks, mirrors, floors, and countertops—often multiple times a day.

If you charge $50 an hour and spend 40 hours a week cleaning bathrooms in a large commercial facility, you can make upwards of $100,000 a year.

30. Janitorial cleaning

Janitorial service covers ongoing cleaning and maintenance for larger facilities like schools, malls, and large retail or office spaces.

Typical industrial cleaning duties include mopping, sweeping, and taking out the trash, as well as general building maintenance tasks like changing light bulbs, fixing broken doors, and removing carpet stains.

You can charge $0.07–0.15 per square foot for janitorial cleaning. If you only clean spaces at least 2,000 square feet in size, and complete five jobs each week, you’ll make $35,000–75,000 a year.

31. School cleaning

We already mentioned that janitorial cleaning includes schools, but you can focus specifically on cleaning private and public schools, universities, and other educational institutions.

This service includes tasks like wiping desks and tables, dusting computers, washing whiteboards, cleaning bathrooms, and vacuuming, mopping, and polishing floors.

Say you spend four hours a day cleaning a school building, five days a week. If you charge $50 an hour, you can make $50,000 a year. The more you work, the more money you’ll make.

32. Medical cleaning

Clinics and hospitals have high standards when it comes to cleanliness, so medical cleaning is highly specialized. Tasks usually focus not only on regular cleaning, but also on sanitization and disinfection.

You’ll need to use the right cleaning supplies and equipment for these types of commercial cleaning services. You might even want OSHA certification before you offer this type of cleaning service.

You might charge $0.10–0.40 per square foot for medical cleaning. If you clean a 2,000-square-foot facility five days a week, you’ll earn $40,000–$160,000 a year.

33. Sports cleaning

Fitness facilities are home to germs, sweat, dirt, and all kinds of other messes. As a sports cleaning company, you could offer sanitization services for countertops, floors, equipment, and all other surfaces.

It’s a good idea to provide daily cleaning for sports facilities to keep everything in top condition. Some clients may even want you on-site to clean equipment after every use.

If you charge $40 an hour for sports cleaning, and you clean for eight hours a day, five days a week, you can earn $80,000 a year.

34. Event cleanup

You can work with venues—or even individual clients who like to entertain at home—by cleaning up after weddings, parties, reunions, and other events.

This involves picking up and disposing of trash, washing dishes, wiping surfaces, cleaning floors, and generally making sure the space looks the same as it did before the event.

Say you charge a flat rate of $500 for event cleanup. If you clean up after two events every weekend, you can earn at least $50,000 a year.

35. Junk removal

Homes and businesses can become full of clutter, or clients might just want to get rid of large items that aren’t useful anymore. With junk removal cleaning, you’ll remove these items and transport them to the dump.

You can offer junk removal as part of other services, like foreclosure and hoarder cleaning, or start a junk removal business to focus on this specific type of cleaning service.

Say you charge $500 per truckload (360-480 cubic feet). If you can empty two truckloads a week, you’ll earn $50,000 a year for your junk removal services.

36. Vehicle cleaning and detailing

Many people spend hours in their car each week—and some are tidier than others. Vehicle detailing is a great service to offer, especially if you can bring mobile services to your clients.

If you start a car detailing business, you’ll perform tasks like vacuuming, wiping surfaces, removing stains, and even repairing glass chips to keep clients’ vehicles looking brand-new.

You can generally charge around $250 for full vehicle detailing. If you can clean two vehicles every day, five days a week, you’ll earn $125,000 a year.

37. Boat cleaning

Boats should be cleaned around once a month, and their hulls should be cleaned every year. This keeps the vessel in good condition and helps protect your client’s investment.

Providing maritime cleaning services can be its own business, or one of many pressure washing services you offer. However, you might want to get certified in boat cleaning before getting started.

The potential profit is worth the extra effort of getting certified. If you charge $15 per foot, only clean boats that are at least 20 feet long, and can clean five boats a week, you’ll make $75,000 a year.

38. Disaster cleaning and restoration

Disasters can take many forms, whether it’s fire, flooding, mold, or smoke damage. Cleaning and restoring the space will help make it safe for people to use.

Each type of disaster needs its own expertise and equipment, like HEPA vacuums and air purifiers. You’ll likely want on-the-job experience or professional certification to offer disaster cleaning.

The cost of a disaster cleaning job depends on how much damage there is. You can likely charge $1,000–4,000 per job. And with just two jobs per month, you can make $24,000–96,000 a year.

39. Crime scene cleaning

After a crime takes place, the scene will need to be cleaned before anyone can enter the home or business again. This often involves cleaning and removing stains from walls, floors, and ceilings.

You must be certified in biohazard cleanup, including the right ways to dispose of certain types of waste, if you want to offer this type of cleaning service.

The average crime scene cleaner’s salary is $25,000–80,000 per year. You can make even more as the business owner, or if you’re willing to tackle extra-messy crime scenes.

PODCAST: Listen and learn when (and how) to offer new services

Bundling your services is a good idea because you can easily upsell a single service. For example, a residential cleaning client might be happy to throw in laundry service, too.

This keeps your clients happy because they know they’re getting a good deal—even though bundling also makes each cleaning job more profitable for you.

FREE TOOL: Easily quote your services with our free cleaning estimate template

2. Offer different service tiers

Many businesses typically offer three different packages, with each offering incrementally more value than the next. This is known as good, better, best pricing.

For example, a window cleaning package may include an entry-level package for $120 (outside window clean), a standard or popular package for $150 (inside and outside clean), and a premium package for $189 (outside, inside, tracks, sills, and curtain rails).

The key here is to pay careful attention to your pricing strategy. Your price increments should reflect changes in value and stop clients from choosing the cheapest package.

Price your popular package to be only a little more expensive than the starter package, but with way more value. Your clients will choose the popular package, and you’ll make more money.

3. Find your niche and service area

There are probably lots of cleaning businesses operating in your area. You’ll need to figure out what you can offer to stand out from competitors and carve out a niche for yourself.

Let’s say there are lots of local residential cleaners, but only a few commercial ones—and nobody else provides event cleanup or travels outside city limits.

This is a great opportunity to approach all the event venues in a 50-mile radius and offer your services. Before long, you could be everyone’s favorite professional cleaner for post-event cleanup.

Choosing your cleaning services list and beyond

There are many different cleaning services to choose from, whether you’re just starting a cleaning business or looking to expand into a new service area.

When you choose which services to offer, remember to charge the right prices and package your services for profit.

Want more tips for introducing new cleaning services to your clients? Listen to this episode of Masters of Home Service and hear how these business owners did it successfully:

Originally published September 2020. Last updated July 26, 2024.