Is Hiring a House Cleaner Worth It?

Hiring a house cleaner can be a great decision for you and your family. You can stop spending hours each week doing household chores and spend that time doing things you enjoy instead. However, deciding whether hiring a house cleaner fits into your budget—and knowing who to hire—is a personal decision.

Before deciding to spend your hard-earned money on bringing a professional cleaner into your home, you’ll want to consider these four essential factors.

Pros of Hiring a House Cleaner

There are pros and cons to hiring either a local cleaning service or an individual house cleaner. Picking the right one for you can help you make an informed decision.

Cleaning Service Pros:

• A team of people comes to clean and does the job quickly

• Services have worker’s compensation and liability insurance (check with any service you hire for this)

• They provide all of the cleaning supplies and tools

• They’ll send substitute cleaners if your regular team is unavailable

Individual House Cleaner Pros:

• You will be more likely to develop trust and a rapport with one person than a variety of people

• You can pick and choose what products they use in your home

• There is more flexibility about what gets cleaned during each visit

How Much Does a House Cleaner Cost?

The average cost of a house cleaner will vary depending on where you live and the size of your home. The national average for a house cleaner is $120 to $235 to clean an entire house.

The first question to ask yourself is if you can spare that much each month (or more often). If you can, hiring a house cleaner will then depend on whether you think it’s worth the money to get some free time back and know that your home is in the hands of a qualified cleaning professional.

Ask yourself these questions: What is your time worth? Do you want to spend it keeping your home tidy? The average homeowner spends between four and seven hours a week cleaning their home, and most don’t feel that that’s enough time to get everything done.

If you’d rather not spend your free time mopping and you have the budget, then hiring a house cleaner could be the right decision for you. If you have to stay on a strict spending plan, you may want to keep tackling cleaning on your own for a while. Alternatively, you can also hire a house cleaner to come less frequently and only tackle certain jobs.

Note: Tipping the cleaners who come to your home is always a nice gesture, so be sure to factor that into your budget too.

How Often Will You Need Your House Cleaned?

Determine how often you would like a house cleaning pro to clean your home and how this fits into your budget. If you opt for a house cleaner once a week—the most common frequency—it will often be less expensive per visit than if you hired them once per month. For example, if you hire a service to clean your house once per month, it costs $200 per session, but if you sign on to have someone come once a week, the weekly fee would be $150. 

If you only need occasional help, consider signing up for a monthly or quarterly deep-cleaning service.

Should I Leave During a House Cleaning Service?

As you grow more comfortable with your house cleaner, you will probably want to leave while they are in your home vacuuming, dusting, and moving furniture around. A good, reliable house cleaner or service will be trustworthy, and you’ll feel comfortable handing over a key or giving them the code to your keypad lock.

Whichever option you choose, make sure the person or house cleaning service you work with is well-vetted, reliable, and gives you references. Hiring the right cleaning pro for you will make all the difference.