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Whether you’re a renter or a buyer, you should clean a house when moving out. For renters, it’s usually written in the lease that a house must be cleaned before it’s vacated. If you’re unsure how thoroughly to clean the place, check with the landlord beforehand; otherwise, you may not receive your deposit back. When selling a house, a contractual agreement is often made with the realtor that the house is swept and that all personal belongings are removed before the previous owners move out.

The average house cleaner cost is around $180, which should cover about four hours of work. However, each project is different and costs can range from $100 to $1,000, depending on the house size and the cleaning needed. Other cost factors can include your location and what level of cleaning you want. Standard or basic cleaning may include vacuuming, dusting, and disinfecting the kitchen and bathrooms. Deep cleaning costs about twice as much and often includes cleaning behind and underneath furniture, washing windows, and polishing hard-to-clean surfaces. Emergency cleaning, extreme cleaning, and holidays also impact pricing. Move-in and move-out cleaning typically cost more, too, because of the extensive, whole-house cleaning involved.

Most DIY floor cleaners don’t require rinsing, but you’ll want to make sure you don’t add too much dish soap or oil to the cleaner to avoid having to rinse it after cleaning. For non-wood floors, mix 8 parts warm water, 1 part vinegar, and 1 part baking soda with a few drops of dish soap. For wood floors, use olive oil in that same mixture instead of the vinegar. You can let these solutions air-dry after cleaning your floors with them, although you should manually dry your floors if they aren’t waterproof.

No, house cleaners or cleaning services do not need to be certified or licensed. Each state has its own requirements for licensing and certifications for companies, but most states don't require any special training to clean a home. Be sure to check our state licensing tool to review the local guidelines for house cleaners and cleaning services.