Move-Out Cleaning Price List: How to Price Move-Out Cleans
How to build a move-out cleaning price list by home size, with add-ons for appliances, cabinets and walls, and the terms that protect you.
Move-out cleans are the best and worst jobs in cleaning. They pay well, they're urgent, and the client is stressed about a deposit or a closing date. They also hide surprises: a fridge nobody opened in a year, grease on every cabinet face, a landlord with a white-glove checklist.
Why move-outs cost more
An empty home exposes everything furniture hid. You clean inside every cabinet and drawer, inside appliances, baseboards, window tracks, and walls marked where pictures hung. Time your first few move-outs against a standard clean of the same home size and price from that ratio.
Build the price list
Use your hourly target and your timing data:
- Base price by bedrooms and bathrooms for an empty, average-condition home
- Inside oven and inside fridge, as included or as add-ons, but stated either way
- Inside cabinets, baseboards and interior windows, included
- Wall spot-cleaning, priced per room or by time
- Heavy condition surcharge after you see photos
Publish "starting at" prices by size and say what moves the price. Clients accept a higher number when they can see why.
Ask for photos
Before you confirm a move-out price, ask for photos of the kitchen, the bathrooms and the inside of the oven and fridge. It takes the client two minutes and saves you from a six-hour job priced at three.
Protect yourself
- Take a deposit to hold the date. A cancelled move-out booking is a lost day.
- State that the home must be empty and the utilities on.
- Offer a re-clean window for items the landlord flags, within a set number of days.
- Be careful promising that the client will get their damage deposit back. You control the clean, not the landlord.
Get the list built
The Cleaning Business Kit includes a pricing calculator with move-out multipliers and add-on prices, a move-out checklist, and deposit wording.
General information for small service businesses. Not legal, tax or financial advice. No particular results are promised. Example numbers are illustrations, not market rates.