How Much Does House Cleaning Cost In San Jose CA?
May 10, 2025
Q: How much will it cost to have my whole home professionally cleaned in San Jose, in 2025?
A: Probably more than you think!
The Cost of Home Cleaning in San Jose Is A Popular Question!
If you’re wondering how much it will cost to have your home cleaned professionally in San Jose, you’re one of aproximately 36k people—per day—wondering the same. In fact, that very question is typed into google and yelp searches nearly 40k times per day. So, you’re definitely not alone in your inquiry, and you’re also precisely in the right place to find the answer. I’ll give you the long and the short of it, so to speak, in this article.
The Short Of It:
the average cost of cleaning for a 1200 to 1400 sq ft home will cost you anywhere from $295 to $350 and up, for the initial deep cleaning, with recurring cleans ranging from $200-$267 weekly or biweekly, thereafter.
If that figure surprises you, I’m sure that you’re not alone, however, you are also not likely considering that residential cleaning businesses employ people who live in San Jose and the surrounding areas. People who are paying a similar cost of living as everyone else is required to pay, regardless of what profession they chose.
Home cleaners are not being unreasonable, or greedy by charging these prices, they are simply being realistic. The minimum wage in San Jose CA is over $20/hr, and that is for a cashier at a fast-food restaurant, not a worker who performs hard labor all day, sometimes without a proper break between clients, and never with a paid break. Furthermore, workers are not paid for their mileage to and from each job, nor are they paid for their travel time.
Working full time at $20/hr is easily computed to be $3200 monthly—before taxes! $3200 is not enough to pay rent (minus utilities) in San Jose, let alone have money to eat, or drive to work, and so on. Therefore, they are not charging too much for home cleaning, since the employees and business owner also reside in the same expensive city that home cleaning customers reside in. Which segues into the long of it.
The Long Of It:
Let me begin by saying if you’re looking to hire whole home cleaners, whose business is licensed, who employ trained professional cleaners who carry the appropriate insurance (and, you should be only looking for a company that meets these requirements!) expect to pay more than you are likely estimating—possibly a lot more! Also, a legitimate business will be charging sales tax on every service. The reason home cleaning is expensive in San Jose and the entire Bay Area, is because literally everything is more expensive in San Jose.
Want proof? Here it is:
San Jose was ranked the #1 most expensive city to live in the US of A, as of April 2025!
On April 3, 2025, local news station KTVU Fox reported that a recent analysis performed by financial technology company, SmartAssets, reported San Jose to be the single most expensive city in the USA to “live comfortably” in, with the median household income being $146,229. Which is approximately $100/hour, not $20 or $25/hour—far from it! Furthermore, that $146k salary will only comfortably support one single person, and that figure doesn’t consider, that if you’re a business owner, there are overhead costs, sales taxes, and insurance costs that must be continually paid.
With that in mind, I decided to write this article. Over the past two years, since opening my cleaning business, Cleantopia, I’ve conducted my (quite informal) research of what cleaning companies are actually charging customers in San Jose. I looked into what they quoted, as well as the end cost of the cleaning.
The Results After Two Years
In summary, I found that the cost of home cleaning in San Jose varied—pretty significantly. Furthermore, and as expected, they steadily increased over time (specifically, two years). Specifically, I discovered the following:
In February 2023, quotes ranged from $35/hour to $127/hour, among the companies I researched. The actual charges for service, ranged from $41/hour to $129/hr.
Six months later, in August 2023, estimates were received ranging from $37/hour to $134/hr; with the actual cost of cleaning coming in between $42/hour, and $133/hour.
In February 2024, quotes ranged from $45/hour to $139/hour, among the companies I researched. The actual charges for service, ranged from $41/hour to $129/hr.
A year later, in February 2025, quotes jumped significantly to $65/hour to $148/hour, among the companies I researched. The actual charges for service, ranged from $64/hour to $151/hr, with the average job being $227 for a maintenance clean on 1200-1400 sq feet.
Honestly, I expected cost to vary, since there isn’t an industry standard for residential cleaning, as there is in other industries, say, for example, in auto mechanics. What I didn’t expect, was to find that the services included also varied a great deal, as well as the quality of work being completed. Some quotes I received included items that I consider to be the basics in cleaning, i.e., sinks, floors, countertops, etc,
while other estimates included sweeping or vacuuming the floors, but did not include mopping the floors or cleaning the baseboards every visit. My advice to anyone inquiring about the cost of home cleaning in San Jose and the Bay Area, is to ask specific detailed questions of what is included in the clean. Better yet, ask the company to text or email you the checklist that they use for the specific type of cleaning you’re looking into.
The Numbers
I found that, a regular maintenance, whole home cleaning will run between $197 to $267 (and up), with the average currently at $227 plus tax, for a maintenance cleaning on a home between 1200 to 1400 sq feet.
Cost depends upon a few factors. Most home cleanings in San Jose, according to Thumbtack, home cleaners cost an average of $50 per hour, per cleaner (Thumbtack, Cleaners’ Cost 2024), however, I found my actual average to be $73/hour per cleaner for maintenance cleans, and over $100/hour for a deep cleaning.
If you are considering hiring a house cleaner, or a pro cleaning company, to clean your home regularly, it’s important to note that the initial visit will cost slightly more than the subsequent maintenance cleans. Specifically, initial cleans and one-time cleans, average between $225 to $300 (and up) since it is a “deep cleaning", or a reset of your space.
The initial cleaning will include all the basics, plus it will typically include the baseboards, cobwebs, light fixtures, ceiling fans, the exterior of cabinetry in the bathrooms and the kitchen, and possibly more. The specifics of what is included varies with each cleaning company, and for each cleaning job, so you’ll want to get all of the details of what you are actually purchasing.
Why Hiring The Least Expensive Cleaners, Could End Up Costing You Everything!
Seriously though. If you’re hiring a house cleaner and they are not licensed and insured, you are liable for every single thing that is possibly damaged in your home—including bodily injury of the workers themselves.
Read that again—I’ll wait.
Let me break that down for you: if you hire someone to come and work for you - be it in your home - whether they’re working on it, in it, or around it, you, personally, are financially responsible for lost wages of an injured worker, indefinitely. Let that sink in. Now, you may be thinking I’m wrong, and that your insurance would cover those expenses. There’s a less than 50% chance you may be correct, but, that is only if your persosnal insurance policy specifies their coverage. How do I know? Because I used to be an insurance agent.
Therefore, my advice to you is to read and understand your insurance policy, even if your home cleaners are insured because they may not carry worker’s compensation insurance for their workers, leaving your insurance company to catch your fall, and if they don’t, that only leaves you financially liable. A dear friend of mine was not aware of this, and years ago, had to literally sell their home to pay for medical costs and the lost wages of an Uninsured worker who was trimming her trees. True story, and it’s one that is tragic.
Factors That Affect Your Home Cleaning Costs
The following is a list of common questions I was asked when inquiring to a dozen companies based locally in San Jose. These factors are used to assess, or estimate, the cost of cleaning, and should be considered when inquiring about home cleaning in San Jose, CA:
What is the size of your home (in square feet)?
How many bathrooms will be cleaned? (this is set and can’t be increased later, without an extra charge)
How many bedrooms will be cleaned?
How many people live in your space?
How many pets do you have?
How many children do you have?
What is the soil level in your home?
Light (cleaned at least weekly); Moderate? (cleaned at least bi weekly); Heavy? (cleaned at least monthly); Very Heavily? (cleaned at least bi monthly); or Extremely Heavy? (longer than two months since last cleaning).
It’s important to accurately report how dirty your home is as well as your expectations of what a clean home means to you. Inaccurately reporting your soil level as being lighter than it actually is, will not save you money, however, it will insure that you will likely be surprised at the actual cost of cleaning your home in the end. Professional home cleaners clean multiple homes every day, and are accurate at assessing and reporting soil levels, since they are the ones that are actually required to get it clean—to be blunt, there is no fooling them! In fact, you’re better off over reporting how dirty your home is to receive a more realistic estimate of both time and cost.
~Juliana Buchser
Owner, Cleantopia Home Cleaning, LLC