4 Ways to Hire a Cleaning Service on a Budget

• By Kate Johnson
• Posted in General
• On July 27, 2022

Many people we talk to express an interest in hiring a house cleaner, but they’re not sure if they have the budget for it. If you’ve always wanted to have someone take care of your cleaning but aren’t sure if you can afford it, in this article we’ll show you 4 tips our clients have used for budgeting house cleaning service.

Clarify what you want

When you have a tight budget, it’s all about compromise. You can do some things, but it will mean cutting back on others.

It’s good to regularly revisit your list of priorities to figure out if your money is going where it will most help you.

When thinking about getting someone in to regularly clean your house, think why you want it.

• Do you entertain guests regularly?
• Does the dirt and clutter everywhere drive you up the wall?
• Does someone in your house have allergies or a compromised immune system?
• Does the thought of endless scrubbing paralyse you?

Now think what you’re prepared to give up to make that happen. Perhaps it’s a huge deal for you and you have enough room in the budget to get a professional cleaner in for a few hours every week. Maybe it would work better for you to just get a deep clean every month or two.

You might just need an extra few pairs of hands to do a thorough spring clean once a year. Or you need a full end of lease clean when you change houses.

Maybe you’re fine with cleaning most areas, but cleaning carpets or getting grout clean is your nemesis.

Whatever your needs or budget, Perth Home Cleaners can help. Book a free, no obligation quote when you’re ready.

Prioritize the rooms in your home

Don’t try cleaning your whole home at once if it’s larger than a 2 bedroom 1 bathroom – at least if you’re on a tight budget. We recommend instead that you focus on the key areas where you get the most traffic and dirt.

A past client of ours had originally requested to have their whole house cleaned, which was over 900m2. They were a couple whose kids had moved out, and there were only a few areas in their home that they occupied. Their quote for a full house cleaning was about 3x higher than their budget, but then they revised their cleaning list to focus on these areas:

• Master bedroom and office only (2 out of 4 small rooms)
• Living room (1 out of 2 large rooms)
• Master bathroom (1 out of 4 bathrooms)
• Kitchen and dining room

Just by focusing on cleaning the areas they mostly used and removing the rooms they rarely stepped in, they were able to get much closer to their budget.

The key takeaway is that it’s okay to hold off on rooms that don’t get used. Focus on the areas that create the most work for you or that get dirty the quickest.

Refine the tasks on your checklist

Once you prioritize your rooms you want clean, start refining the checklist of chores you want cleaned in each room.

Many people would like a full deep cleaning each week, but the reality is you only need a few chores done to help you take back your time. For example, below is a list one client had originally asked us to complete in their living room:

• Wipe down ceiling fans and lights
• Cleaning windows
• Wipe down windows blinds
• Wipe down baseboards
• Spot clean walls
• Wipe down doors and door frames
• Vacuum couches and upholstery furniture
• Dust and polish all other wood furniture
• Vacuum floors (and mop hard surface floors)

Okay, looking at this list, it would be great to have this level of cleaning each visit.

But what we discovered is that most of these chores weren’t tasks the person was cleaning weekly anyway. Not only that, areas like walls or baseboards weren’t accumulating as much dirt or dust as the couches or furniture.

What we recommended was a simplified weekly list that focused on the tasks the person was already cleaning and was attracting the most dirt and dust. Here is the list we provided that they ended up going with:

• Dusting ceiling fans and lights
• Vacuum couches and upholstery furniture
• Dust and polish all other wood furniture
• Vacuum floors (and mop hard surface floors)

Not only did this cut the cost down significantly, but it also saved them time and energy each week, which is one of the goals of hiring a house cleaner.

At this point, most people can meet their budget just by prioritizing the rooms to clean and refining their checklist.

If you’re still needing ways to help make your budget for house cleaning, below are a few more practical steps to consider.

Reduce how much you spend on eating out

According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics data, a recent statistic by Statista.com, the average person in Australia spends 10-15% of their budget on hotels, cafés and restaurants.

One of our clients wanted to add a one time carpet cleaning to their normal cleaning service and decided to evaluate their spending on eating out in order to pay for the service.

They were astonished to find how much they were spending. We asked if they would be willing to share a ballpark figure of each spending category in order to help future clients with their budgeting and they agreed. Below are the rounded numbers they provided for us:

Three person family:

• Fast food, takeaway – $120.00
• Dining in restaurant – $135.00
• Coffee, tea, other special beverages – $95.00

Total amount per month: $350.00
Average cost per person: $116.00

We’re not suggesting you cut out eating out completely. But even if this client were to cut back 20% on their eating out each month, that would leave them an extra $70.00 to put toward their house cleaning.

Cut back on monthly subscriptions

Subscriptions are secretly tapping into people’s budgets more and more. According to a 2019 study by REST Super, Australians “pouring $3.9 billion down the drain on paid apps, services and memberships they weren’t using”. You can bet that number has gone way up since covid hit.

How many streaming services do you have? Do you really need all of them? You can always cancel a few, then come back to them after you’ve enjoyed the ones you keep.

If you’re looking for more cleaning money, go to your bank statements and do an inventory of all your subscription services. Some of the top subscriptions people pay for and don’t use include:

• Meal kit plans
• Weight watchers
• Food delivery
• Streaming services (Netflix, Stan, Disney+, Binge, Amazon Video)
• Spotify
• Pandora
• Online courses you don’t use any more

Every little chunk of cash you save grows your cleaning budget even more.

And hey, maybe you find enough extra cash that you can put some aside towards a house deposit, paying down your mortgage, or that European trip you’ve been dreaming about.

Getting started with your cleaning

Whether it’s your first time hiring a cleaning company, or you’ve been using one for a while and are just looking to get the most out of your budget, Perth Home Cleaners is here to help walk you through the process.

If you have any questions or would like to book a walk through, our friendly team is available to provide you answers and a free quote. Contact us now. We look forward to serving you soon!