How Long Does it Take to Clean a House Professionally? The Truth

Often, the first thought that comes to mind before you book a cleaner is how long would it take? Would the house look neat and tidy in about two hours? Or would it turn out to be a full-day marathon? You want to be sure of what to expect before booking the cleaning.

When you book professional cleaning services, the first question that pops up is how long is it going to take? We know you don’t want to hear things like it depends on this or that. You want real numbers so you can plan your day around the cleaning service.

So here’s the short and honest answer: most professional housecleaning services take between 1.5 and 5 hours for a standard cleaning.

It can take between 1.5 and 5 hours if your home is small and in good condition, and it also depends on several other factors.

Professional House Cleaning Time Estimates

Cleaning Type	Estimated Cleaning Time	Details
Apartment / Small Home	1.5 – 3 hours	Standard cleaning for 1–2 bedrooms. It can vary by layout and clutter
3-Bedroom House	3 – 4 hours	Standard cleaning. It includes kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms, and living areas.
4-Bedroom House	4 – 5 hours	Standard cleaning. Time can change with the number of rooms and the area
Deep Cleaning / Move-In / Move-Out	5 – 8+ hours	Includes appliance cleaning, baseboards, and detailed scrubbing.
Large Homes or Heavy Buildup	Full day or multiple cleaners	For 5+ bedrooms or a lot of mess, it requires team cleaning

House Cleaning Factors

Factors that Affect How Long It Takes to Clean a House

When you ask anyone how long it’ll take to clean the house, they would ask about the home size first. Size does matter, but that’s not the only thing that affects the cleaning time.

Cleaning Frequency

When a place is cleaned every week or two, the dust doesn’t get time to settle in deeply. Also, grease doesn’t get layered and complex. So cleaners don’t need to scrub too hard and too long.

Whereas a neglected home takes longer to clean. It may even require different techniques for cleaning. You need to give it extra soaking time and repeated scrubbing.

This adds 1 to 3 hours of additional extensive cleaning time.

Level of Clutter

Now, here’s an important distinction: cleaning and organization are not the same. Whenever there’s clutter around the house, cleaners slow down.

The cleaners have to make space to clean. So the cleaning time automatically increases as they make the space first and then get to the cleaning.

Number of Bathrooms

The most time-intensive room for cleaning is the bathroom. There is grout and scum that settle on the floor, tiles, and glass over time. All the buildup has to be scrubbed off to remove it.

Then the number of bathrooms is another factor. For each additional bathroom, you can think of 30 to 45 minutes of extra cleaning time. Maybe even an hour if the washroom hasn’t been cleaned regularly.

Grease Buildup in the Kitchen

grease buildup in the oven, kitchen

If there is grease on the kitchen cabinets or back splashes, or you have sticky stove tops, or greasy appliances, the cleaners take longer.

Grease is not your friend if you’re looking for a quick cleaning job. It needs time to remove. First, the cleaners will apply the product, then wait for it to settle. Then they’ll scrub and wipe. So there isn’t a quick pass here.

Pets and Kids in the Home

kids and pets

Even if you are cleaning a very clean house that has pets, it can affect your timeline. Like there’s hair embedded in the carpets on upholstery, fur stuck on the baseboards, or pawprints on the floor, removing them takes time.

At times, specific odors need to be neutralized, too. So homes with pets require an additional 20 to 40 minutes of vacuuming and lint removal.

Similarly, in a house with kids, everything needs to be wiped down. There’s also extra time required for spot treatment of spills, and special attention has to be paid to hygiene zones.

How Long Does it Take to Clean a House Professionally? By Cleaning Type

how long doest it take to cleaning the houser by cleaning type

Next, the type of cleaning service you’re opting for also matters a lot. In fact, it can double the time or cut it in half of the standard time.

Regular Cleaning

Regular cleaning is best for weekly or biweekly cleaning. It includes. Dusting the surfaces, vacuuming, mopping, and wiping down the kitchen counter spaces and bathroom surfaces.

It takes two cleaners, 3 hours to clean apartments. But the time range for larger houses for two cleaners is 8 hours.

Deep Cleaning

Deep cleaning takes a lot more time than regular cleaning. Since it goes beyond surface-level cleaning, it includes cleaning the baseboards, removing grime buildup, cleaning inside appliances, and detailed cleaning of kitchens and bathrooms.

It requires extensive scrubbing and disinfecting. The time is 5 hours (deploying two cleaners for the job) for small homes and 8 hours (deploying three cleaners) for a large house.

Move-In / Move-Out Cleaning

Move-in or move-out cleaning is not your typical cleaning.

It takes longer as we need to clean inside cabinets and appliances, the walls, baseboards, and corners need to be cleaned, and there’s a lot of dirt that has to be taken care of, too.

So it takes two cleaners 5 hours for apartments and three cleaners 8 hours for houses.

Post-Renovation / Post-Construction Cleaning

The most labor-intensive type of cleaning is the post-renovation or construction cleaning. There’s fine dust that gets into literally everything. You need multiple wipe-downs and repeated cleaning to get rid of it.

So this type of cleaning needs three cleaners, 6 hours for small spaces, and for larger homes, it can take up to five cleaners, a good 8 hours. (The Cost of a Clean Home, 2025)

By House Size

how long does it take to clean a house?

If you’re cleaning the house yourself, it’ll probably take you about three hours or so to complete it (we’re talking about a standard-sized home here). Keep this pace as a reference point. The maid services will get the job done in about one hour with a few maids.

Why? Because they bring a larger number of cleaners (usually two or more, depending on the house size or other requirements).

Here’s a little timeline for cleaning different-sized residential units by a single member of the team:

A Single-Bedroom Apartment With One Bath

This size takes 1.5 to 2 hours each week for basic cleaning. If you want deep cleaning, it’ll take around 2.5 hours per week.

Two Bedrooms and One Bath

These residential places usually take 2 to 3 hours.

A Small Three-Bedroom, Two-Bathroom House

This kind of house will usually take 2.5 to three hours for basic cleaning. For a deep cleaning, though, it’ll take another hour, so we can say about four hours in total.

A Five-Bedroom Five-Bathroom House

This size will take you around five hours a week to clean.

If you’re getting any deep cleaning activity done or bathroom cleaning is included, add 3 to 5 extra hours. With twice the number of cleaners, we can save half the time here.

By Clutter or Mess

After the size, there are other factors that affect the timeline. One of the most important yet overlooked facts is the clutter. Some houses may be small, like the single-bedroom ones, but they are so cluttered that it’s hard to decide where to begin cleaning.

There, of course, the timelines greatly shift.

Visible Clutter

Some houses have stacks of magazines, toys, laundry piles, and other items piled up all over the house.

There are random things not even used in years that need sorting and decluttering. So it’ll of course take a lot more time to start the cleaning process as we need to declutter the area first.

Soil/Dirt Buildup

In some houses, there’s a buildup of dirt and soil in the kitchen and bathrooms. There’s grease that needs to be wiped off, grime, and a lot of scrubbing to be done.

That too will increase the cleaning time, as often these places have to be soaked in cleaning product first and scrubbed later to draw out the dirt.

Smoke

If the house members smoke, the cleaning again takes longer. The odor is often very hard to get rid of. It sticks and stays on the cushions, pillows, throws, and even walls. So we need to neutralize the place to keep it fresh and clean.

Conduct a general spring cleaning in rooms and kitchen

By Rooms

Whether you live in a small studio apartment or a large villa, we divide the cleaning into three zones. These are the kitchen, bathroom, and bedrooms that need proper cleaning.

Of course, the number of rooms can vary according to the house size.

Kitchen

If you love to cook for your family, of course, the biggest concern is to keep the area clean. You don’t want any grease buildup or dirty dishes, aka you need regular cleaning. That, on average, takes about 30-45 minutes a day.

But if you wait a week or longer, the oil builds up on the appliances and walls. That will take a serious amount of scrubbing to get off.

Bathroom

In the case of bathrooms, too, frequent cleaning plays a big role. If you get them frequently cleaned, there’s less chance of mold and scum buildup. So it’ll not take long. But if the bathrooms have been neglected for a long time, it’ll take us much longer to get rid of the dirty nooks and crannies.

So, how long does it take to clean a bathroom? A deep cleaning of the bathroom, including disinfection, takes around 30 minutes by the professionals.

Bedroom

The bedrooms (if not highly cluttered) are not that tricky. They usually take around an hour to clean and put together. With regular cleaning, the time even reduces to 10-15 minutes.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to clean a 4-bedroom house?

On average, a 4-bedroom house that’s about 2,000–2,500 sq ft in size will take two cleaners about 7 hours for regular cleaning. But the timeline is also dependent on the condition of the house and the number of bathrooms.

Does increasing the number of cleaners reduce total time?

Yes! Twice the number of cleaners can cut the time in half, so having more cleaners is best, in fact, much needed for larger homes and spaces.

Is deep cleaning worth the extra time?

If you haven’t had your place cleaned recently, or it’s not cleaned up regularly, then yes, deep cleaning can reset the entire space. It can also make future cleaning much faster.

Get Rapid House Cleaning with Elite Maids NY

When people ask, ‘How long does it take to clean a house professionally?’ what they really mean is, ‘How much time can I get back for myself?’

With Elite Maids NY, you don’t have to roll up your sleeves and get down to the floor scrubbing, mopping, and cleaning anymore. We are here to complete everything for you faster, better, and with the best results. Be it regular cleaning, a deep reset, a move-in, or a move-out clean, Elite Maids NY will get it done quickly and thoroughly from top to bottom.

Let us handle the mop buckets, so you can sit back, relax, and enjoy that cup of coffee you’ve been looking forward to.

Book now to schedule an appointment for an elite deep-cleaning service!

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