What house cleaning should cost in India in 2026: deep clean, bathroom, kitchen, sofa and monthly help rates

A 2 BHK deep clean should not cost ₹9,000, and a sofa shampoo should not be quoted by the sofa when it is priced by the seat everywhere else. Here is what each common cleaning job involves, what you should expect to pay in a typical Indian city, and the four things that separate a team worth hiring from one that mops and leaves.

The short answer

A full home deep clean is about ₹5 per sq ft of carpet area, which for an 800 sq ft 2 BHK comes to roughly 800 times that figure. A regular maintenance visit is ₹3 per sq ft. Single rooms and items are priced on their own: a bathroom deep clean is ₹700, a kitchen is ₹1,500, a sofa is ₹180 per seat. There is no visit charge in this trade; the quote is the bill.

Metro cities such as Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru run about 30 percent higher. A same-day booking adds roughly 20 percent, flexible timing takes a little off, and a list of five or more items earns a discount. These are the figures the TheHire cost estimator uses, so what you read here is what it will quote.

How cleaning is actually priced

There are three ways a cleaning bill is built, and a quote that mixes them without saying so is the usual source of arguments.

1. Per square foot of carpet area. Whole-home jobs: deep, regular, move-in, post-renovation. Carpet area is the floor you can walk on, not the super built-up figure on the sale deed. If your 2 BHK is sold as 1,100 sq ft, the carpet area is probably 750 to 850, and that is the number the rate applies to. Ask which area the team is using.
2. Per item. Bathrooms, kitchens, sofas by the seat, mattresses by the piece, fans, windows, tanks. This is the fair way to buy anything less than a whole house, and it is how you should ask for a quote if you only want the bathrooms done.
3. Per month or per day. Domestic help: a daily two-hour arrangement, a full-day housekeeper, a dishes-only arrangement, or a weekly deep-clean visit at ₹900 a day. These are salaries, not service fees, and the section at the end covers what is fair.

Chemicals and machines are included in a professional team's price. If a team asks you to buy the floor cleaner, they are not a professional team; they are two people with a mop, which is fine for a regular clean at ₹3 per sq ft but not for the deep-clean rate.

What a deep clean includes, and what it does not

The word "deep" is where most disappointment lives. A deep clean at ₹5 per sq ft should include: every floor scrubbed by machine where the floor allows it, not just mopped; skirting, door frames, switch plates and window grills wiped; the inside of windows and the tracks; ceiling fans; cobwebs; bathrooms descaled; the kitchen counters, tiles, hob and the outside of appliances degreased; wardrobes and cabinets wiped on the outside; and a wet-dry vacuum run over sofas and mattresses.

It does not include the inside of cabinets with your things in them (empty them first, and the inside is ₹700 per kitchen), the chimney's baffle filters (₹1,200, a separate soak), the inside of the fridge (₹500), or shampooing upholstery, which is per seat. Ask for these by name if you want them, and they will be itemised.

The eight jobs every home eventually books

1. The annual deep clean, ₹5 per sq ft

Most families book it before Diwali or after a long absence. Four to six hours for a 2 BHK with a team of two or three, machines included. Move everything you can off the floor and counters the night before; the team's time goes into cleaning, not shifting.

2. Bathrooms, ₹400 to ₹700 each

The standard clean at ₹400 is a scrub of the WC, basin, floor and the lower tiles. The deep clean at ₹700 adds the full-height tiles, the shower area, the drain cover, the exhaust fan and the fittings. Hard-water scale that has gone white and crusty on taps and glass is a separate ₹500 because it needs an acid descaler left to work and a second pass.

3. The kitchen, ₹1,500

The one room where a deep clean earns its money. Degreasing the tiles behind the hob, the hob itself, the counter edges, the sink and the outside of every cabinet. Budget ₹1,200 more for the chimney, because the baffle filters need to come out and soak in a caustic bath, and ₹350 for the inside of a microwave or OTG.

4. Sofas, mattresses and carpets, by the seat and the piece

Sofa shampoo is ₹180 per seat, so a three-seater is three seats. A mattress is ₹600 for a vacuum and sanitise; it does not get wet. A carpet is ₹9 per sq ft. Dining and office chairs are ₹120 each, curtains steamed in place ₹250 per pair.

5. Moving in or out, ₹6 per sq ft

An empty flat is faster to clean but dirtier: the dust behind where the wardrobe stood, the kitchen that was never degreased, the balcony drain. Landlords in most cities will accept a move-out clean receipt in place of a deduction, so keep the bill.

6. After painting or renovation, ₹8 per sq ft

The most expensive per-square-foot rate because of what is on the floor: cement splatter that needs a scraper and an acid wash on tiles, paint drips, fine dust in every track and hinge. Do not let a painter's helper "clean up" with a wet cloth; it smears cement into the grout and costs more later.

7. Water tank, ₹1,200

Drained, scrubbed, the sediment removed, chlorinated, refilled. Twice a year for an overhead tank, once for a sump. The guide on common problems explains why the brown water after a tanker delivery means the tank is overdue.

8. Fans, windows, balconies and vents

Small items that get added to a deep clean or booked on their own: ₹80 per fan, ₹70 per window including the grill, ₹500 for a balcony or terrace wash, ₹150 to wipe an AC's grille and the wall around it. These are where the discount from the fifth item onwards applies.

One rule that saves money: book items, not adjectives. "Deep clean" means different things to different teams. "Two bathrooms deep, kitchen with chimney, three fans, both sofas" means the same thing to everyone and gets a quote you can compare.

Monthly help: what is fair

A daily two-hour arrangement for sweeping, mopping and dusting is ₹4,500 a month in a typical city, a full-day housekeeper ₹12,000, and dishes-only ₹2,500. These figures assume four paid leave days a month, a festival bonus of one month's pay a year, and no extra duties slipped in after the first week. Cooking, child care and laundry are separate arrangements and are priced that way. A weekly deep-clean visit at ₹900 a day is the usual middle path for a working couple who keep the house tidy themselves.

Four signs of a team worth paying

• They ask the carpet area, the number of bathrooms and what the floors are made of before quoting. Marble, Kota and wood change the chemicals.
• They arrive with a machine: a single-disc scrubber or at least a wet-dry vacuum. A deep clean without one is a regular clean.
• They walk the house with you at the end and redo what you point at before they pack up.
• They are ID and phone verified and reviewed in public, which every team on TheHire is. Your valuables are in the next room while they work; that part you cannot check at the door.

What to keep ready before they arrive

• Running water and power at every point they will use; a dry overhead tank ends the job.
• Jewellery, cash and documents locked away, not because of this team but because it is the sensible habit with every team.
• Clear counters and floors, and the cabinets you want cleaned inside emptied.
• Photos of the worst spots if you are posting a request; a picture of the scale on a shower glass gets a straighter quote than a sentence.
• A note of the floor type for each room, so the team brings the right cleaner.

The pest-control guides take over where cleaning stops: cockroaches under the sink and termites in the wardrobe need treatment, not scrubbing. Floor polishing is its own trade for marble that has gone dull, and the laundry guides cover what happens to the curtains that are too far gone for a steam.