Standard Cleaning Is Maintenance, Not a Reset
A lot of confusion around cleaning quotes comes down to one thing: people expect a standard clean to cover the same ground as a deep clean. It doesn’t, and it isn’t supposed to. A standard clean is built to maintain a home that’s already in reasonably good shape, keeping up with the day-to-day buildup between visits. A deep clean is what resets a home that’s fallen behind, or gets requested periodically to hit the spots a standard visit doesn’t reach.
What a Standard Clean Typically Covers
Kitchen
- Wipe down counters, backsplash, and outside of appliances
- Clean the stovetop
- Wipe exterior of cabinets
- Empty trash and reline bins
- Sink scrub and faucet polish
Bathrooms
- Clean and disinfect toilets, tubs, and showers
- Wipe mirrors and counters
- Mop flooring
Living Areas and Bedrooms
- Dust reachable surfaces, shelves, and furniture
- Vacuum carpets and rugs
- Sweep and mop hard flooring
- Make beds (linens not changed unless left out)
- Empty trash bins
What Usually Costs Extra or Falls Under Deep Cleaning
These tasks take meaningfully more time per room and aren’t part of a standard maintenance visit. Most are covered under a deep clean, or can be added individually for an extra fee:
- Inside the oven: baked-on residue takes real scrubbing time
- Inside the refrigerator: requires removing shelves and drawers
- Inside kitchen cabinets: emptying and wiping down interiors
- Baseboards and door frames: detailed, low-to-the-ground work
- Grout scrubbing: beyond a surface wipe of tile
- Window tracks and interior window washing
- Behind and under large furniture and appliances
- Light fixtures and ceiling fans
- Laundry, dishes, or organizing (not cleaning services in the traditional sense)
- Walls and scuff mark removal
Why the Line Is Drawn Here
It comes down to time. A standard visit is priced and scheduled around routine maintenance tasks that take a predictable amount of time across most homes. Add-on tasks like inside-oven or inside-fridge cleaning can add significant time depending on how much buildup there is, so they’re priced and scheduled separately rather than folded into every visit by default. This keeps standard cleaning pricing predictable and keeps deep or add-on work priced fairly for the actual labor involved.
Requesting Add-Ons
If you know you want an add-on task handled, inside the oven, inside the fridge, interior windows, mention it when you book rather than bringing it up once the crew has already arrived. That way it can be scoped and priced ahead of time and built into the appointment window, instead of turning into a rushed decision on the day of service or getting skipped entirely because there isn’t time left in the visit.
A Simple Way to Think About It
If a task is something you’d normally do every week or two, wiping counters, vacuuming, taking out trash, it’s standard. If it’s something you’d only get around to a few times a year, or never without help, scrubbing inside the oven, degreasing cabinet interiors, detailing baseboards, it’s a deep clean or add-on task. That rule of thumb covers most of the gray area homeowners run into when deciding what to expect from a routine visit.
How Pricing Works
Standard cleaning starts at a $150 minimum, with deep cleaning starting at $250 and move-in/move-out cleaning starting at $300, scaling from there based on home size and condition. If you’re maintaining a home on a recurring schedule, recurring discounts apply: 15% off weekly service, 10% off biweekly, and 5% off monthly.
Which One Should You Book?
If it’s been more than a couple of months since a professional cleaning, or this is a first-time booking, starting with a deep clean establishes a clean baseline. From there, standard cleaning on a recurring schedule maintains it, and periodic deep cleans (every few months, or seasonally) catch the buildup that standard visits aren’t scoped to cover.
Arlington Home Cleaning is licensed and insured, serving Arlington VA, Ashburn VA, and the greater Northern Virginia area. Book online and note any add-ons you’d like when you schedule.