Chicago, Illinois house cleaning
House cleaning in Chicago for apartments, two-flats and houses
Whether your place is a walk-up on a side street, a two-flat with a back porch, a condo in a mid-rise or a single-family on a quiet block, we handle house cleaning in Chicago for renters and owners alike. Apartments and houses, in whatever shape the city has them.
What needs cleaning right now
Keys going back to a landlord at the end of the lease
Move-out cleaning before the keys go back covers the inside of cabinets and appliances, the bathroom, the sills and the floors once the rooms are empty. By the time the lease is winding down the walls are patched and the closets are nearly empty, and the kitchen and bathroom still need the last clean before the keys change hands.
Boxes arriving at a new place
The apartment the lease starts on tomorrow was cleaned for showings, which is a different kind of cleaning from one done for your own things. Counters, the inside of cabinets, the bathroom and the floors all read differently when they are about to hold what you own. Cleaning a new place before the boxes gives the apartment a reset while the rooms are still bare.
A kitchen and bath that never get past a wipe-down
Dishes get done every night, counters get a swipe on the way out, and the mirror sees a cloth once a week. Meanwhile the baseboards, the grout, the top of the fridge and the ring around the tub have not been touched in months. A deep clean for the buildup reaches what a regular wipe-down skips.
Weeks that keep running out before the cleaning gets done
A weekly or every-other-week visit hands the kitchen, the bathrooms and the floors to someone who does the work for a living. The deep clean that was going to happen on Saturday also had laundry on it, a vet visit, and a friend in from out of town, and the week ran out.
Guests checking in to a short-term rental
Between one guest and the next, the kitchen, the bath and the surfaces a guest touched have to come back to how a visitor expects to find them, and anything left behind has to be noticed. Turnovers between guests are the regular cleaning the place lives on.
Drywall dust after a remodel
The paint is dry and the drop cloths are rolled up, but a fine layer of drywall dust is now sitting on every shelf, inside every drawer, along every baseboard and on top of every door frame. Dust after a remodel is its own cleaning, done after the trades have packed up and left.
Renters, old buildings and long winters
Renters live in a majority of the city's occupied homes, so a rental's cleaning moments drive many of the calls: the end of a lease and a landlord's walk-through, the start of a new one before the mover's blankets touch the floor, a summer sublet, or a one-time clean before a parent visits. The every kind of cleaning we do page sorts those into pages, and how a job sets up covers the start.
Chicago housing is old on average, with a median year built of 1953 and about 39 percent of the city's housing units built in 1939 or earlier. Old buildings hold dust in places a newer one does not. Cast-iron radiators collect it between their columns, plaster walls and painted trim take a gentle wipe, and original hex and subway tile hide grime in the grout. The guide on radiators and old tile covers what changes in those apartments.
The age of this housing shapes what a cleaning touches, and plaster walls, old grout, cast-iron radiators and painted trim all come up often.
Winter here is long enough to add its own line to the standing to-do list. At the official climate site for the city, Chicago O'Hare, the normal first measurable snowfall comes on November 18 and the normal last on April 2, and the normal annual snowfall is 38.4 inches. Every melt from a boot leaves a thin white haze inside the door, especially on wood floors and tile. The guide on salt film at the door covers how it comes up.
Winter here runs long, and cleaning rhythms shift with it.
Chicago's measurable snow season at O'Hare
First and last measurable snow dates at Chicago O'Hare, from the National Weather Service's 1991 to 2020 normals.
- Measurable snow: Nov 18 to Apr 2
Source: National Weather Service Chicago, Snow Climatology.
Show the numbers behind this chart
| Date | What |
|---|---|
| November 18 | Measurable snow begins |
| April 2 | Measurable snow ends |
House cleaning services, by the job
There is a page for every kind of cleaning we do, grouped by the shape of the job.
Regular and one-time cleaning
Bigger cleans
Moves and rentals
How a cleaning sets up
- You call (312) 436-0710 and tell us about the place. Rooms, bathrooms, pets, whether anyone will be home, how we get in through the building and the door.
- The call settles which cleaning fits: a regular visit, a deep clean, a move-out, a rental turnover. We note what we would skip and what to tell the building if we need a service elevator.
- You get a price and decide. No cleaning starts before you give us the go-ahead.
- The cleaning. If you are home, a last look together before we leave.
How Chicago lives, and what that means for a visit
About 40 percent of Chicago households are one person living alone, and two-bedroom homes are the most common size in the city. In a one- or two-bedroom home, the kitchen and the bathroom carry most of the work, and the rest is a reset of surfaces you touch every day. The same cleaning fits a top-floor apartment and a condo in a tower. Pages on house cleaning in Lincoln Park and cleaning in Hyde Park each cover their own neighborhood.
Chicago house cleaning guides
House cleaning in Chicago: your questions
What does a house cleaning cost in Chicago, and why not a price from a description alone?
What a cleaning costs is set by what the cleaning actually is. The number of rooms and bathrooms, how long it has been since a thorough clean, whether a pet lives in the home, whether we are reaching the apartment through a front door or a service elevator, and whether this is a one-time visit or part of a schedule. How a cleaning is priced explains the drivers one by one.
Do you charge by the hour?
The price for a visit is set for the whole visit, after we have gone over the apartment with you. One number for the cleaning that place needs, from the first room to the last look. The cost guide spells out which pieces of the home push the number up or down.
What does a standard house cleaning include?
A standard visit covers the kitchen (counters, the outside of appliances, the sink, the stovetop), the bathrooms (tub or shower, toilet, vanity, mirror), dusting from high to low, and the floors last. Beds get made if you ask. Nothing personal gets sorted into drawers. What a standard cleaning covers has the room-by-room list.
Should the first visit be a deep clean?
If the place has been kept up and only wants a reset, a standard visit is enough. If it has been a long while, or if a schedule is about to start, a deep clean first saves work on every visit after it. Deep cleaning or regular cleaning is the longer answer.
Do I need to be home, and what about keys or a front desk?
You do not need to be home. Access and whether anyone will be around go on the call: a buzzer and a code, a key or a lockbox, a doorman with a visitor sheet, a service elevator. We agree on all of it before the day.
Do you clean apartments and condos as well as houses?
Yes, apartments and condos as much as single-family houses. A one-bedroom walk-up, a two-flat, a loft, a condo in a mid-rise or a high-rise. The apartments, condos and lofts page covers what changes between a walk-up and a tower.
Can you work around pets?
Yes. Say on the call what kind of pet, whether they stay in one room, whether they are nervous around strangers, and whether anyone in the household is bothered by particular products. Products are sorted on the call too.
When your place needs a cleaning in Chicago
Walk through the apartment with the kitchen and the bathrooms in mind. If the counters, the tub ring and the floors have fallen behind, a regular visit will catch up. If the baseboards, the grout, the oven and the top of the fridge have been quiet for longer, a deep clean first makes more sense. Either way, phone us at (312) 436-0710 and tell us about the place. Leave your number in the callback form below if you would rather have us call back.