How often
How often should you get a cleaner? Weekly, fortnightly or every 4 weeks
Quick answer: Fortnightly suits most homes: often enough that bathrooms and floors don't build up, without the cost of weekly. Choose weekly for busy family homes, several pets or a shared house; every 4 weeks for a small or tidy home you maintain yourself; a one-off or deep clean for a reset.
How to choose, what each option costs per visit, and what our own customers pick.
- Standard clean
- From $221, live from our booking calculator, checked 14 October 2026
- Our record
- 56,564 completed home cleans
The options at a glance
More frequent visits cost less each, because there is less build-up to clear and they are booked a little shorter.
What each costs for a standard clean of a two-bedroom, one-bathroom home, live from our booking calculator:
- Weekly: $204 a visit
- Fortnightly: $216 a visit
- Every 4 weeks: $228 a visit
- One-off: $253
Over a year that's 52 visits weekly, 26 fortnightly and 13 every 4 weeks. A lower price per visit doesn't mean a lower yearly spend: at today's prices, weekly costs about three and a half times as much over a year as every 4 weeks, and fortnightly nearly twice as much. These assume every visit goes ahead with no extras. Every home size and frequency is on our pricing page.
| How often | Best for | Between visits |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly | Family homes, several pets, shared houses, allergies | Little build-up; the home stays ready |
| Fortnightly | Most homes: couples, small families, one pet | A quick daily tidy keeps it on track |
| Every 4 weeks | Small or tidy homes kept up in between | You keep up bathrooms and floors yourself |
| One-off | A reset, guests, or before a regular plan | Book again when you need it |
A deep clean is offered one-off or every 4 weeks. Sources are listed at the end of this guide. Checked 5 October 2026.
Your yearly cost, for your home
Choose your home and a frequency to see the price per visit and the total over a year.
- Price per visit
- $216
- Cleaner time booked
- 1h 59m
- Time in your home
- 1h 59m
- Visits a year
- 26
- Cost over a year
- $5,616
- Cost per hour freed
- $54
Standard clean, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, fortnightly, one cleaner, replacing 4 hours of your own cleaning. Prices and booked time come from our booking calculator for the frequency selected, checked 14 October 2026. These are new-booking estimates; existing recurring customers keep their agreed terms.
| How often | Per visit | Visits a year | Over a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weekly | $204 | 52 | $10,608 |
| Fortnightly | $216 | 26 | $5,616 |
| Every 4 weeks | $228 | 13 | $2,964 |
| One-off | $253 | 1 | $253 |
What else changes what a plan costs
The price per visit is fixed for your home and how often you book. A few things change what a particular visit costs: a first visit that needs extra attention, extras you add, a same-day booking and a late change.
- First visit: if the home has some build-up or needs a proper reset, the first visit costs more, with the plan discount still applied to it. Later visits return to the regular price. Why a first clean can cost more.
- Extras: inside the oven, fridge or cupboards, interior windows and the other extras are charged on the visit you add them to. Add them when you book a plan and that is the first visit; later visits don't repeat them unless you add them again. The plan discount applies to the clean, not to extras.
- Same-day bookings: a $40 fee, which booking asks you to accept first. There is no weekend surcharge.
- Skipping, pausing or cancelling: free with 24 hours' notice. Inside 24 hours a fee may apply under the current cancellation terms to that visit, and you see it before you confirm.
So the yearly totals above assume a home kept on top of, no extras and no late changes. Every home size and frequency is on our pricing page.
Weekly
Weekly keeps a busy home consistently clean: kitchens and bathrooms never get far, and floors stay on top of pets, kids and traffic.
It suits households with young children, two or more pets, several adults sharing, or anyone who wants the home ready every weekend. It costs the least per visit and the most per year. In our bookings, 15% of standard-clean customers on the current platform were weekly.
Fortnightly
Fortnightly is the most popular plan: often enough to stop build-up, with a quick tidy in between keeping things on track.
It suits couples, small families and homes with a pet. Of our standard-clean customers on a plan, 45% were fortnightly (49 customers). Between visits, a few minutes a day on the kitchen bench and the bathroom basin keeps things on track: a simple daily routine.
Every 4 weeks
A standard clean every 4 weeks works for a small or tidy home where you keep up the basics between visits. Visits fall on the same weekday every 28 days, so expect 13 a year.
Expect more build-up in bathrooms and on floors between visits than with fortnightly, so it suits a home with no pets and fewer people. A standard clean every 4 weeks isn't the same as an occasional deep clean: a deep clean adds inside the oven, grout, skirting and tracks, and costs more. Deep cleans can also be booked every 4 weeks, for homes that want that detail kept up.
One-off and deep cleans
A one-off clean suits a reset, guests or an occasion. A deep clean adds the detail regular cleans skip, and is a good start before a regular plan.
Many customers start with a one-off or deep clean, then move to a plan once the home is at a standard that a regular visit can maintain. Standard, deep or end-of-lease? explains the difference.
What decides the right frequency
Mostly how many people and pets live there, how much time you have between visits, and how much build-up you're comfortable with.
- People and traffic: more people means more kitchen and bathroom use, and more floor traffic.
- Pets: shedding and tracked-in dirt build up fastest on floors. Two or more pets usually point to weekly or fortnightly.
- Allergies or asthma at home: follow your doctor's advice and ASCIA's allergen guidance, which suggests damp dusting and weekly vacuuming, and notes that vacuuming stirs allergen into the air for a while. A cleaner can do that dusting and vacuuming, but no cleaning schedule can promise to control symptoms, and laundering bedding isn't part of a standard clean.
- Working from home: a home that is lived in all day sees more kitchen and bathroom use. Fortnightly usually still works; a busy household working from home often prefers weekly.
- Your own routine: if you keep up daily tidying, you can go longer between visits.
- Budget: weekly costs least per visit but most over a year; fortnightly is the usual balance.
Frequency and visit length are different decisions. See how long a house clean takes for home-size estimates and what changes the time needed.
Household use, pets, your own cleaning and budget affect the interval that suits you. Booking-frequency statistics describe customers; they do not prescribe the right schedule for your home.
Read the illustration as text
- Notice the build-up
- Which rooms need attention between your own cleaning?
- Choose a workable interval
- Match the visits to your budget and the help you need.
- Review after a few visits
- Adjust the priorities or frequency if the current pattern is not working.
Your home’s routine matters more than a popular choice.
A cleaning schedule for your cleaner: plan the next four visits
Keep the agreed regular checklist at every visit. Use a separate planner for changing priorities and occasional extras, so a rotation does not quietly remove included work or add unbooked tasks.
Download the recurring-visit planner (CSV). Open it in Excel, Google Sheets or another spreadsheet app. Replace the example row, copy the dates from your confirmed bookings and fill in one row per visit. You can print it for a walk-through.
Record the service, two priorities within that service, any requested extra, whether the extra is confirmed, preparation and a note for the next visit. Confirm whether an extra is for the first visit only or has also been booked for another date.
Use your actual dates: a calendar month and a four-week interval are different. The planner does not schedule or change a booking. For daily and weekly tasks you handle between visits, use our house cleaning checklist.
Example: priorities and extras across four visits
This example keeps the standard checklist on every visit and changes the notes around it. It is an illustration, not a recommendation that every home needs these extras on this timetable.
| Visit | Keep the booked checklist | Discuss or prepare |
|---|---|---|
| First | The agreed kitchen, bathroom, floors and accessible-surface tasks. | Explain priorities and delicate materials. Confirm any first-visit extras separately. |
| Second | The same agreed standard scope. | Share feedback from the first visit and flag a priority such as the main bathroom. |
| Third | The same agreed standard scope. | If a fridge interior clean is needed, book that extra and empty it before the visit. |
| Fourth | The same agreed standard scope. | Review build-up and the gap between visits. Discuss a different service or frequency if the current plan no longer fits. |
Priorities guide attention within the booked scope. They are not a swap system for paid extras or a guarantee of extra time. Source: Simply Maid standard-cleaning checklist. Checked 8 October 2026.
Signs it's time to change frequency
If the home feels grimy well before the next visit, go more often. If the cleaner is finding little to do, go less often or switch to every 4 weeks.
- Bathrooms and the kitchen need attention halfway between visits.
- Floors show pet hair or grit within a few days.
- You're tidying before the cleaner comes so they can get to the cleaning.
- Your household has changed: a baby, a new pet, someone working from home.
On a Simply Maid plan you can change the frequency, pause or skip a visit from your account (pausing or skipping).
Still deciding whether a cleaner is worth it at all? Is hiring a cleaner worth it? works through the cost per hour freed. Ready to choose who to hire? Use the hiring checklist.
What our customers choose
Fortnightly is the most common plan, but four in ten standard-clean customers book one-off cleans.
Simply Maid booking history · not today’s price
- 45%
- of standard-clean customers on a plan chose fortnightly (49 customers)
- 40%
- of standard-clean customers booked one-off cleans (82 customers)
- 27%
- of standard-clean customers were fortnightly (82 customers)
- 15%
- of standard-clean customers were weekly (82 customers)
Simply Maid's current booking platform, 27 March to 3 October 2026 (it opened in March 2026): completed visits, excluding staff tests and $0 bookings. Plans, visits and customers are counted separately, as labelled. Customers are counted once, by the frequency of their most recent standard clean; 18% were on the every-4-weeks plan. Computed 5 October 2026.
Questions people ask
Is fortnightly cleaning enough?
For most homes, yes. A few minutes a day on benches and the bathroom basin keeps things on track between visits. Busy family homes and multi-pet homes often prefer weekly.
Is a regular plan cheaper than one-off cleans?
Per visit, yes. A fortnightly standard clean of a two-bedroom, one-bathroom home is $216, against $253 as a one-off.
How often should a small apartment be cleaned?
Fortnightly or every 4 weeks usually suits a one- or two-bedroom apartment, depending on how many people live there and whether you keep up the basics.
Do pets change how often I need a cleaner?
Often. Pet hair and tracked-in dirt build up fastest on floors, so many homes with pets choose weekly or fortnightly. Start there and adjust after a few visits.
Can I change my frequency later?
Yes. On a Simply Maid plan you can change it, pause or skip a visit from your account.
Change log
Who wrote and edited this article, when its sources were checked, and what changed.
Current version
What changed
8 October 2026 — Updated by Huy Hoang.
Checked this guide against the current booking catalogue. Prices, discounts, allocated times and interior inclusion summaries use live production values where shown. Corrected package comparisons and first-visit explanations where relevant; existing recurring customers retain their agreed terms.
When you're ready
See your price for each frequency
Get a fixed price for your home, then choose weekly, fortnightly, every 4 weeks or one-off. Nothing is booked or paid at this step.
Booking for the first time? Your first clean
Sources
The guidance and policies this guide relies on, with the date we read each one.
- How much does house cleaning cost in Australia?, Simply Maid. Read 5 October 2026. Live prices by home size and frequency, from the booking calculator.
- How do recurring cleans work?, Simply Maid help centre. Read 5 October 2026.
- Can I pause my plan or skip a visit?, Simply Maid help centre. Read 5 October 2026.
- Allergen minimisation, Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA). Read 5 October 2026. Damp dusting and weekly vacuuming reduce dust mite allergen; vacuuming also raises airborne allergen for a while, and no cleaning method removes dust mites completely.
Policies quoted from Simply Maid's published terms and help centre on the date shown.
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