Why does my first clean cost more than recurring visits?

Quick answer

The first clean is a reset — a deeper baseline that includes things we won't repeat every visit. Inside the oven, behind appliances, full grout treatment, window tracks. That's why it costs more, and it's only billed once.

A recurring clean keeps a home maintained. It doesn't get your home from where it is today to where maintenance starts making sense. Those are two different jobs, and most homes need the first one done once before recurring can do its job efficiently. Our initial clean uses a different checklist than recurring. Every service level starts higher, and we include items that only happen on visit 1 — oven interior, fridge interior, behind major appliances, full baseboards, grout treatment, window tracks. These don't show up on every visit going forward because they don't need to. After visit 1, recurring runs at a different price because it's a different scope. You're paying for what's actually happening that day, not the deep work that already got done.

What this means for your clean

The initial price reflects the higher service levels and the reset items
Recurring price reflects ongoing maintenance, which is what your home actually needs from visit 3 forward
Add-ons like inside oven and inside fridge are part of the initial automatically. If you want them on recurring visits too, you can flag that.

Exceptions

If your home is already in great shape — you just moved in, you keep on top of it yourself — you can skip the initial and start with recurring. We'll discuss this on the quote.
If your home needs more than a standard initial (post-renovation, post-construction, hoarding), that's a separate scope. We'll quote it directly.