Would You Pay 1,000€ for a Family House Cleaning?
Sophie and Marc thought they were ready. A new luxury apartment, twin newborns, and 200 square meters of pristine marble floors. Three weeks later, the marble wasn’t pristine anymore — and neither were they.
When Sophie Renaud called us at 7 AM on a Tuesday, she wasn’t crying — but she was close.
“There’s formula on the ceiling,” she whispered, careful not to wake the twins. “I didn’t even know that was physically possible.”
Her husband Marc was asleep on the couch, surrounded by the detritus of new parenthood: muslin cloths, half-empty bottles, a stroller that had somehow migrated into the kitchen. Their 200m² apartment in the 16th arrondissement — the one they’d spent 18 months renovating before the twins arrived — looked like it had been hit by a very small, very milky tornado.
Sophie didn’t need a regular cleaning. She needed a rescue operation.
And yes, it cost over 1,000€. Nevertheless, she says it was the best money she ever spent.
The Real Cost of “Doing It Yourself” After a Major Life Event
Here’s what nobody tells new parents moving into a large apartment: the square footage that felt luxurious when you were two adults sipping wine on the terrace becomes a logistical nightmare when you’re operating on three hours of sleep with two newborns.
Every room needs cleaning, while dust settles on surfaces faster than you can wipe them. Meanwhile, bathrooms demand constant sanitizing. As a result, you simply don’t have the time, energy, or mental bandwidth to handle it all.
How 200m² Breaks You When You’re Sleep-Deprived
The math is brutal. In fact, a 200m² home takes roughly 6 to 8 hours to deep clean properly — that’s a professional estimate, not a “quick tidy.” Consequently, for a family with newborns, doing it yourself means sacrificing an entire day of already-scarce rest, or letting the mess compound until it becomes genuinely unsanitary.
What Sophie’s DIY Approach Actually Cost Her
Sophie tried to keep up for three weeks. Here’s what that cost her:
- Two doctor visits for back pain from scrubbing floors while sleep-deprived (180€)
- A broken Dyson vacuum she dropped while carrying a baby (450€)
- Three arguments with Marc about whose turn it was to clean the bathrooms (priceless, and not in the good way)
- A persistent feeling of failure that no amount of Instagram cleaning hacks could fix
Total damage from “saving money” on cleaning: well over 600€, plus her sanity.
What Does a 1,000€ House Cleaning Actually Include?
Let’s break this down, because the number sounds shocking until you understand what’s involved.
Sophie and Marc’s cleaning wasn’t a maid coming in to run a mop around. It was a full-scale, top-to-bottom deep cleaning intervention designed specifically for families in transition — new home, new baby, post-renovation, or all three.
Here’s what their service included:
The Full Deep Clean (200m², 2 Professionals, 8+ Hours)
Each room received individual attention. For instance, the team pulled out appliances to clean behind and underneath them. Additionally, they washed interior windows, including the ones behind furniture nobody moves. The grout lines in all three bathrooms were scrubbed thoroughly, and every kitchen surface was sanitized — inside the oven, the refrigerator shelves, the range hood filters.
Baby-Safe Sanitization Protocol
With newborns in the home, standard cleaning products aren’t acceptable. Therefore, the entire apartment was cleaned using eco-certified, hypoallergenic products safe for infant environments. After all, every surface the babies might touch — and at that age, every surface will be touched — was treated accordingly.
Post-Construction Residual Cleaning
Their renovation had been “finished” for two months, but construction dust has a way of hiding. Specifically, it settles into air vents, light fixtures, behind built-in wardrobes, and inside electrical outlets. Moreover, this fine particulate dust isn’t just unsightly — it’s a respiratory concern for newborns. As a result, removing it requires systematic, room-by-room attention.
Organization and Reset
Beyond cleaning, the team helped reorganize spaces that had become chaotic during the first weeks with twins. First, nursery items were sorted and categorized. Then, the changing station area was set up for maximum efficiency. Finally, the kitchen was reorganized so that bottle preparation could happen with one hand (a skill every twin parent develops, whether they want to or not).
When you add it up — two trained professionals, 8+ hours of specialized labor, premium eco-certified products, and the expertise to handle post-construction and infant-safe requirements — 1,000€ starts to look less like an extravagance and more like a strategic investment.
Who Actually Pays This Much for a House Cleaning?
More people than you’d think. Furthermore, they’re not all billionaires.
Over the past three years, we’ve seen a dramatic shift in how families think about professional cleaning. In particular, the families investing in premium cleaning services tend to fall into a few specific categories.
New Parents with Newborns
Especially those with multiples. The first three months with a newborn are medically classified as the “fourth trimester” for good reason — the mother’s body is still recovering, sleep deprivation impairs judgment and motor function, and the home environment directly impacts infant health. Professional cleaning during this period isn’t a luxury; it’s a health intervention.
Families Moving into Larger Homes
Going from 80m² to 200m² doesn’t just double the cleaning workload — it roughly triples it, because larger homes have more specialized surfaces (marble, hardwood, large glass panels) that require specific techniques and products.
Post-Renovation Families
Construction dust is insidious. It embeds itself in soft furnishings, HVAC systems, and textiles. In reality, a surface-level cleaning misses approximately 60% of post-construction residue. Consequently, families with respiratory sensitivities or young children can’t afford to cut corners here.
Dual-Income Households Doing the Math
If both partners earn 50€/hour or more, spending 8 hours cleaning a large apartment represents 800€ in lost productive time — before accounting for the inferior results, the physical strain, and the relationship tension that inevitably accompanies the “who cleans what” negotiation.
The Psychology of the Price Tag
There’s a reason the 1,000€ number provokes such a strong reaction.
Why We Undervalue Professional Cleaning
We’ve been conditioned to think of cleaning as a low-value task — something anyone can do, something that shouldn’t cost much. However, this perception ignores the skill, knowledge, and physical labor involved in properly maintaining a large home.
The Spending Double Standard
For example, consider what you’d pay without blinking: 1,200€ for a weekend getaway. 800€ for a new smartphone. 2,000€ for a piece of furniture. These purchases are culturally acceptable because we’ve assigned them status value.
Yet paying for someone to ensure your newborns are breathing clean air, your marble floors aren’t being damaged by improper products, and your home is genuinely sanitary — somehow that’s “too much.”
Shifting from Cost to Investment
Ultimately, the families who get past this mental barrier tend to share one trait: they’ve stopped thinking about cleaning as a cost and started thinking about it as an investment in their family’s health, their relationship, and their time.
What Separates a 200€ Cleaning from a 1,000€ Cleaning?
This is the question people really want answered, so let’s be direct.
Standard Maintenance Cleaning (200€)
A 200€ cleaning is maintenance. Essentially, it’s a competent professional spending 3 to 4 hours maintaining an already-clean home. This service covers visible surfaces, standard bathrooms, kitchen counters, and floors. For most homes most of the time, that level of care is sufficient.
Premium Deep Cleaning (1,000€)
In contrast, a 1,000€ cleaning is restoration. It addresses problems you can’t see — the mold beginning to form behind the washing machine, the allergens accumulating in window tracks, the bacterial colonies establishing themselves in grout lines that haven’t been properly treated in months.
The Expertise Factor
The difference isn’t just time and labor, though those matter. Above all, it’s expertise. Knowing that marble requires pH-neutral cleaners or it etches. Understanding that certain wood floors can’t tolerate water-based products. Recognizing that post-construction dust in ventilation systems requires a specific extraction sequence, not just a damp cloth over the vent cover.
Why Eco-Certified Products Cost More
In addition, the products make a significant difference. Eco-certified, baby-safe cleaning agents cost 3 to 5 times more than conventional supermarket products. For a 200m² apartment, product costs alone can reach 80 to 120€.
The Tangible Difference You’ll Feel
Most importantly, there’s the result. After a premium deep clean, most families report that their home feels different — not just visually, but atmospherically. Notably, the air quality is measurably better, and the ambient stress level drops. For new parents, this environmental shift can be genuinely transformative.
The Three-Month Rule for New Parents
Based on working with dozens of families with newborns, here’s the cleaning schedule that actually works for a large apartment during the first year:
Month 1: The Deep Clean Reset
This is the 1,000€ intervention. Ideally, it happens in the first two weeks, either just before the baby arrives or just after the initial chaos settles. As a result, it establishes a clean baseline that’s much easier to maintain.
Months 2–6: Biweekly Maintenance
A professional cleaning every two weeks keeps the home at a manageable level. For a 200m² apartment, expect 4 to 5 hours per session. Although this is the period where most families try to cut costs by reducing frequency, most end up regretting it.
Months 7–12: Weekly or Biweekly, Depending on Mobility
Once babies start crawling, floor hygiene becomes critical. Surprisingly, many families increase their cleaning frequency at this stage, which is counterintuitive but necessary. After all, a crawling baby puts their hands — and everything their hands touch — directly into their mouth approximately 80 times per hour.
Quarterly Deep Cleans
In addition to regular maintenance, a more thorough session every three months addresses the accumulated issues that routine cleaning doesn’t cover: interior windows, deep kitchen appliance cleaning, mattress sanitization, and upholstery treatment.
“But I Can’t Afford 1,000€ for Cleaning”
Let’s address this honestly, because not every family can write that check — and pretending otherwise would be disingenuous.
Focus on the Rooms That Matter Most
If 1,000€ for a single cleaning session isn’t in your budget, here’s the pragmatic approach: invest in a professional deep clean for the rooms that matter most for infant health — specifically, the nursery, the kitchen, and the primary bathroom. A targeted deep clean of these three areas in a large apartment runs between 350€ and 500€, and it addresses the most critical hygiene concerns.
Build a Consistent Maintenance Routine
Afterward, establish a regular maintenance schedule — even monthly is better than nothing. Ultimately, consistency matters more than frequency. A 200m² apartment cleaned professionally once a month will stay healthier than one cleaned sporadically “whenever things get bad.”
The Hidden Cost of Skipping Professional Cleaning
Paradoxically, the most expensive option is no professional cleaning at all. Over time, accumulated dirt damages surfaces, degrades air quality, and creates conditions that require increasingly intensive (and expensive) interventions to correct.
What Sophie Says Now
Six months after that 2 AM phone call, Sophie has a standing biweekly cleaning appointment. Today, the twins are crawling, the marble floors are intact, and she and Marc haven’t argued about bathroom duty in months.
“People ask me all the time how I manage with twins in such a big apartment,” she told us recently. “I tell them the truth: I don’t manage the apartment. I manage the babies. Someone else manages the apartment. And that decision gave me back my sanity, my marriage, and about 30 hours a month.”
When pressed about the initial 1,000€ deep clean, she laughs.
“I spent more than that on a stroller the twins will outgrow in a year. At least my clean apartment will still be here.”
Making the Decision
If you’re reading this article, you’re probably in one of two situations: you’re a new parent drowning in a home that’s gotten away from you, or you’re planning ahead and wondering whether premium cleaning is worth the investment.
Either way, the answer depends on one question: what is your time, health, and peace of mind worth?
For Sophie and Marc, and for the growing number of families making this choice, the math was simple. In the end, the cost of not investing in professional cleaning — in damaged surfaces, degraded health, lost time, and accumulated stress — far exceeded the price of doing it right.
A clean home isn’t a luxury. On the contrary, for a family with newborns in a large apartment, it’s infrastructure. And like all good infrastructure, it pays for itself many times over.
This article reflects real experiences from families served by professional cleaning services in Paris and Île-de-France. Names have been changed for privacy. If you’re navigating a similar situation — new baby, new home, or simply a home that’s gotten ahead of you — professional deep cleaning services specializing in large residences and family-safe protocols can help you reclaim your space and your sanity.
