Apartment Cleaning in Manhattan from $151

CleanWhale cleans apartments across Manhattan, from studios in a six-story pre-war walk-up to high-floor condos with floor-to-ceiling glass. Rates start at $151 for a one-bedroom, and the hard part here is rarely the cleaning itself. It is getting a crew legally and smoothly into your building. We handle the certificate of insurance, the service-elevator window and the front-desk check-in so you do not have to. Book online in about a minute.

The Manhattan housing stock

Manhattan has the smallest apartments and the smallest households in the city, roughly two people per home, and about 97% of apartments sit in buildings of six units or more. Half the stock is studios and one-bedrooms. There are no basements to store a mop, no garages, no private land, no in-unit utility rooms to hide clutter. Everything you own lives inside the finished square footage, which changes what a clean actually means: surfaces are dense, closets are deep, and there is no overflow space.

The city is also old. More than half of NYC housing predates 1947, and roughly three-quarters of apartment buildings are steam-heated, which means cast-iron radiators under most windows. Pre-war radiators were deliberately oversized to heat a room on the coldest day with the windows cracked, a flu-era ventilation norm, so they collect dust behind their covers and along the fins all winter. We clean behind and around radiator covers as standard. The two dominant jobs we see are opposites: a pre-war co-op with herringbone floors, plaster walls and a marble lobby, versus a newer condo with sealed glass, engineered floors and a doorman. Each needs a different touch and a different building-access routine.

Getting into your building

This is the part suburban cleaning companies cannot do, and it is why the page exists. Most Manhattan buildings will not let a crew past the lobby without paperwork.

• Certificate of insurance (COI). The baseline is a $1M certificate naming the building as additional insured, usually the co-op or condo plus the managing agent, and sometimes named board members. Some class-A boards require limits up to higher multiples. Certs are typically issued within about 30 days, so tell us your first date early and we file it with your managing agent.
• Service versus front entrance. Many buildings route vendors through a service entrance and a padded freight elevator rather than the passenger lobby. Freight cars often book to fixed weekday windows, and a lot of buildings ban weekend moves and vendor work, so we schedule your clean to the window your building allows.
• Front-desk check-in and registration. Doorman and concierge buildings want the crew announced and sometimes registered as a contractor in advance. We send names ahead so check-in is quick.
• Keys for owners who travel. If you are away, we coordinate key release through the front desk or a building-approved handoff, with clear rules on who holds what, so a recurring clean happens whether or not you are home.

What we clean here

Every visit covers the shared checklist, kitchen, bathrooms, floors, dusting, surfaces and trash, plus items specific to Manhattan homes:

• Behind and around cast-iron radiator covers, where winter dust settles.
• Herringbone and other wood floors, cleaned with the right amount of moisture so shellacked and softer boards are not flooded.
• Marble hall and entry surfaces, treated as polished stone rather than scrubbed like tile.
• Floor-to-ceiling and picture windows on the interior; note that facades over six stories are inspected on a five-year cycle, so a sidewalk shed may keep the outside glass off-limits for months.
• Window sills and lower sashes around child window guards, which are required where a child ten or under lives and partly block the sill.

Pricing

Flat starting rates, no hourly surprises: $151 for a one-bedroom, $179 for two bedrooms, $207 for three bedrooms. Sales tax on this Manhattan job address is 8.875%. Recurring plans, weekly, twice-monthly or monthly, come with a discount off the one-time rate, and a standing slot also makes building access easier because your COI and elevator window are already on file.

FAQ

Do you provide a COI for my co-op or condo board?

Yes. Send your managing agent's requirements and we issue a certificate naming the required additional insureds. Some boards ask for higher limits; tell us and we match them.

My building only allows the service elevator on weekdays. Can you work around that?

Yes. We book your clean to the freight-elevator window your building sets and avoid days when vendor work is banned. Weekend restrictions are common, so weekday mornings fill fast.

I travel often, can you clean while I am away?

Yes. We arrange key handling through your front desk or a building-approved method with clear custody rules, so a recurring clean runs on schedule regardless of your travel.

Can you clean an older pre-war apartment with wood floors and radiators?

Yes. We clean herringbone and shellacked floors with controlled moisture and handle radiator covers and marble surfaces as part of the visit.

Will you wash my windows?

We clean interior glass, including floor-to-ceiling panes. Exterior washing may be blocked by a facade-inspection sidewalk shed, which can stay up for months.

Book your Manhattan clean

We cover all ten Manhattan neighborhoods, from the Upper East and Upper West Sides down through Midtown, Chelsea, the Village and the Financial District. Pick your date, tell us the building, and we handle the access. Book online in about a minute.