Window Cleaning as a Side Hustle
Glass became the quietest good business our exterior crews run. A $175 minimum visit, $10 exterior panes, and houses that rebook every spring and fall add up to steady margin from gear that fits in a trunk. The catch is a craft with a real learning curve, plus ladder time on two-story work. Here is how we would decide whether it belongs in your weekends.
- Startup cost
- $300 to $800
- Typical earnings
- $175 to $450 per typical residential visit
- Source: our window cleaning crew's published price list
- Time to first dollar
- One weekend
The quiet cousin of pressure washing
Nobody brags about starting a window cleaning business. Our crews added it because washing customers kept asking, and it quietly became some of the best margin we make. The gear costs less than a decent phone, houses rebook twice a year on their own, and the whole operation fits in a car trunk. For someone who wants a real service business without a truck, a trailer, or an engine of any kind, this is our first recommendation.
Priced by the pane, floored at $175
Our price list is simple enough that customers can check the math from their driveway, and that transparency wins bids. Every visit starts at a $175 minimum, then builds by the pane.
| Line item | Our published price |
|---|---|
| Exterior pane, standard | $10 |
| Exterior pane, French | $12 |
| Interior pane | $8 |
| Screen | $5 |
| Track | $3 |
| Hard-water removal | $25 per window |
| Skylight | $35 |
Typical residential visits land between $175 and $450 once screens and tracks join the ticket. Now the modest-month arithmetic. One house each Saturday at a $300 average is $1,200 gross, and the consumables against it are soap, scrim, and rubber squeegee blades. No fuel-hungry machine sits between you and the margin, which is the structural difference from pressure washing and the reason we call this its quiet cousin.
The same glass, twice a year
Windows get dirty on a schedule. Pollen films the glass in spring, summer storms spot it, and by fall the customer wants the light back. Most of our residential accounts rebook every six months without being sold twice, so each new customer is really two visits a year for as long as your standards hold. Build forty accounts and the calendar starts filling itself.
The craft is honest about its learning curve. A squeegee in trained hands leaves nothing behind. In untrained hands it leaves streaks you notice only after packing up, so the first weeks are your own windows, then family, then discounted neighbors. Second-story exteriors bring out the ladder, and ladder discipline, more than glass technique, is the skill that decides whether this trade suits you.
The temperament test
Detail people thrive here. If a crooked picture frame bothers you from across a room, window cleaning will feel like getting paid to scratch an itch. It also suits solo operators, since there is no crew to manage and the results advertise themselves from the sidewalk.
Pass on it if heights unsettle you even a little, because two-story work is where tickets grow. And if you would rather sell one bigger job than many small line items, carpet cleaning runs $100 to $150 job minimums with both feet on the floor, while house cleaning offers recurring accounts with no ladder in the equation.
Gear for under $800, really
The $300 to $800 range covers professional squeegees and channels, extension poles, applicators, scrim, a holster belt, and proper soap. Many garages already hold the ladder, which is why the range starts where it does. A water-fed brush is optional at this stage, and the pure-water systems that big route operators run are a later upgrade, $1,500 and up, justified only when a full calendar demands their speed. The window cleaning kit lists the gear class piece by piece, with the specs separating pro tools from hardware-aisle lookalikes.
This weekend, if you want it
Clean your own glass twice with real tools and time yourself. Then quote three neighbors from the pane rates above and see how the $175 minimum feels in conversation. The kit page has the shopping list. The rest is reps.