In a studio, every mess is in the same room as every other mess. So the order you work in matters more than how hard you scrub. Here is the order we use in 400 square feet, plus what to do when you would rather hand it off.
Studios we clean every week
Marisol V. called us from a 380 square foot studio in Clinton Hill on a Sunday afternoon. She had been cleaning for four hours and the place looked worse than when she started. She had pulled everything out of the closet to sort it, stripped the bed, moved the couch to vacuum behind it, and then run out of steam somewhere around the bathroom. Now there was a pile on the bed she could not sleep in, a pile on the floor she could not walk around, and a kitchen sink still full of dishes.
Nothing she did was wrong. The order was wrong. In a one bedroom you can make a mess in the living room and close the door on it. In a studio there is no door. Every pile you create lands in the same room you are still trying to finish, so a studio punishes you for starting more than one job at a time. That is the whole trick, and once Marisol saw it she got the rest of it done in about fifty minutes.
We are Green Hands Cleaning Services Corp, based at 22-16 79th Street in East Elmhurst, and we have cleaned studios across Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan since 2015. Somewhere around a third of the homes on our route are studios or convertibles, which means we have made every mistake in one already. This guide is how to clean a New York City studio apartment in the order that keeps the room walkable the whole time, what to buy and what to skip, and where a house cleaning service New York City team fits if you would rather spend the afternoon somewhere else.
One thing before the steps. Clear a landing zone first. One chair, one square of floor, or the bathtub if there is nothing else. Everything you pick up during the clean goes there and nowhere else. A studio with a landing zone stays workable. A studio without one turns into what Marisol had by hour three.
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Tap a code to copy it, then mention it when you book. One code per household, and they do not stack.
New clients
10 % off
Code FIRST10
Ten percent off the first visit, whichever service you start with. The easiest way to see how we work before you commit to a schedule.
Most flexible
5 % off
Code FLEX5
Give us a four-hour window instead of a fixed hour and we can route more efficiently. That saving comes back to you on every visit.
Biggest saving
$30 off
Code RESET30
Thirty dollars off a first deep clean or a move-in / move-out clean, the two jobs where the difference is most visible when you walk back in.
Your neighbors
Same buildings, same walk-ups, same narrow kitchens as yours. Unedited reviews from people a few streets away.
Sarah K.
Upper West Side · deep clean
I was overwhelmed getting my home ready for my in-laws' first visit. Green Hands made everything spotless, from scrubbing the bathroom grout to dusting every corner. My mother-in-law even commented on how clean the apartment smelled.
David M.
Williamsburg · move-out clean
We were moving out and needed a deep clean to secure our deposit. Incredibly thorough, cleaning inside the oven and wiping down every single cabinet. The place looked better than when we moved in, and we got the full deposit back.
Jennifer R.
Astoria · one-time clean
After a long business trip I came back to a dusty apartment and no energy. The team arrived right on time and did a fantastic job, especially the blinds and baseboards. Such a relief to come home to a fresh space and finally relax.
The order that works
This is the sequence we use in a studio. Follow it and the floor stays walkable the entire time.
One lap of the room with a laundry basket. Anything that does not live on a surface goes in the basket and the basket goes to your landing zone. Do not sort it yet. Sorting is a different job and it will eat your afternoon.
Spray the tub, the toilet, the sink and the stovetop, then walk away for ten minutes. Cleaner needs contact time to do its job. While it sits, load the dishwasher or fill the sink. This is the ten minutes most people skip and then blame the product.
Top of the fridge, shelf tops, window sills, the radiator, then wipe every surface, then go back and scrub what you sprayed in step two. Always high to low, because anything you knock loose lands on a surface you have not finished yet.
Vacuum out from the far corner toward the door, mop the same direction, and only then put the basket away. Bed gets made at the very end so it stays a clean surface you can use, not a shelf for your stuff.
Hover a room to see what we cover
The studio problem
Apartment cleaning in a studio is not house cleaning scaled down. It is a different job, because one room has to do the work of four and every surface is a multitasker. The kitchen counter is also the desk. The window sill is also the pantry. The bed is also the couch. That means grease, dust and crumbs all end up in places you would never find them in a bigger home, and the standard checklist has to bend around that.
In detail
Split a studio into these five and it stops feeling like one enormous chore.
In most studios the kitchen is a wall, not a room. That wall does more work per square foot than anything else in the apartment, and it shows first.
Almost no studio bathroom in this city has a window. Moisture has nowhere to go, so mildew is a ventilation problem long before its a scrubbing problem.
Your bed sits in the same air as your stove, your shoes and your radiator. In a studio, bedding gets dirty faster than it does in a one bedroom, so the schedule has to be tighter.
A studio floor takes all the traffic a whole apartment would spread across four rooms. And the closet is not storage, it is infrastructure. Both need a system, not a heroic afternoon.
We are …
… roughly forty cleaners working out of East Elmhurst, most of whom have been with us for years. Whoever arrives at your door is one of them, trained on the same checklist and working from notes kept on your home.
The checklist
Standard basic cleaning is the same written list every visit, worked in the same order, top to bottom. In a studio it usually runs two to three hours with one cleaner, sometimes closer to ninety minutes once we have been coming a while and nothing has been allowed to build up. Deep and move-out cleans are this list plus the items under them, not a different list.
01
The recurring visit. Every item, every time.
02
Everything in the standard clean, plus:
03
Everything in the standard and deep clean, plus:
Cleaning products, sprays and cloths come with us. For hygiene reasons we do not carry vacuums and mops between homes, so we ask that yours are available on the day. If you want fragrance-free or pet-safe products, say so when you book and that is what we bring, at no extra charge. In a windowless studio bathroom the fragrance-free option is worth asking for even if you have no allergies at all.
For what actually kills what, the CDC's household hygiene guidance is short and plain, and the EPA's Safer Choice list is where we check a product before it goes into the kit.
What clients say
I was hosting a birthday party and the house was a disaster zone. They handled everything, carpets to counters. Pristine for the party.
As a new mom about to give birth, a nesting clean was impossible. They steam-cleaned the nursery and sanitized every high-touch area. Peace of mind before bringing the baby home.
I had a flood in my kitchen and a huge mess. They did an incredible job with the cleanup, removed the debris and made sure everything was dry and sanitized.
Between work and the kids my apartment had not had a deep clean in ages. They got years of dust off the radiators and the grime out of the kitchen tiles. Felt like a brand new apartment.
We needed a rental unit ready for new tenants and the place needed serious work. They scoured the bathroom tile and got rid of all the old odors. The tenants were impressed on move-in day.
We were hosting Thanksgiving and our oven was a mess. They deep cleaned the appliances and the floors. The house was so clean my stress level went to zero.
I had surgery and was recovering at home, unable to do any chores. They dusted all the high shelves and mopped the floors. Comforting to recover in a clean space without lifting a finger.
My elderly parents live with me and I can't keep up anymore. They moved furniture to get the dust and focused on the bathroom to prevent mold. Safe and spotless, which is my priority.
Four hours in, and the studio looks worse than when you started.
Right order, half the time.
No judgment. Just clean.
The result
Real New York studios, the evening after we finished. Kitchen strip reset, bathroom done, floor clear, nothing left on your list.
What we do
Residential cleaning covers everything from a 340 square foot studio in Ravenswood to a four-floor brownstone in Cobble Hill. Same checklist underneath, different amount of it.
Kitchen, bathroom, floors, dusting and surfaces on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly rhythm that fits your schedule.
View serviceInside the oven and fridge, grout, baseboards, door frames, vents and behind furniture. The reset before or after a season.
View serviceLight tidying, laundry, bed linens and dishes alongside the standard clean, for homes that need more than surfaces.
View serviceEmpty-unit clean top to bottom, cabinets and closets included, timed around your lease dates and deposit inspection.
View serviceOffices, studios and small retail, after hours or before opening, on a schedule that fits your week.
View serviceFine dust removal after a renovation, including fixtures, window tracks and every horizontal surface twice over.
View serviceIncluded with every booking
In detail
maid service
Maid service is the standard clean plus the household work a studio generates faster than a bigger home does: dishes in a sink you also brush your teeth next to, laundry with nowhere to sit, linens that need changing weekly because your bed lives eight feet from your stove. If the problem is not dirt so much as volume, this is the one you want.
Maid service in New York City
deep clean
The standard checklist, then everything past it: inside the oven, inside the fridge, grout scrubbed by hand, baseboards and door frames wiped, light fixtures and vents, window sills and tracks, blinds, behind and under whatever we can safely move.
Most studios need one every six months. Make it every four if you cook most nights, if your radiator sits under a window, or if you are on a ground floor facing the street. Book it before guests arrive rather than after, and before you list the unit, not the week of the open house. See deep cleaning service New York City or spring cleaning.
Discover more
move in / move out
Which is not what you look at. Empty cabinets and drawers wiped inside. Closet shelves and rods. Inside the oven and fridge. The gap beside the stove. Window tracks. Scuffs on the wall where the couch sat. A studio has fewer rooms and therefore fewer places to hide anything, so an inspector finds things fast.
Worth knowing your rights. The New York security deposit statute sets out what a landlord may and may not deduct, and ordinary wear and tear is not deductible. A clean unit plus a dated photo set is how you win that argument. Book seven or more days ahead and code RESET30 takes $30 off. See end of lease cleaning and move in move out cleaning.
Discover now
recurring
Weekly takes 25% off every visit, bi-weekly 15%, monthly 10%, for as long as you stay on the plan. Bi-weekly is the right answer for most studios in this city. Weekly makes sense if you cook every night, work from home, or share the room with a pet. Monthly works for a quiet studio you barely sleep in, with a deep clean twice a year on top.
Reschedule or skip free up to 24 hours ahead, because everyone has a week that falls apart. See custom cleaning plans, or read how often you should deep clean your apartment.
See the discounts
one time
Before a party, after a party, before a parent visits, or just once to see whether you like how we work. Plenty of our recurring clients started with a single one time cleaning and never went back to doing it themselves. There is no contract to sign and no card held to book one.
If the timing is tight, ask about same day cleaning service. Call before roughly 11am and we can usually reach you the same afternoon, and Queens and north Brooklyn are the easiest to fit. See also last minute cleaning and after-party cleaning.
Book one clean
eco & pet-friendly
In a studio you are sleeping in the air you just cleaned in. That is not a small thing. Households with cats, dogs, birds or small kids get the pet-safe set by default once they tell us, and the plant-based set is available to anyone who asks.
One rule we never break, and neither should you: never mix bleach with ammonia or with any acidic cleaner. It produces a toxic gas, and in a windowless bathroom off a single room, that is genuinely dangerous. See eco-friendly cleaning and pet-friendly cleaning, or the Consumer Reports cleaning guides for product comparisons.
Discover nowthe full range
Same day, week after week, on the same written list. Upkeep rather than rescue, for people who work long hours or travel most weeks.
Discover all services
Call before about 11am and we can usually reach you the same day. Queens and north Brooklyn are easiest to fit into the route.
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Checkout at 11, check-in at 3. Linens reset, restocked, staged to your listing photos, damage flagged before the next guest finds it.
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Priced for one room and scoped for one room. Most studios run two to three hours with a single cleaner on the first visit.
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The one job in a studio bathroom that a normal wipe-down will never touch. Brush, soak, rinse, and it looks like the year it was tiled.
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Interior glass, sills and tracks. In a studio the window is most of your light, so a clean pane changes the whole room.
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High-touch surfaces done properly: handles, switches, faucets, the fridge door. Useful after illness or a house full of guests.
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HEPA vacuum, several passes hours apart, and the places dust hides: door frame tops, window tracks, cabinet tops, radiator fins.
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Offices, studios and small retail, after hours or before opening, on a schedule that fits your week.
Discover all servicesgallery
Recurring plans
Set a rhythm and the discount applies to every visit, automatically. No contract, no cancellation fee, and you can change or pause it whenever you like.
For studios that get heavy daily use
25% off every visit
Your home never leaves its best state.
Cancel any time · no fee
Our most popular rhythm
15% off every visit
The sweet spot for most New York studios.
Cancel any time · no fee
A steady reset on the calendar
10% off every visit
Keeps things from ever getting away from you.
Cancel any time · no fee
Discounts apply automatically to every visit for as long as you stay on the plan, and are quoted flat by home size before anyone arrives.
Questions
The questions we get asked most often about one-room apartments in this city.
01 How long does it take to clean a studio apartment?
On your own, about two hours if you keep on top of it and follow the order above, or four to five hours the first time after a long stretch of neglect. With one of our cleaners, a typical New York studio runs two to three hours on a first visit and often closer to ninety minutes on a recurring plan, because nothing has been allowed to build.
02 What order should I clean in?
Clear surfaces into a basket, spray the bathroom and stovetop and let it sit ten minutes, dust high to low, wipe, then scrub what you sprayed, then floors last. Unpack the basket at the very end. In a studio the order matters more than the products, because every pile you make is in the room you are still cleaning.
03 How do I stop the smell of cooking from getting into my bed?
Run the range hood or a window fan while you cook and for ten minutes after, keep the bathroom fan going as a second exhaust, and wash pillowcases twice a week. Wipe the headboard and the lampshade nearest the kitchen every couple weeks, since thats where the grease film settles first.
04 My bathroom has no window and keeps getting mildew. What now?
Treat it as an airflow problem first. Run the fan twenty minutes after every shower, leave the door open when nobody is home, and towel or squeegee the tub walls. Then scrub the grout with a brush after a fifteen minute soak. If it comes back within two weeks, the fan is likely under-powered or vented into the ceiling cavity, which is worth raising with your building.
05 Do I need to be home during the clean?
No. Most clients give us entry instructions or a key and go about their day. Tell us how you would like us to get in when you book. In a studio a lot of people prefer to be out, simply because there is nowhere to sit that we are not working around.
06 Do you bring your own supplies?
Yes, all the cleaning products, sprays, cloths and sponges come with us. For hygiene reasons we do not carry vacuums and mops between homes, since that can move bacteria or bedbugs from one apartment to the next, so we ask that your vacuum, mop and toilet brush are available. If you don't have a mop, we can bring a Swiffer with disposable wet pads instead, just tell us when you book.
07 How much does a studio clean cost?
It is quoted flat by home size and scope, not by the hour, so the number you agree to before anyone arrives is the number you pay. A studio is the smallest tier we price, and first-time clients take 10% off with code FIRST10. A first deep clean or move-out clean takes $30 off with RESET30 when booked seven or more days ahead.
08 What if something gets missed?
Tell us within 24 hours and we come back and re-clean the area at no charge. That window applies to every service, including the discounted ones.
09 Which neighborhoods do you cover?
Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan below 96th Street, including Astoria, Long Island City, Ravenswood, Ditmars-Steinway, Cobble Hill, Gowanus, Prospect Heights, Bushwick, the East Village and Morningside Heights. Ask if you are just outside those and we will tell you honestly whether we can get there.
Testimonials
We were setting up a nursery and needed the spare room cleared of dust and debris. They meticulously cleaned the whole space, washed the windows and wiped down the walls. Finally safe and ready for our baby.
I hosted a bridal shower and the place was trashed afterward. They cleaned up all of it, washed the dishes, emptied the trash. Saved me hours and the apartment was back to normal in no time.
My daughter is a college student here and her apartment was a mess before our visit. They did a deep clean, cleared the clutter and did the bathroom. Relieved to see her in a healthy environment.
I work from home and couldn't focus because of the chaos, now I have a peaceful, clean space to take my calls and actually be productive.
Olivia S.
Dumbo, Brooklyn
Where we clean
Most of our cleaners live in Queens, so Queens and north Brooklyn get the widest choice of times. Manhattan below 96th Street we cover every day.
Queens
Brooklyn
All of Brooklyn22-16 79th Street
East Elmhurst, NY 11370
Ready when you are
Tell us your home size and pick a day. You get a flat quote before anyone arrives, and first-time clients save 10% with FIRST10.
Green Hands
Cleaning Services
Insured, background-checked cleaners serving Queens, Brooklyn & Manhattan since 2015.
📅 Book a cleaning →22-16 79th Street, East Elmhurst, NY 11370, United States
