What is meant by janitorial services?
Janitorial services means the routine cleaning and basic upkeep that keeps a building clean, safe and stocked every day it is used: trash removal, restroom cleaning and restocking, floor care, dusting and glass, on a repeating schedule. The work is defined by its regularity. A one-time deep clean is cleaning; the same tasks done every night under an agreement are janitorial services.
The word comes from “janitor,” which in American English means the caretaker who keeps a building in order, a role that traditionally included tending the furnace and locking up. The modern definition keeps that flavor: O*NET, which republishes Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational data, describes janitors and cleaners as people who keep buildings in clean and orderly condition and perform heavy cleaning duties, with duties that may include tending furnace and boiler, monitoring security and notifying managers about repairs.
In industry statistics the term is broader than the job. The Census Bureau’s 2022 NAICS manual defines industry 561720, Janitorial Services, as establishments primarily engaged in cleaning building interiors, interiors of transportation equipment (aircraft, rail cars, ships) and windows, and gives custodial services, housekeeping and maid services, washroom sanitation and service station cleaning as examples. So when a government report says “janitorial industry,” it includes residential maid services and aircraft cabin cleaners along with office cleaning contractors.
Three ways the term is used
- As a service line: “We provide janitorial services” means recurring routine cleaning of commercial buildings, priced monthly.
- As an industry: NAICS 561720, everything from solo house cleaners to national building service contractors.
- As a job: janitor or building cleaner, BLS occupation 37-2011, employed by contractors and by building owners alike.
What does a janitorial service do? The duties, by frequency
A janitorial service empties trash, cleans and restocks restrooms, vacuums and mops floors, dusts surfaces, cleans glass and keeps break rooms and lobbies presentable, on a schedule that ranges from nightly to weekly, with heavier tasks monthly or quarterly. The list below is what a typical office agreement includes.
O*NET’s task list for the occupation rates the core duties by importance: servicing, cleaning or supplying restrooms (81), gathering and emptying trash (81), cleaning building floors by sweeping, mopping, scrubbing or vacuuming (80), monitoring building security and safety such as locking doors after operating hours (80), and notifying managers about needed repairs (80). Following procedures for chemical cleaners and power equipment to prevent damage to floors and fixtures is rated 79. Stripping, sealing, finishing and polishing floors appears as a supplemental task (68), which matches how contracts treat it: an add-on, not part of the nightly routine.
| Frequency | Janitorial duties |
|---|---|
| Every visit (nightly or several times a week) | Empty trash and recycling, replace liners; clean and disinfect restroom fixtures, restock paper and soap; vacuum traffic areas; spot mop; wipe break room counters and tables; spot clean entrance glass; lock doors and set alarms |
| Weekly | Vacuum all carpet edge to edge; damp mop all hard floors; dust desks (cleared surfaces only), ledges and furniture; clean interior glass and partitions; sanitize door handles and switches; clean the microwave and refrigerator exterior |
| Monthly | High dusting of vents, lights and tops of cabinets; baseboards; spot clean walls and doors; machine scrub restroom floors; vacuum upholstered chairs |
| Quarterly to annually (usually quoted separately) | Strip and refinish resilient floors; burnish; carpet extraction; window cleaning; clean light fixtures; refrigerator interior |
Clinics, gyms, schools and churches each change the list. The per-building versions are in the office cleaning checklist, the medical office cleaning checklist, the gym cleaning checklist and the school cleaning checklist. A restroom cleaning log posted on the door is the piece of paper clients notice most.
Janitorial vs commercial cleaning: which is which?
Janitorial services are the recurring routine layer; commercial cleaning is the whole category of cleaning sold to businesses, which includes janitorial work plus periodic floor and carpet care, specialty jobs and one-time cleans. Every janitorial contract is commercial cleaning; not all commercial cleaning is janitorial.
| Janitorial services | Commercial cleaning (the broader category) | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Repeating schedule, same tasks every visit | Recurring plus periodic plus one-time |
| Examples | Nightly office cleaning, restroom service, day porter | All of that, plus strip and wax, carpet extraction, post-construction cleanup, disinfection, window cleaning |
| Pricing | Fixed monthly price | Monthly for routine, per job for the rest |
| Equipment | Cart, backpack vacuum, mop system, basic chemicals | Adds floor machines, burnishers, extractors, lifts |
| Who sells it | Janitorial contractors (building service contractors) | Janitorial contractors plus specialists (floor care, carpet, windows, restoration) |
Company names blur this on purpose. “ABC Janitorial” may sell floor refinishing and “XYZ Commercial Cleaning” may only do nightly office routes. When you are the buyer, read the scope; when you are the seller, say plainly which periodic services you offer and price them separately. The companion page on what commercial cleaning is covers the full category, who buys it and the pricing models; the office cleaning prices guide has the numbers.
Janitorial vs custodial: is there a difference?
The tasks are the same; the employer is different. “Custodial” usually describes routine cleaning and light upkeep done by a building owner’s own employees (a school custodian, a hospital environmental services team), while “janitorial” more often describes the same work bought from an outside contractor. Custodians also tend to carry more non-cleaning duties: setting up rooms, minor repairs, snow removal, opening and closing the building.
The Census manual lists custodial services as an example under the janitorial industry, and O*NET treats custodian and janitor as the same occupation, so government data will not help you separate them. Industry training does: ISSA’s Cleaning Management Institute sells a Basic Custodial Technician Training Handbook, described as a foundational guide to essential cleaning principles, safe practices and effective procedures, and ISSA lists it for both building service contractors and in-house facility services.
Why the distinction matters to a contractor
- Outsourcing decisions. Schools, hospitals and property owners periodically compare in-house custodial cost with contractor bids. A contractor wins on flexibility (no fixed headcount) and loses on institutional knowledge, so bids to replace a custodial team need a transition plan.
- Scope. A custodial job description includes things a janitorial contract usually excludes: room setups, light bulbs, deliveries. Say which of those you will do.
- Government bids. Public agencies often call the work “custodial services” in their solicitations. If you bid federal work, the SBA explains that you must register in SAM.gov and get a Unique Entity Identifier before you can bid, and the NAICS code on a custodial solicitation will usually be 561720.
And housekeeping?
Housekeeping is the hospitality and healthcare word for the same layer: O*NET defines maids and housekeeping cleaners as performing light cleaning duties to maintain private households or commercial establishments such as hotels and hospitals, including making beds and replenishing linens. Lighter work, occupied spaces, daytime hours: that is the line between housekeeping and janitorial.
Who provides janitorial services, and what do they earn?
Janitorial services are provided by contractors ranging from a solo owner with three office accounts to national building service contractors with thousands of staff, and by in-house custodial departments. The contractor side had 68,108 employer establishments, 1,148,248 employees and $72.6 billion in receipts in 2022.
Those figures are from the Census Bureau’s 2022 Economic Census, sector 56 file, industry 561720. The same file shows annual payroll of $31.4 billion, about 43% of receipts, which is the single most useful number on this page for an owner: labor is the cost that decides whether a janitorial contract makes money.
Pay
O*NET reports BLS median wages of $17.71 an hour ($36,840 a year) for janitors and cleaners in 2025, across 2,432,600 jobs, with projected growth of 1% to 2% between 2025 and 2035 and about 321,800 projected openings a year, mostly from turnover. Maids and housekeeping cleaners earned a median $17.07 an hour ($35,510) in 2025. Contractor pay is often part-time and evening, which is why the Census payroll per employee (about $27,400 in 2022) is well under the full-time median. Guides on how much cleaners make and how to hire cleaners cover setting wages.
Safety and training obligations
Once a janitorial contractor has employees, OSHA’s Hazard Communication standard applies: employers with hazardous chemicals must keep labels and safety data sheets for exposed workers and train them on both. Medical accounts add bloodborne pathogen training. A written training method, whether ISSA’s CMI handbook or your own, is what turns a new hire into a janitor who follows the same procedure in every building.
How a janitorial services agreement is structured
A janitorial agreement sets a scope of work by frequency, a fixed monthly price, payment terms, a term with a notice period, insurance requirements and a short list of exclusions and add-on prices. The scope is the heart of it: the duties table above, filled in for the building.
- Scope of work: tasks by frequency, by area (offices, restrooms, break room, lobby), with square footage and fixture counts.
- Schedule: which nights, what time window, holidays, and how changes are requested.
- Price and terms: monthly price, invoice date, net 15 or net 30, late fee, annual adjustment.
- Consumables: who supplies paper, soap and liners, and at what markup.
- Insurance and access: certificate of insurance, bond if required, key and alarm procedures, background checks if required.
- Term and notice: a common structure is one year with 30 days’ notice, and a cure period for quality complaints.
- Add-ons: prices for floor refinishing, carpet extraction, extra visits and event cleanup.
The free cleaning contract template and cleaning proposal template follow this structure, and the commercial cleaning contracts guide explains how to win them.
Running the schedule
Janitorial work is the most repetitive business there is: the same buildings, the same nights, for years. That makes it easy to schedule and easy to let slip. Broombook is booking, scheduling and reminders for recurring service businesses, which is exactly the shape of a janitorial route: recurring visits per account, assigned to cleaners, with reminders. It fits small and mid-size contractors; see features for what it does and does not do.
Is a janitorial service a good business to start?
A janitorial service is one of the lowest-cost businesses to start and one of the steadiest to run, because the revenue repeats every month and the equipment is modest. The trade-offs are evening hours, invoice payment terms and thin margins if you price badly.
- Low entry cost: a cart, a backpack vacuum, a mop system, chemicals and insurance. Floor machines can wait until an account needs them.
- Recurring revenue: accounts renew for years when quality holds.
- Crowded market: 64,000 employer firms and more than a million solo operators compete for the same offices, so you win on reliability and response, not on being the only option.
- Labor management: the business is only as good as the evening crew you rarely see.
The commercial cleaning startup plan walks through registration, insurance, equipment, bidding and the first contracts, and the cleaning business ideas guide compares janitorial work with residential, Airbnb and equipment-based niches if you are still choosing.