Storefront routes or residential holiday cleans, two ways to keep crews busy in winter
Winter slows most window cleaners down. Storefront routes and holiday home cleans both fill the gap, but they win in different markets. Here is how to pick.
Winter is the slow stretch for most window cleaners. Short days, cold glass and homeowners who think windows are a spring job. If you have a crew to keep paid, you need work that does not wait for April.
There are two common ways to fill it. One is a storefront route: small commercial accounts cleaned every two or four weeks. The other is residential holiday cleans: interior and exterior jobs sold to homeowners before guests arrive. Both work. They win in different situations.
Option 1: storefront routes
A storefront route is a list of small businesses on a regular schedule. Think coffee shops, dentists, salons, insurance offices and restaurants. Most of the work is ground-level glass, often with a squeegee and a pole.
How it pays. Each stop is small. A single storefront might pay $25 to $75 a visit. But a tight route can do many stops in a morning, and the money comes every two or four weeks, all year.
How you sell it. Walk in. Ask for the manager or owner. Leave a card and a price. Many window cleaners sell storefront work door to door on a weekday morning, when businesses are open but not busy.
A simple pitch: "Hi, I clean windows for a few businesses on this street. I can do your front glass every two weeks for $35, inside and out. First clean is free so you can see the work."
Where it wins:
- Dense downtowns or strip centers with many small shops in a row.
- Mild winters where you can clean outside most weeks.
- Owners who want steady, predictable money more than big tickets.
Where it struggles:
- Rural or spread-out areas where the drive eats the profit.
- Very cold winters where outside glass freezes.
Option 2: residential holiday cleans
The other path is homeowners who want the house to look right before family visits. Interior and exterior windows, screens, tracks, sometimes the glass on the front door and the sliders.
How it pays. A full interior and exterior clean on an average house is a much bigger ticket than a storefront visit. These jobs can also open the door to recurring spring and fall cleans. The pricing guide covers how to quote them.
How you sell it. Mostly through your existing customers and your Google profile. A text to past customers in early November does most of the work:
"Hi Linda, this is Sam from Clearview. Hosting this year? We have a few spots left before Thanksgiving and in early December for inside and outside windows. Want me to hold one for you?"
Where it wins:
- Suburbs full of single-family homes.
- Owners with a good list of past residential customers.
- Markets where people host family for the holidays.
Where it struggles:
- New companies with no customer list yet.
- Late December, when the holiday rush is over and January is quiet again.
Side by side
| Storefront routes | Residential holiday cleans | |
|---|---|---|
| Ticket size | Small per stop | Larger per job |
| How often | Every 2 to 4 weeks, all year | Once or twice a season |
| Best way to sell | Walk in on a weekday morning | Text past customers, Google profile |
| Best market | Dense commercial streets | Suburbs with single-family homes |
| Winter weather | Needs mild days for outside glass | Inside work can go on in the cold |
Which one to start with
If you already have a few hundred past residential customers, start with holiday cleans. The list is your cheapest marketing. One text to each of them can fill weeks.
If you are newer or your list is thin, start a storefront route. It costs nothing but time to sell, and it builds a base of money that does not depend on the season.
Many owners end up doing both: a storefront route on Monday and Tuesday mornings, and residential jobs the rest of the week.
The profile still has to back you up
Either way, people will look you up before they say yes. The median window cleaner has 7 Google reviews, and 55.7% have fewer than 10. A store owner or homeowner who searches your name and finds a thin profile may wait.
Every storefront client and every holiday customer is a chance to ask for a review. The reviews guide has the scripts. Your profile hours matter too. 68.4% of window cleaning profiles list no hours at all, so even basic hours help you look open in winter. The benchmark report shows where the rest of your profile stands.
The short version
- Storefront routes: small tickets, steady money, best on dense commercial streets.
- Residential holiday cleans: bigger tickets, best with a list of past customers.
- Start with whichever matches your list and your market, then add the other.
- Ask every winter customer for a review.
If you want help with either play, the free 14-day trial covers any service, no card required. Text or call (801) 515-4729.
Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, window cleaning companies among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor