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What should janitorial supplies cost per month?
Most businesses don’t overspend on cleaning supplies because prices are high — they overspend because they buy retail pack sizes at retail stores, one emergency run at a time. Here’s how to put a real number on your monthly supply budget, and how to shrink it.
The rule-of-thumb ranges
For consumables alone — paper, soap, liners, gloves, chemicals, not labor or equipment — typical monthly spend runs:
| Facility | Typical consumables spend |
|---|---|
| Office | $3–$7 per employee per month |
| Restaurant / bar | $150–$500+ per month, driven by kitchen volume |
| Gym / fitness studio | $200–$600 per month — wipes, towels and disinfectant dominate |
| Medical / dental suite | $8–$15 per patient-day chair; gloves are the big line |
Restrooms drive most of it everywhere: toilet paper, towels, soap and liners are usually 60–70% of a building’s consumable spend.
A worked example: 20-person office
Rough monthly burn for a fully staffed 20-person office, priced at our case rates:
| Item | Typical monthly use | By the case | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2-ply toilet paper | ~30 rolls | Angel Soft Professional 40-roll case, $59.99 — $1.50/roll | ~$45 |
| Nitrile gloves (cleaning + kitchen duty) | ~300 gloves | 1,000-glove case, $109.90 — 11¢/glove | ~$33 |
| Can liners | ~250 pulls | by the case, typically 4–12¢/liner | ~$20 |
| Hand soap, spray cleaner, misc. | — | soap · cleaners | ~$30 |
| Total | ~$128 / month |
That lands right in the $3–$7 per-employee band ($6.40 here). The same list bought as retail 4-packs and single bottles at a big-box store typically runs 40–80% more — the pack size, not the product, is the difference.
The four levers that actually cut the bill
1. Buy by the case. The per-unit price drops 30–50% versus retail packs, and every product page here shows that per-unit math — per roll, per glove, per liner — so nothing hides in pack-size fog.
2. Standardize. One toilet paper, one towel, one liner size per can type, one all-purpose cleaner. Variety is what creates half-used bottles and orphan cases.
3. Control the dispensers. Folded towels vanish twice as fast as rolled; open soap bottles walk away. Dispensered products cut restroom paper and soap use 20–30% on their own.
4. Order monthly, not urgently. Emergency store runs cost retail prices plus someone’s hour. One standing monthly order — and in Michigan, orders of $300+ ship free, so bundling two months of paper into one order often pays for itself.
Shop the catalog See the big-catalog price math
More guides: Nitrile vs. vinyl vs. latex gloves · Trash bag & can liner size guide · The commercial cleaning supply checklist