Louise knew she had a problem when she dedicated a Friday evening to neatly organising her period products into acrylic storage boxes. The 26-year-old had been spending hours every day watching cleaning videos on TikTok, in which influencers with millions of followers glamourise everyday mundane chores. Initially, watching them gave Louise a sense of calm, but slowly, she began to feel a nervous urge to continuously organise her home. “I’m not really interested in TikTok trends but it became addictive,” she explains. “It began to fuel my compulsion to clean and organise my life, which I was doing to feel like I’m in control when I’m feeling anxious.” When she told her therapist about her habit, she was advised to stop watching the videos altogether.
This genre of TikTok video, dubbed #CleanTok, has had more than 150 billion views on the platform and sees influencers give elbow grease to scouring their sinks, descaling their dishwashers or deep cleaning their rugs in an aesthetically pleasing fashion. It’s oddly satisfying to watch, but that’s because these videos are designed to indulge your senses. Sharp transitions are coupled with ASMR effects – such as the sound of whispering, tapping or scrubbing a surface – to elicit a sensory response from the viewer. And the cleaning methods are often eyebrow-raising, and sometimes extreme: from putting ice cubes down your loo to sprinkling baking soda underneath your mattress. It’s easy to come away from watching these videos questioning whether you’ve been doing Sundays wrong your entire life. But actually, are some of these videos performative versions of cleanliness that are completely unattainable for mere mortals? Or can they inspire us to be more productive?
