‘CleanTok’ and the psychology of spring cleaning

Thousands of years ago, housewives living in what is now Iran would prepare for the spring equinox and Persian New Year by cleaning their homes from top to bottom. Today, ‘cleanfluencers’ on social media earn a living all year round by demonstrating how to keep your home sparkling. That might mean road-testing their new robot vacuum cleaner or going old-school and scrubbing grubby grouting with baking soda (spoiler alert: stain-removing toothpaste works better).

Times have changed but the tradition of spring cleaning is alive and kicking. And while the need to give your home an annual service after months of soot and dirt build-up from open fires is no longer relevant, experts agree that simply the change in season can inspire people to start critically examining their homes and taking on long-ignored jobs.

The results of their labours aren’t simply shiny windows and spotless kitchen cabinets, either. ‘Spring cleaning can have a massive impact on your mental health,’ says psychologist Dr Carolyne Keenan. ‘There is the release of endorphins from the physical movement, and the sense of accomplishment that cleaning gives us. The reduction in stress and anxiety is the biggest thing though, because reducing mess and clutter around us gives us a clear sense of control and focus.’

And when the world feels like a particularly dangerous place, spring cleaning can be especially beneficial, says productivity coach Juliet Landau-Pope. ‘At times in history when things feel out of kilter, when the world may feel confusing, it is great to have the opportunity to take control of the things you can take control of,’ she says. ‘We feel unable to effect global change, but we can clean out our kitchen cupboards.’

There are many scientific studies showing how domestic drudgery comes with a feelgood factor. One piece of research – admittedly funded by American cleaning product company Clorox – found that an hour spent cleaning is associated with a 53 per cent boost in happiness. And the Princeton Neuroscience Institute reports that people living in clean and orderly homes are less stressed and more focused. Women, particularly, have high levels of the stress hormone cortisol if they feel their homes are cluttered.

Many ancient religions have long histories of getting out the mop and bucket around the start of spring. Beyond the Persian New Year or Nowruz, which has been celebrated for more than three millennia, Catholics traditionally clean their churches on Maundy Thursday in preparation for Easter. The Chinese New Year comes with a mandate to clean before the festivities. In the Jewish religion preparation for the festival Passover, which falls in March or April, involves sweeping every last crumb of leavened bread, biscuit or cake from the home to symbolise the haste with which the Jews had to leave Egypt – so fast they couldn’t wait for their bread to rise.

There are 5.4 million ‘CleanTok’ posts on TikTok, demonstrating everything from the right way to wash down a skirting board to how to get a shower screen sparkling with a lemon slice dipped in salt

In the modern day, cleaning gurus emerge online. In a space filled with slick influencers showing off their latest long-haul holiday or yoga workout, putting on the rubber gloves and scrubbing the toilet has been a surprisingly big hit. There are currently 5.4 million posts on TikTok with the handle #cleantok, demonstrating everything from the right way to wash down a skirting board to getting a shower screen sparkly clean with the aid of a lemon slice dipped in salt. Cleanfluencers are all over Instagram too, with almost 11 million posts on the subject of cleaning and more than 44,000 posts on #springcleaningtips.

Landau-Pope believes the reason cleanfluencers have found an audience online is that people enjoy how relatable this sort of content is. ‘It is realistically aspirational,’ she says. ‘We can’t all have a bikini body but we can have a clean fridge. The cleaning personalities you see on social media are not all young, thin, and beautiful; they are very ordinary people in homes which are relatable.’

She feels that part of the reason cleaning has become a bone fide hobby is because the cleaning industry is expanding and spending heavily on marketing. The global household cleaning products market was valued at almost $260 billion in 2023 and is projected to be worth $380 billion by 2032. The sector got a boost during the pandemic, partly because of fear of germs and partly because people had plenty of time pottering around at home to notice its flaws.

Housekeeping ‘hacks’ – i.e. old-fashioned methods of cleaning with homespun ingredients such as vinegar and lemon juice – are also hugely popular. Landau-Pope puts this down to a growing alarm at the dangers of household chemicals and of the of plastics. But those are not the only reasons. ‘It is a craving for a simpler way of life,’ she says.

Keenan thinks watching online cleaning videos is harmless fun. ‘Watching somebody cleaning is quite satisfying,’ she says. But she warns about getting too cleanliness-obsessed watching cleanfluencers steam-cleaning their worktops and disinfecting the wheelie bins. ‘There is a caution about what level of pressure you put on yourself,’ she said. ‘The average person does not need their house to be that perfect all the time.’