I have a complicated relationship with clutter, decluttering and establishing a cleaning routine — and I don’t think I’m alone. Thanks to my impulsivity and never-ending search for novelty, my living spaces go through boom-and-bust cycles. I’ll collect new art, antiques, shiny kitchen gadgets or thrifted clothes until there’s no more space, then I’ll clear it all out until there’s barely anything left.
For years, I’ve searched for ways to slow down this cycle. I’ve tried keeping only what “sparked joy” à la Marie Kondo and following The Minimalists‘ edict: “Love People, Use Things”. Now I’m super-skilled at minimizing… but remain terrible at maintaining. Same goes for my cleaning routine: great at the oh-so-satisfying deep clean, dismal at the boring maintenance cleaning.
I’ve tried chore charts, check lists, days-of-the-week tasks, and equitable household division with Fair Play cards, but nothing sticks (except grime!).
Finally figuring out the formula for keeping everything clean and living clutter-free holds an ever-present spot on my life-hack to-do list. Honestly, it’s a continued source of deep frustration (and possibly shame?). So, when discovering this new wave of trending TikTok creators, all gung-ho about decluttering and dispersing cleaning advice, I was keen to dive into their viral cleaning routines and try out some new methods for a week.
Related: How to Declutter Your Home Fast (in Under 30 Minutes)
#cleaningroutine TikTok Trend Deep Dive
There seem to be two main themes on #organizingtiktok — the decluttering process and cleaning routines. Creators, such as Canadian professional organizer Cassandra Aarssen (@clutterbug_me), break down the decluttering process room by room. In her videos, Aarssen sprinkles in bitesized bits of advice on how to get motivated (use a five-minute timer!) or where to start (toys!).
There are also lots of simple, meme-able rules, such as Aarssen’s “Four Hard Truths”:
- Tidy people have less stuff
- Tidy people do their dishes every day
- Tidy people have homes for everything they own
- Tidy people clean up for five minutes throughout the day
Another creator, who’s had a meteoric rise on the back of the viral #cleaningroutine trend, is American influencer Kylie Perkins (@sociallykylie). Her videos were getting around 15K views a year ago, but they grew quickly and exponentially. Her latest viral video, titled “What if cleaning your house really was the answer to everything”, received 3.9M views.
Perkins shout-talks to camera while speed walking her viewers through her morning, afternoon and nighttime #stayinmotion cleaning routines (which she purports to be life changing). Her videos are peppered with motivational “tough love” talk. Think Tony Robbins but a young, Christian mom of two in North Carolina with amazing hair and ADHD.
“It’s Monday, and I’m waking up and I have to come deal with this?” says Perkins, pointing to her messy work-from-home desk. “Absolutely not! Deal with it tonight — set yourself up for success so you can take care of the future you. Get it done.”
Related: How to Completely Declutter Your Home in Just Two Weeks
The Cleaning Routine Experiment
To avoid bringing “today’s mess into tomorrow”, I broke down Perkins’s three viral cleaning routines into steps and times. Then, I gave them a go for a week, with mixed success (and feelings).
1. #morningroutine (15-20 mins.)
- Open curtains for morning light (“This one simple, simple, simple task that takes one second will change your mood, I promise you,” says Perkins. “Get up and open your curtains.”)
- Open the windows for 5-10 mins… even if you live in a cold climate (Perkins is originally from Alaska.)
- Make the bed (“Just get up and do it, no excuses!”)
- Put away clothes from the dryer
- Empty dishwasher
Results: The morning routine wasn’t life changing — as in it wasn’t much of a change from my regular life. I already open the curtains (that’s normal, right?) and make the beds in the morning. My husband empties the dishwasher as I can’t stand the sound of clean ceramic being dried or stacked (hi, sensory issues!).
Opening the windows in the morning was actually a tip from my parents’ German housecleaner I had forgotten about. Adding that back in did feel good and freshen up the space quite literally. I put away clean clothes at night, after the loads from the day are complete, so I kept that task for later.
Note: She also seems to have a fourth mid-morning cleaning routine that happens after breakfast and before she and her husband start work. This is where the real time suck happens! When I did this alone, it took more than an hour.
This includes: loading the dishwasher and cleaning the front, wiping kitchen counters and sink, sweeping the kitchen floor, clearing toys from the living room, sweeping the living room, brushing off the couch and its cushions, picking up clothes, and loading the washing machine. In one video, she did hand off the second half of this cleanup to her husband because she had to get to work before him.
2. #afternoonroutine (15-20 mins.)
- Flip laundry
- Clean and put away lunch dishes
- Pick up toys (if kids are home during the day)
- Sweep kitchen and living room (again)
Details: The afternoon “turbo mode” routine is all about prepping for the evening so that nighttime — especially with kids — doesn’t become overwhelming. She buzzes around, loudly talking a mile a minute and frantically throwing laundry and toys left and right. It perfectly illustrates her “stay in motion” catchphrase. One commenter posted: “Why are you yellingggg at us”.
Perkins does caveat that this protocol is for stay-at-home moms, work-from-home moms, or moms who have the ability to be home to do it. Yep, there are a lot of problematic assumptions about the division of labour here — and throughout her cache of viral, cleaning-routine videos.
She adds that if you’re working out of the house then no one’s home to make it dirty, so that’s easy! Or if your morning and nighttime routines are solid, you can skip the afternoon one too.
Related: How to Start a Junk Journal
Results: Yeah, I failed at this one. Flip laundry was the best I could do. I work from home and have limited hours to do so before picking up my kid from preschool. If the choice is spending precious solo time scrubbing soup bowls or finishing a story on deadline (it’s this one!), I’ll always choose the latter.
A few months ago, I talked to my husband about feeling overwhelmed during the day trying to keep up with maintenance cleaning and paid work. We decided (together) that he would take care of the dishes when he got home in the evening instead. (Neither of us volunteered to sweep.)
3. #nighttimeroutine (45-60 mins.)
- Dishes in dishwasher (“Do not bring today’s mess into tomorrow,” says Perkins. “You need to build a good nighttime routine so when you wake up tomorrow, it’s a fresh new day.”)
- Put hand-wash dishes away
- Clean countertops and table
- Wipe down fronts of cabinets, fridge, etc.
- Sweep kitchen and living room
- Toys away
- Turn on washing machine (“It’s so freakin’ good and it’s so freeing,” says Perkins, after turning on that last load. “Then you get the rest of your night to just, like, vibe!”)
- Mop floors
Details: In one of her viral nighttime-cleaning-routine videos, a commenter responds, “Wait we are mopping every night?!” My thoughts exactly. Is this what people do? Is this why my floors are the way they are?
Perkins affectionally calls this routine #closingshiftcleaning, which I appreciate as a former server/bartender who had to mop very sticky floors at the end of the night. Since the kids are asleep, Perkins and her husband split these tasks, which does help cut down the time. But this routine is a hefty one, taking up to an hour to complete… at the end of the day.
Perkins has some thoughts on that too: “No one wants to do this after a long day, no one wants to get up and have to reset their house. But the amount of mental clarity it’s going to give you, and how much it’s going to help you in your day-to-day life going forward, it’s so worth it.”
Related: 10 Hidden Spots That Need a Deep Clean in Your Bedroom
Results: Resetting the house for the next day is something I get. In fact, I’ve been doing it for years, but called it “clearing the decks”. As a naval-warfare term, where sailors would remove loose objects from the deck before a battle, it always seemed fitting. But for me, clearing is easy; the cleaning routine is my daily battle.
To help set myself up for success, I placed easy-to-use biodegradable wipes near the counter and in the bathroom — and I used them! I’ve moved the mop just a bit closer to the kitchen where I can now see it. But neither of us have used it as part of the nighttime reset — yet. As I move along on my cleaning/decluttering journey, I’m OK with taking baby steps.
We all only have so many minutes in a day, but using a few of them to chip away at household tasks can make an overall difference. And when future me is in need of some motivational shouting, I know where present me can get a dose of that TikTok cleaning #toughlove.
