Why we can't look away from hoarder home clean-ups

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. Why we can't look away from hoarder home clean-upsImage source, Pocket RocketsImage caption, Victoria Gordon and a colleague kitted out for heavy-duty cleaningByHolly PhillipsEast Yorkshire and LincolnshirePublished38 minutes agoWhen Victoria Gordon arrives at a client's house, she can be met with huge piles of clothes, stacks of unwashed dishes and badly blocked toilets. The 44-year-old is not your average cleaner. She specialises in hoarder clearances, crime scene work and other extreme clean-up projects.

She loves her job as an extreme cleaner, but since starting to document her cleaning adventures online, she has found it fascinating how interested other people are in what she does. The popularity of cleaning videos has grown rapidly in recent years. In 2023, Unilever partnered with TikTok to launch a dedicated CleanTok community after the genre had amassed 78 billion views on the social media platform.

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So why are people so captivated by videos of hoarded homes, crime scene cleans and other extreme clear-outs? Image source, Victoria GordonImage caption, Victoria Gordon posts videos of her cleaning on TikTokGordon, from Lincoln, believes videos on her account have racked up thousands of views because people are "naturally inquisitive" and "nosey". "We like to have a little delve into other people's lives – in particular where there's a shocking 'before and after', or they're able to watch the process," she says.

"People find it really interesting and actually quite satisfying. "Dr Wasim Ahmed, a senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Hull, says it comes down to people craving a sense of control, curiosity and relatability. "You're seeing something in the short-form video where it's creating tension, showing you a lot of mess, and there's a process and resolution that can be quite reassuring," Ahmed says.

"It's quite satisfying seeing a clear problem and a clear ending in just under a minute. "Long before this sort of content became a social media phenomenon, programmes such as Britain's Biggest Hoarders, The Hoarder Next Door and Hoarder SOS were attracting audiences on television. Image source, Victoria GordonImage caption, Victoria Gordon regularly posts "before and after" videos of the houses she cleans TikTok said the CleanTok community had transformed the mundane task of cleaning into "one of the most-loved and entertaining genres" on its platform.

The trend has been driven by "cleanfluencers" – content creators who share cleaning routines, home organisation tips and everyday resets with their followers. Ann Russell, a cleaner from Hampshire, amassed a global following of three million people on TikTok after she began posting videos of her day job online. Speaking to the previously, she said: "I still don't like cleaning my own house but cleaning someone else's house – you can go into absolute chaos, you can tidy it, clean it, you can render it beautiful and then you can leave and somebody says 'Thank you'.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.