This ‘CleanTok’ Hack Will Have You Cleaning in Circles

The thing about CleanTok—or any service-based content on social media—is that the spigot of videos needs to keep flowing for creators to get paid. It's a likes-based economy, which means the people who conceptualize and film all that stuff must continue to contort even the most basic advice into three-minute videos that really tells you nothing beyond a super simple idea.

I usually ignore most TikTok cleaning videos for that reason, so when a trend or hack comes around and is repeated and reshared enough that it becomes increasingly hard to ignore, I pay attention. The latest example is this April video from Cindell Kimbrough, a former professional cleaner, in which she explains her method for quickly and efficiently tidying up a messy home.

Her straightforward explanation of how she used it to speedily clean her clients' places includes a bunch of useful tips, and it has been written about and replicated from here to next week (the original clip has been viewed almost 7 million times). Here are my favorite takeaways.

Be deliberate with your cleaning

The first tip Kimbrough shares is an important one: Don't start out cleaning too large of an area, because you won't get far. Generally, no matter which cleaning method or technique you're following, that's excellent advice: Focusing on a single room or even a certain closet or area within a room will always yield better results than endeavoring to "clean the house."

Ideally, choose the spot that needs the most attention; whether it's the kitchen, a kid's room, or the living room, the messiest place should get top billing. That's a shift away from some other techniques, like the FlyLady method, which asks you to follow a set cleaning schedule every month. Maintaining a schedule that dictates which rooms you clean is great, but if you haven't built your way up to that, or a certain room is in particular disarray, it's perfectly fine to start where you need to.

The best order in which to clean everything

Once you've identified the room you want to start with, Kimbrough says the order in which you do things should look like this:

1. Pick up any visible clutter on the floor and immediately put it away. If there is anything in the room that doesn't belong there, set it outside the door.

2. Once everything is off the floor, pick a corner of the room and start cleaning, moving in a circle. Do obvious and big-ticket tasks, like making the bed, removing clutter from surfaces, and so on. Move around the room like clockwork, literally.

3. After the larger items are tidied up, repeat the circle, starting in the same corner, but dust and wipe down surfaces this time. Wipe down surfaces, walls, and baseboards, following the same route you did before.

4. Finish up with the floors, vacuuming, sweeping, and/or mopping.

When you're done with the room, take care of the items you stacked outside the door, moving them to the rooms where they belong. (If you try to do that before you finish the first room, you may get distracted and start cleaning the second room before you finish what you started, which can burn you out and lessen your routine's effectiveness.) You can decide when you get to that second room whether you have the capacity to start repeating the process in there, or if you need a break.

Why this viral method works

This technique is about time-saving, simplicity, and effectiveness, which makes it a welcome addition to any cleaning routine bogged down by other methods that get too in the weeds. Sometimes a complicated approach can be really helpful, but when you just want to clean up a messy room, it can be a little too much to follow an intricate plan. (I say this as someone who loves convoluted, intricate plans.)

Kimbrough advocates for a circular approach—in contrast to top-down and zig-zag methods that have proven popular lately—because you'll see immediate results, and when grinding through the cleaning process, moving in a circle is a lot easier than trying to map out a ski-slope route in your mind.

Bear in mind this method is best when you have some time to dedicate to the task. Although it's meant to be simple and quick, it doesn't involve a timeline. Generally, cleaning in 15-minute bursts is best for staying motivated and productive, but that's usually only possible once you've gotten into a solid enough routine that your home is only a bit cluttered. If things are really out of place, powering through without worrying about the clock may be your best option. That's why it's so key to select small spaces—to avoid burnout, stick to one room at a time, prioritizing them by messiness.

After following this easy route, you'll see a big difference in the now-tidy room, which can motivate you to keep going in others. Being able to see the tangible progress of your cleaning is key to staying motivated, so try the circular method when you really need to boost.